“When we come into the land, you tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you are letting us down. Gather your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family into your house.”
Joshua 2:18 (NASB)
Rahab, a resident of the city of Jericho, was a harlot who helped hide two Israelite spies that Joshua sent there. Rahab developed faith and reverence for the God of the Israelites after hearing of the mighty acts He did for His people. After she helped hide the spies, she asked Joshua to spare her and her family when his army conquered Jericho. They swore an oath to each other, that Joshua would spare her and her family, if she hung a scarlet cord in her window, as a sign to identify her home. As long as Rahab and her family stayed inside the home, with the scarlet cord hanging in the window, they would be spared.
Placing a scarlet cord in the window, reminds me of another bible story. Before the exodus from Egypt, God told Moses to instruct all Hebrew families to put the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their home and then stay indoors. The blood was a sign that kept them safe from the angel of death who swept over Egypt that night.
In the Rahab story, the scarlet cord, the color of blood, was the sign for Joshua’s army to spare that home. Whoever believes and follows Jesus as Lord, has a scarlet cord in the window of their soul, which God can see. That new covenant scarlet cord in the window of our soul, says, “I believe and receive the promise of eternal life through Jesus.”
Rahab and her family were saved by the scarlet cord of redemption. She came to believe in the same God who delivered the Hebrew families who had the blood on the doorposts. Rahab was a gentile who left her old way of life and became grafted into the chosen people by faith. She was the heroine of this story, since the Israelites couldn’t have succeeded in the conquest of Jericho without her help by hiding those spies.
She eventually married a man from the tribe of Judah and lived the rest of her life with faith in the one true God. She turned out to be the great, great grandmother of King David, and an ancestor in the ancestry and lineage of Jesus.
We’ve also been grafted into the family of God by faith, not based on our tribal ancestry, social status or our past history. The story of Rahab teaches us that God will give anyone a fresh start, with the chance to be a hero or heroine and walk according to His will, by His grace.
Because of His boundless mercy, He searches the earth, looking for the scarlet cord of faith in the window of our souls, which speaks louder than outward appearances.
Lord, thank you for your marvelous ways and boundless mercy, in searching all hearts for a scarlet cord of faith, seeing beyond outward appearances, offering redemption to all people. Amen
