In the NASB 1995 edition, the word “Rahab” appears fifteen times, twelve of which are in the Old Testament. (1) The six times that this name is used in the book of Joshua and the three times that it is used in the New Testament, it is referring to the ex-harlot from the city of Jericho who hid the Israelite spies, was rescued from Jericho’s destruction, and who later became the great-great-grandmother to King David. (2)
However, when the word “Rahab” is used twice each in the books of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah, it is not referring to that woman who became a part of Jesus’ messianic lineage. Who or what is this other “Rahab” (and who cares)? How is that practical or relevant to anybody’s life today? By studying this water dragon “Rahab” identified six times throughout the ancient writings of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah, we can get an idea of how pride, confusion, bitterness, and other things that hinder love might seek to trip us up in life.
“The departed spirits tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. 6 “Naked is Sheol before Him, and Abaddon has no covering. 7 “He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. 8 “He wraps up the waters in His clouds, and the cloud does not burst under them. 9 “He obscures the face of the full moon and spreads His cloud over it. 10 “He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness.
11 “The pillars of heaven tremble and are amazed at His rebuke. 12 “He quieted the sea with His power, and by His understanding He shattered Rahab. 13 “By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent. 14 “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”
–Job 26:5-14 NASB1995
In this passage, after rebuking his friend, Bildad, Job speaks about God’s greatness, speaking many truths about the invisible spiritual realm. Notably, in the fifth verse, he mentions the Rephaim [Hebrew word contained in the NASB1995 footnote], or the “departed spirits” and their inhabitants who tremble “under the waters.” What are “the waters”? Job is not merely referring to those physical waters that cover 71% of the earth’s surface, but he is also speaking about a parallel layout of the invisible spiritual realm.
Such “waters” are referred to throughout the New Testament as “the abyss.” Verse six mentions “Abaddon,” who is the “king” or “angel of the abyss,” according to Revelation 9:11. According to Luke 8:31, the “abyss” is that location where the demons returned after they left a man and entered a large herd of swine who committed suicide by running off a cliff and perishing in “the waters.” Those demons left the man, entered a herd of pigs, and ended up back where they came from originally–the abyss.
As further alluded to in Romans 10:7, “the Abyss” is the realm of the dead where Jesus descended for a visit after his death before his resurrection. “Sheol” and “Abaddon” appear together throughout the ancient writings, Sheol referring to the netherworld where the departed spirits of humans would go after death. If a person loved God and trusted in Him and in His coming Messiah, that person would be in the compartment of Sheol called “Abraham’s bosom.”
Those who despised God and His ways, who “gave God the finger” in how they went about their lives, were (and are) taken by angels to a place of conscious unending torment called hell or Hades. See Luke 16:19-31. To learn more about “Sheol,” “Hades,” “hell,” “Abaddon,” “heaven,” “death,” the “Lake of Fire,” etc., type any of those terms into the search bar of a Bible search engine such as biblegateway.com, and study those search results in their context.
If you have doubts that God is real or that He can be good, all-powerful, or trustworthy if He does exist, ask God to reveal Himself to you as you take a deeper look at those search results. As Mark Cahill, author of One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven has said, “Eternity is a long time; make sure you have the right answer” (my paraphrase).
In saying all this I do not want to come across in any way as accusatory in how we are living our lives or spending our time. Rather, I am seeking to be “sober-minded” in the matter, as I personally do not want to waste my life and to miss out on the amazing destiny and future laid out for me and that God has in store for you as well.
Back to the topic of “Rahab,” Job 26:12-13 states, “He quieted the sea with His power, and by His understanding He shattered Rahab. By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.” Who or what is “the fleeing serpent”? A NASB word search will take you to Isaiah 27:1: “In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”
Leviathan, like Rahab, is described as a water dragon or “sea monster” in the spiritual realm. God devotes an entire chapter to teach Job the characteristics of this creature in Job 41. In Job 3, Job had cursed the day of his birth and in so doing invited Leviathan specifically to enter his life, attitudes, and mindset (see Job 3:8).
Consequently he spiraled into a pit of depression and self-pity throughout his entire discourse with his friends. God rebuked Job for his foolish pride, and when Job repented of his toxic, bitter mindset, God could set Job free and bless him abundantly once more.
Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah. 4 “I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me; Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia: ‘This one was born there.’” 5 But of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; And the Most High Himself will establish her.
–Psalm 87:3-5 NASB 1995
What do those locations mentioned in the fourth verse have in common? For one, Rahab (that is, Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia are all places fed by rivers or connected to some body of water. Yesterday I did a word search for “confus*” on biblegateway.com, looking at every time confusion is mentioned in the ancient writings (or Bible). Which locations or nations repeatedly came up where confusion afflicted or attacked its people?
Among those places are Babylon [or Babel] (Genesis 11:1-9), Egypt (Exodus 14:24), Philistia (1 Samuel 5:1-12; 7:10; 14:20), etc. Furthermore, the people of those nations worshipped various water spirits. The Philistines, for instance, worshipped Dagon, a “marine spirit” who was half-man and half-fish. When their idol of Dagon fell before the ark of God in 1 Samuel 5, Dagon’s head and hands broke off from its torso.
Such is reminiscent of the death of Queen Jezebel, who originated from the region of the port cities of Tyre and Sidon. When Jezebel was thrown to her death (after applying her cosmetics), only her skull and the palms of her hands remained after she was trampled by a horse and eaten by dogs. Jezebel had brought many forms of sexual immorality, seduction, manipulation, gossip, sorcery (pharmakeia), etc. into the culture of Israel.
This brought great misery, rebellion, rejection, depression, disease, confusion, addiction, hopelessness, family disintegration and dysfunction, strife, and lack of prophetic vision and purpose to the people of Israel. The spirits, attitudes, and mindsets of Jezebel and Dagon both brought confusion, discord, dysfunction, disease, destruction, and death to those under their influence.
In speaking of Jezebel’s cosmetics, there is nothing wrong with cosmetics. Idolatry occurs whenever a “good thing” that God created becomes a “god thing” that short-circuits our connection to Him as Creator and intimately-involved Loving Father who desires to lavish us with good gifts, honor, authority, joy, peace, purpose, and every good and perfect gift that comes from Him (3). Jezebel and the Philistines were overly obsessed with outward appearances, cosmetics, and fashion as a way to mask or to cover up the pain, guilt, shame, and rejection that they felt inside their hearts (4).
Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart (5). All too often, like Jezebel and the Philistines, we might find ourselves afraid of people, making man our god, resulting in emotional insecurity, since mankind is too often fickle and “cannot hold water.” In other words, people will let us down, but God is the only perfectly secure, pure, unadulterated Source of “living water” who will not leave us disappointed whenever we trust in Him (6).
That doesn’t mean that bad things won’t ever happen to us, but that when those bad things do happen to us, God has not abandoned us and He is not punishing us, but rather He has provided us with the tools and resources to be overcomers and to bring His healing and restoration into the situation if we continue to walk with Him by trusting that He is up to something good and do not give up.
Jesus is the only way to God since all other gods, philosophies, or man-made religions “cannot hold water” and never overcame death and that which separates us from God’s love. Jesus–God the Son–is the only one whom God the Father exalted to His right hand, so only those who submit their allegiance to Jesus can be given the authority and permission to be and to sit with God in the heavenly realms as “co-heirs with Christ.”
This only comes by humbly receiving God’s grace, acknowledging that we have “nothing to bring to the table” through our own accomplishments or spiritual pedigrees. Only by relying totally on what Jesus accomplished for us through his sinless life, death in our place, and resurrection from the dead will God graciously (as a free, unearned gift) grant us reconciliation (restored acceptance) and friendship with God (7).
For more information to further unpack what it means to submit one’s allegiance to Jesus and/or to restore friendship with God, I recommend this post: Would You Like to be God’s Friend?
- This total includes the two times that “Rahab” is used in NASB section titles rather than the actual biblical text. Results found from using the search function on biblegateway.com.
- Being the fourth generation from Rahab can be one factor to help explain why King David struggled intensely with sexual immorality, as the iniquities of one’s forefathers will visit one’s descendants down to four generations and keep perpetuating generationally until they are dealt with (or “crucified”) once and for all.
- See James 1:17.
- The notion of marine spirits linked to an over-obsession with cosmetics and fashion I gain from the accounts of Judges 14:12ff and 2 Kings 9:30 in conjunction with the experiences, observations, and YouTube teachings of others on the topic of marine spirits.
- See 1 Samuel 16:7.
- See Jeremiah 2:13; John 4:10f; 7:37-39.
- See John 1:12; Romans 8:16f, 31ff; Ephesians 2:1-10.
