11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
This is really amazing. Rahab was a prostitute, not the highest level of society back then. We don’t know how she became one, or what the circumstance were that put her in the situation that she had to sell her body for food, but we do know she could think for herself. She lived in Jericho, the first city that was going to be conquered by the Israelites. They had heard reports of the Lord’s power and might in delivering the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians. Pretty amazing when you consider that there was not TV, radio, internet, twitter, iPhones, internet or journalists. The Bedouin herders of that area must have bumped into the Israelites as they were in the desert and passed on word of their presence and their escape. What is amazing is that Rahab acknowledges the Lord as God of heaven above and earth below. During that time gods were thought to be regional gods, gods of the hills or valleys, of this land or that land. Here Rahab acknowledges that the Lord doesn’t have those boundaries. He is not bound by region or country or even this earth. He is God of everything, of all realms, earthly and heavenly. She is willing to sell her people for her own safety. Her people have bought and sold her, now she sells the city for the safety of her family. Pretty shrewd. Pretty wise. She takes a chance (exercises some faith) and makes a deal with the Israelite spies. She trusts these strangers who serve this powerful God more than she trusts her own people. Who do you trust? We all trust someone. Too often we Americans trust ourselves.
The Arnold Journey 