Theme: COMMENTARY ON JAMES CHAPTERS 1 – 2
Text: “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” – James 2:25-26.
Comment: Jericho was the first city in Canaan taken by Joshua, whom God appointed to take over from Moses. He first sent two spies to examine the state of the land and bring report. The two men lodged in the house of a woman called Rahab. The king of Jericho, having been alerted that the Jews had come into the town , directed her to deliver them up. She in exercise of faith in God, hid the spies, and told the messengers that the men had departed towards the mountain. As soon as the officers of the king of Jericho were departed, she took the spies to the house-top, and covered them with flax. – Joshua 2: 6, 7.
Instead of the people of Jericho to take warning and take steps for their preservation by humbling themselves before God and submitting to the rule of the people of God, they met the Jews with hostility and were destroyed in the process.
Rahab had strong belief in God, telling the spies “the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath”. (Joshua 2:10,11) Thus, she was spared when the walls of Jericho came down and the city was destroyed by the Israelites. Like Rehab did, all people of goodwill must exercise strong faith in God and be obedient to His laws by taking steps to secure their safety now; for It will be too late to do so when the final destruction of the world begins. See Hebrews 11:30,31.