Rahab’s Story
Lavonne van der Zwaag
December 4, 2022
This is the second Sunday we are looking into the lives of the named women in Jesus’ lineage as listed in Matthew 1. Today we are hearing the story of Rahab. Once again, we’re reminded that our ancestry can include stories that are hard to hear or understand. Unlike Tamar’s story last week, Rahab doesn’t just pretend to be a prostitute; she WAS a prostitute. People like to look to Rahab’s story as being about redemption from a sinful existence to a Godly life. People believe her story shows that God had a plan for Rahab’s life and she was rescued because she chose to do God’s will. I propose that her story isn’t that straight-forward.
In articles that I found about Rahab, there was some conjecture about whether Rahab lived in poverty as an outcast in the margins of Canaanite society; or whether she was a successful business woman, a madam of sorts, whose services were sought out by...