Yesterday we read how Joshua sent spies to Jericho to check out the area before Israel attacked. The spies found refuge in a prostitute named Rahab's house where she hid them from the King of Jericho's soldiers. Today we see what she has to say to them about why she is helping them. Matthew's Gospel adds Rahab to the genealogy of Jesus. One of the things I love about the Bible is how the heroes are often surprising people: women in a sexist society, poor people, the sick, the forgotten. God's kingdom looks very different from the pages of a celebrity magazine. Each of us may has a part to play in God's story.
God bless,
Sam
Joshua 2:8-16
8Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof 9and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. 10For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you.
8Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof 9and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. 10For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you.
The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. 12Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith 13that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14The men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.”
15Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. 16She said to them, “Go toward the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way.”
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