The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 97

about Jehovah ; but ehe recognised His hand in the drying up of the Red Sea 11nd the discomfiture of Silton and Og. Then (c) she seems to have lived up to her light. To be a harlot was no very grievous offence in the eyes of a people who regarded that profession as consecrated to the service of the gods, as was the case in Babylonia, Syria, Cyprus, Corinth, 11nd a host of other places. Yet she was not idle, as the stalks of flax imply, and perhaps, in spite of her impure life, the guilt of which she had no means of realising, she might have been one of those (Prov. xxxi. 13) who "seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." And so she was permitted to "feel after God and find him" as other sinners have been, through His merits who cried, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 2. Her unselfishness. She receives the men, knowing the danger she was in. She risks her life rather than give them up. She takes every care for their safety by her prudence and the excellent advice she gives them. As the next section shows, she had a regard, not merely for her own safety, but for that of her kindred. And this is a proof that she had striven to a degree after better things. For it is well known that nothing more deadens men and women to the gentler impulses of our nature, nothing has a greater tendency to produce cruelty and callousness to suffering, than the systematic inclulgence of sensual passion. 3. Her falsehood. As the notes have shown, this was of course a sin, but in her case a venial one. Even Christian divines have held it to be a debatable question whether what Calvin calls a mendacium officiosum, a falsehood in the (supposed) way of duty, were permissible or not. And though this casuistry is chiefly that of Roman Catholic divines, yet Protestants have doubted whether a lie might not law- fully be told with the intent of saving life. In Rahab's time the question had never arisen. Heathen and even Jewish morality had hardly arrived at the notion that the truth must in all cases be spoken. Sisera requested J ael, as a matter of course, to do what Rahab did. Jonathan deceives his father to save David's life, and he is not blamed for doing so (1 Sam. xx. 28, 29). David deceives Ahimelech the priest (1 Sam. xxi. 2). Even Elisha appears not to have adhered to strict truth in 2 Kings vi. 19, and Gehazi is not punished so much for his lie as for his accepting a gift which his master had declined. Jeremiah, again, tells v.ithout hesitation the untruth Zedekiah asks him to tell (Jer. xxxviii. 24-27). How, then, should Rahab have known that it was wrong of her to deceive the messengers of the king, in order to save the spies alive? 4. Her treachery to her own people. This, under onlinary circumstances, woul,l also have been a sin. But here the motive justifies the act. It was not the result of a mere sla"ish fear of Israelite success. It was clue to the fact that she recognised the Israelites as being under the protection of the true Goel, who would punish the idolatry and impurity of the Canaanites. Resistance, she knew, was vain. Jehovah had giYen them the land. There could be no harm in delivering her own W'e, and and the life of those dear to her, from the general slaughter. Besides;-neither as 11 prnbable consequence nor in actual fact did the escape of the spies, through Rahab, affect the fate of Jericho .. Not as a thing probable from her action, for tho report of the spies, though it might supply Joshua with valuable information, conhl not bring abont the fall of Jericho. Her conduct was not like that of Ephi:i.ltes at Tl!ermopyhe, or of Tarpeia at Rome. Nor did the report of the spies actually bnng about the fall of Jericho, for it was effectell by supernatural means. In conclusion, it may be remarked that Ra.hab was in 11 sense the "first frnits of the Gentiles." She was justified by faith, not by works, in the sense in which St. Paul uses the words. That is to say, her former life had not t>ntitled h~r to the favour of God, though her work in saving the spies was effectual as an evulence of her faith. She w11s forgiven, saved, numbered among faithful Isrnel, and became 1t "mother in Isruel." And as a "woman that was a sinner," she was a type of those whom Jesus Christ came to save, who," dead in trespasses ancl sins, were quickened " by the. grace and mercy of the true Joshua, our Lord Jesus Christ.  82 THE BOOK OF ,TOSHUA, [cH, rr. 1-12,