The Story of Rahab - a Gentile 'Passover'?

I was reading the story of Rahab to my daughter last night and was struck by it in a way that I have not been previously. Everyone knows the story but just to recap - Joshua sends two spies into the promised land to scope it out and specifically tells them report on Jericho. The two spies enter Jericho and meet Rahab - the king of Jericho finds out that they are there and Rahab covers for them, saying she saw them leave the city. She then hides them on her roof. She professes an amazing statement of faith to these two spies saying,

"I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have despaired because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard these reports, our hearts melted and no courage remained in anyone any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth below." (Joshua 2:9-10)

She then makes the two spies promise that the LORD God will spare her and her family and they make that promise to her. They tell her to tie a scarlet cord (rope) and set it outside of her window, then to gather her entire family in her house and then the LORD will spare them. They leave, she does as instructed and her and her entire family are spared, despite the utter destruction of the rest of Jericho (Joshua 6:22-23).

It's the elements of the scarlet (red) cord, the gathering into the house and the destruction of everything outside of the home that has me thinking about this story differently. There is also the fact that Rahab was not Jewish, nor did she convert to Judaism, and yet, we see she had faith, and that in a very literal sense, her faith saved her. In Hebrews we read:

"Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. For by it the people of old gained approval." [...] "By faith the walls of Jericho feel down after the Israelites had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed spies in peace." (Hebrews 11:1, 30-31)

In the story of the Passover, the people of Israel were commanded to gather together in their households (Exodus 12:3-4) and to put some of the RED blood of the slaughtered Passover lamb on their doorposts (Ex. 12:7). Then God says,

"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." (Exodus 12:12-13)

All of the same elements are there between the two stories. The scarlet cord and the blood, the gathering of the household together, and the destruction that happens to everyone else not under the protection of the Lord. When I say "could this be a Gentile Passover", I don't say that in order to slight the Jewish Passover, not by any means, but rather, to further underscore that God has always had the redemption and salvation of the World in mind, and He gives us a wonderful example of this in the story of Rahab. I believe its possible that the elements of the two stories were meant to be reminiscent of each other.

Taking it one more layer down - think of the eschatological significance of the story of Rahab. In this story, God is leading His people (the Israelites) into the promised land - the land of Canaan (soon to be Israel), the land promised to Abraham. At Jesus' second coming, we will see this happen with permanence. Over and over in the Law and the Prophets, they speak of God re-gathering his people from all over the Earth in those Last Days (Hosea 11:10, Isa 49:1, Deut. 30:4, Psalm 107:3, Isa 43:5-7, Ezekiel 36:34, Jer. 32:37, and many others). In this light, the story of Rahab, at a macro level, becomes a picture of what will happen on a worldwide scale on That Day, the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Just as Rahab and her household, all Gentiles, were saved because of the faith and trust she put in the God of Israel, so we Gentiles today can have that same hope - provided our hope is in the God of Israel, Yahweh Elohim, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! There is no need to make God the 'God of Everyone' or to separate His People from Him - the offer of salvation is there for all already. In some sense too, this is a 'first fruits' of God's promise to Abraham from Genesis 12:"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." In a very literal way, God blesses Rahab through the people of Israel, just as He curses all those around Rahab and her family through the judgement/destruction of Jericho.

I've have heard people say that in Acts, in the story of Cornelius and his family receiving the Holy Spirit, that for the first time, God was saying that the Gentiles could be saved as Gentiles, or rather, without becoming Jewish. I find this commentary to be short-sighted. In this story of Rahab, we see Gentiles having faith as Gentiles, and that being accredited by God as righteousness (ala the verse about Rahab in Hebrews). I would have to go back and dig, but I'm pretty sure that the idea that only Jews would be saved, or that Gentiles had to become Jewish in order to be saved, was a machination of the Jewish leadership and not a mandate of God.

Anyway - had to get this all put in writing before my thoughts scattered. I didn't even mention the fact that Rahab is mentioned in the lineage of Jesus, which also seems significant. I'll have to think more about that, too.