Category Archive: Bible – OT – Joshua
Rahab and Sodom
In Joshua 2, we have a story that’s extremely familiar. But it ought to sound familiar in more ways than one. So let’s take a step back and hear … this story instead.
There is a city that is doomed to destruction because of its intense wickedness. Two men come to the city to investigate it, to spy it out, as it were. They intend to spend the night in the open square, but they’re invited into someone’s house. While they’re there, the men of the city come and demand that the host bring out the men who have come into that house. But the host doesn’t do it, and the result is destruction for that city but salvation for the host and the host’s family.
What story is that? It’s the story of Sodom, right? But isn’t it also the story in Joshua 2, where two spies come to Jericho and go to Rahab’s house, the king demands that she bring forth the men, she doesn’t do it, Jericho is destroyed and her house is saved?
There’s something I didn’t mention earlier. The Hebrew word for “open square” in the story of Sodom in Genesis 19? It’s a word that, in a slightly different form, is the name “Rahab” (which also means “open”).
The story of Rahab is a recurrence of the Sodom/Exodus theme, this time with the host who is saved being a Canaanite.