Strings Attached; A Relationship With Rahab.
“Keep your promise. Go to the prostitute’s house and bring her out, along with all her family.”
We are often blinded by the need to have well-behaved women and so we do not tell their stories logically.
And so the story goes. Two men walked into a city, Jericho. Their boss Joshua had sent them on a spy mission. The plan was to take over the city. So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night. But someone told the king of Jericho.
I do not even want to know how they went into a city they were supposed to be scouting (to explore an area to obtain information (about an enemy)) and made their way straight to a happy house. There are just too many questions. Maybe they were led by their heads, the other ones.
Rahab's establishment was the place to be if you were looking for ‘funtimes’. They say if you want something done well, give the job to the lazy one. These lazy spies had found a way to work hard and play even harder.
There were people from all walks of life at Rahab’s place. Anything you needed to know, you would hear from the regulars. I suspect the two spies had too much to drink and started the usual bar brawls. “Do you know me?” “You better start talking to me well, I may be your master tomorrow!” Rahab being a veteran in the profession saw trouble coming.
9 “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. 10 For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea[b] when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed.[c] 11 No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.
One of the King's officials was present and Rahab knew him, as soon as he left, she hid the spies on her roof. Just as she suspected, the Kings guards were at her door to arrest the spies. “Yes, the men were here earlier, but I didn’t know where they were from. 5 They left the town at dusk, as the gates were about to close. I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.”
Rahab, a woman of influence because of her profession, had managed to secure herself an apartment with large windows on the perimeter wall.
The word for “window” appears three times in the Rahab narrative (Josh 2: 15, 18, 21) when she helps the men escape and marks her house so it will be spared destruction. Windows have a prominent role in the stories of several other biblical women: Michal (2 Sam 6:16), the mother of Sisera (Judg 5:28 -31), and Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30). All these women are looking through their palace windows, separated from the scenes they witness or hope to witness. The window motif accentuates the aloofness of these elite women, who are removed from the real world outside the window. In contrast, Rahab is an active and involved user of the window, which becomes a vehicle of her communication with and connection to the outside world. Source
Rahab helped the spies escape by letting them down the wall with a rope. This would be the first time a relationship with strings firmly attached saved men but the devil wanting to destroy them, convinced them that no strings attached relationships were a fun way to (watch men) die.
Before they left, however, she made them promise to spare her life and of everyone attached to her.
“We will be bound by the oath we have taken only if you follow these instructions. 18 When we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window through which you let us down. And all your family members—your father, mother, brothers, and all your relatives—must be here inside the house. 19 If they go out into the street and are killed, it will not be our fault. But if anyone lays a hand on people inside this house, we will accept the responsibility for their death. 20 If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way.”
21 “I accept your terms,” she replied. And she sent them on their way, leaving the scarlet rope hanging from the window.
Again the strings attached would save a woman and her family.
I love this story and not only because I enjoy telling stories of ‘immorality’ from the bible to moral Christians. I love this story because one prostitute changed the course of the story. She saved her father’s household. Yet she never tried to be anything else, just Rahab the prostitute. That is authenticity.
22 Meanwhile, Joshua said to the two spies, “Keep your promise. Go to the prostitute’s house and bring her out, along with all her family.”
The spies knew how to work smart. The way they gave their report to their boss, 24 “The Lord has given us the whole land,” they said, “for all the people in the land are terrified of us.”
They learned all this from a prostitute in her brothel but they reported it with so much confidence you would think they had walked into Jericho and people were fleeing or falling to their knees as they passed by.
Do not ever agree to have a no strings attached relationship. Strings are so important. They save lives and generations. These days you have people using each other for nothing. When you find yourself in problems, because there are no strings attached, you cannot climb down from distress or prove that you know him when his people come. (If you know, you know)
A healthy relationship requires a give and take, ask and receive.
12 “Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that 13 when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.”
Throw out the myth that a woman who asks for nothing will receive everything; instead, she will receive less than nothing. Can you imagine if Rahab wanted to do good for the sake of doing good and asked for nothing in return? You may not have your religion.
Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Matthew 1:5
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"I love this story because one prostitute changed the cause of the story. She saved her father’s household. Yet she never tried to be anything else, just Rahab the prostitute. That is authenticity."
Nice. 👏