After Pentecost Devotional - Day 63

Rahab and her family had to stay in a place just outside the Israelite army camp. But later they were allowed to live among the Israelites, and her descendants still do.” Joshua 6:25

Israel always had difficulties relating to immigrants in their midst. This passage points to a time-limited issue in regard to becoming full participants within Israel. It also points to the fact that Israel did include Rahab, her family, and their descendants. This was a process, but it was a process designed for inclusion and welcome.

At first blush, they were kept just outside the Hebrew camp. They were not allowed full participation prior to a period of ritual purification. This purification process was likewise required of the Hebrews themselves who became ritually impure through contact with various elements that were a draw towards fertility cult worship. Certain foods, bodily fluids, and processes dealing with birth and death were so often deemed to hold power in relation to controlling the gods that these were declared taboo in relation to participation in the worship life of Israel.

What we do not grasp from a surface reading of the text is that it is this issue of going through a period of purification in order to participate fully in the life of Israel that is in play here. Rahab and her family were being brought into the life of Israel, including this question of purification that was required of the rest of the members of the camp. In placing them just outside the camp, they were already being included into the community of Israel, subject to the very same regulations under which the rest of the community worked, lived, and worshipped.

Rahab's full participation in the life of the community was based on her declaration of faith in Yahweh. It was followed by her actions that flowed from that same declaration. She was giving up her former life and ties to a community removed from the worship of Yahweh, even as she herself was apparently more than a casual participant in that life of fertility cult worship. By casting her lot with the people of Yahweh, they accepted her into their society as equal to their own dependence upon Yahweh's provision. This is what they were supposed to do as the people of Yahweh. This was in keeping with the instructions given in regard to living with immigrants in their midst. It was part of their mission to bring all peoples into relationship with Yahweh.

Going forward, we will find that Rahab became part of the lineage of King David and consequently of Jesus. She was brought into the community of Israel, becoming an integral part, not of its margins, but brought within its core. In regard to the Levitical laws, her children would participate in the redistribution of land every fifty years. As Yahweh had redeemed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, bringing them into a new land in which Yahweh would continue to provide for one and all, so Rahab and her family were being redeemed by their participation in the community of Israel.

This has been the pattern for some immigrants, while others have been deemed a threat and excluded. Normally, however, it is the first generation that is excluded and only the second and third generations who participate fully in the life of a nation.

How do your attitudes and actions include or exclude others around you?


"Lord, make me more aware of how I should include strangers in my own community."

©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin

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