Rahab Facts for 9-13 Year Olds

Categories: Joshua

Rahab’s story is found in Joshua.
Her name means something like “spacious or broad.”
After 40 years of wandering through the wilderness, the people of Israel are about to cross a flooded river and start the settlement process.
The city of Jericho stands at a strategic point for passing over into the new land.
Like all ancient cities, it is enclosed by thick walls intended to keep out enemies.
Scholars think the walls are made of two parallel walls with occasional perpendicular walls.
People could live within these rooms, and Rahab and her family do so.
Rahab’s family may have had an inn, but she probably has her own home.
Scholars believe Rahab entertains travelers whenever they come her way.
She is probably up on all the local gossip, which also brings news from the outside.
Meanwhile, Joshua sends two spies into the city to scope out the situation.
The spies find their way to Rahab’s house in the wall and spend the night.
Someone sees them and informs the King of Jericho.
The king sends orders to Rahab: “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.”
Rahab hides the men at great risk to herself. She is committing treason against her community.
When the officers come, Rahab admits that they were there, but claims she doesn’t know where they are from.
She tells the officers that when it became dark, the men left.
She suggests that they try to follow them quickly because they already have a head start.
None of that is true, though, for she has hidden them up on the roof under the drying stalks of flax that she uses to make linen.
The officers run out, and as soon as they leave the city, the gates are closed.
Before the men fall asleep, Rahab says to them, “I know that the Lord has given you the land.”
People are terrified of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the land of the Red Sea so you could escape from Egypt.
“Your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below.”
Then Rahab makes a deal with them.
Since she has been kind to them, she asks them to swear that they will in turn treat her and her family with the same kindness.
The men reply: “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.”
She then lets them down by a rope through the window, going outside the wall.
She tells them to go hide in the hill country for three days.
The men tell her to mark her family’s house by tying a crimson cord out the window.
After the men leave, she ties the crimson cord in the window.
When Jericho falls, the spies bring Rahab and her family out.
The genealogy in Matthew claims she is the wife of Salmon, the father of Boaz. Boaz becomes the great grandfather to King David.
Some scholars claim Salmon is one of the spies.
Rahab is one of four women mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. The other three are Tamar, Ruth, and Bathsheba.
By including these four women in Christ’s genealogy, Matthew is making the claim that God’s great plan of salvation includes Gentiles, even unrighteous Gentiles.
In the New Testament, Rahab is praised for her faith and her works. (See Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25)