The original red-light district?

(written July 17, 2008 - posted here for archival purposes)

From Joshua 2-
(I realize this is speculation, but I thought that I'd pass it on because I enjoyed the thought.)

To get the setting: Joshua send two spies into Jericho to get the lay of the land. They run into Rahab, who protect and hides them. Rahab lets the spies down over the wall by a scarlet cord. The spies tell her to tie the cord in her window and she and everyone inside with her will be safe from the invading Isreal army.


I started thinking about Rahab. Would she have taken the cord she used to save the spies, cut off a piece, tie a neat little bow in her window and hope it got noticed. (That's the picture that I grew up with.) I don't think so. I think that she realized that she was in a life-or-death situation and threw caution to the wind. I can see her using the ENTIRE length of cord, weaving it into her window frame. I can imagine her going out and buying all the scarlet cord that she can find just to make sure that every window in her house was covered. She wanted to make sure that she was noticed and protected just as the spies had promised. She wanted to make sure that no one would mistake her house.

Now can you imagine being inside Rahab's house. Every window is covered with a scarlet weaving. As the light filters through the scarlet cord, everything is bathed in a red glow. What do her neighbors think? After all, she is a hooker, I mean, a harlot. It was just something she thought would give her an advantage over the competition, right?

WRONG! That scarlet cord was her salvation. And that red glow that was cast over the occupants of that house is a picture of the fact that all need to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ in order to be saved. Because of her faith, Rahab was saved from the annihilation that the rest of Jericho faced. Because of her faith, was included in the genealogy of both King David and the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of your faith, what will the Lord involve you in?




Ps- Isn't it just like Satan to take something that could be such a beautiful picture and corrupt it so that becomes a symbol for Rahab's previous profession instead of a symbol of her deliverance.