OUR subject of discourse and meditation we may call the Covenant of the Scarlet Thread. There was the Covenant of the Bow in the Cloud. There was also the Covenant of Circumcision. Not but these two were in a way much wider in scope, having to do with Noah and Abraham not only as private individuals, in their standing before God, but also with them as representatives of posterity. What we here take the liberty of calling the Covenant of the Scarlet Thread is first and foremost personal in its bearing, and not, in the first instance at all, between God and any member of the human race. It was entered into and ratified by members of two different families of the human race. Yet so far-reaching were the consequences of this solemn agreement, that in due course Rahab became an ancestress of the Lord Jesus, according to the human nature.
In this chapter, then, there is an account given of the coming of two spies from the camp of Israel to the walled town of Jericho, of what befel them there, and of their subsequent return. Keeping especially in view the conduct of Rahab the harlot towards them and her action on their behalf, with the manifold salvation which she, through faith, came to enjoy as her very own, we shall seek to handle our subject, as enabled, under the following heads:—
1. What is told of her before their coming to Jericho;
Rahab belonged to the land which the Lord promised to give to the children of Israel for a possession and earthly inheritance. She was a heathen, and, like others who were or may be brought from darkness to Gospel light, and from being outlaws of heaven to have peace with God, was by nature without hope and without God in the world. Not that Jericho and her people round about were without religious rites and practices. Far from it. They doubtless served their idols, their false gods, day and night instantly, and laboured to stand well in their sight. A prophet of the Old Testament or preacher of the Gospel, if such a messenger had been sent to them by the Lord, might have said to them, “I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” They were idolaters, although the true God “be not far from every one of us: For in him we live and move, and have our being.”
Along with idolatry, there was another form of evil prevalent in this town and in the land generally, that is, immorality in various forms. Rahab was an harlot, and seems, when the spies came, to have had a lodging-house or hostel for merchants and travellers in their goings and comings. The atmosphere of intercourse was a heathen one, and to be an harlot and have such an hostel would be at no great remove from one another.
If the seeds of evil have not been allowed to yield such wild and rank fruit among us, let us thank God for His mercy in this, and learn that, “as in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” Let us not think nor speak harshly of the Rahab of those remote days, when sin in similar ways may walk at noon-day openly in lands professing to be regulated by the Word of God. There was once One on this earth who said to a self-righteous man, “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.” And he said, “Master, say on.” And the Lord showed him how the weeping and penitent sinner, however soiled, is received, and washed, and cherished by Him, and given to know His undying love, when those who are upright in their own eyes will be sent away empty to perish in their own righteousness. How did Rahab come to know of Jehovah before the spies came? Answer—The news of God’s doings at the Red Sea soon spread. Also, it was the intention and purpose of this wonderful, wandering people to enter the land, or at least He who led them was to guide them thither, and place “His sanctuary there, like to a palace high.” Pharaoh’s name was a byword for power, dominion, and worldly glory. But the God, who brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, was stronger than Pharaoh—even in heathen eyes. Neither the god of the Nile, nor of the valleys, nor of any hills, could resist Jehovah. Enemies fade before Him as grass on house-tops which withers before it be fully grown. We see that what Moses and Israel sang was fully and repeatedly corroborated afterwards. In Exodus xv. we have the whole song. “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, . . . he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation, my father’s God and I will exalt him. . . . The people shall hear and be afraid, . . . sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina, . . . all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. . . . By the greatness of thine arm, they shall be as still as a stone, till the people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.” And so to the end of the song.
Rahab heard of God’s deeds. Rahab became convinced of God’s will or good pleasure to favour Israel, of His power to cast down enemies, and to do for His people all that He promised. It may be that the fact of her having flax on the flat roof is an indication of her being honourably employed at last, though her former designation stuck to her. She may now have been going “softly.” At any rate the Lord prepared her, in a way she knew not, for the great change which followed. “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them” (Isaiah xlii. 16.) By the time that the spies came, her bent of mind and desire seems already much inclined towards the new disposition and character which the Israel of God manifests. She was now to be blessed according to the promise, “I will bless them that bless thee” (Genesis xii. 3.)
2. What she did on behalf of the spies when they entered Jericho.
The hand of God in His grace and providence is very evident in the guidance of the two spies to her house on that memorable occasion. It was reported that men of the children of Israel had come in, and the King sent officers to her to apprehend them. She determined to protect them, and mislead the officers. Two things at least are noteworthy here:—First, the hour of trial came. It was marvellous that they came to her house at all. But there is an overruling Power. You remember that everything was arranged for the triumph of Haman over Mordecai, but “on that night could not the King sleep,” and the very reverse of what Haman expected took place. Here also then was the finger of God. But yet it was a time of trial. God was with her to an extent she knew not. The action and decision was hers. On the one hand, there is the warp and woof of life, intercourse, and association with and among her own people. Over against this, there is the prospect in store for Israel; there is overthrow for enemies, as Sihon and Og were overthrown; there is that God, “the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath.” The door of the tomb was now open. Was she to go out of this tomb by faith, and manifest the reality of it by receiving the spies with peace? Or, having heard of God and expressed herself as she did; was she now to draw back to perdition? Was Jericho to become a sepulchre for her as well as “for them who believed not”? Was her home to become a family vault for her father and people—the door of it about to close down heavily for ever, with her and hers on the inside, body and soul?
The mere coming of two men may seem insignificant, but here it meant the difference, in God’s grace and providence, between being His and not being His! “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (Matthew xii. 30). Blessed be His name, she said in spirit to each, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord”—in to that moral dungeon and spiritual waste, and in due time she went forth to abide with those whose people became her people, and their God her God.
The second thing we wished briefly to refer to is that she said, “whither the men went I wot not,” though they were hid by herself. We are not to defend her in this. The Word of God does not conceal the errors of God’s people, like many biographies. The Holy Spirit has caused to be recorded what He saw right. But God gives repentance and pardon, and they themselves, we believe, often feel that if they received mercy and know the salvation of God, it is in a sense in spite of themselves, and what He does will for ever be to the praise of His glorious grace—”Not of works, lest any man should boast.” She had taken the decision, hid the spies at grave risk to herself, and even in the midst of much ignorance still, yet performed works as evidences of her faith, when “she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way” (James ii. 25).
3. We come in this third place to remark somewhat more minutely on the covenant entered into between them and her.
It was made when she got a favourable opportunity to meet with them. She had an heart to help them, and at the same time sought her own highest welfare. When the soul in its depths is concerned with its welfare for eternity, plans will be made to use the appointed means for seeking the Lord, and for helping His cause and people. The wisdom and wariness of the serpent are to be sought as well as the harmlessness of the dove. When a soul is persuaded as to the sacred reality of “the things that accompany salvation,” the Lord will help and meet with that soul. He will not only bless him, but as far as that is for His glory, make him a blessing. “Bless, Lord, his substance; and accept the work of his hands.”
This covenant was also ordered in all things that were needful for her and hers. We need not at present do more than refer you to the text of it in the chapter. They were to deal kindly with her as she dealt with them in the day of their distress. You may say that each had a claim on the other. But the Lord dealt kindly toward her in putting it into her heart to shew kindness to them! And He dealt kindly with them in enabling them to accomplish their mission successfully! So there was no room for claim in any meritorious way, when God was “all and in all” in the matter!
This covenant was, in addition, sure. “This line of scarlet thread in the window” was given as a “true token.” It was the very cord which they were let down by. So their lives hung on that occasion upon that thread. In a somewhat different sense, so did her life and the lives of her father’s house. If it were on her window, well; but, if not, the guilt of innocent blood lay at her own door.
As to the pledge of the covenant, observe that in itself it was, on the whole, a trivial thing. So may a worldly man or scoffer look upon the symbols of our New Testament Sacraments. Some water in Baptism with no admixture! Yet how full of meaning! A piece of bread, blessed and broken! Yet “this is my body, which was broken for you.”
Again, the pledge was to be hung in a place conspicuous to all Israel—from a window on the wall. All Israel doubtless saw it, daily for six days and seven times on the final day! So with the Cross of Christ in its Bible-and-Holy-Spirit revelation. It is not on any marble altar it need be, nor hanging literally from a man’s neck or woman’s. It is to be known and confessed by the Israel of God as the centre and source of “grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
But while conspicuous to the children of Israel, it was hid from the rest of Jericho. They hated Israel. Their enmity she well knew. Some perhaps saw a scarlet line hanging as they passed out and in for a season, but it had no meaning to them. How many are there in Christendom who are still ignorant of the “secret of the Lord,” who see no meaning in, and attach no value to, the shedding of that blood wherewith the eternal covenant of peace and mercy is ratified! “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost” (2 Cor. iv. 3). And how many yet never heard that Jesus Christ “is come into this world to save sinners!” (1 Timothy i. 15).
Lastly, it is especially worthy of notice that the thread was scarlet in colour. There was just one thread to hang there until the time of liberty, and it was a scarlet one. We find the “scarlet” in the days of Abel, of Noah, of the patriarchs, of the ceremonial law up to the Cross of Christ, where the “shadow” passed away and gladly gave place to the “substance.” Yet we have the symbol of His shed blood with us still, for “the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. x. 16).
The covenant for her, then, was ordered in all things and sure. And so with us if we enjoy like faith, and repentance and new obedience. May the covenant sealed with the blood of Christ be all our salvation and all our desire!
4. “The conclusion of the whole matter.”
It came to pass that she staked not her all in vain on the covenant with its pledge and oath in the name of Jehovah (verse 12). The true token was there until the day of deliverance. She was preserved and openly acknowledged in that day. The Church of God has her pledge, “till he come.” Though flesh and heart will faint and fail the members of His mystical body in this world, yet God will fail them never.
Rahab was not only delivered but highly favoured, becoming—as far as may be determined—the ancestress of Boaz, and, therefore, of our Lord.
“Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity: but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. xi. 22).
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews xi. 6). May He bless His Word. Amen.