Joshua's Intriguing Intrigue (2)
Unfortunately, because Jericho had been expecting the invasion, they had spies throughout their land watching for just such an event as this and the Israelite spies were discovered. Thus being discovered, they were reported to government officials after their cover was blown. Fortunately, because Rahab was convinced the city would fall to the invaders, and being a shrewd business woman, she agreed to help the spies in return for saving her and her family. Rahab was what is referred to as an informant, which means she was a person who wittingly or unwittingly provides information to an agent, clandestine service, or the police; a non-recruited person who has provided specific information and is cited as a source. In modern colloquial terminology, Rahab would be known as a “rat”, “stoolpigeon”, or “narc.” The spies agree to the conditions and successfully escaped (Joshua 2:2-5b,8-9b,12-15).
The
king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to
spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out
the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out
the whole land.”
But
the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to
me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close
the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went.”
Before
the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “...Now
then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because
I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives
of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and
that you will save us from death.”
“Our
lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing,
we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.”
So
she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part
of the city wall.
In these verses it is interesting to note that the phrase “hid them” is actually singular. Rahab probably hid the spies individually and separately to increase the odds that one of them would escape captivity and make it back to their camp. The agreement made between the spies and Rahab was independent of any moral or religious stipulations or judgments. There were no conditions of repentance or conversion and nowhere in the Bible are there any judgments made about the spies getting help or information from a prostitute. Neither is there any indication that anyone ever questioned the authenticity or the validity of the information, given the source.
Indeed it has long been recognized in the intelligence world that amoral and criminal sources are acceptable, and often the best sources. That is because one of the major sources of intelligence has always been human intelligence, or HUMINT. Having sources of information behind enemy lines is a key component in finding out information about an enemy. This was especially true in Biblical times, which was before espionage was heavily aided by technology as it is today. There were no satellites, wire taps, or eavesdropping devices, or hacking into computer systems back then.
After completing their mission and escaping the enemy, the two spies returned to the Israelite camp and went straight to Joshua to debrief him on their mission giving them the raw intelligence. They did not report to the whole assembly of the people. Their intelligence consisted of telling Joshua “everything that happened to them” as well as the mental state of the people, which is the information they received from Rahab (Joshua 2:23-24).
Then
the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and
came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. They
said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the
people are melting in fear because of us.”
The first major military hurdle for the Israelites is how to get to Jericho, since they have to cross the Jordan River over into enemy territory. Joshua begins the next step of Analysis and Production of the raw intelligence that the spies brought him to come up with a plan of how to approach Jericho and then tells the military leaders who, in turn, tell the people in the first part of the Disseminates and Explanation step of the Intelligence Cycle. The method of getting there was also an important PSYOP tactic to frighten the enemy by showing them that God was helping them (Joshua 3:2-4a,14-16;5:1).
After
three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When
you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests
carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will
know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”...
So
when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of
the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.
Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet
touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in
a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan,
while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was
completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho....
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