I.O.U.

Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, Joshua 2:12  NASB

Kindly – Why should these spies help Rahab?  What do they have to gain from a promise to save her?  They have already escaped the search party of the king of Jericho.  They have finished their business.  She isn’t anyone important.  In fact, she is simply someone to use.  Why should they help her?

Rahab places the emphasis on the reciprocity of kindness.  She has shown kindness to them.  They must show kindness to her.  Actually, there is a great deal more than kindness involved here.  The word is hesed.  It isn’t just kindness.  It’s loving concern, good actions, mercy, faithfulness and justice.  Not exactly the kind of word you would expect from a prostitute, but perhaps we have misjudged Rahab.  More significantly, we have certainly ignored the culture of the ancient Near East.

We can think of hesed as “life’s governing principle.” Its deeper meaning is difficult to capture in a single word.  This word describes the relationship between spouses, between friends, between kings and subjects, between lovers and between God and His people.  Hesed is the practice of a way of life.

In the Hebrew culture, hesed implies four things:  establishing relationships, acting for another’s good, distributing what you are given, and expecting a return.  Hesed is always relational.  It does not exist outside of personal interaction.  Hesed is action.  It is not found in good thoughts, noble intentions or sympathetic emotions.  Hesed means that I do something for someone else.  Hesed requires distribution.  If I receive hesed, I am expected to pass it on.  Finally, hesed implies reciprocity.  In fact, when I give hesed to another, God tells me that He will repay me even if no one else does.  Hesed is the way life is supposed to be lived.

Now we can understand a bit more about Rahab.  She isn’t asking for a favor.  She is announcing her expectation of reciprocity.  She has shown hesed.  Her guests are now obligated to do the same.

But this is also very unusual.  Are we to imagine that Rahab, a woman of Jericho, spoke Hebrew?  Actually, that seems quite unlikely.  The sons of Jacob spoke Hebrew but they had been absent from the land of Canaan for more than 400 years.  Hebrew was undoubtedly not a common language of that place.  This means that Rahab’s appeal to hesed is all the more surprising since hesed does not seem to have etymological connections to any known ancient Near Eastern language.  Where did Rahab learn this word?

Perhaps we can’t find the connections to the word itself, but we can find similar behavioral expectations.  We remember that Abraham was a man of hospitality.  He wasn’t a Hebrew.  He was from Mesopotamia.  Yet kindness to strangers was a sacred duty and a matter of honor.  Even today Bedouin Arabs believe that a guest is the guest of God.  To harm, insult or refuse to provide for a guest is an offense against God Himself.  So Rahab is invoking social expectations common to all Nomadic cultures of the Middle East.  To refuse her request after she has demonstrated hesed would be the equivalent of refusing God.  Rahab can expect a return of rescue from death because she has done the same for these men.  Rahab’s example underscores the reciprocity of hesed in our lives.

Having experienced the goodness of God poured out on us, we are commanded to “go and do likewise.”  This is the divine “pay-it-forward” plan.  If you are living according to life’s governing principle, you are looking for every opportunity to provide good for someone else.

According to King Solomon, practicing hesed brings favor with God and men.  God’s simple success plan turns the tables on our methods.  We pursue fame, power, money and pleasure, chasing the end of the rainbow.  God’s plan tells us to pursue hesed and, as a natural by-product, favor will come our way.  When we go after what we think we need, the pot of gold keeps receding.  But when we stop chasing and start giving ourselves away for the good of others, when we commit to transformation, then God says our lives will be filled with favor from men and from Him.  Rahab’s story reminds us that hesed may be found in the most unlikely of places, but when it appears, it establishes an inherent obligation that cannot be discarded.  Acts of kindness may come from the proverbial prostitute with a heart of gold.  The source doesn’t matter.  What matters is the response.

No doubt there is someone in your life who is a bit of a stranger, an outsider, someone not quite socially acceptable.  Has that person shown you kindness?  And what did you do with God’s gift given through these soiled hands?

Topical Index:  Rahab, hesed, kindness, reciprocity, Joshua 2:9