Aug. 25, 2024 Joshua 2:1-21 (Hebrews 11:31; James 2:22-26)
Jesus’ Genealogy—Rahab the Prostitute
Last week we looked at Matthew’s whole genealogy and noted that Matthew wants us to know that the people in Jesus’ genealogy are human just like we are. They are making good and bad choices; getting it right and getting it wrong. And, Matthew wants to remind us through this genealogy that no matter how badly human beings behave, no matter how we fail as individuals, or as the human race, God will be faithful to God’s intention. God intends to make God’s love, and peace and justice, all in all. God did not give up on generations past. God will not give up on the present generation, or those yet unborn.
This morning we explore the story of Rahab, the prostitute. In Jesus’ genealogy, she is the mother of Boaz (vs.5), which makes her the great, great grandmother of David, Israel’s most revered King—the King from whose lineage God’s promised Messiah will come. Rahab’s story is set within the larger story of the Israelite people taking possession of the land of Canaan through violent force. Listen for the Word of the Lord from the book of Joshua (slightly abridged):
Then Joshua, leader of the Israelite people, sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. 2 The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 Then the king…sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the Israelite men… who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.” 4 But she took the two men and hid them.
Then she said to the king, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. 5 And when it was time to close the gate at dark, they went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.” 6 She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. 7 So the king’s men pursued the spies…. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
8 Before they went to sleep, Rahab came up to the spies on the roof and said to them: “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. 10 For 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…whom you utterly destroyed. 11 As 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. 12 Now 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 13 that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them and to me, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 The 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.”
15 Then Rahab let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall…. 16 She 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.” 17 The spies said to her, “We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to you 18 if we invade the land and you do not tie this crimson cord in the window through which you let us down, and you do not gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers and sisters, and all who belong to you. 21 She said, “According to your words, so be it.” She sent them away and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window. [And she and all her people were saved].
Rahab the prostitute. So she is identified in this Old Testament story and, also twice in the New Testament. In the New Testament, Rahab the prostitute is praised for her faith in God and her good works in welcoming, hiding, then sending the Israelite spies home by another way so that their lives are saved. These brief mentions of Rahab read like little conversion stories. She was a prostitute, selling her body, a “bad girl” of the Bible, but, when she got faith in God, she gave up her immoral lifestyle and became a good person, a good Jewish wife and mother, a holy woman in Jesus family line.
I love a good, quick, conversion story. The problem is, they tend to overlook the social and moral complexity we see in the long Biblical story of God’s involvement with human beings, and that are part and parcel of our own lives. So I want to do a close reading of Rahab’s story to uncover the complexity of human motivations, and of our choosing between right and wrong.
Rahab the prostitute’s story is part of this bigger story about the Israelites taking over the promised land of Canaan, aggressively and violently, because, they believe, God has told them to do it. Rahab acts within this story about God-sanctioned genocide. And I wonder, how should we think about this? Did God really direct the ancient Israelites to wipe out the people living in Canaan or did they misunderstand? Did they choose violence, but justify it in the name of God? Didn’t God command that we not kill other people? Are there situations where violence is necessary as a way to stop greater violence and bloodshed? This is the first and biggest moral complexity we see in Rahab’s story.
And there is more complexity…. The New Testament writers praise Rahab the prostitute for her faith in God which prompts her to offer hospitality to the spies. But, the truth is, she welcomes the spies before she has any idea who they are or what they are up to. It isn’t her faith in God that causes her to welcome them. She runs a brothel. She welcomes men in no matter who they are.
When Rahab does learn from her King that the men she welcomed are Israelite spies sizing up the city for attack, she has to make a choice. Should she turn them in? Should she warn the King to ready the army and prepare the people, or should she choose to protect her own personal interests?
Rahab is wily and clever and brave. A lone Canaanite woman, she has the power to choose for herself and others. And she does. Rahab has heard about the awesome power of Israel’s God, and she wants to get on the right side of this fearsome God. So she hides these foreign men on her roof, lies to her own King (who has power to harm her if he finds out.) Rahab protects these enemy spies, in exchange for the promise that when the Israelites invade and kill the people of her city, they will spare Rahab and her people.
There is no indication that Rahab desires to worship God and become a part of God’s people Israel. She saves the spies in order to save herself, her family, and all “who belong to her.” But, regardless of her own motives and goals, God has more in store for Rahab the prostitute. She gets stitched into the people of Israel and becomes an ancestor of Jesus, God’s Messiah.
On the face of it, there is no doubt that Matthew includes Rahab the prostitute in Jesus’ genealogy to prepare us for the reality that, of course, Jesus will welcome prostitutes and tax collectors, the lame and the lepers, and all kind of other folk who the religious leaders label as “sinners” and actively condemn and exclude. But as we have probed Rahab’s story, we can see her more fully. Rahab is a subverter. With her beautiful lies and quick thinking, this prostitute subverts the intent of Jericho’s king to do violence to the enemy spies. “Oh, those guys? They came in. Did their business. Left without saying anything about why they were here.” Rahab subverts the intention of the spies and the Israelite army to wipe out all the inhabitants of Jericho. With her actions, she saves herself and all her people.
This is why Rahab is in Jesus’ genealogy. Like her, Jesus is a subverter. Jesus subverts the religious practice of too simple, black and white moral reasoning. He subverts the making of too easy judgments about right and wrong. Good and bad. Insider and outsider. Jesus subverts the too easy acceptance of things as they are. He subverts violence by refusing to act violently. All of his subversive behaviors finally get him killed. And at the end of the story, Jesus lives again. Israel’s God, the Heavenly Father of Jesus subverts death.
And Jesus, standing in the lineage of Rahab the prostitute, says to his followers, “I send you out into the world to be as wise as serpents, and as innocent as doves.” Live wide awake to the full reality that surrounds you. Use your brains. Think with your hearts. Live out God’s radical welcome and love. Be courageous. Subvert physical, emotional, and spiritual violence. Choose life. And says the risen Christ, remember, through the Holy Spirit, I am in you, and with you always, and everywhere, to the end of the ages.