The Scarlet Cord

Footsteps on the stairs. Soldiers at the door. Up on the flat roof, two men lie very still under piles of drying flax, hardly breathing. And the woman of the house goes down to answer.

After forty years in the wilderness, the people of Israel are camped east of the Jordan River. Across the water lies the land God promised them, and guarding its doorway is the walled city of Jericho, an oasis of palm trees in the hot Jordan valley. Joshua, Israel's new leader, secretly sends two men to look over the land, especially Jericho. They slip into the city and go to the house of a woman named Rahab. The Bible calls her a harlot, a prostitute. Her house is built into the city wall itself. It is the kind of place where strangers could come and go without much notice. But not this time.

Someone reports to the king of Jericho: men from Israel have come tonight to search out the land. The king sends word to Rahab. Bring out the men who came to your house. But Rahab has already hidden them on her roof, under the stalks of flax she had laid out to dry. Yes, she says, some men did come, but I did not know where they were from. At dark, when the city gate was about to close, they left. I don't know where they went. Hurry after them, you might catch them. The king's men rush off toward the fords of the Jordan, and the city gate is shut behind them.

Then Rahab climbs up to the roof. I know, she tells the spies, that the Lord has given you this land. We heard how he dried up the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. We heard what you did to the kings beyond the Jordan. Our hearts melted. Then she says something remarkable for a woman of Jericho. “The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” She has decided whom she will trust. And she asks for mercy. I have shown you kindness. Promise me you will show kindness to my family. Save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and everyone they have.

The men swear it. Our life for yours, they say, if you do not tell anyone about our business. Then Rahab lets them down by a rope through her window, out over the wall. Hide in the hills for three days, she tells them, until the searchers come back. Before they go, the spies give her a sign. Tie this line of scarlet thread in the window you let us down through. Bring your whole family into your house. Everyone inside will be safe. Rahab ties the scarlet cord in her window. Later, when Jericho's walls fall, Joshua sends the same two men to her house. They bring out Rahab and all her family. And she lives among Israel from that day on.

Why was there flax on Rahab's roof? In ancient Israel and Canaan, flax was pulled up in spring and spread out on flat roofs to dry before being made into linen. The Gezer Calendar, a little limestone tablet found in Israel and one of the oldest known pieces of Hebrew writing, lists the farming year month by month, and one of them is the month of hoeing up flax. That fits the season of this story, when the Jordan was in flood at harvest time.

Rahab's story is in Joshua chapter two, and chapter six, verses twenty-two to twenty-five. Matthew lists her as the mother of Boaz, in the family line of King David and of Jesus. A woman outside God's people, trusting the God of heaven and earth, became part of his family. So here is a question to carry with you. What did Rahab hear about God that made her trust him, and what have you heard?