Joshua 6:20-27: a reflection

20So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city. 21They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword. 22Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring the woman and all that she has out from there, as you swore to her.” 23The young men who were spies went in, and brought out Rahab with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. They also brought out all of her relatives, and they set them outside of the camp of Israel. 24They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only they put the silver, the gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house. 25But Rahab the prostitute, her father’s household, and all that she had, Joshua saved alive. She lives in the middle of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.” 27So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.

Jericho falls, and the account is hard: the city devoted to destruction, its people put to the sword. It should not be read as anything other than the grim, total thing it was. But running right through the middle of it is a bright thread of mercy, and it has a name: Rahab. The prostitute who had hidden the Israelite spies is brought out safely, along with her father, mother, brothers, and all her family, and set in a safe place.

Notice who is rescued. Not an Israelite, but a Canaanite, a woman of the condemned city, and one with a shameful trade. Yet because she had trusted the God of Israel and acted on it by protecting his messengers, she and her whole household are pulled out of the destruction and spared. The text notes that she lived in the midst of Israel from then on, grafted into the people of God.

And there is more than the story shows here. This same Rahab appears later in the family line of David, and of Jesus himself. Grace reached into a doomed city and drew out an unlikely woman, gave her a place among God's people, and wove her into the ancestry of the Savior. If you have thought yourself the wrong kind of person, from the wrong place, with the wrong past, remember Rahab pulled from Jericho. Faith that trusts God and acts on it is met with a mercy that saves, and grafts the outsider in.

Lord, into a doomed city your mercy reached and drew out Rahab, and gave her a place among your people. When I feel I am the wrong kind of person with the wrong past, remind me that faith which trusts and acts is met by a mercy that saves and grafts the outsider in.