Rahab and the Scarlet Cord

A knock at the door. Soldiers of the king, demanding to come in. Up on the flat roof, under a pile of drying plants, two men lie perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe. Everything now depends on the woman who opens the door.

Moses has died, and Joshua now leads Israel. The people are camped at a place called Shittim, east of the Jordan River. On the other side of the river stands Jericho, a walled city surrounded by palm trees, guarding the way into the land God has promised. Before Israel crosses, Joshua quietly sends out two men. “Go and look over the land,” he tells them, “especially Jericho.” The spies cross the river and slip into the city. They go to the house of a woman named Rahab. Her house is built right into the city wall. The Bible is honest about Rahab: she was a prostitute, and people in Jericho looked down on her and on the way she made her living. But she is about to become one of the bravest people in this whole story.

Someone has seen the strangers. Word reaches the king of Jericho. “Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land!” The king sends soldiers to Rahab’s door. “Bring out the men who came to your house. They’re here to search out the whole country.” But Rahab has already taken the spies up to her roof and hidden them under stalks of flax she had laid out there. She faces the soldiers calmly. “Yes, some men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they were from. At dusk, when it was time to shut the city gate, they left. I don’t know where they went. Hurry after them, and you might catch them!” The soldiers rush off down the road toward the river crossings. Behind them, the city gate slams shut.

Before the spies lie down for the night, Rahab climbs up to the roof. And she tells them something astonishing. “I know that the Lord has given you this land. Everyone here is terrified of you. We heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. We heard what you did to the two Amorite kings across the Jordan. When we heard it, our hearts melted. No one has any courage left. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.” Do you hear what she is saying? This woman of Jericho, who has never been to Sinai, never eaten manna, never heard Moses teach, has listened to the stories of what Israel’s God has done, and she believes. Then she asks for one thing. “Swear to me by the Lord that, because I’ve been kind to you, you will be kind to my family. Save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and everyone who belongs to them.” “Our lives for yours,” the men promise, “if you don’t tell anyone about this.”

Because her house is part of the wall, Rahab lowers them down from her window on a rope, straight down the outside of the city. “Go up into the hills,” she tells them, “so the men chasing you won’t find you. Hide there three days, until they come back. Then go on your way.” The spies give her their sign. “When we come into the land, tie this scarlet cord in the window you let us down through. Bring your whole family into your house. Anyone inside will be safe.” “Agreed,” says Rahab. They disappear into the dark. And she ties the scarlet cord in her window.

The spies hide in the hills for three days while the searchers comb the roads. Then they cross back over the Jordan and tell Joshua everything. “Truly the Lord has given the whole land into our hands. All the people there are melting with fear because of us.” And Rahab’s story doesn’t end there. When Jericho fell, she and her family were saved, and she lived among the people of Israel from then on. Matthew’s Gospel names her in the family line of King David, and of Jesus himself.

Why was there flax on Rahab’s roof? In ancient Israel, flat roofs were working spaces, used for drying crops in the sun. Flax was grown for its fibres, which were spun into linen, and the stalks were pulled up and laid out to dry. In the warm Jordan Valley this happened in spring, which fits the story: Israel crossed the Jordan in the first month of the year, at harvest time. An inscription known as the Gezer Calendar, a list of farming seasons carved in stone, even names a month for harvesting flax.

Rahab’s story is in the book of Joshua, chapter two. An outsider with a past heard about God, believed, and acted bravely on what she believed. So here is something to think about. What have you heard about God, and what is one brave thing believing it might lead you to do?