Hebrews 11:31

‘By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies with peace.'

And there was another who had the same faith as Israel that God would deliver Jericho into the hands of Israel, a Gentile who became one with Israel (Joshua 6:25), Rahab the prostitute inn-owner. She listened to what she was told of the promises of God, and by faith received the spies as friends, and refused to join in with the disobedience of her fellows, thus escaping destruction. Both Israel and this God-fearing Gentile believed God at this same time. And through her faith her life was changed. She, and probably her whole family, became one with the people of God because she believed His promises. ‘Received the spies with peace.' That is as a welcome friend and not an enemy. If the Rahab through whom Boaz the ancestor of David was born was the same Rahab (see Matthew 1:5; the fact of the mention of the unusual mention of a woman's name confirms that she was a well known woman) she also became the ancestress of Christ.

An adulterous innkeeper who was part of the larger idolatrous and unbelieving mass of people, who by faith turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, would be seen as a perfect example of those Gentiles who in the writer's time did exactly the same. For that was how the Gentile world appeared to believers; idolatrous, adulterous and unbelieving. Her turning to God and coming within the covenant was a sign of God's welcome for all Gentiles who would seek Him truly.

So were his readers, both Jew and Gentile, to hear and believe the words of God and be true to the people of God in the face of all opposition.