Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 6:17
And the city shall be accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
17. the city shall be accursed ] “be this cyte cursid” (Wyclif), or, as in margin, devoted. The verb from which the word comes denotes (i) to cut off, (ii) to devote, to withdraw from common use and consecrate to God = sacrare. (i) The word itself, used actively, means the devotement of anything by Jehovah, His putting it under a ban, the result of which is destruction; comp. 1Ki 20:42, “Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction;” Isa 34:5, “Behold, it (my sword) shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment;” Zec 14:11, “there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” (ii) And passively, the word denotes the thing devoted, doomed, laid under the ban, i.e. devoted to Jehovah without the possibility of being redeemed; comp. Lev 27:21, “But the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field devoted;” Lev 27:29, “None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed.” The word is used here in the latter sense, and in Jos 6:17-18, with which compare Jos 7:1, “Achan took of the accursed thing,” and 1Sa 15:3-9. The Greek word with the same meaning, Anathema, frequently occurs in St Paul’s writings, comp. Rom 9:3, “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren;” 1Co 16:22, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema;” comp. also 1Co 12:3; Gal 1:9. We find similar instances of devotion to utter destruction amongst other nations; comp. ( a) the Ver sacrum of the Romans, so frequently alluded to in Liv y, as 22:9-10; 34:44; (b) C sar’s testimony concerning the Gauls, Bell. Gall. vi. 17, “Huic (Marti), cum prlio dimicare constituerunt, ea qu bello ceperint, plerumque devovent; cum superaverunt, animalia capta immolant;” ( c) Tacitus ( Ann. 13:57) tells us of the Hermunduri that they were successful in a war against the Catti, “quia victores diversam aciem Marti ac Mercurio sacravere, quo voto equi, viri, cuncta victa occidioni dantur;” ( d) Livy 3:55 mentions a law passed under the consuls L. Valerius and M. Horatius, “ut qui tribunis plebis, dilibus, judicibus, decemviris nocuisset, ejus caput Jovi sacrum esset; familia ad dem Cereris Liberi Liberque venum iret.”
only Rahab the harlot ] See above, Jos 2:1; Jos 2:18-19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Accursed – Better as in margin, (devoted (Lev 27:28 note). In other cases the inhabitants only of the towns were slain; their cattle and property became the booty of the victors. But Jericho, as the first Canaanite city that was captured, was devoted by Israel as first-fruits to God, as a token that Israel received all the land from Him. Every living thing was put to death (Rahab and her household excepted) as a sacrifice to God, and the indestructible goods were Jos 6:19 brought into the treasury of the sanctuary.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. The city shall be accursed] That is, it shall be devoted to destruction; ye shall take no spoils, and put all that resist to the sword. Though this may be the meaning of the word cherem in some places, See Clarke on Le 27:29, yet here it seems to imply the total destruction of all the inhabitants, see Jos 6:21; but it is likely that peace was offered to this city, and that the extermination of the inhabitants was in consequence of the rejection of this offer.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Accursed, i.e. devoted to utter destruction, Lev 27:21,29; Deu 12. This he spake by instinct or direction from God, as is evident from 1Ki 16:34.
To the Lord; partly, because the first-fruits were appropriated to God; partly, lest the soldiers being glutted with the spoil of this rich city, should grow sensual and sluggish in their work; and partly, to strike the greater terror into the rest of their enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17-19. And the city shall beaccursed(See on Le 27:28). Thecherem, or “anathema,” was a devotion to utterdestruction (Deu 7:2; Deu 20:17;1Sa 15:3). When such a ban waspronounced against a hostile city, the men and animals were killednobooty was allowed to be taken. The idols and all the preciousornaments on them were to be burned (Deu 7:25;1Ch 14:12). Everything was eitherto be destroyed or consecrated to the sanctuary. Joshua pronouncedthis ban on Jericho, a great and wealthy city, evidently by divinedirection. The severity of the doom, accordant with the requirementsof a law which was holy, just, and good, was justified, not only bythe fact of its inhabitants being part of a race who had filled uptheir iniquities, but by their resisting the light of the recentastonishing miracle at the Jordan. Besides, as Jericho seems to havebeen defended by reinforcements from all the country (Jos24:11), its destruction would paralyze all the rest of thedevoted people, and thus tend to facilitate the conquest of the land;showing, as so astounding a military miracle did, that it was done,not by man, but by the power and through the anger, of God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the city shall be accursed,…. Or, be a “cherem”, devoted to the Lord, as it follows:
[even] it and all that [are] therein, to the Lord; the city and the inhabitants of it should be devoted to destruction, and the riches and spoil of it dedicated to sacred uses, and not become the property of the Israelites; for as this was the first city in the had of Canaan that was conquered, it was fit the firstfruits of the conquest should be the Lord’s, as an acknowledgment of his gift of the land unto them, and that the conquest of it was owing to him; though it might be some mortification to the Israelites, and a trial of their faith and obedience, that the first and so fine a city should not become their habitation, but be utterly destroyed, and not to be built more; and all the riches of it either consumed, or converted to other uses, and not their own. This Joshua thought fit to declare to the Israelites, before the taking of the city, that they might know what they had to do. The Jewish doctors generally suppose that Joshua ordered this of himself, of his own accord and will; but Kimchi is of opinion that the Lord gave him this order, which is most probable, yea, certain from Jos 7:11;
only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house; she and her father’s family, as she requested, and the spies promised; here the Targum calls her, as elsewhere, Rahab the innkeeper or victualler; and so in Jos 6:22;
because she hid the messengers that we sent; and so preserved them from being taken by the messengers of the king of Jericho, who were sent in pursuit of them. These though sent only by Joshua, without the knowledge of the people, yet it being on their account, and their good, and by him as their head and governor, is ascribed to them also. This fact of Rahab’s is observed by him as a reason for sparing her, and those that were with her, when all the rest would be put to the sword; and is mentioned as an instance of her faith, and of the evidence of it, Heb 11:31.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Jericho Destroyed; Preservation of Rahab. | B. C. 1451. |
17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD. 20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. 22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. 23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. 24 And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. 25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26 And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. 27 So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.
The people had religiously observed the orders given them concerning the besieging of Jericho, and now at length Joshua had told them (v. 16), “The Lord hath given you the city, enter and take possession.” Accordingly in these verses we have,
I. The rules they were to observe in taking possession. God gives it to them, and therefore may direct it to what uses and intents, and clog it with what provisos and limitations he thinks fit. It is given to them to be devoted to God, as the first and perhaps the worst of all the cities of Canaan. 1. The city must be burnt, and all the lives in it sacrificed without mercy to the justice of God. All this they knew was included in those words, v. 17. The city shall be a cherem, a devoted thing, at and all therein, to the Lord. No life in it might be ransomed upon any terms; they must all be surely put to death, Lev. xxvii. 29. So he appoints from whom as creatures they had received their lives, and to whom as sinners they had forfeited them; and who may dispute his sentence? Is God unrighteous, who thus taketh vengeance? God forbid we should entertain such a thought! There was more of God seen in the taking of Jericho than of any other of the cities of Canaan, and therefore that must be more than any other devoted to him. And the severe usage of this city would strike a terror upon all the rest and melt their hearts yet more before Israel. Only, when this severity is ordered, Rahab and her family are excepted: She shall live and all that are with her. She had distinguished herself from her neighbours by the kindness she showed to Israel, and therefore shall be distinguished from them by the speedy return of that kindness. 2. All the treasure of it, the money and plate and valuable goods, must be consecrated to the service of the tabernacle, and brought into the stock of dedicated things, the Jews say because the city was taken on the sabbath day. Thus God would be honoured by the beautifying and enriching of his tabernacle; thus preparation was made for the extraordinary expenses of his service; and thus the Israelites were taught not to set their hearts upon worldly wealth nor to aim at heaping up abundance of it for themselves. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, not a land abounding with silver and gold; for he would have them live comfortably in it, that they might serve him cheerfully, but not covet either to trade with distant countries or to hoard for after times. He would likewise have them to reckon themselves enriched in the enriching of the tabernacle, and to think that which was laid up in God’s house as truly their honour and wealth as if it had been laid up in their own. 3. A particular caution is given them to take heed of meddling with the forbidden spoil; for what was devoted to God, if they offered to appropriate it to their own use, would prove accursed to them; therefore (v. 18) “In any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing; you will find yourselves inclined to reach towards it, but check yourselves, and frighten yourselves from having any thing to do with it.” He speaks as if he foresaw the sin of Achan, which we have an account of in the next chapter, when he gives this reason for the caution, lest you make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it, as it proved that Achan did.
II. The entrance that was opened to them into the city by the sudden fall of the walls, or at least that part of the wall over against which they then were when they gave the shout (v. 20): The wall fell down flat, and probably killed abundance of people, the guards that stood sentinel upon it, or others that crowded about it, to look at the Israelites that were walking round. We read of thousands killed by the fall of a wall, 1 Kings xx. 30. That which they trusted to for defence proved their destruction. The sudden fall of the wall, no doubt, put the inhabitants into such a consternation that they had no strength nor spirit to make any resistance, but they became an easy prey to the sword of Israel, and saw to how little purpose it was to shut their gates against a people that had the Lord on the head of them, Mic. ii. 13. Note, The God of heaven easily can, and certainly will, break down all the opposing power of his and his church’s enemies. Gates of brass and bars of iron are, before him, but as straw and rotten wood, Isa 45:1; Isa 45:2. Who will bring me into the strong city? Wilt not thou, O God?Psa 60:9; Psa 60:10. Thus shall Satan’s kingdom fall, nor shall any prosper that harden themselves against God.
III. The execution of the orders given concerning this devoted city. All that breathed were put to the sword; not only the men that were found in arms, but the women, and children, and old people. Though they cried for quarter, and begged ever so earnestly for their lives, there was no room for compassion, pity must be forgotten: they utterly destroyed all, v. 21. If they had not had a divine warrant under the seal of miracles for this execution, it could not have been justified, nor can it justify the like now, when we are sure no such warrant can be produced. But, being appointed by the righteous Judge of heaven and earth to do it, who is not unrighteous in taking vengeance, they are to be applauded in doing it as the faithful ministers of his justice. Work for God was then bloody work; and cursed was he that did it deceitfully, keeping back his sword from blood, Jer. xlviii. 10. But the spirit of the gospel is very different, for Christ came not to destroy men’s lives but to save them, Luke ix. 56. Christ’s victories were of another nature. The cattle were put to death with the owners, as additional sacrifices to the divine justice. The cattle of the Israelites, when slain at the altar, were accepted as sacrifices for them, but the cattle of these Canaanites were required to be slain as sacrifices with them, for their iniquity was not to be purged with sacrifice and offering: both were for the glory of God. 2. The city was burnt with fire, and all that was in it, v. 24. The Israelites, perhaps, when they had taken Jericho, a large and well-built city, hoped they should have that for their head-quarters; but God will have them yet to dwell in tents, and therefore fires this nest, lest they should nestle in it. 3. All the silver and gold, and all those vessels which were capable of being purified by fire, were brought into the treasury of the house of the Lord; not that he needed it but that he would be honoured by it, as the Lord of hosts, of their hosts in particular, the God that gave the victory and therefore might demand the spoil, either the whole, as here, or, as sometimes, a tenth, Heb. vii. 4.
IV. The preservation of Rahab the harlot, or inn-keeper, who perished not with those that believed not, Heb. xi. 31. The public faith was engaged for her safety by the two spies, who acted therein as public persons; and therefore, though the hurry they were in at the taking of the town was no doubt very great, yet Joshua took effectual care for her preservation. The same persons that she had secured were employed to secure her, Jos 6:22; Jos 6:23. They were best able to do it who knew her and her house, and they were fittest to do it, that it might appear it was for the sake of her kindness to them that she was thus distinguished and had her life given her for a prey. All her kindred were saved with her; like Noah she believed to the saving of her house; and thus faith in Christ brings salvation to the house, Acts xvi. 31. Some ask how her house, which is said to have been upon the wall (ch. ii. 15), escaped falling with the wall; we are sure it did escape, for she and her relations were safe in it, either though it joined so near to the wall as to be said to be upon it, yet it was so far off as not to fall either with the wall or under it; or, rather, that part of the wall on which her house stood fell not. Now being preserved alive, 1. She was left for some time without the camp to be purified from the Gentile superstition, which she was to renounce, and to be prepared for her admission as a proselyte. 2. She was in due time incorporated with the church of Israel, and she and her posterity dwelt in Israel, and her family was remarkable long after. We find her the wife of Salmon, prince of Judah, mother of Boaz, and named among the ancestors of our Saviour, Matt. i. 5. Having received Israelites in the name of Israelites, she had an Israelite’s reward. Bishop Pierson observes that Joshua’s saving Rahab the harlot, and admitting her into Israel, were a figure of Christ’s receiving into his kingdom, and entertaining there, the publicans and the harlots, Matt. xxi. 31. Or it may be applied to the conversion of the Gentiles.
V. Jericho is condemned to a perpetual desolation, and a curse pronounced upon the man that at any time hereafter should offer to rebuild it (v. 26): Joshua adjured them, that is, the elders and people of Israel, not only by their own consent, obliging themselves and their posterity never to rebuild this city, but by the divine appointment, God himself having forbidden it under the sever penalty here annexed. 1. God would hereby show the weight of a divine curse; where it rests there is no contending with it nor getting from under it; it brings ruin without remedy or repair. 2. He would have it to remain in its ruins a standing monument of his wrath against the Canaanites when the measure of their iniquity was full, and of his mercy to his people when the time had come for their settlement in Canaan. The desolations of their enemies were witnesses of his favour to them, and would upbraid them with their ingratitude to that God who had done so much for them. The situation of the city was very pleasant, and probably its nearness to Jordan was an advantage to it, which would tempt men to build upon the same spot; but they are here told it is at their peril if they do it. Men build for their posterity, but he that builds Jericho shall have no posterity to enjoy what he builds; his eldest son shall die when he begins the work, and if he take not warning by that stroke to desist, but will go on presumptuously, the finishing of his work shall be attended with the funeral of his youngest, and we must suppose all the rest cut off between. This curse, not being a curse causeless, did come upon that man who long after rebuilded Jericho (1 Kings xvi. 34), but we are not to think it made the place ever the worse when it was built, or brought any hurt to those that inhabited it. We find Jericho afterwards graced with the presence, not only of those two great prophets Elijah and Elisha, but of our blessed Saviour himself, Luk 18:35; Luk 19:1; Mat 20:29. Note, It is a dangerous thing to attempt the building up of that which God will have to be destroyed. See Mal. i. 4.
Lastly, All this magnified Joshua and raised his reputation (v. 27); it made him not only acceptable to Israel, but formidable to the Canaanites, because it appeared that God was with him of a truth: the Word of the Lord was with him, so the Chaldee, even Christ himself, the same that was with Moses. Nothing can more raise a man’s reputation, nor make him appear more truly great, than to have the evidences of God’s presence with him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
17. And the city shall be accursed, etc Although God had determined not only to enrich his people with spoil and plunder, but also to settle them in cities which they had not built, yet there was a peculiarity in the case of the first city; for it was right that it should be consecrated as a kind of first fruits. Accordingly, he claims the buildings, as well as all the moveable property, as his own, and prohibits the application of any part of it to private uses. It may have been an irksome and grievous task for the people voluntarily to pull down houses in which they might have commodiously dwelt, and to destroy articles which might have been important for use. But as they had not been required to fight, it behooved them to refrain, without grudging, from touching the prey, and willingly yield up the rewards of the victory to God, as it was solely by his nod that the walls of the city had fallen, and the courage of the citizens had fallen along with them. God was contented with this pledge of gratitude, provided the people thereby quickly learned that everything they called their own was the gift of his free liberality. For with equal right all the other cities might have been doomed to destruction, had not God granted them to his people for habitations.
As to the Hebrew word חרס, I will now only briefly repeat from other passages. When it refers to sacred oblations, it becomes, in respect of men, equivalent to abolitions, since things devoted in this manner are renounced by them as completely as if they were annihilated. The equivalent Greek term is ἀνάθημα , or ἀνάθεμα , meaning set apart, or as it is properly expressed in French, interdicted. Hence the exhortation to beware of what was under anathema, inasmuch as that which had been set apart for God alone had perished, in so far as men were concerned. It is used in a different sense in the following verse, where caution is given not to place the camp of Israel in anathema. Here its simple meaning is, excision, perdition, or death. Moreover, God destined vessels made of metals for the use of the sanctuary; all other things he ordered to be consumed by fire, or destroyed in other manners.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Jos. 6:17. The city shall be accursed] Heb. Cherem. Absolute devotion to God is here meant. Every devoted thing was to be set apart as consecrated to Him, and every devoted person was to be put to death: neither could be redeemed (of. Lev. 27:28-29; Deu. 7:25-26).
Jos. 6:19. But all the silver and gold, etc.] These had to pass through the fire, and probably to be molten and re-cast (Num. 31:21-23).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 6:17-19
DEVOTED THINGS
The word accursed, which is used in this passage, does not so well represent the meaning of the Hebrew cherem as the word devoted, given in the margin. To our English ears, the former word is apt to convey an idea of anger and cursing, which is not contained in the original. The devoted persons or things, among the Israelites, wore persons or things doomed to destruction, or cut off from common uses in perpetual consecration to the use or service of God. The idea of votive offerings was not confined to the Jews; it runs, more or less conspicuously, through all human history, and is particularly prominent in that of the Romans. The ancients believed that the life of one man might be ransomed by the death of another, or that even a national boon might be purchased by such a sacrifice; hence such legends as that of Curtius, who is said to have devoted himself for the good of Rome by riding into the chasm which had opened in the Forum. It is said that devotion to any particular person was unknown among the Romans till the time of Augustus. The day after the title of Augustus had been conferred upon Octavius, Pacuvius, a tribune of the people, publicly declared that he would devote himself to Augustus, and obey him at the expense of his life, should he be so commanded. This example of flattery was immediately followed by all the rest, till at length it became an established custom never to go to salute the Emperor without declaring that they were devoted to him. It may thus readily be seen through what process the idea of devoting ones self lost its former sacrificial, or at least solemn, import, till it became a mere hyperbole of social flattery, and presently, also, a form of speech to indicate strictness of attention to any business profession or pursuit. To this day, the very word of the Israelites is perpetuated in the East, the Turkish word harem coming, through the Arabic, from the Hebrew cherem. The Old Testament has many allusions to the practice of devoting things or persons to the Lord; and even in the New Testament, we find Paul devoting his hair at Cenchrea, saying that for the sake of his kinsmen in the flesh he could wish himself accursed () from Christ, and proclaiming any preacher of another gospel, and, elsewhere, any man who should love not the Lord Jesus Christ, to be anathema. Much obscurity gathers round the whole subject. The following questions will indicate some of the difficulties. Who was authorised to put men and things under the ban of devotion; might God alone do this, or might men also do it? If men might devote things, what men were qualified to pronounce the ban? Could a man pronounce the possessions of another to be devoted, or could he merely place his own under ban? Could one person devote another? What was the effect of the ban? Did it invariably involve the death of persons, and the destruction of all things not indestructible? Might the devotion be partial, as is seemingly the case in the instances of Samuel and Samson, and if partial, would this still be called cherem? These are some of the questions raised by this solemn and involved subject.
JERICHO DEVOTED
The claim that this city should be devoted was made by God, was most solemnly enjoined on all Israel, and was still more solemnly enforced by the death of Achan. What did God intend to teach men by this claim? The mere surroundings of the case are local and temporary; the principles of deep spiritual teaching, which are indicated by the solemnity of the case, were surely meant to be eternal.
I. In the wars of the Lord, the only right which there may be to any spoils is the right of the Lord Himself. The Israelites, and all Gods people subsequently, were to learn that. God puts out His Hand, in this very first battle, and says, in effect, The spoils of victory are all Mine. Israel was to take nothing, and the stern penalty of disobedience was death. Such is the measure of the Divine claim on the Church of Christ. Like the Israelites, we are but redeemed slaves, they having been delivered from Egypt, and we from a harder bondage. Everything which we may win in the spiritual conflict belongs to the Lord. To each one of us He says, Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price.
1. We are not to Serve the Saviour merely for what we can get. Archbishop Secker used to say, God has three sorts of servants in the world: some are slaves, and serve Him from fear; others are hirelings, and serve for wages; and the last are sons, who serve because they love. How are we putting our hands to the work of Christ? IS it from fear? Do we merely seek to gain a name, a place, a measure of the worlds respect, and a possession in personal peace; or do we love Him to whom we owe liberty and all we have? He has devoted Himself for us. Look into the cradle at Bethlehemthat manger cradleand you see there a devoted body; it is the cherem of His humanity, in which He gave Himself for us. See Him in the ministry, toiling now, and now saying, The Son of man hath not where to lay His head; that ministry is the cherem of His devotion in service. Regard Him as one who did no sin; and this cutting off unto manifest holiness has reference to His disciples, of whom he says, For their sakes I sanctify Myself. Contemplate Him in the sorrow of Gethsemane, when being in an agony He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground; that was His devotion of Himself to men in spiritual suffering. Think of Calvary, where He poured out His soul unto death, and crowned even His sacrifice in the cry, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? there, says His apostle, He was made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Surely when we see the Saviours gift of Himself for our redemption, we might serve from some higher motives than those of fear and gain, and freely own that what we are, what we have, and all we may win through His power and love, belong not unto us, but unto the Lord.
2. Where God causes us to triumph, we are not to claim the glory. The rights are all Gods. He does but put His Hand on the whole of Jericho as indicating the measure of spoil and honour which ever belong to Himself. When Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself, and said, This is great Babylon which I have builded, he was driven out among the beasts to become as one of them: it was but Gods other way of saying, The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib, but this man doth not know, neither doth he consider. The man who was more ungrateful than the beasts, God drove forth among the beasts. It is said that Pope John 21. built for himself a noble chamber in the palace of Viterbo, and that he was crushed to death by the falling in of the roof, which he vaingloriously admired. Dean Milman says of the occurrence: John was contemplating with too great pride the work of his own hands, and burst out into laughter; when, at that instant, the avenging roof came down upon his head. That is ever the result, when we are foolishly taken up in our own work, and are found glorying in it as something which we have done. Our very self-esteem, like Achans selfishness, has a way of making us cherem. When we can come to the knowledge of what belongeth unto God in no better way, the very consequences of our misappropriation become vocal, and say, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
II. God, to whom all the spoils in lifes conflicts belong as a matter of right, gives us much for ourselves, and claims only the firstfruits.
1. God does not claim all. He puts no other city under ban like this, but simply requires Jericho. God has thought for the homage due unto His name, but more thought still for His peoples welfare: He would claim one city, they should have many. This has ever been the way of Divine mercy. God has thought for the poor. He only claims from men according to their ability (cf. Lev. 27:8). God has thought for the busy. He merely demands one day in seven. God has thought for men in the weakness which leads them to serve in view of rewards. He does not shut men out from these lower motives. The Saviour, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, graciously stimulates men by thoughts of the pain and loss which they can avoid in being His disciples, and by thoughts of peace and joy and heaven which they can make their own by cleaving to Him. There is a legend of Bishop Ivo in which he is described as meeting one day a figure in the form of a woman, of a sad and earnest aspect, like some prophetess of God, who carried a vessel of fire in one hand, and of water in the other. He asked her what these things were for. She answered, The fire is to burn up Paradise, and the water is to quench Hell, that men may henceforth serve their Maker, not from the selfish hope of the one, nor from the selfish fear of the other, but from the love of Himself alone. The Lord, who knoweth our frame, neither burns paradise nor quenches hell; knowing the weakness and poverty of our love, He mercifully plies us with fear, and entices us with hope. How graciously He answers Peters poor commercial question, in Mat. 19:27-29. He says at one time, Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell; at another, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So God thought for the Israelites of old: in the siege of Jericho He claimed all; yet might they fight, even there, with the thought of other cities in which the sp il should be entirely their own.
2. God, who does not everywhere claim all, nevertheless claims the firstfruits. This was so in warfare, and it was so in the matter of harvest. Men too often give God only the remnants of their life: they pour their strength out in business, and call Sunday a rest; they serve the world in youth and in the prime of life, and become religious in old age. God complains of this: He requires the first of all the firstfruits of all things.
III. Our services and offerings to God are not to enrich Him, but to bring more wealth to ourselves. Jericho was nothing to God: all its riches were nothing; and He who abhors human sacrifices, and has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, could have no delight in this shedding of blood.
1. God does not command our offerings to meet any sense of want in Himself. He cannot but be independent of all that we can bring. He who created us, and all that we have, cannot suffer need where our service fails.
2. That which we can give, or be, or do for God, is commanded because it will help us. The giving of money for the poor, or for religious work, is but the Divine way of cultivating our compassion, our sympathy, and our sincerity. Our deeds and our worship are required not merely for the honour of God and the help of our fellows, but for the exercise of our spiritual faculties. As without exercise our limbs and our physical powers would fail and die, so it is with our faith, and compassion, and love. Think of the heritage of unselfishness, and of loving God so as to cost us something. If we are giving nothing and doing nothing for the Saviour, we are robbing no one so much as ourselves. The fraudulent railway passenger may say to himself, I have travelled all those miles, and paid nothing. He forgets how much he has paid out of his self-respect and his integrity; he little thinks that he has been spending a vast amount of his manhood, and of his moral life. That man had better have opened a vein and given blood for his fare; he has cheated a railway company at the cost of draining away the life of his soul. The people who try to get to heaven by the process of avoiding all collections, and all forms of work, seem to reckon on having a very inexpensive journey: they may get to heaven; let us hope so; but they forget how very little of themselves will be left to enter in when they arrive. The man who goes on for forty years spending himself in order to save his belongings, may, when he dies, leave a great substance behind him; he will carry very little with him; so little, it may be, that the angels will not find enough of him left to take home at all. No man can withhold that which he ought to give, or do, for Christ, without being fined very heavily in his souls life.
IV. Gods claim on men is for a reasonable measure of devotedness in them, or for the utter devoting of them.
1. Those who love God are not taxed unreasonably. God only asks Jericho for winning all Canaan; He does but ask of us a reasonable service.
2. Those who love not God enough to devote themselves to Him, are ever tending to the time when they must be devoted by Him. The end of idolatry is to be made cherem. It matters not whether our idols are rude as those of the ancient Canaanites, or take more modern forms. It makes no difference whether we bear the name of the Lords people, or men call us worldly (cf. Deu. 13:6-18). Even in the New Testament, the end of not being the Saviours disciples indeed is to be made cherem: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema when the Lord cometh.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos. 6:17. (I.) THE MEMORY OF THE LORD.
I. The Lords remembrance of mans sin. This command to slaughter the Canaanites was not given in order that room might be made for the Israelites. Gods eye looked back over the eight or nine centuries in which these children of Canaan had been strewing the short path of their national history with many and aggravated sins. They had been heaping up wrath against the day of wrath, therefore was it that God said, The city shall be devoted. Many years later the Divine voice is heard saying to the ten tribes, They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face.
1. God remembers sin in all its forms, and not merely conventional sin. Men agree to call certain trangressions sinful, to the exclusion of others; God deals with all sins alike. He has no favouritism in iniquity.
2. God remembers, nevertheless, the different degrees of sin. Some men are sinners before the Lord exceedingly, as were the Sodomites, and God remembers the excessive forms which sin has taken. Men like Jeroboam and Ahab are singled out for prominence in wickedness.
3. God remembers sin till it is forgiven, and not till then does He say, Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. The only Lethe of forgetfulness for the guilt of men is the fountain open for sin and uncleanness by Jesus Christ. Till sin is washed away there, God will remember it and men must.
4. God remembers no mans sins in vain. Moses dies on Nebo because God has not forgotten; and, notwithstanding the lapse of four hundred years, God says to Saul, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel. Now go and smite Amalek (cf. 1Sa. 15:2-3).
II. The Lords remembrance of His own promises. In this slaughter at Jericho, Joshua is seen acting, not alone, but working together with God for the salvation of Rahab. In the covenant made with this woman:
1. The fulfilment is equal to the promise. In point of value the one is as the other.
2. It is a fulfilment in detail: She and all that are with her.
3. The fulfilment has regard to the conditions which were madeall that are with her in the house (cf. chap. Jos. 2:19).
III. The Lords remembrance of human faith and service. No one believes in the Lord ever so little, and then has to find that his trust is disregarded. Rahab in Jericho, the Syrophenician woman in the borders of Tyre and Sidon, or the thief upon the cross, it matters not which; none is too lowly, too vile, or too much a stranger to the covenants of promise, to believe in vain. Even the feeble faith of the woman who stole through the crowd to touch the hem of the Saviours garment could not be kept secret: she too had to see that faith could not be hidden. God sees the smallest act of faith, let it come whence it may. So does God see the smallest act of service done for His people. Not only did Joshua know that Rahab hid the messengers, but Jehovah knew it also, and kept the womans house from falling. God would not suffer even the vain Nebuchadnezzar to serve against Tyrus, without noticing how every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled, and then giving him Egypt as wages for himself and his army. Certainly we cannot give even the cup of cold water in His name, and for His people, and then lose our reward.
Jos. 6:18. (II.) THE FORETHOUGHT OF THE LORD.
I. Divine knowledge of the force of temptation. The gold and the Babylonish garments might be solemnly devoted, but the Lord knew they would glitter temptingly notwithstanding. He who taught us to pray, Lead us not into temptation, well knows how much such prayer is needed by us each.
II. Divine acquaintance with human weakness. Keep yourselves from the devoted thing. The Lord accurately measures not only the pressure from without, but the power of resistance also.
III. Divine anticipations of human sin. Men may say, Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing? but God loves us enough to speak plainly. He shews us that in His estimation our danger is real. If the warnings of Scripture were not inwardly felt to be so necessary, they might awaken our indignation; but the silence of even the infidels on this point is given in contribution to a general faith that the Bible is right.
IV. Divine solicitude for mans salvation.
1. God is solicitous for men individually. He is concerned for each of us, lest we should make ourselves accursed.
2. God is solicitous for men collectively. He is concerned lest the camp of Israel should be made a curse. No man is so isolated as to be away from Gods thought and care, and no host is so large as to outreach His love.
Jos. 6:19. (III.) THE CLAIMS OF THE LORD.
I. God literally asserts His right to claim all that which is His due. At Jericho He demands everything. This is not usual; it was done to impress men with the vastness of Gods rights, and to remind them of the grace of His ordinary dealings.
II. God symbolically asserts His claim to mans holiness in everything. Gold would naturally be looked upon as one of the most carnal of possesions. It was to be shewn that even this could be set apart, and made to be holiness unto the Lord (cf. Zec. 14:20).
III. God graciously shews that His most exacting claims are made from a generous interest in men. These things were to enrich the treasury of the Lord, that the house and service of the Lord might be more precious in the sight of men.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(17) The city shall be accursed.Heb., shall be chrem, a devoted or accursed thing; and so Jos. 6:18, from the accursed thing. (See Note on Deu. 7:26.) The combination of the two ideas of devotion to God and utter destruction may be seen in the sin offering (Lev. 6:25), which is called holy of holies, or most holy, and yet, when offered for the priest or congregation, must be utterly consumed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. The city shall be accursed The city, with all its immense wealth, was now put under the ban, and devoted to destruction. To many of the besieging host this was the severest test of their faith and obedience. In oriental usage when a city is stormed the maxim is “To the victors belong the spoils.” As symbol of the utter destruction which the Canaanite race had deserved, this first great representative city is made an example of just doom. For the doom of first things, see note on Act 5:1-11. The anathema was the devotion of any person or thing to God as irredeemable property; the person or animal was to be killed, and the inanimate thing was either completely destroyed, or set apart forever for the purposes of the sanctuary. The exact idea of the anathema, in the words of Hengstenberg, “is the forced dedication to God of those who have obstinately refused to dedicate themselves to him of their own accord, and the manifestation of his glory in the destruction of those who would not, while they lived, serve as a mirror to reflect it, and thus answer the purpose for which the world was created, and for which especially man was formed.” Compare Lev 27:28: note. In the last day all the wicked of the earth shall fall beneath the anathema of the Judge. Only Rahab and her kindred were exempt from the curse, for the oath of the spies had now become the oath of their entire nation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jos 6:17 a
“And the city shall be devoted, it and all that is in it to YHWH.”
This would regularly happen to a first conquest. It was the firstfruits. The idea was that it became sacred to their God. Therefore all living things had to be put to death as ‘devoted’ (cherem) to Him, while all possessions were separated to the treasury of God. Not a single living thing was to be spared. Not a single possession was to be appropriated to private use. All was YHWH’s. Joshua interpreted all this so literally that he would even put a curse on anyone who in the future tried to rebuild the city itself (Jos 6:26). One reason for this was as a symbolic act demonstrating the consequences of idolatry (Deu 13:10-17). Jericho here stood for the idolatry of the land.
The practise of ‘devoting’ to a God was a common one. We can compare the words of the King of Moab on the Moabite stone, ‘And Chemosh said to me: “Go! Take Nebo against Israel.” And I went by night and fought against it from break of dawn till noon. And I took it and slew all, seven thousand men, boys, women, girls, and pregnant women, because I had devoted it to Ashtar-Chemosh. And I took thence the altar-hearths of YHWH and I dragged them before Chemosh.” Note the use of ‘seven’ with its implication of divine completeness, and the dual name of the god. Note also the reference to YHWH. ‘The altar-hearths of YHWH’ suggests that this was a religious sanctuary which may well have been the reason why it was ‘devoted’.
Jos 6:17 b
“Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.”
One exception was to be made. Rahab and her family, with their possessions, would be spared because of her assistance to the Israelite spies. Although ‘devoted’ to YHWH she was redeemed by her actions in aiding YHWH’s servants.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 17. The city shall be accursed,and all that are therein, to the Lord That is, Jericho, and whatever it contains, shall be devoted to utter destruction, save what is expressly excepted in this and the 19th verse. Respecting the Cherem, we refer to the Reflections at the end of Deut. ch. 20: It is necessary, however, to add here, that if God used the utmost severity towards Jericho, even to the forbidding to spare the wives and children, or to keep any spoil, which he had allowed on other occasions, it was for reasons well worthy his supreme wisdom. On the other hand, he ordered all the inhabitants of this city to be put to the sword, in order to intimidate the rest of the Canaanites, and to determine them, by this act of justice, to prevent, by accepting peace, or by flight, a punishment which their enormous and wilful crimes rendered unavoidable. But then he forbad the Israelites keeping any booty to themselves, that, on their entering into the land of Canaan, they might the better understand that they had no right to the riches of that country but what he gave them; and that he would ever continue to himself the power of restraining that right as he should think proper.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Before the entry upon Jericho, Joshua gives suitable directions for the government of the people in their victory, and makes known the divine will concerning it. Reader! observe in this appointment, how the line is drawn between him that feareth the Lord, and him that feareth not. Mal 3:18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jos 6:17 And the city shall be accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Ver. 17. And the city shall be accursed. ] Anathematised, proscribed, devoted to destruction, offered up to God as a holocaust, whose pleasure it was that this people should be thus hanged up in gibbets, as it were, for a terror to the rest, who might hereby see what to trust to if they stubbornly stood out. The whole land was filled with the filthiness of the people from one end to another; Ezr 9:11 and might not God begin to punish where he pleased
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
accursed = devoted. Probably because this was the “first-fruit” of conquest. Num 31:54. Compare Jos 6:19.
she hid. Compare Jos 2:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
accursed: or, devoted, Jos 7:1, Lev 27:28, Lev 27:29, Num 21:2, Num 21:3, 1Co 2:7, Ezr 10:8, *marg. Isa 34:6, Jer 46:10, Eze 39:17, Mic 4:13, 1Co 16:22, Gal 3:10, Gal 3:12
only Rahab: Jos 2:1
because: Jos 6:22, Jos 6:23, Jos 2:4-6, Jos 2:22, Gen 12:3, 1Sa 15:6, Mat 10:41, Mat 10:42, Mat 25:40, Heb 6:10, Heb 11:31, Jam 2:25
Reciprocal: Lev 27:21 – devoted Deu 7:2 – utterly Deu 7:26 – shalt Deu 13:15 – destroying it utterly Deu 20:16 – General Jos 2:14 – when the Lord Jos 7:11 – the accursed Jos 10:40 – as the Lord 1Sa 14:24 – Cursed 1Sa 15:3 – utterly destroy 1Sa 22:19 – men 2Ki 2:19 – the water Eze 9:6 – old Rom 9:3 – were
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jos 6:17. The city shall be accursed to the Lord That is, devoted to destruction, by the right which God has to punish such as offend against him. This he speaks by direction from God, (see 1Ki 16:34,) whose will it was that every thing in Jericho should be utterly destroyed, as well inanimate things by burning them, &c, as men and cattle, by the edge of the sword; excepting only the things that were found in the house of Rahab, and the vessels of silver and gold, brass and iron, which were to be consecrated to the Lord, and put into the treasury of the tabernacle. God seems to have caused the first spoils made in the land of Canaan to be dedicated to his use, 1st, Because the first-fruits were appropriated to him as his due; 2d, To signify that he was their leader, and that these victories were owing to him; 3d, Lest the soldiers, being glutted with the spoil of this rich city, should grow sluggish in their work; and, 4th, That on entering the land of Canaan they might be made thoroughly to understand that they had no right to the riches of that country but what he gave them; and that he would always keep to himself the power of restraining that right as he should see proper. In the mean time the severity enjoined to be exercised toward the persons of the people of the city, in putting them to the sword, was undoubtedly worthy of his infinite wisdom, as well as suitable to his holiness and justice: while it struck a terror into the rest of their enemies, it might determine them to prevent, by accepting of peace, or by flight, a punishment which their enormous and wilful crimes had otherwise rendered unavoidable.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:17 And the city shall be {l} accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
(l) That is appointed wholly to be destroyed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
CHAPTER XIII.
RAHAB SAVED.
Jos 6:17; Jos 6:22-25.
It has not been the lot of Rahab to share the devout interest which has been lavished on Mary Magdalene. Our Correggios, Titians, and Carlo Dolcis have not attempted to represent the spirit of contrition and devotion transfiguring the face of the Canaanite girl. And this is not surprising. Rahab had never seen the human face of Jesus, nor heard the words that dropped like honey from His lips. She had never come under that inexpressible charm which lay in the bearing of the living Jesus, the charm that made so remarkable a change not only on the “woman that was a sinner” but on Zaccheus, on Peter in the high priest’s hall, on the penitent thief, and on Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus. For there was a wonderful power in the very looks and tones of Jesus to touch the heart, and thereby to throw a new light on all one’s past life, making sin look black and odious, and inspiring an intense desire for resemblance to Him who was so much fairer than all the children of men. Rahab had never seen the Divine image in any purer form than it appeared in Joshua and men and women like-minded with him.
But though she was not one of those whose contrite and holy love painters delight to represent, she belonged to the same order, and in some respects is more remarkable than any of the New Testament penitents. For her light was much dimmer than theirs who lived in the days of the Son of man. She was utterly without support or sympathy from those among whom she lived, for with the exception of her own relations who seem to have been influenced by herself, not a creature in Jericho shared her faith, or showed the slightest regard for the God of Israel.
But the time has now come for her to reap the reward of her faith and its works. In her case there was but a short interval between the sowing and the reaping. And God showed Himself able to do in her exceeding abundantly above what she could ask or think. For she was not only protected when Jericho and all its people were destroyed, but incorporated with the children of Israel. She became an heir of Abraham’s blessing; she came among those ”to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” An old tradition made her the wife of Joshua, but, according to the genealogies she married Salmon (Mat 1:5), prince of the imperial tribe of Judah, great-grandfather of David, and ancestor of the Messiah. In the golden roll of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, she is the only woman who shares with Sarah, the great mother of the nation, the honour of a place among the heroes of the faith. Such honours could not have been attained by her had she not been a changed character, – one of those who erewhile “had lain among the pots, but who became like the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold.”
Very special mention is made of her in the narrative of the destruction of Jericho. In the first place, before the overthrow of the city, Joshua gives particular instructions regarding her, accepting very readily the promise that had been made to her by the two spies. If Joshua had been a man of unreasonable temper, he might have refused to ratify their action in her case. He might have said that God had doomed the whole inhabitants of the city to destruction, and as no instructions had been given by Him to spare Rahab, she must share the doom of the rest. But Joshua at once recognised the propriety of an exception in favour of one who had shown such faith, and who had rendered such service to the spies and to the nation; and, moreover, he looked on the promise made by the spies as reasonable, for it would have been gross tyranny to send them on such an errand without power to make fair compensation for any assistance they might receive. Yet how often have promises made in danger been broken when the danger was past! Rahab must have known that had it been some Canaanite chief and not Joshua that had to decide her fate, he would have scorned the promise of the spies, and consigned her to the general doom. She must have been impressed with the honourable conduct of Joshua in so cordially endorsing the promise of the spies, and thought well of his religion on that account. Honour and religion go well together; meanness and religion breed contempt. We see meanness with a religious profession culminating in the treachery of Judas. We see honour in alliance with religion culminating in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the bleeding Sufferer rallied His fainting courage and stood firm to His undertaking – “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”
No doubt the scarlet cord was hung from her window, as had been arranged with the spies, and the Israelites, when they saw it, would be reminded of the blood of the lamb sprinkled on their door posts and lintels when the destroying angel passed through Egypt. It was the two men who had acted as spies that Joshua instructed to enter her house, and bring out the woman and all that she had. And a happy woman she no doubt was when she saw the faces of her old guests, and under their protection was brought out with all her kindred and all that she had and led to a place of safety. It is a blessed time, after you have stood fast to duty while many have failed, when the hour comes that brings you peace and blessing, while it carries confusion and misery to the faithless. How thankful one is at such a moment for the grace that enabled one to choose the right! With what awe one looks into the gulf on whose edge one stood, and thanks God for the grace that brought the victory! And how often is the welfare of a lifetime secured in some crisis by the firm attitude of an hour. What do we not gain by patience when we do the right and wait for the reward? One of the pictures in the Interpreter’s House is that of “a little room where sat two little children, each in his chair. The name of the eldest was Passion, and of the other Patience. Passion seemed much discontent, but Patience was very quiet. Then asked Christian, What is the reason of the discontent of Passion? The Interpreter answered. The Governor of them would have them stay for his best things till the beginning of the next year; but he will have them all now; but Patience is willing to wait.” How invaluable is the spirit that can wait till the beginning of the next year! And especially with reference to the awards of eternity. The rush for good things now, the desire at all hazards to gratify inclination as it rises, the impatience that will not wait till next year – how many lives they wreck, what misery they gender for eternity! But when you do choose that good part that shall not be taken away, and count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, what ecstatic bliss you make sure of in that solemn hour when the dead, small and great, shall stand before God; and, amid weeping and wailing inexpressible on the left hand, the Judge shall pronounce the words, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
The case of Rahab was one of those where whole families were saved on account of the faith of one member. Such was the case of Noah, whose faith secured the exemption of himself and all his family from the flood. Such, hypothetically, was the case of Lot, whose whole family would have been preserved from the fire and brimstone, if only they had received his warning and left Sodom with him. On the other hand, there were cases, like that of Korah in the wilderness, and of Achan, near this very place, Jericho, where the sin of the father involved the death of the whole family. In the case of Rahab, we find a family saved, not through the faith of the head of the house, but of a member of it, and that member a woman. The head of a Hebrew house was eminently a representative man, and by a well-understood and recognised law his family were implicated in his acts, whether for good or for evil. But in this case the protector of the family, the member of it that determines the fate of the whole, is not the one whom the law recognises, but his child, his daughter. A woman occupies here a higher and more influential place, in relation to the rest of the family, than she has ever held at any previous time. The incident comes in as a kind of foreshadow of what was to be abundantly verified in after times. For it is in Christian times that woman has most conspicuously attained that position of high influence on the welfare of the family, and especially its eternal welfare, which Rahab showed in delivering her house from the destruction of Jericho.
At a very early period in the history of the Christian Church, the great influence of godly women on the welfare of their male relations began to be seen. About the fourth century we can hardly peruse the biography of any eminent Christian father, without being struck with the share which the prayers and efforts of some pious female relative had in his conversion. Monica, the mother of Augustine, is held in reverence all over Christendom for her tears and wrestling prayers on behalf of her son; and the name of Anthusa, the mother of Chrysostom, is hardly less venerable. Nonna, the mother of Gregory Nazianzen; Macrina and Emmelia, the mother and the grandmother of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as their sister, also called Macrina; Theosebia too, the wife of Gregory, and Marallina, the sister of Ambrose, all share a similar renown. And in more recent times, how many are the cases where sisters and daughters have exercised a blessed influence on brothers and fathers! Every right-hearted sister has a peculiarly warm and tender interest in the welfare of her brothers. It is a feeling not to be neglected, but carefully nursed and deepened. This narrative shows it to be in the line of God’s providence that sisters and daughters shall prove instruments of deliverance to their relations. It is blessed when they are so even in earthly things, but far more glorious when, through faith and prayer and unwearied interest, they are enabled to win them to Christ, and turn them into living epistles for Him.
It can hardly be necessary to dwell at length on the commentary which we find in the Epistle of James on the faith of Rahab. For it is not so much anything personal to her that he handles, but an important quality of all true faith, and of her faith as being true. “Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” No intelligent person needs to be told that the view of justification here given is in no wise at variance with that of St. Paul. Paul’s doctrine was propounded in the early years of the Church, when, in opposition to the notion prevalent among the Gentiles, it was necessary to show clearly that there was no justifying merit in works. The doctrine of James was propounded at a later period, when men, presuming on free grace, were beginning to get lax in their practice, and it was necessary to insist that faith could not be true faith if it was not accompanied by corresponding works. The case of Rahab is employed by St. James to illustrate this latter position. If Rahab had merely professed belief in the God of Israel as the only true God, and in the certainty that Israel would possess the land, according to God’s promise, her faith would have been a barren or dead faith; in other words, it would have been no true faith at all. It was her taking up the cause of the spies, protecting them, endangering her life for them, and then devising and executing a scheme for their safety, that showed her faith to be living, and therefore real. Let it be true that faith is only the instrument of justification, that it possesses no merit, and that its value lies solely in its uniting us to Christ, so that we get justification and all other blessings from Him; still that which really unites us to Christ must be living. Dr. Chalmers used to sum up the whole doctrine in the formula, “We are justified by faith alone, but not by a faith which is alone.”
But let us now advert to the reception of Rahab into the nation and church of the Israelites. “They brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel, . . . And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.” First, they left them without the camp. At first they could be treated only as unclean until the rites of purification should be performed. In the case of Rahab this was doubly necessary – owing to her race, and owing to her life. Thereafter they were admitted to the commonwealth of Israel, and had an interest in the covenants of promise. The ceremonial purification and the formal admission signified little, except in so far as they represented the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost. Whether this vital change took place we are not told, but we seem justified in inferring it both from what we read in Hebrews and from the fact that Rahab was one of the ancestors of our Lord. It is interesting and instructive to think of her as exemplifying that law of grace by which the door of heaven is flung open even to the vilest sinner. “Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” When the enemy ensnares a woman, wiles her into the filthiest chambers of sin, and so enchains her there that she cannot escape, but must sink deeper and deeper in the mire, the case is truly hopeless. More rapidly and more thoroughly than in the case of a man, the leprosy spreads till every virtuous principle is rooted out, and every womanly feeling is displaced by the passions of a sensual reprobate. “Son of man, can these bones live?” Is there any art to breathe the breath of purity and pure love into that defiled soul? Can such a woman ever find her home on the mountains of spices, and hear a loving bridegroom say, “My love, my undefiled is but one”? It is just here that the religion of the Bible achieves its highest triumphs. We say the religion of the Bible, but we should rather say, that gracious Being whose grace the Bible unfolds. ”The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.” Jesus Christ is the prince of life. Experience of His saving grace, living fellowship with Him, can so change ”fornicators and idolaters, and adulterers and effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind, and thieves and covetous and drunkards and revilers and extortioners,” that it may be said of them, ”But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Living faith in a living and loving Saviour can do all things.
Ten thousand times has this truth been illustrated in evangelistic addresses, in sermons, and in tracts innumerable from the case of the prodigal son. And what imagination can estimate the good which that parable has done? In this point of view it is strange that little use has been made of an Old Testament passage, in which the same truth is unfolded with touching beauty from the case of a faithless woman. We refer to the second chapter of Hosea. It is the case of a guilty and apparently shameless wife. Impelled by greed, meanest of all motives, she has gone after this lover and that, because they seemed able to gratify her love of finery and luxury, and all the vain show of the world. But the time comes when her eyes are opened, her lovers are brought to desolation, she sees that they have all been a lie and a deception, and that no real good has ever come to her save from the husband whom she has forsaken and insulted. And now when she turns to him she is simply overwhelmed by his graciousness and generosity. He does all that can be done to make her forget her past miseries, all her past life, and he succeeds. The valley of Achor becomes a door of hope; she is so transformed inwardly, and her outward surroundings are so changed, that ”she sings as in the days of her youth.” The happy feelings of her unpolluted childhood return to her, as if she had drunk the waters of Lethe, and she sings like a lighthearted girl once more. The allegory is hardly an allegory, – it is Divine love that has effected the change; that love that many waters cannot quench and floods cannot drown.
We wonder whether Rahab obtained much help in her new life from the fellowship of those among whom she came when she joined the Church. If the Church then was what the Church ever ought to be, if its outstanding members were like the three fair damsels. Prudence, Piety and Charity, in the Palace Beautiful, no doubt she would be helped greatly. But it is not very often that that emblem is realized. And strange to say, among the members of our Churches now, we usually find a very imperfect sense of the duty which they owe to those who come among them from without, and especially out of great wickedness. It is quite possible that Rahab was chilled by the coldness of some of her Hebrew sisters, looking on her as an intruder, looking on her as a reprobate, and grieved because their select society was broken in upon by this outlandish woman. And it is quite possible that she was disappointed to find that, though they were nominally the people of God, there was very little of what was divine or heavenly about them. So it often happens that what ought to be the greatest attraction in a Church, the character of its members, is the greatest repellant. If all sin-worn and world-worn souls, weary of the world’s ways, and longing for a society more loving, more generous, more pure, more noble, could find in the Christian Church their ideal fulfilled, could find in the fellowship of Christians the reality of their dreams, how blessed would be the result! Alas, in too many cases they find the world’s bitterness and meanness and selfishness reproduced under the flag of Christ! If all so-called Christians, it has been said, should live for but one year in accordance with the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, unbelief would vanish. Will the day ever be when every one that names the name of Christ shall be a living epistle, known and read of all men?
But, however she may have been affected by the spirit of those among whom she came, Rahab undoubtedly attained to a good degree before God, and a place of high honour in the Hebrew community. It was well for her that what at first arrested and impressed her was not anything in the people of Israel; it was the glorious attributes of their God. For this would preserve her substantially from disappointment. Men might change, or they might pass away, but God remained the same yesterday and to-day and for ever. If she kept looking to Him, admiring His grace and power, and drawing from His inexhaustible fulness, she would be able to verify one at least of the prophet’s pictures: ”Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”