Scripture: Joshua 2: 12 – 14
12 “Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that 13 when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.” 14 “We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety,” the men agreed. “If you don’t betray us, we will keep our promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land.”
Scripture Commentary:
Rahab was one of Jericho’s well-known prostitutes. She not only lived in Jericho, she also practiced her trade there. This was the perfect place for the spies to hide. The townspeople were accustomed to men coming from and going to her home.
The king got word that spies were in Jericho. Gossipers told of strangers who had come to Rahab’s house so he sent his men to check it out. Rahab hid the men from the king’s spies. She told the spies that she had heard of their God and believed.
Through her faith, Rahab was spared.
Rahab, who the people of Jericho looked down on, had placed her faith and belief in the one God, Yahweh. She kept her word and told the spies where to hide and then to make their escape. In turn, the spies told her to tie a scarlet cord on her window to signify which house not to destroy. The color scarlet has been a symbol of Jesus’s blood shed on the cross.
Only God can turn our sin into a scarlet cord of forgiveness. Only Jesus’s blood has the power to remove sin.
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