Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind in the window this line of scarlet thread by which thou hast let us down; and thou shalt gather to thee in the house thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household;
Two spies have just escaped Jericho through Rahab's window. Now they tell her how to survive the coming invasion: a cord, a window, and a house full of relatives.
Rahab had asked the spies for a sign she could trust.
But Rahab wants a "token," and the spies are able to give her that. She lets them down out of the window by a line of scarlet thread, and that line is bound in the window as a sign. It is not a sign to herself, of course, but to the messengers of judgment when they come. It tells them that judgment is not to fall on any in that sheltered house. What has been the means of their own deliverance they give to her as hers. The likeness to the blood-sheltered houses on the night of the Passover is clear at once.
The word behind "scarlet" points to a dye taken from a small creature, so the colour itself came out of a death.
Scarlet is a well-known symbol of royalty. Rahab bound the bright colour in her window in faith for her own salvation through the word of the spies, and in hope of the coming of her saviours. Its lasting colour, a colour that comes out of death, proclaimed the kingdom. The crimson dye comes from the death of the little creature it is taken from. It may point to the blood of Jesus, whose kingdom shall be established by the power of His reconciling death.
Notice who was told to look at the cord. Rahab was told to hang it, not to stare at it — the ones who had to see it were the soldiers coming to destroy the city.
The scarlet line by which the spies escaped is bound by herself in the window. It was a token to her and a sign to the coming executioners of judgment, when Jericho fell. They saw that scarlet line; but she was not told to look on it. How scarlet speaks of the blood hardly needs to be mentioned. It is the type of being sheltered by the blood. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you," was spoken to Israel, behind the blood-sprinkled doorposts.
The spies tied the cord to a future moment — "when we come into the land." Rahab treated it as something to do immediately.
Dear reader, how beautiful is Rahab's faith! The spies suggested she wait until the people "come into the land" (v. 18) to bind the scarlet line in the window. She does not wait. They are hardly gone when she hurries to put it there, testifying in this way to what she has believed. Her faith does not linger; it speaks out loudly from now on. She proclaims from her window Christ and the power of His work to save the most wretched of sinners.
The promise did not stop with her.
An appropriate sign was given her not only for her own sake but for her family. Salvation came to her house that day, though they were poor and guilty Gentiles. Their deliverance shines all the more brightly against the destruction of all the rest. Those carrying out judgment on Jericho guarantee the safety of Rahab and all her house.
The safety was not in the walls.
Each member of her family could be sure of safety once he or she had crossed the threshold of her house. They were safe not simply because Rahab believed the spies, but because each one had taken refuge with her behind that scarlet line. None could be lost who stayed inside that house. What a company it was! Each one was no better in character than the others in Jericho. Yet together they were marked out, separated from all the rest, because they had taken refuge from coming judgment behind that cord in the window. Behind that line, and inside that house, was the only place of safety. It was not safe because of where the house stood, nor because it was well built. It was safe only because of the scarlet line kept on display in the appointed place.
- The cord. The rope that carried the spies down became Rahab's own sign. They handed her the very thing that had saved them.
- The colour. Scarlet is a dye drawn from the death of a small creature. The token that spared her was a colour that came out of death.
- The eyes. Rahab hung the cord for the men coming to destroy the city, not for herself to gaze at. Like the blood on the doorposts, it worked because the judge saw it.
- The hurry. She could have waited for the invasion, but she tied the cord up the moment they left. Faith like that does not linger, and her window preached to the whole street.
- The house. The line covered a whole household, but only those who came in under it. No one outside the door was safe. No one inside could be lost.
and it shall be, that whoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, -- his blood shall be upon his head, and we shall be innocent; but every one who shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be upon our head, if any hand be upon him.
Two men who owe their lives to Rahab now spell out the exact terms of hers. Everything turns on a door: the oath covers everyone inside her house, and no one who steps into the street.
Step outside, and the blood is on your own head; the spies go free of it. Yet inside that hard line sits a promise: the door stands open to anyone at all.
Is this not a wonderful display of grace, which God pledges to whoever takes refuge in the house of faith, in this doomed city of wickedness? Not a soul will perish who takes refuge under the shelter of the scarlet line. This is very simple. Judgment is the certain doom of whoever is found in the street of Jericho. Life and salvation are the assured portion of whoever is found in the house of faith.
The house was safe because of what hung in its window. One writer traces that cord back to another night of judgment.
She had to bring her family into the house at that time. Anyone outside the house could not count on any protection (vv. 18-19). This may remind us of the Passover in Egypt. Blood on the doorposts and lintels marked a house, and everyone inside it was safe from God's judgment (Ex. 12:12-13). So the red cord symbolizes the blood of Christ which shelters from judgment.
That token carries a still larger meaning.
Let us look more closely at this token, this line of scarlet thread. Under its security not Rahab only, but her whole house, stays safe. Some of us know at once, and know well, what it refers to. We have no doubt at all that here is one of those hints that keep coming back — a hint of what was always in the mind of God from the beginning. The ages were hurrying toward it as their appointed completion. It divides all human history in two, as it divides the human race itself: the blood, the precious blood of Christ.
The oath asks nothing about the people who come in. It asks only where they are standing.
How beautiful that request of hers for all her house! How sweet the grace that now invites everyone in the City of Destruction to take refuge! The scarlet line protects all who come there alike. In the house or outside it — that was the only question. Those gathered there differed in condition, experience, feeling, even in degrees of guilt or of goodness. None of that had anything to do with their safety. Salvation was the common lot and portion of all of them. They were saved by that scarlet line in the window, and not by anything in themselves at all.
"His blood shall be on our head" — the spies make themselves answerable for every life inside.
A fitting sign was given to her, not only for her own sake but for her family. Salvation came to her house that day, though they were poor and guilty Gentiles. Their deliverance shines all the more brightly against the destruction of all the rest. The men who carry out judgment on Jericho guarantee the safety of Rahab and all her house.
Rahab's faith opened the door. It did not carry her family through it.
Rahab asked for herself and for her relatives. She wanted salvation for them all, though at that time perhaps none of them knew what she knew. She learned that they could be saved as well as herself. But each one had to make use of the shelter of the scarlet line. They could be saved with her, but none of them could be saved if they stayed outside her house. Each one had to act in the appointed way, and stay inside her house, in the window of which was that meaningful token.
Rahab asked for a whole household. No one trimmed that down.
When the spies went to bring Rahab out of the doomed city, out of that house sheltered by the scarlet line in the window, they found there "her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had; and they brought out all her families, and left them outside the camp of Israel" (Joshua 6:23, margin). They did not say, "Rahab, you have taken this word 'household' to mean too many." On the contrary, the Lord delights to record how far Rahab's faith reached, and He honours it in full.
The wording of Joshua 6:23 here follows an older translation's margin. The ESV reads "all who belonged to her" and "all her relatives."
- Inside decides. The verse draws one line only: in the house, or in the street. Guilt, goodness, feelings and past experience change nothing.
- The cord, not the walls. Safety rests on the scarlet token in the window. Commentators tie it to the Passover blood and to the blood of Christ.
- The spies answer for it. "His blood shall be on our head." The men who would help destroy Jericho made themselves responsible for one household inside it.
- Not by proxy. Rahab's faith opened the door for her whole family, but each one still had to come in and stay in.
- Ask wide. Rahab asked for father, mother, brothers and all she had — and the spies brought out every one of them.