Joshua 2:1 esv -- And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.”
I have found that when you see one parallel in scripture, look for more. Keep looking because the bible is deep like the sea and high like a mountain. So it is with the Book of Joshua. In this blog post I an diving in to Joshua 2.
Joshua has long been considered foreshadowing of Jesus.
SON OF NUN
From a New Testament perspective, this echo takes us back to Genesis and the fall of man and what some Christians call "the First Gospel."
THE NAME
Joshua's name in Hebrew is יְהוֹשֻׁעַ is transliterated as Yehoshua or Yehoshu'a.
It derives from the roots "Yah" (a shortened form of Yahweh, meaning "the Lord") and yasha ("to save" or "deliver"), so the full meaning is "Yahweh saves" or "the Lord is salvation."
In the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), this is the name of the successor to Moses who led the Israelites into the Promised Land (e.g., Book of Joshua).
A common shortened form is יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua), which is also the Hebrew name of Jesus in the New Testament, highlighting the shared theme of divine salvation.
Simply stated: Yehoshua (Joshua) prefigures Yeshua (Jesus) Both names spring from the Hebrew root y-sh-ʿ ("to deliver, save"), fusing Yah (Yahweh) with salvation's cry.
Echoes are Devine Mirrors. As I said from the start, when you see one parallel, keep looking because the bible is deep like the sea and high like a mountain. So let's look more closely at the Book of Joshua, in particular, Chapter 2.
RAHAD HIDES THE SPIES
Joshua chapter 2 recounts the story of two Israelite spies sent by Joshua to scout the city of Jericho before the conquest of Canaan.
Joshua 2 pulses with redemptive reversal—a deliberate echo, a divine "what if?" reframed. In Numbers 13, twelve spies slink into Canaan, only to slink back with grapes of glory laced with giants' gloom. Ten tongues wag terror: "We seemed like grasshoppers" (Numbers 13:33), leading to forty years of wilderness wandering, a generation's grave. Their sin? Unbelief's mutiny, scouting turned slander, promise poisoned by fear. Moses' mission crumbles; the land weeps withheld.
But here, in Joshua's dawn, the script flips: two spies—lean, loyal, unnumbered by doubt—cross Jordan's whisper from Shittim's acacia shade (Joshua 2:1). No horde, no hubris; just quiet commission under Yehoshua, the salvation-bearer. They enter the land, not as conquerors yet, but pilgrims—eyes wide, hearts hushed. Jericho's walls loom, but Rahab's roof becomes revelation's perch: flax-fringed, fear-forged faith. She, the city's scarlet fringe, spies their God before they spy her secrets: "Your terror has fallen upon us... the Lord your God, he is God" (Joshua 2:9, 11). No bad report; only bold return: "Truly the Lord has given... the land into our hands" (Joshua 2:24).
These spies lodge with Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, who hides them from the king's men and helps them escape. In exchange, the spies promise to spare Rahab and her family during the impending destruction of the city, on the condition that she ties a scarlet cord (or thread) in her window as a sign of their covenant. When Jericho falls (Joshua 6), this mark ensures their safety. This narrative is rich with typology—symbolic foreshadowing—of Yeshua.
The Scarlet Cord: A Symbol of Jesus's Atoning Blood and The Hope (HaTikva) of Israel
The most prominent foreshadowing of the hope of Israel is the scarlet cord (Joshua 2:18, 21), which serves as a visible sign of protection and deliverance. Scarlet, derived from a deep red dye (often associated with blood in ancient Near Eastern contexts), evokes the imagery of sacrificial blood that averts judgment.
Speaking of the scarlet color, this directly parallels the Passover lamb's blood smeared on Israelite doorposts in Egypt (Exodus 12:7, 13), where it marked homes for salvation from the angel of death. Just as that blood spared the faithful, Rahab's cord spares her household amid Jericho's destruction.
In the New Testament, this parallel typology culminates in Yeshua's blood shed on the cross as the ultimate atonement: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). Jesus is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and His blood provides eternal protection for those who claim it by faith—like an "invisible scarlet cord" around the believer's life.
RAHAB'S TRANSFORMATIVE FAITH:
The scarlet cord's placement in the window (a place of vulnerability) underscores how faith in Christ's blood covers and redeems even the most unlikely (e.g., Rahab, an outsider and sinner).
Rahab's Redemption: From Scarlet Shame to Royal Lineage
Rahab—yes, the Canaanite harlot of Jericho's shadowed walls embodies the audacious grace that rewrites the broken. Once defined by her trade, veiled in the city's vice, she steps into the light of faith, trading whispers of survival for a covenant oath. "The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below" (Joshua 2:11)—her confession isn't mere flattery; it's a pivot, a plea for rebirth. The scarlet cord she hangs isn't just a signal; it's her lifeline.
Threads of Transformation
From Outcast to Insider: The gentile prostitute, enemy of Israel, barters hospitality for haven. Yet Yahweh spares her—not for merit, but mercy—pulling her from Jericho's rubble into the covenant fold. Her house, once a den of despair, becomes a beacon of deliverance (Joshua 6:25). Rahab's story is echoed in Mark 2:17 -- "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners".
New Name, New Nation: Post-conquest, Rahab weds Salmon the Judahite (Ruth 4:20–21 via Matthew 1:5), birthing Boaz, who weds Ruth—another outsider redeemed. She enters the messianic bloodline, her "scarlet" past woven into the Savior's genealogy. From "harlot" (zonah in Hebrew, raw and reproachful) to matriarch: a fresh identity, etched in eternity.
SCARLET TO WHITE
Rahab's scarlet thread, once a harlot's hasty signal dangling from Jericho's breach (Joshua 2:18), unfurls into deeper lore: the Yom Kippur thread, bound to the Azazel goat (Leviticus 16:21–22). Crimson-kissed, it threads the temple door; as the burdened beast bears Israel's sins into the wild, the cord blanches—blood's curse reversed, guilt's weight lifted like mist before dawn. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18): Yahweh's vow, etched in fiber and forgiveness.
In Rahab, we see the gospel's scandal: God delights in drafting the disqualified, granting them thrones in His story.
This foreshadows "Yeshua's mission to extend salvation beyond Israel to all nations," including sinners and outsiders: "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32). Rahab's inclusion in Israel's lineage (she becomes an ancestor of King David and thus Jesus; Matthew 1:5) symbolizes the Gentile inclusion in the church through faith alone, not works or heritage (Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 4:16).
Her act of hiding the spies at great personal risk mirrors the protective role of faith in Christ, which "hides" believers from God's wrath (Colossians 3:3). Her act of faith is a picture of Salvation by Grace, the scarlet cord, through Faith.
MORE HIDDEN PARALLELS
So far I've shared the most well known parallels between the Joshua and the story of Rahab saving the spies. When I look further, I see more hidden parallels.
The chapter centers on Rahab, and in the broader context Joshua who leads Israel into the Promised Land after Moses' death, just as Jesus leads believers into eternal rest and inheritance (Hebrews 4:8–11).
In chapter 2, Joshua's commissioning of the spies prefigures Jesus sending out His disciples as witnesses (e.g., the two spies echo the "two witnesses" required by Mosaic law, Deuteronomy 19:15, and Jesus' sending of the seventy-two in pairs, Luke 10:1). Their report of faith amid fear (Joshua 2:24) anticipates the gospel's triumph through bold proclamation.
Shadows of Secrecy: Joshua's Spies and the Silent Disciples
Two Sent in Secret: Joshua dispatches his pair "secretly" (v. 1), whispers of reconnaissance amid peril. So Nicodemus steals to Jesus by night (John 3:2), a Pharisee's probe veiled in twilight; Joseph, too, a "secret disciple" (John 19:38), risks all post-crucifixion. Both duos, envoys of the divine, mapping salvation's terrain under cover. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea will prove to be credible withnesses of Jesus's death and burial in the tomb.
Hidden in Heights: Rahab hauls the spies to her roof (v. 6), a high perch of refuge amid the hunt. Flax stalks veil them—raw fibers destined for linen's weave. Parallel the tomb's ascent: Joseph’s rock-hewn high place (Matthew 27:60), where Nicodemus layers spices in linen folds (John 19:40), shrouding the slain Savior. From rooftop sanctuary to sepulcher shroud, concealment births deliverance.
Yet linen whispers resurrection: what binds in death unravels in dawn's light (John 20:5–7). Rahab's flax hides life from doom; the disciples' linen entombs it, only for glory's rise.
Rising from the Roof: The roof, elevated and exposed, hints ascent—a "high place" of peril turned promise (v. 6). Spies descend via scarlet cord to freedom; Christ, from tomb's heights, ascends in victory. Nicodemus ponders "born again" from above (John 3:3); Joseph seals the stone, unwitting sentinel to the third day's breach. Secrecy yields to soaring salvation—Yahweh's spies, then the Savior's, scaling walls, no longer in doubt, to inherit the land eternal.
SUMMARY
These echoes weave Old Testament shadow into New covenant substance: hidden agents, fiber-forged faith, elevated escapes. From Jericho's fall to Calvary's triumph, God recruits the unlikely—prostitute, Pharisee, councilor—to unfurl His redemptive rope.
