Commentary - Hebrews 11:30-31

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent section of faith's great hall of fame, the author of Hebrews brings us to the banks of the Jordan and into the promised land. The first two examples of faith in action on Canaanite soil are set side by side, and the contrast is instructive. First, we have the corporate faith of the entire nation of Israel, expressed in a bizarre, week-long act of liturgical warfare that brought down the impregnable walls of Jericho. Second, we have the individual faith of a single pagan prostitute, Rahab, whose belief in the God of Israel saved her from the destruction that engulfed her disobedient countrymen. Both examples underscore the central theme of this chapter: faith is not a passive sentiment but an active, world-altering trust in the word and power of God. It is the kind of faith that obeys God's seemingly foolish commands and the kind that switches allegiance from a doomed city to the King of Heaven, regardless of one's past. These two verses serve as a bridge, moving from the faith of the patriarchs and Moses in the wilderness to the faith required for the conquest and settlement of the land, a direct type of the church's mission in the world.

The juxtaposition is striking. On the one hand, an entire nation acts in concert, following a ridiculous set of instructions. Their faith is in God's promise to deliver the city into their hands, and their obedience is the proof of that faith. On the other hand, a woman of low repute, a Gentile and a harlot, acts alone, driven by what she has heard of God's power. Her faith leads her to treason against her own people, and this treason is counted to her as righteousness. Together, these accounts demonstrate that the kingdom of God advances not by human might or conventional wisdom, but by the simple, obedient, and sometimes scandalous faith of those who take God at His word.

Outline

Context In Hebrews

Hebrews 11 is a masterful survey of Old Testament history, designed to encourage its original audience of beleaguered Jewish Christians not to abandon their faith in Jesus and return to the shadows of the old covenant. The author has been building a case for the superiority of Christ over angels, Moses, and the Aaronic priesthood. Now, he provides a long list of historical examples to demonstrate that the only way anyone has ever pleased God, from the dawn of creation, is by faith. These verses, 30 and 31, come after the accounts of the patriarchs and the Exodus generation. The Israelites have crossed the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua, a man whose name in Hebrew is the same as Jesus in Greek. The conquest of Canaan, beginning with Jericho, is therefore presented as a type of the new covenant mission. The faith that brought down Jericho's walls and saved Rahab is the same kind of faith required of Christians as they face the "Jerichos" of their own day. It is a forward-looking faith, a faith that acts on God's promises to give His people rest and inheritance in His kingdom.

Key Issues

Faith's Peculiar Warfare

When we get to the conquest of Canaan, we must have our biblical wits about us. Our sentimental age gets the vapors when it reads about the destruction of Jericho. But God's judgments are always moral, not ethnic. God had told Abraham centuries earlier that the iniquity of the Amorites was "not yet full" (Gen 15:16). God, in His patience, waited until the Canaanite culture had become a terminal cancer of depravity before He sent Israel in as His scalpel. This was not genocide; it was divinely commanded capital punishment on a national scale.

But how was this judgment executed at Jericho? Not through brilliant military strategy, but through what must have looked like a week of liturgical nonsense. Marching around a city for seven days, blowing trumpets, and then shouting is not a recognized tactic in any military field manual. God commanded this to make one thing clear from the outset: the land was not being won by Israel's strength, but was being given by God's grace. The victory was to be received, not achieved. And the instrument of reception was faith. They were to act on God's absurd-sounding promise, believing that He would do what He said He would do. This is a paradigm for all of Christian life and warfare. We do not win by our cleverness or might, but by believing God and doing what He says, no matter how foolish it looks to the world.

Verse by Verse Commentary

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

The emphasis here is squarely on the cause: by faith. The walls did not fall because of sonic vibrations from the trumpets or a coincidental earthquake. The text attributes the collapse directly to the faith of the Israelites. But what did that faith look like? It looked like obedience. It looked like seven days of marching when every instinct would have been to either attack with siege engines or run away from the high walls. Faith is not a feeling in your tummy; it is trusting God enough to do what He says. They believed God's promise that He had given them the city (Josh 6:2), and their marching was the visible evidence of that invisible trust. The circling was not the work that earned the victory; it was the work that demonstrated their faith in the God who gives the victory. God is the one who made the walls fall, but He did so after their faith was demonstrated through their obedience. The whole affair was a giant object lesson: God fights for His people, and our role is to trust and obey.

31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after welcoming the spies in peace.

The second example is just as potent, but on an individual level. Notice the magnificent contrast. The city of Jericho is full of the disobedient. Their disobedience was not ignorance; Rahab makes it clear that the whole city had heard about the God of Israel, about the Red Sea, and about the victories over Sihon and Og. Their hearts had melted in fear (Josh 2:9-11). But their fear did not lead to repentance; it led to defiance. They locked their gates and hardened their hearts. They were disobedient because they heard the truth about God and refused to bow.

But in the midst of this city of rebels, there is one woman, Rahab the harlot, who believes. The scripture does not whitewash her resume. She was a prostitute, a woman on the lowest rungs of the social ladder in a pagan society. And yet, faith took root in her heart. She heard the same reports as everyone else, but she drew a different conclusion: "the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath" (Josh 2:11). This is her great confession. And like the Israelites, her faith was not inert. It acted. She welcomed the spies, hid them, lied to protect them, and hung the scarlet cord from her window. James points to this same incident, saying she was justified by works (James 2:25). There is no contradiction. Hebrews says she was saved by faith; James says her works showed that her faith was real. It was a living faith, a faith that took sides, a faith that risked everything on the promises of a God she had only heard about. And so, the harlot is grafted into the people of God, becoming an ancestress of King David and of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Matt 1:5), while Achan, a pure-blooded Israelite, would soon be cut out for his disobedience. The issue is always faith, not bloodline.

Application

These two verses set before us the only two options available to mankind: faith or disobedience. The people of Jericho and the people of Israel were looking at the same set of facts. God's people were on the move, and God's power was undeniable. For the inhabitants of Jericho, this was a terror that led to defiance. For Rahab, it was a terror that led to faith. For Israel, it was a call to obedient trust.

We are in the same position today. The gospel has been preached. The facts of Christ's death and resurrection are known. The testimony of the church, God's new Israel, echoes through the world. And every person must choose. Will you be one of the disobedient, locking the gates of your heart, trusting in the flimsy walls of your own self-righteousness, and ultimately perishing in the judgment? Or will you be like Rahab, recognizing that your city is doomed and that your only hope is to throw in your lot with the people of the invading King? Will you welcome His messengers and hang the scarlet cord of Christ's blood over the door of your life?

And for those of us who are already inside the camp, the lesson of the walls is for us. We are engaged in a great conquest, the discipling of the nations. The obstacles before us often seem as high as the walls of Jericho. Our task is not to devise clever strategies for knocking them down. Our task is to listen to the commands of our Captain, Jesus, and obey them by faith, no matter how strange they seem. The world will be won for Christ in the same way Jericho was won, not by our might, nor by our power, but by the Spirit of the Lord, working through the simple, obedient faith of His people.