On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury.” When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. – Joshua 6:15-21
Adolph Harstad writes:
Rahab and her family are examples of Gentiles being brought into the Israel of God, the true invisible church that spans both Testaments. God has called all believers, like Rahab, “out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). No matter what their background or nationality, their justification by grace and incorporation into the body of Christ has caused them to be members of “the people of God.” Rahab will become part of spiritual Israel as well as the OT nation. Through faith, she has Abraham as her father, even as all baptized believers in Christ are “sons of Abraham” and “heirs of the promise” (Gal 3:26-29). Like Rahab, the church of all believers has been rescued from “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” which awaits all those who perish without faith in Jesus Christ.
The account of the Canaanite prostitute Rahab who is brought into the congregation of Israel has the theme of missions and evangelism. The God who “does not show partiality” and who “loves the alien” wants His people also “to love the alien” (Deut 10:17-19). Those who are of the same mind as God say with Peter, “In truth I (now) perceive that God is not one who shows partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and works righteousness is acceptable to Him.” Since “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,” His people will want to carry out the commission of that one and only Son and “make disciples of all nations” by His appointed Gospel means: baptizing in the triune name and teaching [them to obey] all that He has commanded.
MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 32
Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.