Rahab...the mother of Boaz

Joshua 1: 21"I agree," Rahab replied. "I'll do as you say." So she sent them away, and they left. Then she tied the bright red rope in the window.

Math.1:5 5Salmon was the father of Boaz. Rahab was Boaz's mother

When we left Tamar, she had just given birth to her twins Zerah and Perez...the mix up in the womb was that Zerah, stuck his fist out so the midwifes thought he would bet he first born so they put a scarlet thread around his wrist only to go back in and Perez came out. For those who have had children...OUCH. From a scarlet thread around the wrist to a scarlet rope out the window. No other significance maybe except that the story of Tamar ends with a red thread and then when we get to know Rahab, the red rope/big thread is significant to the her own rescue from the hand of God in the swords of his people.

In Mathew, she is no longer Rahab the prostitute, but Rahab the mother of Boaz, who for all intents and purposes is the Prince Charming of the Old Testament and Ruth his Princess.

In short, Rahab hides the spies from the oncoming hordes of Israel upstairs under the flax bushels and then lies about their whereabouts. Because of her faith in the God of Israel, she ends up saving her whole family and marries Salmon, and is grandmother to Jesse, who is the father of David...but more importantly, in the story of Jesus. No wonder she had no problem with Boaz marrying Ruth, the Moabite. She was also an outsider and a gentile.

In chaos, fear and uncertainty...she had faith to rescue not only herself and family but to start a whole new other life. No longer the prostitute but mother. This is the story of Jesus...always the story of Jesus...Rescue, redemption and resurrection..of all that we want not to be, to what we can finally become.

I think we forget that Christmas is about a great rescue from the gates of our own Jericho's.
With any enemy stronghold...you send in small. What can a baby do in a manger? What can a prostitute do?

A prostitute...saved her family, saved the spies, loved Salmon and raised a cross-cultural aware son Boaz, who married  Ruth..one of only 2 books in the bible all about a woman.

Then...through her, that baby in the manger.