But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua sent spies to conduct reconnaissance on Jericho, the first city Israel would conquer in the promised land. Rahab was a prostitute who lived in the city of Jericho at that time. The king of Jericho learned that spies had infiltrated the city and sent men to take them into custody. Rahab hid the spies in her house and then helped the Israeli spies escape the city. They promised her that when Israel came to capture the city, the lives of Rahab and all her family would be spared (Joshua 2:14). When Jericho was captured and destroyed by Israel, Joshua allowed the two spies to bring Rahab and all her family out of her house before Israel burned the city. Rahab apparently lived in Israel from then on. But that's not the end of Rahab's appearance in the biblical record. In the words of Paul Harvey, "And now, the rest of the story." God had big plans for Rahab the prostitute. In Matthew's genealogical record of Jesus, he writes that Rahab was the mother of Boaz (apparently she married a Jew named Salmon) and Boaz married Ruth and they were the parents of Obed and Obed was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of David (Matthew 1:5; see also Ruth 4:17). So Rahab the prostitute became one of God's redeemed and played a role in the genealogy of King David and ultimately in the ancestry that was to culminate in the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. God purposefully uses the most unlikely people to accomplish His will and to show His omnipotence and boundless love for the human beings He created.
