Though Rahab was in Canaan when she spoke her profession of faith, her words showed she was no longer a Canaanite—spiritually. She was a Gentile prepared to worship Yahweh. She said, “Your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Josh. 2:11). The “heavens” and the “earth” are an all-encompassing pair of words. Yahweh rules over all creation. He is the true God, the living God, the only God.

According to God’s instructions, the Israelites were to conquest the land of Canaan, subduing their enemies and destroying idols and wrecking fortresses.

Not all the Canaanites would resist the arrival of the Israelites, however. Some of the Canaanites knew resistance was futile. Some of them believed that Israel’s escape from Egypt and arrival in the promised land were historical confirmations of Yahweh’s existence, supremacy, and power. Rahab was a Canaanite like that.

In Joshua 2, two Israelite spies get both a welcome and protection from a prostitute named Rahab, and she spares their lives from the Jericho soldiers. Once the soldiers go another direction in search of the spies, Rahab helps the spies escape down a rope and through a window.

But before the men descend the rope and flee for better safety, she makes a confession that confirms her conversion: “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Josh. 2:9–11).

This confession is one of the most stirring paragraphs in the book of Joshua. Rahab is from Canaan—and lives in Jericho—but she is not talking like a Canaanite.

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