Symbol Ten: Rahab's Scarlet Cord

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Tenth Symbol of the Jesse Tree: Rahab's Scarlet Cord
(Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery and into the desert where God took care of them. After 40 years, the next generation took over, led by Joshua who sent spies into the promised land. A prostitute named Rahab believed in God and allowed the spies to escape detection. When the Israelites entered the city, Rahab's tied a red cord to her window so they would recognize and save her family) 
Read Rahab's story in Joshua 2:1-18


Rahab--a prostitue--is an unlikely candidate to be used by a Holy God.  Yet, that is exactly why her story is so profound.
Rahab, according to the Jewish Midrash, likely entered into prostitution at roughly 10 years of age, at about the same time the Israelites escaped Egypt.  (This seems shocking, but even today, children as young as 4 years of age are sold into sexual slavery – but that’s another topic entirely.)
If the Rabbinical estimates are true, Rahab would’ve been a well-established prostitute of the age of about 50 by the time the Israeli spies arrived at her door.  She was, by all descriptions and assumptions, well-known and prosperous.  The flax on her roof and the red cord indicates that she was probably a manufacturer and dyer of cloth – not entirely unlike righteous Lydia, a wealthy woman mentioned by Paul in the New Testament.  
So why not Rahab? Why are we surprised to find that God used her?
Because she was a harlot?  A woman?  An idolatrous pagan?
God proves once again in the story of Rahab that God prefers the broken, the used, the unexpected, and the sinner. 
Rahab, in a godless place with a godless past, believes fully—and so lives fully. She steps out not in competence but in faith. She serves not her admirers but her adversaries.  
Rahab, the scarlet woman, flings a scarlet cord out her window—that one thread everything’s hanging on. And that scarlet cord is her identity—that scarlet line running from the animal sacrifice covering Adam and Eve’s nakedness in the Garden of Eden to the crimson markings of blood on the doorframes of the first Passover to the willing drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane—and Rahab is delivered by that singular scarlet cord and tied into the Jewish family. 
The great-grandmother of Christ many times removed— former prostitute, pagan, and profligate—Rahab finds herself the only other woman besides Sarah to be noted in the heroes’ hall of faith. Rahab, right there beside the fathers of the faith—Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, and Noah: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 11:31, KJV).
Rahab knew of the God of Israel, and was in awe of Him, but she didn’t yet know Him.  Still, she risked her own life.   Rahab didn’t let her history, her sin, her past or her reputation stop her from doing what she knew was right, thereby standing before a Holy God so that he may redeem and save her.
When will we stop looking at everyone else’s mistakes, past, and shortcomings and instead see them as God does – redeemed, sanctified, and loved?
Oh and that scarlet cord Rahab threw out that window? In Hebrew, that cord is a tikvah. The same word in Hebrew that means “hope.” You think about that as you tie string around Christmas gifts. 
Today's devotion material taken from the fccdw  and an interview with Ann Voskamp.
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Kids corner

Read:  Joshua 2:1-18 (kid-friendly version)

Discuss: How do you think Rahab felt hiding God's people? How do you think the spies felt, having to trust their lives to this strange women they just met? 

Participate: (hide and seek with an object) Use a red string (or any red object) and take turns hiding it just like Rahab hid the spies while the other person finds it. After a few rounds, briefly talk about how we have to look for God in this season--and sometimes we find God in places or people we might not expect.

Pray: Lead your child in a prayer of commitment that their genuine faith will be shown by their actions. 

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