I just finished a book about faith and one of the chapters is entitled “Red Cords.” After reading the title, my thoughts jumped to the possibilities of what it was referring to. I immediately decided it was either an image of Christ’s blood or an overly poetic way of referring to an umbilical cord (okay, okay… I’m around babies too much). Either way, I thought, both of those images represent red cords that bring about life. This chapter, however, focused on the story of Rahab. Here’s my quick summary/paraphrase of her story (found in Joshua 2)…
As Rahab’s story begins, Joshua sends two spies into Jericho to scope out the territory before sending in the rest of the army. These two spies go to stay with Rahab, a prostitute living in the city. Word gets back to the king that Rahab is housing these spies and he sends his soldiers to demand that she turn them over. Rahab then lies to the king’s soldiers, telling them that the spies had already gotten away when she'd actually hidden them in stalks of flax on her roof.
After the king’s soldiers had left she went up to talk to the spies. She told them what she knew about their God and how her people were “melting with fear” because of the news of what thier God had done at the Red Sea. In verse 11 Rahab begins to recognize the character of this God when she states, “For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.”
Rahab and the spies made an agreement that if she didn’t rat them out, they would spare her and her family when they came to conquer the Promised Land (verse 14). Rahab’s home was built into the town wall, so she let the spies out of her window then down the wall with a rope and advised them on the best plan of escape. Before the men left they instructed her, “When we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window through which you let us down...”(Verse 18).
When Joshua moved his army across the Jordan to conquer Jericho, Rahab had done as the spies had told her, leaving that red cord hanging in her window. When Joshua’s soldiers saw the red cord they passed over her home, sparing the lives of Rahab and her family.
There is so much I could say about Rahab; she went on to live a life of honor, she’s one of 4 women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus, and her life is repeatedly used as an example of pure faith (James 2 & Hebrews 11). The red cord hanging in that window is a beautiful picture to me of Rahab’s courage, incredible faith, and reckless abandon for the cause of her God. It’s a picture of how the Lord takes motley and broken characters, like Rahab or… me, and uses them for His glory. How mind-blowing is that?
I pray that God will allow my life to be characterized by “bright red cords”, I pray that he will grant me enough courage to do bold things for Him and to really live my faith like Rahab did. So yep, that’s where the blog name came from, may it be used as a testament to God’s work in my life.
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