The spies
Israel was about to cross into the promised land. Their leader, Josue, sent two spies into Jericho:
"Go, and view the land, and the city of Jericho. They went, and entered into the house of a woman that was a harlot, named Rahab, and lodged with her."
Josue (Joshua) 2:1
The king of Jericho found out and sent men to the house. Rahab hid the spies on her roof and sent the soldiers away. Then she told the spies why:
"For the Lord your God he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath."
Josue (Joshua) 2:11
A woman from a pagan city, who had only heard about the God of Israel, believed.
The scarlet cord
She asked them to save her family. They gave her one instruction:
"If, when we come into the land, this scarlet cord be a sign, and thou tie it in the window, by which thou hast let us down: and gather together thy father and mother, and brethren, and all thy kindred into thy house."
Josue (Joshua) 2:18
And they warned her: anyone who went out the door was on their own. Anyone inside was safe. "She hung the scarlet cord in the window" (Josue 2:21).
Passover again
You've seen this before. Forty years earlier, on the night of the first Passover, every house in Egypt marked with red, the blood of the lamb on the door, was passed over by death. Stay inside, under the sign, and live.
Now it happens again. A red sign on a house. Stay inside, and live.
The walls fall
Jericho's walls came down. The whole city was destroyed. One house was spared:
"But Josue saved Rahab the harlot, and her father's house, and all she had, and they dwelt in the midst of Israel until this present day."
Josue (Joshua) 6:25
Josue and Jesus are the same name. In Hebrew, Yehoshua: "God saves." The Douay-Rheims even calls Joshua "Jesus" in Hebrews 4:8. Jesus saved Rahab.
Into the family
Rahab didn't just survive. She married into Israel. Open the first page of the New Testament, the family tree of Jesus:
"And Salmon begot Booz of Rahab. And Booz begot Obed of Ruth. And Obed begot Jesse."
Matthew 1:5
Jesse was the father of King David. Rahab was David's great-great-grandmother. Generations later, from the same line: "Jesus, who is called Christ" (Matthew 1:16).
Why this is a big deal
A foreigner. A harlot. From the city God was about to destroy. She believed, she hung out the scarlet sign, and she was saved.
And she was written into the family of the Saviour himself. Nobody is too far gone.