Joshua 2:5

5. [

The men went out This statement was a wilful falsehood, and cannot be justified by saying that oriental hospitality required a person to utter falsehood if necessary to defend a guest. It may, indeed, relieve the case somewhat to urge that before the Gospel strict truth, in Jew or heathen, was a virtue utterly unknown; but it is altogether superfluous to attempt either to apologize for Rahab’s previous harlotry or to justify her falsehoods. We must distinguish, however, between her vices and her virtues. The sacred writers record her vices without a word of comment or apology. Even with this alloy, however, they attest the justifying power of her faith. The epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:31) extols her faith in Israel’s God, and James (James 2:25) makes mention of her praiseworthy works of hospitality. The one declares that her faith saved her from perishing with the unbelieving inhabitants of Jericho; the other shows that her faith was not without its appropriate fruits.] Verse 11, however, shows that Rahab had long entertained a sincere faith in Jehovah as the true God, and her conduct toward the spies was the imperfect manifestation of that faith which resulted in her true incorporation into Israel, and obtaining a place in the genealogy of the Messiah. Matthew 1:5. Her falsehood on the present occasion was far less condemning than that of Abraham on two occasions. Genesis 12:13; Genesis 20:2. It was also a stratagem of war, which even our Christian civilization has hardly attained the virtue of disusing.