Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.1, 5a
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab…
Joshua 6.25
25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.
Originally published on December 12, 2023, based on readings from Matthew 1 and Joshua 6.
Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.
Advent in September: Several of the choices from readers were from last year, during Advent. We are putting these posts together in this first week of Readers’ Choice. We pray as Summer winds down that the spirit of Christmas has continued in your heart and that these posts will help you look forward to anticipate the coming seasons.
Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, TN — Hallelujah!
Michele, CO — I imagine she [Rahab] must have declared, like Ruth, your God will be my God. And Salmon must have decided that her past was behind her. Imagine that!
Reflection: Rahab’s Story — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton
These are the matriarchs of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. This is Rahab’s story.
Who was this Rahab, the great-great-great-(and so on) grandmother of Jesus? Her identity is somewhat muddled. (Have no fear, she is not the mythic dragon from Job, Psalms, or Isaiah.)
She is likely the woman you remember from Joshua, whose name is rarely said without her epithet, “the prostitute.” How shameful that we demote her to one identity, because she is, in fact, a matriarch of Jesus.
Rahab the prostitute matriarch, like Tamar, was not a member of the Abrahamic family. She did not escape slavery from Egypt nor cross the Red Sea with the multitudes. She was a Canaanite.
Her business was one of pleasure, not love as we dream of it. She used her body in a culture that was more than willing to pay for it. Her job was scandalous and disgraceful to the covenant people encroaching on the borders of Canaan. She is an unlikely character in God’s story of redemption.
The stories of God saving his people reached her ears in Jericho. Stories of wonder and power, stories that herald the supremacy of God. I imagine how she compared the stories to the pathetic notion of her Ba’al killed and trapped by the god of death. Rahab heard and believed in this true God.
By faith, she hid the spies who swore an oath to spare her family. She risked her life to save people who would condemn her land, her friends, her culture, and her job. All because she knew God was coming to her.
The sign of mercy would be the scarlet cord draped from her window. The grandchildren of the people who spread the lamb’s blood across their doorposts would recognize this same sign of faith letting judgment pass safely over her house.
And so she lived among the Israelites. Her old ways would be reformed. Her past would become a testimony. Her future would bear the One whose blood would wash away all sin.
Yes, she was a prostitute.
But she is a matriarch of Jesus. Rahab, the disgraceful member of the enemy nation, is chosen and honored as one of five women named in Jesus’s family. She is not defined by her occupation or nationality.
In the love of Jesus belong the foreigners and the shamed. In the love of Jesus, we are renamed.
From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.
Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14
Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 29 (Listen 5:44)
1 Corinthians 6 (Listen 3:03)
Read more about Becoming Part of the Promise
Rahab asks to be accepted by this powerful God who is not only in the heavens but active upon the Earth.
Readers’ Choice is here!
This month, we are thankful to share your favorite posts from the past year. There’s still time to tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form, so we can repost them.