The Scarlet Cord

How a prostitute can both save a city in the past and teach us how our souls are saved in the present.

by Sean Brendan Stewart

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Our dear brother Paul of Burkhart not long ago wrote a letter asking that a theme of “women in ministry” be written on. As I am in graduate school and life has taken me in its undertow, over a month has passed since. I have been thinking all the while about this, though, and I thought of all the women whose ministries have deeply engraved Christ in my heart and mind. Women like Elizabeth Elliot, Kristyn Getty, Grace Driscoll, Grace Irwin (who wrote a book called Servant of Slaves), Brooke Fraser, and women only some have been graced to know, as Susan Hermes, Helen Toroian, Rachel McConnell, Lisa Rodebaugh, and Linda Sieben. I believe all of us have known women who have indelibly nurtured Christ in us.

I began then to think of women who have inactively ministered to me; whose lives should minister to all of us. The origin of the word “minister” is in the Latin, meaning “servant”; and the all-encompassing power of dictionary.com informs that a ministry is “the act of serving; ministration,” and of “One that serves as a means; an instrumentality.” The lives of certain women serve as means to grace, as means to better know God. They are as musicians before our most talented and brilliant Conductor.

As I was reading in Romans 4 this last week, the story of Abraham’s faith encapsulated me. We read of how “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He has promised. That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness’” (.20-22). It is enlightening to meditate on the strengthening growth of Abraham’s faith being paralleled to his giving glory to God, and in relation to foundationally being fully convinced of God’s faithfulness. But then Paul writes something that is illuminating to me; “But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him Who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (.23-25). These things are for us.

So it is with the stories of the women I now write of.

I have been reminded of the redeemed prostitutes of the Bible. They stand as representatives of what I call the Joseph theology. Although they do not actively minister through their former work – since prostitution is not a ministry – they do so inactively, through God’s grace to use their evil for good. A resounding theme of Joseph’s life is echoed in Genesis 50.15-21, as Joseph’s brothers “came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.’” This is the Joseph theology; that God is so magnificently, exorbitantly powerful and merciful, that His goodness absorbs and purifies evil. This is redemption; and this is how the redeemed prostitutes of the Bible minister.

Rahab

Hebrews 11.30-31 “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”

The story of Rahab is beautiful to think of. It begins in Joshua 2 and ends in Joshua 6, and is later memorialized in Hebrews 11; only a chapter and a spatter of verses are given to her, and barely spittle is told of her. Yet there is marrow in the mere bone of her story. A descriptive word of great worth rests in the story: prostitute.

Joshua sends spies to Jericho, and the story tells that “they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.” Rahab was recognized and defined as a prostitute above all else. Rahab was not a perfect woman, and we stand as benefactors of her life because of it. For Christ alone is perfect; and Christ came not for the healthy but the sick. Through the story we become eavesdroppers on a promise made between the spies and Rahab, and because of her protecting the spies she in turn was promised that she and her family would be the sole survivors of Jericho; the promise as sealed by the hanging of a scarlet cord.

Retell that story to yourself, and remember God’s promises to His people. Does He not always pour His love on to families, as He did Abraham and his descendants? Does the scarlet cord perhaps remind of the sacrificial lambs at Passover, and foreshadow of salvation coming through Christ’s blood?

The story really is that simple. The spies are sent to Jericho; they come to a prostitute’s house (by “chance” or otherwise is not said, but it is easily seen to be God’s ordaining), and she helps them hide and escape; in turn, the spies promise her and her family clemency; and when Israel besieges and razes Jericho, her house alone, by God’s awe-striking power, is left standing due to her claiming the promise given her. (Is it interesting that Rahab had to claim that promise and hang her scarlet cord? I recently read a book by John Murray called The Power of the Blood of Jesus, asserting that we must be certain to claim and boast the blood of Christ. We must all hang our scarlet cords.)

Yet the memorializing of this story in Hebrews gives greater insight; Rahab was not merely a hospitable prostitute happened upon by the spies. As Charles Haddon (Spurgeon and I are on a first name basis) tells of the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11 in his sermon, “Rahab’s Faith,” he well states,

“And then, as though the greatest victory should be recorded last, we have faith entering the lists with sin, holding a tournament with iniquity, and coming off more than a conqueror. ‘Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.’ That this woman was no mere hostess, but a real harlot, I have abundantly proved to every candid hearer while reading the chapter. I am persuaded that nothing but a spirit of distaste for free grace would ever have led any commentator to deny her sin.

I do think this triumph of faith over sin is not the least here recorded, but that if there be any superiority ascribable to any one of faith’s exploits, this is, in some sense, the greatest of all. What! faith, didst thou fight with hideous lust? What! wouldst thou struggle with the fiery passion which sendeth forth flame from human breasts? What! wouldst thou touch with thy hallowed fingers foul and bestial debauchery? ‘Yea,’ says faith, ‘I did encounter this abomination of iniquity; I delivered this woman from the loathsome chambers of vice, the wily snares of enchantment, and the fearful penalty of transgression; yea, I brought her off saved and rescued, gave her purity of heart, and renewed in her the beauty of holiness; and now her name shall be recorded in the roll of my triumphs as a woman full of sin, yet saved by faith.”
(http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0119.htm)

As Paul wrote of Abraham, “the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him Who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (.23-25). I believe it is so with Rahab, and it is so with all the Bible. It is written for us. A former professor of mine, Dr. Carl Martin, after reading Scripture would always pray, “This is the Word of God. It is holy; it is inerrant; it is inspired. It is written by God, and it is written for us; that we might know what to believe, that we might know how to live, and that on its pages we might meet the living Christ.” The story of Rahab is for me, and it is for you; because we are Rahab, and though we were once prostitutes – and though some of us still are – there is hope through the scarlet cord of Christ’s blood, the mercy of God. “May we ask Him to help us to understand this passage today. Let us pray.”

The cord is to be hung.

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