But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof. – Joshua 2:6

Today's Scripture Reading (February 6, 2022): Joshua 2

Growing up, I lived in a community that seemed to understand better the idea of hospitality than our contemporary society does. We had people into our homes regularly. We shared a meal with them and maybe a game. Or, at other times, I remember time spent by my parents and their guests singing around the piano. It was a time of friendship and camaraderie. It is something that I fear we have lost in our contemporary society.

I live in a culture that has lost the idea of hospitality. We no longer take strangers into our homes for no other reason than that they need a place to stay and a meal to eat. But in the ancient world, such actions were commonplace. In fact, not only was hospitality expected but if you took someone into your home, it was understood that you would do your utmost to protect them. It is a responsibility that finds its expression in the horrible stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and then, later, Gibeah. In both of those stories, a traveler requires a place to stay. The tourist, in both tales, offers to spend the night in the town square where they will bother no one. But someone, understanding the demands of hospitality, convinces them to spend the night in their homes. When the town violently turns on the visitors, both of these authors of hospitality set out to protect their visitors from the violence of their neighbors. In ancient culture, the behavior of those who offered hospitality was mandated by the expectation of the larger society. It may also be important that in both stories, the ones who provided hospitality to the strangers had at one time been strangers themselves; they originated from somewhere else.

In popular culture, Rahab is often thought to be a prostitute. And for those who object to that characterization, she is viewed as an innkeeper. But both of those occupations are largely dependent on the idea that Rahab offered hospitality to the spies. And part of the hospitality that she provided was that she considered herself responsible for the protection of her guests.

But Rahab went beyond just the expectations of hospitality, in both a good and a bad way. For the good, she hid her guests on the roof where they would hopefully not be found. But for the bad, Rahab lied when she misdirected the guards, and scholars have almost unanimously agreed that God would have protected his people without Rahab's falsehood. But Rahab would neither be saved by her works nor condemned for her failure. Her salvation was only because of the faith she placed in the God of Israel. Whatever it was that had characterized her life before, when she hid the spies under the stalks of flax laid out on the roof, she was committing herself to a new path, following the God of the ones to whom she had gifted her hospitality. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joshua 3