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Joshua 6:24-25  Then they burned the whole city [Jericho] and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house.  But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho – and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

The saving of Rahab when Joshua conquered Jericho seems an incidental, minor detail in the outworking of God’s Plan of Salvation in the OT Scriptures.  But it is highlighted and preserved for us in the Bible because it plays a key part in this Salvation History, a part that would not really become evident for another thirteen centuries.

It did have some significance throughout this time because it remained a stark reminder to God’s people that, in his divine Judgement on sinful mankind, he is able to rescue those who acknowledge his sovereign rule and power and who look to him in faith for mercy, as Rahab did.  It has the same significance for us today as we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to Return in Power and Judgement.

But the Jericho episode’s true significance lies in some particular events that followed Rahab’s miraculous rescue – she would live among her captors, turn away from her immoral life of prostitution, and marry Salmon, the great-great-great-great grandson of Judah, the son of Jacob (Israel) and the grandson of Abraham!  Through this she would give birth to Boaz who would marry Ruth and become the father of Jesse, who would become the father of King David.

The Sovereign LORD then promised David a Descendant who would be the Everlasting King; he would be the One to be the key to the whole eternal Plan of Salvation!  The Evangelist Matthew brings all these amazing, divinely inspired connections together in the genalogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-16.

So, let us take heart in knowing that our Sovereign God hsd a Plsn that will culminate in his Son Jesus Coming Back to ‘make all things new’.  And let us take heart that nothing can ever frustrate this Plan or prevent it from happening; and that God can use the most seemingly insignificant events and people in the process: Go Rahab the prostitute!  Go our Sovereign God!  Go Jesus our wonderful King and loving Saviour!

– Bruce Christian