THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Pay close attention to my message. She welcomed the spies; and whom Israel forsook in the desert, whom Rahab proclaimed in the immoral house. Why do I reference Israel in the desert? When the mountain was surrounded by clouds, darkness, the sound of trumpets, lightning, and other dreadful signs, then out of the midst of the fire, Israel heard from God: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God’, ‘the Lord is one’ (Deuteronomy 6:4), ‘let no other gods be your gods’ (Exodus 20:3). I am ‘in the heavens above and in the earth below, and there is no other,’ says God, ‘except Me’ (Deut. 4:39). After receiving this message, Israel fashioned a golden calf and turned away from God; they forgot the Sovereign Lord, rejected the Benefactor, and said to Aaron, ‘make us gods’ (Ex. 32:1).
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If they are ‘gods,’ why must they be made? How can they be gods if they can be fashioned? Thus, blind desire conflicts with itself and leads to self-destruction. One poured out the metal, and ungrateful Israel declared: ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’ (Ex. 32:4). ‘These are the gods’; one sees only the calf, one created idol, so why say “these gods”? In doing this, the people aimed to convey that they did not just worship what was immediately visible, but they also entertained thoughts of polytheism and articulated their beliefs, not merely contemplating what was physically before them. Let us return to our main point. What Israel, endowed with numerous miracles and guided by the law, heard and then turned away from, is glorified by Rahab, who was confined in the immoral house. She tells those watching, We have heard what your God has done to the Egyptians. The Jew says, ‘These are your gods, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,’ but the harlot attributes deliverance not to the deities, but to the true God: we learned, she states, what your God has done to the Egyptians in the wilderness; we have heard, and our hearts melted, and we have no strength left in us. We have learned what your God has accomplished. Notice how she embraces the words of the Lawgiver through faith? I know, she asserts, ‘that ...your God, ...is in heaven and a portion on earth,’ and besides Him, there is no other God. Rahab exemplified the Church, once stained by sin, now receiving the vision of Christ — the apostles, sent not by Joshua, but by Jesus — the true Redeemer. ‘Behold,’ he declares, ‘that ... your God, ... is in heaven a mountain and on earth a portion,’ and besides Him, there is no other God. This doctrine was given to the Jews, yet they did not uphold it; this doctrine the church received and faithfully preserved. Hence, Rahab, who shaped the church, deserves all commendation. Therefore, Paul, recognizing the nobility of her faith, regarded her not as cast away due to her past, but as accepted by God because of her genuine transformation, included her among the saints and stated: ‘by faith Abel offered ... sacrifice’ (Hebrews 11:4), by faith Abraham did this and that, ‘by faith ... By faith Noah ... constructed an ark’ (Hebrews 11:7), by faith Moses achieved various works, and after recounting many saints in succession, he finally concluded: “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who disobeyed, having welcomed the spies, and having sent them out by another way” (Hebrews 11:31).
The miracles performed on their behalf instilled fear across the entire earth, as the harlot of Jericho remarked at that time: ‘you have caused terror to fall upon us, and all the inhabitants of this land are filled with dread because of you.’ Thus, one path to knowing God is through His creation, while the other, clearer path is through His servants; this is the teaching that God has sown in every generation since the beginning.