Smoodock's Blog

Previously, we discovered the royal line, which Jesus inherited, came through a mamzer (bastard) son of Judah, which, according to the Law of Moses, denied Perez any inheritance rights. However, we need to admit that the Law of Moses was not in force at the time of Judah’s illicit affair with his daughter-in-law. Nevertheless, the Law exposes (cp. Romans 7:7) the sin that was veiled in Judah’s line. Matthew’s list of names in chapter one takes us from Perez, the illegitimate son of Judah to the time that the royal line came into the Promised Land under Joshua. At this point we are introduced to another woman in Matthew’s list, Rahab, the harlot, who lived in the cursed city of Jericho (Joshua 6:17, 26).

As the Jewish people were about to end their wandering and enter the Promised Land, to conquer it for themselves, Matthew mentions a woman, Rahab, a harlot (Matthew 1:4-5). While Tamar pretended to be a harlot, Rahab was, indeed, a harlot (Joshua 2:1). In ancient societies women were very vulnerable to ill treatment in society. If a woman became a widow and had no viable means of support, she either had to beg for her food, or she prostituted her body in exchange for the financial support for her life. The Law of Moses, which was now in force, as Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, forbade a priest to marry a harlot (Leviticus 21:14), which at least highlights something that is to be rejected by folks close to the Lord. In reality, the profession was held in derision from the earliest times (Genesis 34:31). In fact, nothing a harlot offered to God as a gift would be accepted (Deuteronomy 23:18). Later, Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, interpreted this scripture to include matrimonial oblations (children):

“And further, no one ought to marry a harlot, whose matrimonial oblations, arising from the prostitution of her body, God will not receive…”[1]

So, just as the mamzer (H4464; bastard) child,[2] a child by a prostitute was unacceptable and without any inheritance in respected society.

Therefore, Rahab was unclean in the eyes of normal society, even among the heathen. She lived on the periphery, far from society’s movers and shakers, and she seems to personify the marginal folks to whom the Lord, Jesus, would minister and announce would enter into the Kingdom of God, before the so-called righteous of society (cp. Matthew 21:31-32). Nevertheless, in the time of Joshua and Rahab, it would appear that David should never have become king, if all things were done, according to the Law. None of Rahab’s children would be accepted into respected Jewish society, despite her conversion to the God of Israel. Yet, David did become king!

The scripture tells us that Rahab was able to rehearse before the two Israelite spies all that the Lord had done for them, after God had taken them out of Egypt (Joshua 2:9-11). How could this news have come to her? Probably, she would have received such information from the type of clientele she entertained, vis-à-vis local businessmen, and traveling merchants, military men, even local authorities, all of whom would have been so shocked by the miraculous deeds of the Lord that they simply had to retell it to folks who didn’t know.

Next, we are told that Rahab risked her life to protect the spies. She committed treason against her own country in order to save them. Some scholars have painted her, as a woman of strong and mighty faith, but I see her as a woman of little understanding, but having a simple faith. She believed rumors, not instruction; she was untaught, yet she was received by God for her bravery and simple belief in him and his power to save. She is an example for all folks of simple faith, who may be weak, as far as defending what they believe is concerned, yet they continue to trust God in the face of adversity. Such are the kind of folks that the Lord brings into the Kingdom of God! The Lord is greater than the Law that condemns and demands restitution. He is able to save despite all forces to the contrary.

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[1] See Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews 4.8.23.

[2] See my previous study: The Royal Line in the Land of Canaan.