THE SCARLET CORD ~ part one
I wrote the other day about how critically important hope is and I told of the root meaning that the word comes from. In the Strong's Concordance the word hope is tiqvah #8615 meaning hope, expectation, something yearned for and anticipated eagerly: something for which one waits. Tiqvah comes from the verb quvah meaning "to wait for" or " to look hopefully " in a particular direction. It's original meaning was to "stretch like a rope." Tiqvah occurs 33 times in Joshua 2:18, 21. It is translated line or cord. Rahab was instructed to tie a scarlet tiqvah (cord or rope ) in her window as a sign of her hope for rescue, hers and all her family and those that stayed within her home as warned.
Joshua 2 In this story where Joshua sends out spies to spy out the land, especially Jericho, it is known they are there and the men of the city are looking for them. The King sent to Rahab, saying, " Bring out to us the men that have entered your house, for they have come to spy out all the country."
Rahab, being a harlot had many men coming and going to and from her house. Her house was against the wall and all saw who entered and left her house of ill repute. She knew all the news and was up on everything about the Israelites. She tells the messengers that, " yes they came, but they left" and she did not know where they were from. She spoke to the spies and declared what she knew and agreed to protect and hide them, saving their lives. She hid them under stalks of flax that she laid out on the rooftop of her house.
Vs9. Rahab said to the men that were being hunted, "I KNOW that the Lord has given you the land. The terror of you has fallen on all of us and all the inhabitants of the land are faint hearted because of you." vs. 10." For we have heard ( she heard all the news and gossip) "How the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt, and what he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed." Vs.11 "And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more courage in any one because of you, for the Lord your God is in the heaven and in the earth beneath."
Vs. 12 "Now therefore, I BEG YOU, SWEAR TO ME BY THE LORD, SINCE I HAVE SHOWN YOU KINDNESS, THAT YOU WILL ALSO SHOW KINDNESS TO MY FATHER'S HOUSE, AND GIVE ME A TRUE TOKEN." VS13 " AND SPARE MY FATHER, MY MOTHER, MY BROTHERS, MY SISTERS, AND ALL THAT THEY HAVE, AND DELIVER OUR LIVES FROM DEATH." VS 14 So the men answered her, " Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the Lord has given us this land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you." Vs15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, she dwelt on the wall. Vs 17So the men said to her; "We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you made us swear,Vs18 unless, when we come into the land, you bind THIS LINE OR CORD OF SCARLET IN THE WINDOW through which you let us down and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's house hold
to YOUR OWN HOME." VS 19 "So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of YOUR HOUSE into the street, his blood will be upon 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."Vs 20 "And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear." Vs 21 Then she said," According to your words, so shall be it.", And she sent them away, and they departed.
And SHE BOUND THE SCARLET CORD IN THE WINDOW.
The scarlet cord in the original meaning represented hope. She did it out of faith. As long as hope or the cord was there she expected to be saved, her and her whole family.
Rahab, being called a harlot, having her own house...probably was not respected much by her family, and yet they were the first on her mind when
it came to asking for mercy. Now getting them to come to her house and remain inside must have been a story in it self!
Rahab had heard of God and his exploits, she believed what she heard, and she moved on it when she committed treason against her own Nation to protect and save the spies sent from one of God's leaders. Her own life was at risk, had they been found on her roof top. She sent those looking for them in another direction and after dark lowered the spies from her roof and having knowledge of the territory, directed them to safe passage and escape.
This scarlet thread is woven throughout the Bible, we read of it here, we read of the blood being applied above the windows and doors of the Israelites to save them from the death angel that was coming, but they had to also remain in their houses. Culminating in the shed blood of Jesus for our salvation. That precious blood that flowed from Calvary, from the pierced side of Jesus came the water and the blood that is applied to our sins that we might be saved and kept when we hear, believe and accept Him as Redeemer. It is our hope! He is our only hope.
Back to the reason that I was reminded of the scarlet cord. It played a vital role in a very needed miracle that God performed for my husband and me, of which I desire to testify, or bear witness to.
It is very interesting that the first part of Rahab's name Ra was the name of an Egyptian god. As an Amorite she was apart of an idolatrous, heathen people or Nation. The word harlot is referred to her three times and in the Hebrew term it meant zoonah, and the Greek word porne, it has at no time meant anything else, but " harlot." A woman who yields herself indiscriminately to every man approaching her. Both Paul and James affix the label to her name as " Rahab, the harlot." She was probably treated as a moral leper, even though in those days prostitution was not regarded with the same horror as now. The bible speaks though of harlotry with moral revulsion and social ostracism.
Isn't it just like God to choose to use someone like this knowing he had plans for her that she was totally unaware of ! She only believed, and at some point she was changed and gave up her occupation to become the wife of one of the spies she had sheltered, Salmon. She became known as a noble women. She became the wife of a Prince in Israel. She came to be in the very linage of Jesus Christ himself. She became the mother of Boaz who married Ruth, from whose son Obed, Jesse the father of David came. The linage of which Jesus was born! Matthew 1:5 "Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab". Salmon was a prince of the house of Judah, and thus Rahab, the one time harlot married into one of the leading families of Israel and became the ancestress of our Lord. The other foreign ancestress' being Tamar, Ruth, and Bath Sheba. The gratitude of Salmon for Rahab ripened into Love, and grace erased all her former life of shame and he made her his wife. In the writings of Jerome, his comments about the inclusion of these four foreign women in Matthew's genealogy is suggestive: In it none of the holy women are included, only those whom the scriptures blame, in order that He who came in behalf of sinners, might destroy the sins of all. A harlot was saved before the Gentiles were !!!
There must have been, though only faintly understood, a distinct call from God that she knew somehow she was being singled out from her idolatrous people to aid the God she was beginning to perceive as The one and only God that did the miraculous that she had been hearing about. She put her life on the line, it made her willing to even sacrifice her Nation, to commit treason, punishable by death. She knew that her Nation was accursed of God and perhaps she wanted to separate herself from them, because she had come to believe. She was willing to sacrifice anything regardless of our reasoning.
THE SIGN OF THE SCARLET CORD BECAME HER HOPE OR SIGN OF HER WAITING
DELIVERANCE.
Betty Nelms
