Rahab, Murder, and Lies
A Look into the Story of Rahab and the Nature of Sin
I was talking with some people earlier about Rahab, the prostitute in the story of Jericho. Rahab is said to have been the only one in the entire city of Jericho who showed faith in God, saved the lives of two of his spies, and in return, she and her family were all spared when the city was destroyed. (See Joshua 2 for the whole story.) Two things stuck out to me about this story.
1) Why is it okay for Rahab to be saved, but no one else in the entire city?
Jericho was an evil city with an evil culture. They burned their first born sons alive as a sacrifice to an idol. Everyone here did it, but I am not convinced that everyone here had an evil heart. That is the common Christian argument for why it was good to destroy an entire city. And for sure there were people in Jericho that needed a good smiting. But I just can’t believe that every single person in that town whole-heartedly celebrated this practice. I do believe everyone did it, that’s how cultures work. But there is no way that burning your son alive was an option that you could choose to forgo. It was mandatory if you wanted to live there, and it’s not like there were options for living spaces back then. You lived in the city where you were accepted or in the desert alone, where you would probably die. So why did they have to kill everyone in the city, including these people, including children?
The common argument is that even the children were brought up in this culture and thus had to die to extinguish this practice. But you cannot tell me that there weren’t a few people in that town who would have been glad to assimilate to a new culture of not killing children. But they could not be forgiven.
Rahab was forgiven because she showed faith in God and a willingness to cease the sinful practice of the culture. Her family showed no such faith, yet they were also spared. And I bet once it was all over and no longer the culture, they too stopped killing babies.
I was faced with the argument that to stay in the house while the city was tumbling required a lot of faith in God from Rahab’s family. And for some that may be true. But some people freeze when frightened, not run away. For sure that’s how the children would have reacted. They were confused and scared, maybe they just listened to Rahab because she was the only one speaking with conviction. And if Rahab was telling them all to stay, then the faith argument for her family just seems a little shaky.
Could anyone else have been spared? This is my biggest problem when it comes to mass murder in the bible, where only a few are spared. Those few were given an opportunity. What about those who may have believed, may have changed if things had turned out differently?
It was God’s will, so it must have been right. But I don’t understand it. Why couldn’t he have saved more people?
2) Was Rahab sinning when she lied to protect Joshua’s spies?
The short answer is no, but there was no way of her knowing that.
If you look at the bible closely, it actually never gives a clear definition of what a sin is. It tells us what a sin isn’t. “Thou shalt not murder.” That means that if you can avoid murder, then you will for sure not be committing a sin. But that doesn’t always mean that committing murder is always a sin.
Now let me explain before you misunderstand. Joshua was murdering the town of Jericho, there is no way around that. When one human takes the life of another, it is murder. Sometimes that murder is okay because of war, or what have you. And we call it something else to make ourselves feel better, even when it’s justified, like it was in Jericho. In this case God told Joshua directly to take out the town of Jericho. Joshua was committing murder, but he was not committing a sin.
So Joshua knew that he was doing something to glorify God, not sinning. But what about Rahab? How did she know that lying to the King’s guards was not a sin?
She didn’t. That is the distinction. It’s not a sin if it’s glorifying to God. Rahab’s lie did glorify God, but how was she to know that when she was making that decision? Human’s can’t see the future, we can only see examples of this in hindsight, with stories like Rahab’s. We would never be able to determine the sinful nature of something for ourselves. That is why God gave us the commandments, why there are rules. Because God knew that we have no way to tell what a sin is, so he told us what it isn’t, just to keep us safe.
The only way you can know if you have an exception to the rule is if God tells you directly, like he did with Joshua. If you are like Rahab, then you have no idea, and you have a choice. You can close your eyes, squeeze the trigger, and hope that the risk pays off. All the while you know that it is entirely possible that sin is eating you up, and you have done nothing to glorify God. Or you can follow the rules God gave us, and feel secure in the certainty that you have done right.
That is why you follow the rules that God gave us, because most of the time you do not get to be the exception. Most of the time you are a selfish sinner who just wanted things to go your own way. Few of us get an ending like Rahab, and even fewer an ending like Joshua. So if you are in Rahab’s shoes, the smart decision is to tell the truth and trust that God will make it alright. Telling the truth (and following His other commandments) will always be glorifying to God, no matter the situation.
1) Why is it okay for Rahab to be saved, but no one else in the entire city?
Jericho was an evil city with an evil culture. They burned their first born sons alive as a sacrifice to an idol. Everyone here did it, but I am not convinced that everyone here had an evil heart. That is the common Christian argument for why it was good to destroy an entire city. And for sure there were people in Jericho that needed a good smiting. But I just can’t believe that every single person in that town whole-heartedly celebrated this practice. I do believe everyone did it, that’s how cultures work. But there is no way that burning your son alive was an option that you could choose to forgo. It was mandatory if you wanted to live there, and it’s not like there were options for living spaces back then. You lived in the city where you were accepted or in the desert alone, where you would probably die. So why did they have to kill everyone in the city, including these people, including children?
The common argument is that even the children were brought up in this culture and thus had to die to extinguish this practice. But you cannot tell me that there weren’t a few people in that town who would have been glad to assimilate to a new culture of not killing children. But they could not be forgiven.
Rahab was forgiven because she showed faith in God and a willingness to cease the sinful practice of the culture. Her family showed no such faith, yet they were also spared. And I bet once it was all over and no longer the culture, they too stopped killing babies.
I was faced with the argument that to stay in the house while the city was tumbling required a lot of faith in God from Rahab’s family. And for some that may be true. But some people freeze when frightened, not run away. For sure that’s how the children would have reacted. They were confused and scared, maybe they just listened to Rahab because she was the only one speaking with conviction. And if Rahab was telling them all to stay, then the faith argument for her family just seems a little shaky.
Could anyone else have been spared? This is my biggest problem when it comes to mass murder in the bible, where only a few are spared. Those few were given an opportunity. What about those who may have believed, may have changed if things had turned out differently?
It was God’s will, so it must have been right. But I don’t understand it. Why couldn’t he have saved more people?
2) Was Rahab sinning when she lied to protect Joshua’s spies?
The short answer is no, but there was no way of her knowing that.
If you look at the bible closely, it actually never gives a clear definition of what a sin is. It tells us what a sin isn’t. “Thou shalt not murder.” That means that if you can avoid murder, then you will for sure not be committing a sin. But that doesn’t always mean that committing murder is always a sin.
Now let me explain before you misunderstand. Joshua was murdering the town of Jericho, there is no way around that. When one human takes the life of another, it is murder. Sometimes that murder is okay because of war, or what have you. And we call it something else to make ourselves feel better, even when it’s justified, like it was in Jericho. In this case God told Joshua directly to take out the town of Jericho. Joshua was committing murder, but he was not committing a sin.
So Joshua knew that he was doing something to glorify God, not sinning. But what about Rahab? How did she know that lying to the King’s guards was not a sin?
She didn’t. That is the distinction. It’s not a sin if it’s glorifying to God. Rahab’s lie did glorify God, but how was she to know that when she was making that decision? Human’s can’t see the future, we can only see examples of this in hindsight, with stories like Rahab’s. We would never be able to determine the sinful nature of something for ourselves. That is why God gave us the commandments, why there are rules. Because God knew that we have no way to tell what a sin is, so he told us what it isn’t, just to keep us safe.
The only way you can know if you have an exception to the rule is if God tells you directly, like he did with Joshua. If you are like Rahab, then you have no idea, and you have a choice. You can close your eyes, squeeze the trigger, and hope that the risk pays off. All the while you know that it is entirely possible that sin is eating you up, and you have done nothing to glorify God. Or you can follow the rules God gave us, and feel secure in the certainty that you have done right.
That is why you follow the rules that God gave us, because most of the time you do not get to be the exception. Most of the time you are a selfish sinner who just wanted things to go your own way. Few of us get an ending like Rahab, and even fewer an ending like Joshua. So if you are in Rahab’s shoes, the smart decision is to tell the truth and trust that God will make it alright. Telling the truth (and following His other commandments) will always be glorifying to God, no matter the situation.