The Promise of Rest #2: Joshua 2 – The House of a Harlot

The video version is available at: https://youtu.be/daqcbY7-bQU

Reading – Joshua 2:1-24

By Dan and Brenda Cathcart

As the children of Israel are preparing to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land, Joshua is preparing for what they would encounter when they cross over near the city of Jericho. They have three days before they move their camp the few miles from the Acacia grove on the Plains of Moab to the banks of the Jordan River. Joshua makes use of these three days by sending two men to spy out the land near Jericho.

Joshua 2:1 NKJV 1 Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.

As we dig into this account involving Rahab and the unnamed spies, we will find an incredible number of parallels to events in the Torah and hints at the coming of Messiah.

The account of the journey of the two spies and their encounter with Rahab is sandwiched between the command to prepare to cross the Jordan River and the command to actually cross the river. Joshua issues the command to prepare to cross the Jordan in Jordan in chapter 1:

Joshua 1:10-11 NKJV 10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 11 "Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, 'Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"

The command to actually cross the river is issued three days later.

Joshua 3:2-3 NKJV 2 So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

From this structure, we might expect to see a chiasm. This is exactly what we have in this account. A chiasm is a symmetric literary pattern common in the Bible. In a chiasm the ideas are presented in reverse order around a central theme. The beginning and end of this chiasm is the three days of preparation indicated in Joshua chapters one and three. The rest of the chiasm is completely contained with chapter two. The outer layer of the chiasm is, as we have stated, the three days of preparation beginning and ending. The next layer in is Joshua sending out the spies in verse one and receiving them back in verses twenty-three and twenty-four. The third layer is the account of Rahab hiding the men from the pursuit by the king of Jericho in verses four through six and the spies hiding from their pursuers in verse twenty-two. Moving in one more layer, we come to the oath sworn by Rahab in verses eight through twelve and the oaths returned by the spies in verses seventeen through twenty-one. The center of the chiasm is the Rahab enabling their escape and safe return to Joshua in verses fifteen and sixteen. So, let’s work our way through this chiasm and discover not only the central theme, but interesting connections to the Torah as we progress through each layer.

Chapter two begins with Joshua secretly sending out two unnamed men to view the land and it ends with him receiving the report of the two spies when they return. At no time in the narrative do we learn the identity of these two men.

When we read that Joshua sends out two men to check out the land near Jericho, we immediately think of the twelve spies that Moses had sent out thirty-nine years earlier to spy out the land. However, there are some significant differences between these two events. When Moses sent the twelve men, the selection and sending out of the spies was known among all the people.

Numbers 13:1-2 MKJV 1 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Send men so that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel. You shall send a man from every tribe of their fathers, everyone a ruler among them.

The next verses name each of the twelve men and their tribal affiliation. They were all men of distinction most likely well-known among their respective tribes. It is as if a great fanfare is made of their being sent out. When the twelve spies reported back, they did so to the entire congregation not just to Moses.

Numbers 13:26 NKJV 26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

This contrasts with the anonymity of the two men Joshua sent out secretly who reported back only to him.

Sending out spies to check out the terrain and the strength of an enemy is actually a good military tactic. Moses sent out spies before the children of Israel fought against the Amorites east of the Jordan River. The problem wasn’t in sending spies, the problem was how the spies viewed the land and God’s promises. When the twelve spies returned from the land, ten of them brought a bad report and the morale of the children of Israel plummeted.

Numbers 14:1-3 NKJV 1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

However, when the two men Joshua sent out returned, they brought back the exact opposite report as the ten spies. They reported that the Canaanites were terrified of the Israelites and their God.

Joshua 2:23-24 NKJV 23 So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over; and they came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. 24 And they said to Joshua, "Truly the LORD has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us."

Moses had told them that this would be the case when he addressed the people in the month prior to his death. He told them that if they followed God’s ways diligently, He would go before them and cause their enemies to tremble.

Deuteronomy 11:25 NKJV 25 "No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

When the two Israelites arrived in Jericho, they went to the house of a prostitute named Rahab where she received them with peace.

Hebrews 11:31 NKJV 31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

The spotlight of this account is focused on Rahab because she is the only person who is named! Who is Rahab? We are told that she is a harlot. The Hebrew word translated as “harlot” is “zaw-naw,” number 2181 in Strong’s Concordance, meaning to commit adultery, fornication, idolatry, to be a harlot or whore. This word in its form as a noun is always translated as harlot or whore. In Joshua chapter six when Jericho is conquered by Israel, she is mentioned three times, each time with a reference to her being a prostitute. In the New Testament, both James and the author of Hebrews attest to Rahab’s faith while referring to her as a harlot. Her identity as a prostitute is an important element in this account. It forms a kind of symmetry with the events that happened after the Israelites arrived at the Acacia Grove on the Plains of Moab where they were camped preparing to cross the Jordan River. At the time of the Israelite’s arrival at Acacia Grove, Balak, King of Moab, hired Balaam to curse Israel. When that didn’t work, Balaam and Balak sent the women of Moab to commit harlotry with the Israelites.

Numbers 25:1-2 NKJV 1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. 2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

In an ironic juxtaposition, the Moabite women enticed Israel to engage in harlotry at Acacia Grove, while Rahab the harlot protected the lives of the two Israelites. This takes us to the next layer of the chiasm when Rahab acts courageously to hide the spies from the King of Jericho.

Joshua 2:3-4 NKJV 3 So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country." 4 Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

Rahab outwitted the king by misdirecting the men sent to find the two Israelites. Rahab hid the two men under stalks of flax which is used to make linen, but before the two men could lay down to sleep that night, she came to the men to explain her motive in hiding them and what she hoped to gain from them. She, like Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, saw the mighty power of God when He brought the children of Israel across the Red Sea on dry ground. More recently she and all the Canaanites saw how God helped the Israelites defeat the kings on the east side of the Jordan River. Rahab acknowledged that she knows that Yehovah is the God of not just Israel but of the heaven and earth.

Joshua 2:11-12 NKJV 11 "And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 "Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token,

Rahab asks that the two men and, through them, the nation of Israel, swear an oath to treat her and her family with kindness. The Hebrew word translated as “kindness” is “kheh-sed,” number 2617, meaning kindness, favor, goodness, lovingkindness, or mercy. The depth of meaning of this word goes much further than just kindness. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states the view that:

…hesed denotes free acts of rescue or deliverance which in prophetic usage includes faithfulness.”[i]

The two men reply that not only will she be treated with kindness; she will be treated “kindly and truly.”

Joshua 2:14 NKJV 14 So the men answered her, "Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the LORD has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you."

The pairing of these two words is also found in God’s declaration of His name to Moses translated as “lovingkindness and truth.”

Exodus 34:6 NAS95 6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states that this pairing, which occurs twenty-five times, means “faithful love” or “true kindness.”[ii] The two men have entered into an agreement with her by swearing an oath. This hints at the establishment of a covenant. Similar to a covenant, they agree to give her a true token or a sign of their agreement, but the actual sign they will give her is not mentioned until after the Bible recounts how Rahab helped them escape from Jericho gives them instructions for how to return safely to the Israelite camp. This is the center of the chiasm; it contains the central theme and a third mention of the time frame of three days.

Joshua 2:15-16 NAS95 15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. 16 She said to them, "Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way."

Rahab acted on her kindness toward them to not only hide them, but to rescue them and give them advice to elude capture. After this statement, the Bible returns to the earlier conversation explaining what true token or sign the men will give her.

Joshua 2:17-19 NKJV 17 So the men said to her: "We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, 18 "unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home. 19 "So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.

The true token that the men instructed Rahab to display was a “line of scarlet cord” in the window. When they see the line of scarlet thread, the inhabitants of that house would be spared. Once again, we see a direct connection back to the Torah. In this passage we see a connection to the Passover just before God delivered Israel out of Egypt. At the Passover, the children of Israel were to paint the doorposts and lintels of their homes with the blood of the Passover lamb and then go into their homes and remain there. The angel of death would pass through Egypt and kill the firstborn of every house that had not applied that blood to their doorposts and lintels. The scarlet thread is like the blood of the Passover lamb, and the commandment to remain in the home keeps the members of the household safe until after the battle is complete.

Two words in this passage add to our understanding of this event. The word translated as “token” in verse twelve is “oth,” number 226, meaning a signal, flag, beacon, or omen. The sign or token that most people would be familiar with is the sign of the rainbow that God gave to Moses. Like God would look in the sky and see the rainbow and remember His covenant with Noah and all creation not to destroy the earth with a flood, so too, the children of Israel would look up and see the line of scarlet thread hanging from Rahab’s window and remember their oath to spare all the inhabitants of that house.

There is a hidden or deeper meaning in the original Hebrew contained in the phrase “line of scarlet thread.” The word translated as “line” in verse eighteen is the Hebrew word “tik-vaw,” number 8615, meaning a cord as an attachment; figuratively it means expectancy, expectation, or hope, or the thing that I long for. “Tik-vaw” is translated as hope, expectation, or thing that I long for every time it appears in the Bible except in this use in Joshua. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament comments on the meaning of the root word of “tik-vaw.”

            This root means to wait or to look for with eager expectation.[iii]

Clearly, in the literal understanding of the text, the sign Rahab is to display, “tik-vaw” must be translated as line or cord. However, the deeper meaning of this sign is that Rahab displayed a “hope or expectation of scarlet thread.” This forms a deeper connection to Passover. She displayed the hope of salvation like that of the hope of the children of Israel waiting in expectation that the angel of death would pass over them!

The account of the two spies continues with them fleeing to the mountains west of Jericho where they hide for the remainder of the three days for the fourth mention of three days. When the pursuit ends, they make their way back across the Jordan River at one of its many fords and report back to Joshua.

So, what is the central theme of the chiasm? Before answering this question, we need to go back to Rahab’s identity as a harlot. Harlotry is often compared to idolatry. After Joshua’s death, the book of Judges records that Israel played the harlot with other gods.

Judges 2:17 NKJV 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.

Metaphorically, Rahab represents idolatrous Israel who played the harlot with other gods. Rahab’s name, number 7343, means proud. When proud Israel acknowledges God’s sovereignty as Rahab did and asks for God’s kindness and truth, it will be extended to her. The true sign God’s kindness and truth, His faithful love, is the hope of the scarlet thread, the blood of the Passover lamb.

The central theme is found when Rahab lowers the two men by a rope through the same window from which she displays the line of scarlet thread. John Goldingay in his commentary on the book of Joshua states it this way:

Salvation comes in the house of a harlot, to the house of a harlot, and finally through the house of a harlot.[iv]

Salvation comes in the house of Israel in the form of Yeshua, an Israelite born to Mary, a woman thought to have committed adultery. Salvation comes to the house of Israel, a nation steeped in idolatry and corruption when Yeshua preached the coming of the Kingdom of God. Salvation comes through Israel when the good news was preached to the entire world.  

On Yeshua’s final journey through Israel on His way to Jerusalem where He would be the Passover lamb, he stopped in Jericho. While in Jericho, he stayed at the house of a tax-collector named Zacheus who in many ways could be considered a harlot in that he departed from the commandments of the LORD. Symbolically, Yeshua stayed in the house of a harlot. Yeshua brought salvation to the house of Zacheus that day.

Luke 19:8-10 NKJV 8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." 9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

When God brought down the walls of Jericho in judgment for all the sins that had been done throughout the land of Canaan, Rahab experienced salvation because she believed in Yehovah, the God of heaven and earth.

Study Questions:

1.      How are the two events (Moses and Joshua) about sending men into the Promised Land similar? How are they different? What are the physical and spiritual differences in the outcomes?

 

2.      Why is Rahab’s identity as a harlot important to the central theme of this account?

 

3.      What elements of a covenant are present in the oaths that are exchanged between Rahab and the two men? What other elements of a covenant are present, especially that of the Passover covenant?

 

4.      The account of the two Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15-22 has many parallel elements including that they were the only ones named in each event. What are some other connections? What is revealed through the connections between these two events?

 

5.      Another connection with this chapter in Joshua is the account of the two messengers of God going into Sodom in Genesis 19:1-17. What are some other connections? What is revealed through the connections between these two events?

 

6.      What other insights did you gain from this teaching? What indicators are there in this reading that point to Messiah Yeshua? What part or parts of this reading shed light on the “The Promise of Rest?

 

Bonus: Hebrews 11:25 tells us that Rahab received the two men “with peace.” This connects to Yeshua sending out the disciples in pairs in Luke 10:1-20. Compare their mission with the missions of the two spies and the two messengers sent to Sodom. What is revealed in these connections?

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[i] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Editors R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce K. Waltke. Moody Publishers. ©1980. Page 305.

[ii] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Editors R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce K. Waltke. Moody Publishers. ©1980. Page 307.

[iii] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Editors R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce K. Waltke. Moody Publishers. ©1980. Page 791

[iv] John Goldingay. Joshua. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Historical Books. Baker Academic. ©2023 John Goldingay. Page 102.