The Scarlet Cord
These verses introduce us to Rahab. They account how Rahab and all who belonged to her were saved by her hanging a Scarlet Cord from her window. The Scarlet Cord likely prefigured the faith the Bible encourages we should have in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the son of the
God of Israel. Jesus
(and his sacrifice) is the
theme of the Bible running through from Genesis to Revelation. Rahab's family's salvation was God's gift to her because she showed faith, by hiding his people's spies and then helping them escape. Her paying attention to what was real, and her faith in that reality, preserved her alive. Her hope and faith would surely have been foolishness to her neighbors. Whether or not Jesus is represented by the scarlet cord; he as
theme begins with the introduction of his sacrifice in
Gen 3:15, and runs all the way through the Revelation of Christ as King of God's Kingdom. (
1 Cor 15:12-28)
The Scarlet Cord thus seems one of God's
Cords of Love. (
Hos 11:3-4)
Fun facts about the Canaanite harlot Rahab and the Moabite woman
Ruth.
Rahab married a Jewish Man named Salmon and their son Boaz married Ruth.
So, Rahab was mother-in-law to Ruth, in the midst
of a Jewish nation sometimes known to be judgmentally prejudice...
Both women were ancestress's of Jesus Christ. (
Mat 1:1-6)