Rahab was a Canaanite, an outsider, a woman with a reputation in a city marked for destruction, and somehow she became the great-great-grandmother of King David, an ancestor of Messiah Yeshua Himself. She is remembered for her courage and her faith, but the story that shaped her legacy wasn’t a battle or a miracle like other Biblical characters that we hear about…
Let’s learn about Rahab not through the lens of what she was, but instead let’s learn through the moment she risked everything for people she had never met before. Her moment of action would result in the salvation of her family in a city that was doomed to fall. Can one small act of kindness truly change the world? Rahab’s story suggests it can.
Who was Rahab?
Israel stands at the edge of the Promised Land. Moses has died, Joshua has stepped into his place, and the people are now camped east of the Jordan River waiting to cross. However, before they do, Joshua sends two spies to scout the land, particularly the city of Jericho.
Jericho was the first obstacle between Israel and everything God had promised. It was a walled, fortified city, and it stood directly in their path. It was also a city gripped by fear. Word had traveled across the land about what Adonai had done for Israel: the exodus from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, Bnei-Yisrael’s survival in the wilderness, and so much more. The people of Jericho had heard every story, and now they feared what fate awaited their city at the hands of God and His people. This was a land under judgment, though not a sudden one. Centuries earlier, God had told Abraham that “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15:16 TLV). Even Jericho’s walls could not protect it from what was coming.
In Jericho lived a woman named Rahab. Scripture introduces her as a ‘zonah’ which we now translate as a ‘harlot’. She was a woman in a world where women held very little power, and she was a social outcast, living on the edge of her own city. Her house was even built right into the city wall, as though she lived on the boundary in every sense. She had no standing in Israel, no reason to trust Israel’s God, and every reason to solely look out for herself.
When Everything Changed
The Choice — Opening the Door
Joshua sends out two spies and they slip into Jericho and find their way to Rahab’s house. Perhaps they chose it because it was a place where strangers came and went, meaning they would draw less attention. Whatever the reason, they walked through her door, and she let them stay. However, they did not go unnoticed as they had hoped. Word reached the king of Jericho that Israelite men had come into the city by night, and he sent soldiers straight to Rahab’s door.
So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab saying: “Bring out the men who came to you, who entered your house—for they have come to spy out all the land.”
Joshua 2:3 TLV
There Rahab stood, with soldiers at her door and spies hiding in her house. She could’ve looked out for herself and simply handed over these strange men. Instead, she had already, “hidden them in the stalks of flax that she had spread out on the roof.” (Joshua 2:6 TLV), and then she looked the king’s men in the eye and told them the strangers had come and gone. The soldiers took her at her word and rode out toward the Jordan river, leaving behind their targets safe and sound on Rahab’s rooftop.
In a city at war, sheltering the enemy was treason, and the penalty would surely have been death. Some may be troubled by Rahab’s deception here, but the text never criticizes her for it. It honors her loyalty to God over loyalty to Jericho’s king.
The Confession — Speaking Up
When the soldiers are gone, Rahab climbs up to the roof where the spies are hiding. It’s dark and quiet, and the danger has only passed for the moment. She tells them she knows that Adonai has given them the land. She explains how the entire city exists in fear:
When we heard about it, our hearts melted, and no spirit remained any more in anyone because of you. For ADONAI your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth below.
Joshua 2:11 TLV
Those same stories that made Jericho tremble made Rahab believe. A Canaanite woman believed in the God of Israel, and her kindness to these strangers flowed directly from that faith. Following her act of bravery to save them, she makes one request…She asks them to swear by Adonai that they will deal kindly with her family. They agree to do so, and they promise, “Our life for yours, if you don’t report this business of ours. Then it will be when ADONAI gives us the land that we will deal kindly and loyally with you.” (Joshua 2:14 TLV)
Because Rahab’s house was built into the city wall, she lowers them by a rope through her window and tells them to hide in the hills for three days until the soldiers give up the search. The spies tell her that she must tie a scarlet cord in that same window, and she must gather her whole family inside her house so that they may find her when Bnei-Yisrael comes and uphold their promise to her. Rahab agrees without hesitation, and ties the cord as soon as they are gone.
Rahab had turned against her own city and her own people, with nothing but the word of two strangers who, for all she knew, might never come back. The spies followed Rahab’s advice, then crossed the Jordan and gave Joshua their report; and Rahab waited…
The Fulfillment — Being Welcomed
Jericho’s fall comes after Bnei-Yisrael marches around the city according to God’s Word, and the walls collapse before them. However, before the destruction, Joshua gives the two spies the command to fulfill their promise.
So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her relatives and all who belonged to her. All her relatives they brought out and put them outside the camp of Israel.
Joshua 6:23 TLV
Rahab waited with the red cord in her window and her family gathered, exactly as promised. The spies came back for her, exactly as promised. Scripture says she lived among Israel “to this day” (Joshua 6:25). The stranger who welcomed strangers was welcomed in turn. Her story would continue in a very important way…
Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse
Matthew 1:5 TLV
Rahab thought she was just saving her family, but her line would lead to Jesse, to David, and eventually to Yeshua. God was placing her in the family tree of the Messiah. She is one of only five women named in that genealogy. Her importance is marked forever in Scripture for us as a reminder.
Rahab’s kindness grew out of faith. She believed first, then acted. The B’rit Hadasha speaks of her this way, holding her up in both Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 as a woman whose righteousness and faith was proven by her actions.
She lived out the Torah before she had even heard it, “—but love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18 TLV). What God had commanded His children to do, Rahab was already living out unknowingly. In Jericho she showed kindness to the strangers in her midst, and those strangers would in turn show her the same kindness and accept her and her family as strangers into the midst of Bnei-Yisrael.
Her kindness in this time held a very weighty cost, her life and potentially the lives of her loved ones if she were caught. A kindness that costs nothing is easy to give, but Rahab’s kindness could have cost her the safety of everything she knew. Her faith also made room for others because she didn’t ask to be saved alone. She asked for her whole household, and God gave her what she asked for.
One Central Message
Small Acts of Kindness Can Change the World, Because God Uses What We Can Offer
Rahab began as a woman with no power, no platform, and no good reputation. What she had to offer was a hiding place and a meal. The act itself may seem small, but its outcome echoes through the whole story of redemption. She didn’t know that she was welcoming the first scouts of a people who would one day bring forth the Messiah. Yeshua later taught that welcoming the stranger is welcoming Him (Matthew 25:35-40). Rahab’s welcome was never wasted, even though she couldn’t see at the time where it was going.
However, a gentle caution belongs here. As followers of Yeshua we do not serve to earn a reward or a legacy, and this isn’t a promise that kindness always leads to something grand. Rahab’s welcome grew out of faith, and good works are the fruit of grace already given, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves—it is the gift of God. It is not based on deeds, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 TLV). What we can trust is that God can weave our small, faithful acts into a story far larger than we can see.
Living This Truth Today
Maybe you’ve never hidden anyone from the king’s soldiers, but maybe you’ve been the one standing at the door with a choice to make…
Who are the “strangers” in your life? A new face at the congregation who doesn’t know anyone yet? A neighbor you’ve waved at but never really talked to? A coworker who eats lunch alone? Someone who feels, in some way, on the outside?
Welcome can look very simple: a saved seat, a shared meal, a ride, a kind word. None of these will make headlines, and that’s the point. The size of the act of kindness isn’t really the point of Rahab’s story, her willingness is. What do you do when the opportunity shows up at your door, inconvenient and unannounced? God’s invitation isn’t to wait until we have the perfect moment or the perfect resources, it is to follow His call with what we already have.
Rahab made her choice not knowing what would come next. She only knew whom she believed in. Her welcome gave her a place among God’s people and in the line of the Messiah, a woman on the outside who became part of the Messianic story forever.
So here is the question to carry into our lives: Who is the stranger God has placed in front of you? What would it look like to open your door, your table, or your seat to them, and trust God with what comes of it?
You may never see where it leads. Open the door anyway.
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