Daily Devotional · Joshua 2:1–21
A Scarlet Thread
Reflection
Two spies entered Jericho and stayed at the house of a woman named Rahab. When the king's men came looking, she hid them under stalks of flax on the roof. Why would a pagan prostitute risk her life for enemy spies? Her answer reveals a remarkable faith: "I know that the Lord has given you this land. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt... Our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." Rahab had heard. She believed. And she acted on that belief at enormous personal risk. She asked for one thing: a promise of safety for her family. The spies' instruction was simple: tie this scarlet cord in your window. The same cord that let them down the wall would mark her house for safety when Israel came. She tied it immediately. The scarlet cord has resonated with theologians across centuries as a type of the blood of Christ — visible identification with God's people, the mark that distinguishes the protected from the destroyed. The Passover lamb's blood on the door. The scarlet cord in the window. The cross raised in history. Rahab the Canaanite prostitute ends up in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5) and in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:31. Grace is not selective about background.
Background
Rahab's inclusion in Matthew's genealogy alongside Sarah, Rebekah, and Ruth is intentional — Matthew highlights women with unusual or compromised backgrounds to demonstrate grace's scope. Rahab married Salmon of the tribe of Judah and became the great-grandmother of King David. From Jericho's wall to David's line to the Messiah.
Truth
No past disqualifies a person from being used by God. Rahab's profession did not define her destiny. What defined her was her response to what she had heard about God — she believed and acted. Faith that costs something is the kind God honors.
Application
What in your past do you believe disqualifies you from full usefulness to God? Name it. Then read Rahab's story again and ask: does God seem to be limited by this? Ask Him specifically to write your name into the story He is telling through history.