A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Friday, June 5, 2026

Meditation 5: Joshua 2

By the Seine, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paris, May-July 1887

In the Book of Joshua we find one of the most unexpected examples of hospitality in the Bible. Two Israelite spies have come into the land of Canaan to gather information in preparation for the Israelite conquest of the land God promised to give to them. These Israelite spies entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab, who ended up protecting them from the Canaanite inhabitants of the city of Jericho, the first city the Israelites would conquer. The king in Jericho found out that the spies were lodging with Rahab, but she persisted in protecting the men. 

The specific details of the story—her leading them to her rooftop, the way she hid them, their being led down with a rope, and their waiting in the hills—are less significant than the reason for Rahab’s aid and assistance. Ultimately, Rahab was helping them because she recognized that God was on their side.   

It is true that part of her concern was fear over her and her family’s own well-being, but it is equally true that her concern was for God; she recognized that the God of Israel is, in her own words, “God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (2:11). Indeed, in the New Testament we find high praise of Rahab precisely for this incident, as an example of how faith and works complement each other: “in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?” (James 2:25). 

Rahab lived an example of hospitality at great risk to herself. She protected God’s people who were actively being hunted down. Hopefully, we will never find ourselves in such a dire situation, having to protect others from those bent on killing them, but we will likely have the opportunity to help those in need. Whenever we help someone who is in need, we are offering them a form of hospitality. What’s more, Rahab was a prostitute. She was in anything but a perfect situation to follow the Lord. She might reasonably have thought, “Who am I to help others and extend hospitality?” But the Lord still used her. No matter where we are in our own relationship with God, no matter our flaws and weaknesses, God can still use us, and He is still calling us to extend hospitality others. We don’t have to have it all together; we simply need to be available to the Lord. 

Good and Gracious God, we come to you with many flaws, both great and small. Help us to extend hospitality to others, even when we don’t feel worthy. Help us, Lord, to mediate you to others, by helping those we encounter who find themselves in some need. 

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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