We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt … for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Joshua 2:10-11
Rahab said this forty years after the Israelites passed through the Red Sea. Everyone knew and remembered. It was this event, plus, “what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed” (verse 10), which caused Rahab to have faith. This raises the question, why was she the only one who acknowledged that the God of the Israelites was indeed Lord of all?
Some people, even Christians, conclude that God was unjust in the Old Testament because he told his people to wipe out the Canaanites. Yet all these people had the same opportunity as Rahab to come to faith. The Mosaic Law provided for foreigners to be included in God’s people (Numbers 15:14-16).
At the time of the exodus, many foreigners left with the Israelites (Exodus 12:38). Likewise, Ruth was a Moabite but was accepted because of her profession of faith to Naomi, “Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Uriah the Hittite fought with David’s soldiers. His loyalty was clearly with God’s people (2 Samuel 11:11). God spared the Ninevites who believed God and repented (Jonah 3:5). There were many unnamed others. The people of Jericho could’ve been included if they’d acknowledged the God of the Israelites.
God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God gave the people of Jericho forty years to come to faith. God isn’t unjust.
