Joshua 2:8 - Meaning and Application

The matter is now settled between Rahab and the spies. She agrees to help them, and they promise to protect her later. She secures them on the condition that they will secure her.

She gives them, and through them sends to Joshua and Israel, every encouragement they could want for their move into Canaan. This was what they came for, and it was well worth the trip. After the officers leave, she comes up to the roof where the men are hidden. They may still be shaken by the danger they feared from the officers, but she brings them news that will greatly reassure them.

First, she tells them that the report of God’s great works had reached Jericho (v. 10). The people there had heard not only about Israel’s recent victories over the Amorites, their neighbors across the river, but also about their miraculous rescue from Egypt and their crossing of the Red Sea. Those events were far away and had happened forty years earlier, yet they were still being talked about in Jericho with amazement. Joshua and his men were becoming men people marveled at (Zech. 3:8). God makes his wonderful works remembered (Psalm 111:4), so people keep speaking of his mighty and fearful acts (Psalm 145:6).

Second, she tells them what those reports had done to the Canaanites. “Your terror has fallen upon us” (v. 9), and “our hearts melted” (v. 11). If Rahab kept a public house, she would have had many chances to hear travelers from different parts of the land, so she could give this information better than anyone else. This would be very useful for Joshua and Israel to know. It would give courage to the most timid Israelite to hear that their enemies were already losing heart, and it was easy to see that those who were already trembling would surely fall before them. This also showed the fulfillment of God’s promise that he would lay the fear of Israel upon all the land (Deuteronomy 11:25). That promise was a sign that all his other promises would also be fulfilled.

No one should boast in courage any more than a strong man should boast in strength, because God can weaken both mind and body. And God’s people should not be afraid of their strongest enemies, because God can, when he chooses, make those enemies afraid of them. No one should think they can harden their hearts against God and succeed, because the God who made the human soul can make his terrors come near it at any time.

Third, Rahab makes a clear confession of faith in God and in his promise. When all things are considered, there may not have been such great faith found anywhere else, not even in Israel, as in this woman of Canaan. She believes God’s power and rule over the whole world (v. 11). “The Lord your God,” she says, the God you worship and call on, is above all gods. He is the only true God, because he is God in heaven above and on earth below, and all the armies of heaven and earth serve him. There is a great distance between heaven and earth, but both are equally under the care and rule of the great Lord. Heaven is not beyond his power, and earth is not below his notice.

She also believes his promise to Israel (v. 9): “I know that the Lord has given you the land.” The king of Jericho heard the same reports she had heard, yet he would not conclude that the Lord had given the land to Israel. Instead, he decided to resist them to the end. Even the strongest evidence does not persuade apart from God’s grace. By that grace, Rahab the prostitute, who had only heard about God’s wonders, speaks with more confidence about the promise made to the fathers than many of Israel’s elders did, though they had seen those wonders with their own eyes. Many of them still died because they did not believe this promise. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed, as Rahab did. O woman, great is your faith!

Rahab then asks the spies to take her and her relatives under their protection, so they will not perish when Jericho is destroyed (vv. 12, 13). This showed the sincerity and strength of her faith about the coming change in her land. She believed her country would be conquered, and so she quickly sought favor with the future conquerors. In this, she was like Noah, who, moved by fear, prepared an ark to save his household and to show the world was guilty (Hebrews 11:7). Those who truly believe God’s warning about the ruin of sinners, and his gift of the heavenly land to his people, will work to flee the coming wrath and to take hold of eternal life by joining themselves to God and to his people.

Her care for her relatives, as well as for herself, is also a fine example of natural affection. It reminds us to do all we can for the salvation of those dear to us, and, with ourselves, to bring them if possible into the bond of the covenant. Her husband and children are not mentioned, only her parents, brothers, and sisters. Though she was the head of a house herself, she still had proper concern for them.

Her request that they swear by the Lord shows her knowledge of the only true God, her faith in him, and her devotion to him. One sign of that devotion was to swear by his name. Her request was also fair and reasonable. Since she had protected them, they should protect her. Since her kindness to them reached their whole people, their kindness to her should include all her family. It was the least they could do for someone who had saved their lives at great risk to her own. Those who show mercy may expect to receive mercy.

She does not ask for promotion or reward for her kindness, though she could have made her own terms, since they were so much in her power. She only asks for her life, which would be a special mercy in a time of general destruction. God later promised Ebed-Melech, in return for his kindness to Jeremiah, that in the worst time he would have his life as a prize (Jeremiah 39:18). Rahab was later raised up to be a princess in Israel, the wife of Salmon, and one of the ancestors of Christ (Matthew 1:5). Those who faithfully serve Christ and suffer for him will not only be protected by him, but honored by him as well. He will do for them more than they are able to ask or imagine.

The spies then solemnly promised to preserve her in the coming destruction (v. 14): “Our life for yours.”

We will care for your lives as much as for our own. We would rather hurt ourselves than harm any of you. The spies even called God’s judgments on themselves if they broke their promise to Rahab. She had risked her life for theirs, and now they promised to risk their lives for hers. As public messengers, they also tied the honor of their whole nation to this promise, because they spoke for Israel when they said, “When the Lord gives us the land.”

They were right to treat with Rahab about this matter, and Joshua would surely confirm what they did, or else they would not have acted honestly. The command not to make covenants with the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:2) did not forbid them to protect one person who had sincerely joined their cause and shown them real kindness. Gratitude is one of the basic laws written into human life. We should notice both the promises they made and the careful limits they placed on those promises.

They promised, in general, “We will deal kindly and faithfully with you” (Joshua 2:14). They would not only be kind in making the promise, but true in keeping it. They would also be kind beyond what she might have expected. God often shows his goodness through kindness and truth (Psalm 117:2), and we should copy him in both.

They also promised that if anyone in the house came to harm through their carelessness, his blood would be on their head (Joshua 2:19). If we fail to protect people we are bound to guard, then we take on guilt. Blood is a heavy burden, and God does not overlook it.

At the same time, they were careful to set limits. Even though they were in a hurry and perhaps a little confused, they did not want to promise more than they could rightly keep. Covenants must be made carefully, and we should swear with good judgment, so we do not become trapped by rash vows. People who want to keep their promises well should also be careful when they make them, and they may need to include conditions that others would think small.

Their promise had three needed conditions. They would protect Rahab and all her family, provided she tied the scarlet cord in the window where she had let them down. That cord would mark the house, and the spies would make sure Israel knew which house must not be touched. No soldier, however eager for battle, was to harm the house marked in that way. It was like the blood on the doorposts that kept the firstborn safe from the destroying angel. The same cord she used to help the Israelites escape was to be used for her own safety.

What we use in God’s service, he can bless and make useful to us. The house that had sheltered God’s servants would itself be sheltered by God’s promise.

The second condition was that all the family members she wanted saved must stay in her house. When the city was taken, none of them was to go outside. This was necessary, because Rahab’s relatives could be recognized only by being inside her marked house. If they mixed with the rest of the city, they could not be told apart, and the sword would fall on them like everyone else. It was also reasonable, since they were saved only for Rahab’s sake, that her house should be their place of safety. If they wanted to escape the ruin coming on Jericho, they had to stay where the promise of safety had placed them, as Noah stayed in the ark and Lot stayed in Zoar. They had to separate themselves from a doomed people.

This also points to a spiritual lesson. Those who are brought into the church so they may be saved must keep close to the fellowship of believers. Having escaped the corruption in the world through sinful desire, they must be careful not to become trapped in it again.

The third condition was that she must keep the matter secret. If she told others their business, either by betraying them after they left or by making the agreement public so that others could use the same sign and confuse the plan, then they would be free from their oath. People are not fit to receive the Lord’s secret if they cannot keep it when there is a need for silence.

Rahab then took effective care of her new friends and sent them out another way (James 2:25). After she fully understood the agreement and accepted it (Joshua 2:21), she let them down by a cord through the city wall (Joshua 2:15). Her house was in a place that helped them escape, just as Paul later escaped from Damascus in a basket (2 Corinthians 11:33). She also told them which way to go for their own safety, since she knew the area better than they did (Joshua 2:16).

She told them to leave the main road and hide in the hills until the pursuers came back. Only then could they safely cross over Jordan. Those who are walking in God’s way may trust him to protect them, but that does not excuse careless behavior. God will keep us, but we must not needlessly put ourselves in danger. Providence should be trusted, but never tested.

Calvin thinks their warning to Rahab to keep the matter secret was also for her own safety. If she boasted too openly that Israel would spare her, she might be caught by the king of Jericho before Israel arrived and be killed for treason. So they wisely advised her for her safety, just as she had advised them for theirs. It is always good advice to watch over ourselves carefully.