JUNE 6

A SCARLET THREAD

“Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by. – And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet thread in the window.” (Joshua 2:18, 21)

Joshua had sent two men to secretly spy out the land, the city of Jericho, and they came and lodged into an harlot’s house, named Rahab. When men of the city came looking for them, Rahab hid them so they were not discovered. Later, as she helped them escape, “let down by a cord through the window,” they made promise to her that if she would bind this scarlet thread in her window, bringing her family into her house, all would be safe. When, in due time, the walls of Jericho fell down, her portion of the wall on which her house was built, remained and she was saved.

Interesting to note that the word “line” in this phrase, “line of scarlet thread,” is the Hebrew word “tiqvah” used twice as “line” and thirty times as hope, or expectation. There was a HOPE of scarlet thread that linked her to victory. Her hope of being preserved when all else was being destroyed was in that scarlet thread bound in her window. Obviously, a very beautiful type of that great “scarlet stream” of His blood which cleanseth from all sin, which is our hope in Christ for the fullness of our salvation.

But there is more, for God has a firstfruits company who are becoming THE LINE OF HOPE FOR CREATION, because they themselves have a line of hope that reaches beyond the veil to find its reality in the central supremacy of Christ. So one are we to become in Him, that we shall stand betwixt God and man, the connecting line, the hope of all creation which now groans in its travail. While the sons are looking for the “blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:13), the “earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19). Covered with His blood, endued with HIS LIFE , we become the scarlet thread of hope for a creation waiting for deliverance.