A Word for Today | Hebrews 11:30-31
As Hebrews 11 winds down its heroes of faith, we turn to a most unlikely pair in Joshua and Rahab. Moving forward forty years from the exodus, Hebrews turns to the fall of Jericho under the godly leadership of Joshua. Before the battle, Joshua met a mysterious figure who named Himself as “the commander of the army of the Lord,” who should be seen as the pre-incarnate Christ. He stated that the Lord had delivered Jericho into Joshua’s hands, but then gave unusual instructions: Joshua was to have the people march around the city for seven days, on the seventh day blowing trumpets, after which the walls would fall (Jos. 6:3-5). Joshua and the people did just as they were told and when the trumpets sounded, the walls fell down and the Israelites put the city to the sword (Jos. 6:20).
Hebrews 11:30 memorializes this great moment in the record of faith: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” This is faith trusting the promise of God and obeying His commands. We, too, will experience God’s mighty power as we trust and obey. The early church father John Chrysostom explained: “Assuredly the sound of trumpets is unable to cast down stones, though one blow for ten thousand years, but faith can do all things.”[1]
Coupled with Joshua’s exploit is the faith of Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute: “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies” (Heb. 11:31). Before the battle, Joshua’s spies had been detected by Jericho’s leaders, and Rahab hid them at the risk of her life. From an earthly point of view, there seemed not even one chance in a thousand that the Israelites could capture this great fortress – they were nomads emerging from the desert without advanced weaponry. But Rahab had heard reports of Israel’s God and the Lord gave her grace to believe. She said: “I know that the Lord has given you the land. . . . we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt. . . . for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Jos. 2:9-11). Based on this faith, Rahab left a scarlet cord out her window as a sign for the Israelites, who promised to spare her family. One of the church’s earliest commentators, Clement of Rome, wrote that this sign foreshadowed “that through the blood of the Lord all who trust and hope in God shall have redemption” (1 Clem. 12:7).
Joshua and Rahab make quite a pair! In so many significant ways they were completely different. Joshua was a man, an Israelite, Moses’ successor as Israel’s leader, and the conqueror of Jericho. Rahab was a woman, a cursed Amorite, a prostitute, and a citizen of the condemned city. They had only one thing in common: they believed on the Lord and trusted His power to save. Looking back on their lives, we realize that what was true of them is true of us as well: when our lives are over, the things that will count are those that resulted from our faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ.
In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Phillips
[1] C.f. Philip E. Hughes A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977), 502.