Joshua 2:8-9
Responding to Fear
Rahab recognizes that it’s the work of a divine hand that has struck fear into the people of the nations of Canaan, which, in a way, causes them to pronounce their own doom upon themselves in anticipation. Rahab infers that the terror which the children of Israel have inspired in the Canaanites is a token of the Israelites’ victory, because the Israelites fight under God as their Leader. In the fact that, while the courage of Canaan had melted away, the Canaanites prepared to resist the Israelites anyway—with the obstinacy of despair—we see that when the wicked are broken and crushed by the hand of God, they are not so subdued as to receive God’s yoke, but in their terror and anxiety become incapable of being tamed.
Here too, we have to observe how, when afflicted by the same fear, believers differ from unbelievers, and how the faith of Rahab displays itself. She herself was afraid, just like every other one of the Canaanite people; but when she reflects that she has to deal with God one way or the other, she concludes that her only remedy is to avoid evil by yielding humbly and placidly, since resistance would be altogether useless. But what is the course taken by all the wretched inhabitants of Canaan? Although terror-struck, so far is their sin from being overcome that they stimulate each other to the conflict.
Readings taken from Day by Day With John Calvin
Responding to Fear
Rahab recognizes that it’s the work of a divine hand that has struck fear into the people of the nations of Canaan, which, in a way, causes them to pronounce their own doom upon themselves in anticipation. Rahab infers that the terror which the children of Israel have inspired in the Canaanites is a token of the Israelites’ victory, because the Israelites fight under God as their Leader. In the fact that, while the courage of Canaan had melted away, the Canaanites prepared to resist the Israelites anyway—with the obstinacy of despair—we see that when the wicked are broken and crushed by the hand of God, they are not so subdued as to receive God’s yoke, but in their terror and anxiety become incapable of being tamed.
Here too, we have to observe how, when afflicted by the same fear, believers differ from unbelievers, and how the faith of Rahab displays itself. She herself was afraid, just like every other one of the Canaanite people; but when she reflects that she has to deal with God one way or the other, she concludes that her only remedy is to avoid evil by yielding humbly and placidly, since resistance would be altogether useless. But what is the course taken by all the wretched inhabitants of Canaan? Although terror-struck, so far is their sin from being overcome that they stimulate each other to the conflict.
Readings taken from Day by Day With John Calvin
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