Josue 2 - The Faith and Charity of Rahab

We come to the significant figure of Rahab in Josue 2.  I think it's important to stop and note how someone like Rahab suddenly makes a brief but meaningful appearance in Scripture at this moment, the moment before the Israelites are to enter the Promised Land and lay waste the city of Jericho.  Rahab the harlot exists in the quiet before the storm.  The pagans of Jericho are about to be victims of God's terrible judgment, but as a sign for all future ages, God through His Word gives us a figure of a repentant woman who expresses her faith in Him and then acts upon it by making a brave and charitable decision to aid two Israelite soldiers.  She is rewarded.  God has embraced her and forgiven her and welcomed her into His fold.  An act of faith and an act of charity has spared her.  The lesson for us is a monumental one.

The fact that Rahab is described as a harlot is significant.  It tells us she is one who has sinned but, presumably, has changed her ways.  The arrival of the two Israelites gives her the opportunity to demonstrate her faith to God.  Notice that Rahab's declaration of faith is not sufficient in and of itself, powerful as it is.  In Josue 2:11 she proclaims "the Lord your God he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath."  She highlights God's omnipresence, as opposed to the pagan gods' associations with certain geographical areas.  She knows of the wonders God worked for the Israelites as they journeyed from Egypt.  She evidently knows God to be the only god, and she knows His power.  St. Paul, in Hebrews 11:31 says, "By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with the unbelievers, receiving the spies with peace."  Paul accentuates Rahab's faith, her distinction from the other "unbelievers."  It is what saved her.  However, then we have this statement found in the Epistle of St. James: "Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?  And in like manner also Rahab, the harlot, was not she justified by works, receiving the messengers, and sending them out another way?" (James 2:24-25).  And so we have a simple woman of Jericho sitting at the center of one of Christianity's fundamental issues.  Is it by faith or by works that we are justified?  And why not by both?  If we are to look at God's Holy Word as a whole, and if we are to assume God would not contradict Himself, then both St. Paul and St. James have it right, they only highlight each one side of the debate.  Rahab was saved because she believed; she was also saved because she did the right and noble thing.  Were she to believe and not help God's people, her belief would have been fruitless and empty.  If she were to help God's people but disbelieve in Him, her good deed would have been in vain.  God would have been displeased with either Rahab's lack of faith or lack of charity.  Luckily, though, she had both.  Rahab holds a powerful key to understanding salvation.