Joshua 2:18–19: “unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.”

March 23rd, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This is a very interesting story, rich in symbolism. Joshua sent 2 men to secretly spy on the land, especially Jericho. The men went and lodged in Jericho with a harlot named Rahab. The king of Jericho heard that they were there and sought them, but Rahab hid them and helped them escape, asking in return that she and her family be spared when the children of Israel returned to take the city. Rahab believed in God and His power. The spies told her to bind a scarlet cord to her window, which would mark her as safe.

Rahab had 3 strikes against her. She was a pagan, a woman, and a harlot, but she believed. The token or sign of her belief and deliverance was the scarlet thread tied to her window. That its color was scarlet, the color of blood, was not a coincidence. It marked Rahab and her family as being under God’s blood promise of safety. This scarlet thread was a beautiful symbol of the blood of the Messiah that was to come. There is a scarlet thread flowing through the entire Bible from Old Testament to New Testament, representing faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Blood sacrifices began immediately following the entrance of sin into Eden as God supplied the animal-skin coverings for Adam and Eve through the first blood sacrifice for sin. Many more such sacrifices followed, leading ultimately to the Messiah’s blood flowing down the cross of Calvary, the perfect and final sacrifice for sin.

Rahab is mentioned twice in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews says, “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31). And when we read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, we see that Rahab eventually married into the line of Judah. And King David and Jesus were directly descended from her. We all, like Rahab, have been taken from being a despised sinner, separated from God, to being lifted into the lineage of Jesus Christ by faith, through the shed blood of Jesus. Each of us needs to do for others as Rahab did for those she knew. We need to gather father and mother, sons and daughters, family and friends to share with us the shelter under the scarlet blood of Jesus Christ.

“Thank you, LORD, for Your strong shelter from the storm of judgment to come.”