Rahab

Harlot. I suppose I've been called worse. I am Rahab of Jericho, the harlot. Why those two Israelite spies stopped at my house, I'll never know for sure. Perhaps God guided them, for their sake and mine. He must have whispered in my heart, telling me to take them in and hide them on my roof. I wouldn't have had to do it. I could've just handed them over to the officials of the king and been done with the matter. Well...no, I couldn't really.

You see, I knew somehow that change was coming. The Israelites would overcome Jericho. They would occupy our territory. They would kill our people or drive them out. Nothing had ever been so clear in my mind. We heard what God had already done for these people, how He had parted the Red Sea and defeated their opponents and led them through the wilderness for forty years. Now God had given them this land, and He would conquer it for them. There was no doubt about it. No escaping it. But when it happened, I would be on the winning side, and my family with me.

So I hid those Israelite men on the roof. I gave them food and drink. I gave them advice, told them how to escape the city and flee from their pursuers. I lied for them. If anyone had discovered the truth, I would have died because of them.

But before they left, I made them do something for me. I asked them to swear an oath by God that when the time came for them to take our city, they would spare me and my family, everyone in this house. Thus they promised in return for my silence. They gave me a red cord to tie in my window as a sign to the Israelite forces that this was a protected house, an untouchable house. Everyone inside would live.

As the two Israelites dashed off into the darkness, I tied the cord in the window. Now I wait. I have gathered my family around me. The Israelites approach. They have already crossed the Jordan river. Soon they will be on the threshold of Jericho. We will hide here, trusting in God and in the oath of those two men. But something about that red cord gives me hope, a hope beyond my little, insignificant life, a hope that someday one of my descendants will save people in a much greater way than that little red cord will save my family. Is that so impossible? I'm beginning to think that nothing will be impossible with God...even for a harlot like me.