The story of Rahab, the harlot woman of Jericho, told to us in the second chapter of the book of Joshua, gives the discerning reader an exciting foreshadow of the saving blood of Jesus Christ and how all true believers can go from harlot to potential bride in Jesus Christ. There are many points of great and wonderful spiritual significance weaved within the account of Rahab, a great woman of faith.

We All Become Unfaithful
One of the most important is that Joshua, whose life and deeds foreshadowed Jesus, sent messengers, who were symbolic of the Holy Ghost, to spy within the city of Jericho, which was representative of the world. In the city, or the world, the spies, or the Holy Ghost, found one who would receive the important message involving salvation. This is much like the work of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends into the world to seek out the hearts of potentially faithful men and women today. Once again the Jews and those people directly involved with them acted out in the flesh what would one day be fulfilled in the Spirit. Rahab, we are shown was a woman in great need. It is interesting to note that she is immediately identified in the Word as a harlot. I believe God intended it this way so that we all could identify with her.

How could I identify with a harlot, you may wonder? Well the first of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses and the people of Israel states, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” Ex 20:2-3 Anyone that has ever placed anything before God that makes him less than first in their lives is guilty of breaking this commandment and has breached the intended relationship God wants to have with them. Doing this to God makes one a spiritual adulterer and in that sense we all are like Rahab the harlot. What honest person cannot identify with Rahab at some time during their life.

We Are All in Need
As all humans, Rahab was a woman in great need. She did not recognize the gravity of her own situation until the day she was confronted by the messengers of God’s people. Since the victorious work of Jesus Christ was completed nearly 2,000 years ago God has been sending forth his Spirit to spy within the great walled cities of men’s hearts to deliver the message of truth, judgment and salvation. The two spies sent into Jericho brought the truth of God’s mighty works which he had performed throughout the land. When Rahab spoke with these two spies who carried an important message it was confirmed in her heart that the many things of which she had heard about God’s mighty works in the land were indeed true. The two men sent by Joshua into the walled city of Jericho were acting as ‘representatives’ of the Holy Ghost and the salvation message that He brings to the ears and hearts of men, even in the most desperate of situations. Anyone who has felt an hour of desperation in their life can be taught by Rahab’s story and what she needed to do in order to receive her salvation.

We All Must repent
Her salvation is not without stipulation and warning of destruction to those who ignore it. Like the two spies, the Spirit also delivers the message of impending judgment against all that remain unrighteous. It reveals that God’s plan of salvation and redemption includes the overthrow and destruction of everything that is unfit for his Kingdom. The people who hear and believe the message brought to them by the Holy Ghost, as he ‘spies’ into their hearts, are offered the way out of the doomed city they dwell in; and shown that they can enter into a promised land of peace and safety and dwell with their Savior. When confronted with the truth, Rahab confessed God as Lord before the messengers and when she understood that God had a plan to destroy the city of Jericho and all the inhabitants within it she pleaded for mercy. Rahab’s confession and request is like the cry from a repentant heart of one who acknowledges God for who He is and realizes their own deserved demise and seeks His mercy.

Rahab Indicative of All Gentiles
For Rahab to escape death and enter into life in a new land, a land promised to another people, she had to believe the messengers that a devastating judgment was coming, and that the messenger of God would be true to the promise to save her. She had to believe that judgment would come and that she could be saved. As an act of belief she was required to place a scarlet colored cord from out of her window, one that could be seen at judgment time. The spiritual metaphor should be apparent. The window is a means of identity for Rahab and from it must be seen the scarlet cord which is symbolic of the shed blood of Jesus and its power to have the angel of death pass us by that we can be saved unto eternal life. The messengers made it clear that this was the only means by which she and any of her relatives who assembled in the place marked by the red colored cord would be delivered out of the condemned city and brought into the company of God’s people to live with them in the Promised Land. Rahab and her family were not Jews. They were not at this time a part of the chosen nation of people whom God had promised would one day dwell in the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey, but were heathen people known as Gentiles. God’s plan, however, included even outsiders and sinners, even sexual deviants; anyone willing to believe and enter in and this is who Rahab and her family represent.

A lot can be gleaned here of the promises made under the new covenant to the Gentiles and of their ability through Christ to be grafted into the olive tree (Rom. 11:11-25) and of the promises that salvation is offered to whole households through the obedience of one individual. (Acts 11:14 & 16:31) Rahab was richly blessed in her obedience unto salvation; she was even given place in the genealogy of Jesus with her name listed in Matthew 1:5. She became the great-great-grandmother of King David; a distant ancestor of Christ Himself. This story of Rahab and how she and her loved ones were saved from the destruction of Jericho and given a place with God’s chosen people can be a rich blessing of encouragement for the saved and unsaved alike. For when we all stand before the judgment throne of God the one decisive factor that all things will hinge upon is going to be whether or not the scarlet cord of Jesus’ shed blood for the remission of our sins is seen hanging from the window of our being. If that blood covering is tied around our identity then we will hear those wonderful welcoming words from God our Father inviting us to enter into the Kingdom and our stay in that Heavenly eternal Promised Land will be granted. (Rev. 21:27 & 22:14)

Won’t you, if you haven’t already, invite Jesus into your heart to be your Lord and personal Savior and hang that precious scarlet cord from your window for all to see so that you may gain access into the Promised Land.

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About Being Born Again John.3

[1] There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

[2] The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

[3] Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

[4] Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

[5] Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

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It should not be overlooked that Rahab saved the lives of the messengers by hiding them on the rooftop of her house and then telling them to lay low for three days until the men looking for them had given up the search. For taking in these men and asking for mercy she and her willing relatives were saved. She, and all of Jericho (which stands for the world), had heard of the Lord’s mighty power and she had believed in it and acted upon that belief. We, too, must believe in our hearts and then act on that belief. The book of Romans says: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Rom 10:9-13.