Joshua sent spies out to survey the circumstances and land of Jericho. The men of Jericho came to believe the spies were present in their city. A woman named Rahab hid the spies even though she was a citizen of Jericho. When it was safe, she let them down over the wall so they could escape. In the promise to keep them from her own people and death, the spies promised when they came to conquer the city, she and all with her would be spared. Many of the city came to her suspecting she knew where the spies were. In reply to them, we cannot deny that she told a lie for their safety. We know that God condemns liars. How do we explain her lies in the face of God’s condemnation?
At first glance this appears by modern thinking that the positive end of saving the spies justified her means by lying. Today we call this situational ethics that says that under certain circumstances it is acceptable to commit a sin. We know Rahab lied. We know that it was a good thing that the spies were saved. But what do we do about the apparent sin that she committed?
We can call up several practical examples when society would say it was acceptable to do what is normally called wrong. In World War II there were efforts to save Jews some of which had to be hidden from the Nazis. Sometimes lies had to occur to smuggle the Jews out of harm’s way. Let’s bring this closer to home. Suppose a serial killer broke into your home wanting to know where the man of the house was. Suppose that he was hiding in the attic for his own safety. Suppose his wife lied that he had already been killed with others down the street. This was a lie. It was a lie to perpetrators. It was a lie under adverse circumstances. It was a lie to offset the evil that was intended by the killer. Was this wrong?
Let’s go back to Rahab. She became renowned in the early Christian community for what she did. Why is her circumstance so different than the average person who tells a lie for what he thinks is a positive reason?
Her falsehood facilitated her faith. It demonstrated a proper understanding of God’s plan to destroy Jericho. Her faith also caused her after the fact to be aligned with God’s people. She knew of the power that God was demonstrating through the Israelites. She had a choice to align herself with her own citizens of Jericho and cause the spies death. She also had a choice to align herself with the Israelites so that the spies could tell more information back to Joshua. The promise that she received from the spies made it possible for her family and anybody else she could gather into her home that they might be saved from the onslaught of the battle against Jericho.
Rahab became a model. Through promises and the actions involved between Rahab and the spies there was a covenant for life. God honored that covenant and any other covenant made as a result of the righteous environment. Her part of the covenant was to believe. It was her means to flee from the state of hopelessness to life. The falsehood that she told was to evil. To not do so would mean the conquest of evil in the lives of the spies in the battle that would be raged over Jericho.
Her life was abandoned in favor of the trust in the God of Israel. This was a conversion part by herself. She was in the process of making a spiritual transformation. That transformation generated to them she loved who were also saved. Her conversation with the spies was like an intercessory prayer for God’s care over the people she loved. It was also an evangelical movement as she gathered those close to her under the shelter of her own home. It is not sufficient to declare God’s saving grace without some intentional action that substantiates. God expects us to use all means possible for those close to us that they might be saved because this was also an act of moral safety.
Others outside of her home would’ve resented and maybe became quite hostile to her admonition for surrender and realignment to Jehovah. Anyone who finds himself in a moral dilemma between the two possible options can relate to her decision. She helped the enemies of her own country. We cannot make an excuse of good because of a good cause. She was prompted by a noble motive beyond her own safety. We might say that it was not necessarily a law broken better realignment of righteousness. She was not a traitor to the inner workings of our own people. She was in charge of the circumstances whether to hide the spies are not. Her choices commanded in Hebrews in 11:31. Let us hold fast to the faith Rahab for own spiritual outcome. Her faith had to be demonstrated in clear steps. The words she spoke to her own countrymen was more step of faith that have falsehood. In the final judgment of it all the consequence is left up to God as it must be to all of us when we find ourselves betwixt and between.
Christian Writer 