The Lord gives the orders to Joshua for the conquest of Jericho. Two spies are sent into the city to check it out. While there, the spies are hidden in place in the city wall occupied by Rahab, a prostitute.

God uses ordinary people to do spectacular things and Rahab was no exception. She hid the spies because she had heard of the miracles their God had performed on behalf of His people: He brought them out of 430 years in slavery to Egypt, took them (approximately two million) across the Red Sea on dry land, and had been on their side as they won several battles. These are the ones she had heard about.

Hiding them on the roof where she was drying flax seed, she told them that at nighttime to go the mountains and stay for three days before returning to their people. In exchange, she asked that when they conquered Jericho they save her and her family because she believed in God and His people. They told her that when she saw the Israelites coming to drop a scarlet rope from her window and to place her family inside her room.

Now, this must have been quite a sight as these numbers are extraordinary. It is estimated that there were around 40,000 armed warriors, and 600,00 men, and that number does not include the women and children as well as armed men before the seven priests carrying seven ram horn trumpets and the ark of the covenant. Instructions to Joshua were that on the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times and then give a blast on the ram horns and at Joshua’s signal the people were to shout and the wall was to fall down flat.

God’s grace and mercy were extended to Rahab and her family. The scarlet rope was representative of God’s salvation and provisions of the promised coming Messiah whose blood sacrificed would be for the sins of all who believe. If Rahab had not obeyed the spies based on her belief that they were from God and thrown out the scarlet rope, her family would have perished. But she obeyed. You can read the story in the book of Joshua chapter two.

I thought you would find it interesting to know the genealogy recorded in the book of Matthew shows Rahab as the great-great-grandmother of King David and therefore in the lineage of Jesus. Do you remember the Bible story about Ruth who married Boaz? Well, Rahab was the mother of Boaz. The writer of Hebrews mentions the faith of Rahab. (Hebrews 11:31) In fact, she is mentioned over ten times in the Bible.

When God is a part of our lives, great things are accomplished for His kingdom. We never know how God will use us for spectacular things through our obedience to Him.