A Scarlet Cord of Grace: Following Joshua Into The Promised Land

July 29, 2026

Jericho wasn't just another city. It was one of the oldest and most heavily fortified cities in Canaan. Massive walls surrounded it. From a human perspective, Jericho looked unconquerable. It represented everything standing between God's people and God's promises.

And yet, before God brings down the walls, He reaches into the city to save one unlikely woman.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”.

-Joshua 2:1-3

Rahab faces a choice, a radical choice at this moment. The agents of two conflicting kingdoms knock on her door, and she must choose between doing what would please God and what would please someone else, in Rahab’s case, the king of Jericho.  

Most of us will never have soldiers pounding on our front door demanding that we betray God's people. But don't think for a moment that we won't face the same choice. It simply comes dressed differently.

It may come when everyone at work is cutting ethical corners and you're expected to go along. It may come when friends pressure you to laugh at something that dishonors God. It may come when telling the truth costs you a promotion, a friendship, or someone's approval.

The kingdoms are different, but the question is the same: Whose voice will you obey?

Rahab chooses to obey God’s voice. She chooses to hide the Israelites:

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)  So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

-Joshua 2:4-7

Rahab hides the spies. She deceives the king’s men. If she is discovered, she is a traitor. She could lose her life. She risks everything. Why?

We discover the reason a few verses later:

Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below."

“Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

-Joshua 2:8-13

She has heard the stories of what God has done! And she believes!

Isn't it remarkable?

Rahab wasn't there when the Red Sea parted. She wasn't there when Pharaoh's army drowned. She wasn't there when God provided manna. She only heard the stories.

Yet many people who witnessed those miracles firsthand still refused to trust God.

Rahab heard secondhand testimony and believed.

Rabab by Peter Leithart

Every Sunday we hear stories of God's faithfulness. We hear testimonies. We read Scripture. We sing about His goodness. The question is: Will we believe enough to obey?

Rahab shows us that faith is never merely believing something in your head. True faith acts. True faith obeys. True faith eventually costs you something. Or as A.W. Tozer exclaims, “True faith commits itself.”

James 2:17 tells us, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Then in verse 26: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

And the example of faith in action that James shares with us…James 2:15: “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” 

Again, we must never forget that the Bible never teaches that we are saved by obedience, but it consistently teaches that saving faith produces obedience.

Obedience is not the root of our salvation; it is the fruit of our salvation.

Rahab wasn't saved because she hid the spies. She hid the spies because she believed God.

As John Calvin famously wrote, "It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone." Real faith always leaves footprints. Rahab's faith wasn't merely something she believed in her heart. It became something she did with her hands. She climbed to the rooftop. She hid the spies. She lowered them from her window by a rope. She trusted God more than she trusted the king of Jericho.

But the story isn't over.

Before the spies disappear into the hills, they leave Rahab with one final instruction. Her faith has already moved her to protect them. Now it will move her to patiently wait on God's promise. The spies tell her:

"This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads..."Agreed," she replied. "Let it be as you say."

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

-Joshua 2:17-21

Did you notice what Joshua tells us?

He doesn't say she waited until Israel arrived. He doesn't say she waited until she heard the trumpets. He says, "She tied the scarlet cord in the window." Immediately. That little detail speaks volumes.

Faith doesn't merely agree with God's promises. Faith acts on God's promises.

Imagine your doctor prescribes medicine that will save your life. You can say, "I completely trust my doctor." But if the prescription sits unopened on the kitchen counter, your actions reveal what you really believe. Trust is demonstrated by taking the medicine.

Rahab believed God's promise, so she hung the cord. Every morning when she looked out that window, she saw not just a rope but a reminder: God has made me a promise.

The scarlet cord is a beautiful picture pointing forward to Christ. Just as the blood of the Passover lamb marked the Israelite homes in Egypt and brought deliverance (Exodus 12)...

... this scarlet cord marked Rahab's home for salvation when judgment came upon Jericho.

While Scripture does not explicitly call the scarlet cord a symbol of Christ, it beautifully echoes God's consistent pattern: salvation comes through trusting His provision, not our own efforts.

The cord itself had no power. Its power was found in the promise behind it. In the same way, there is nothing magical about the wood of the cross. Our hope is in the Savior who died upon it.

Rahab's neighbors probably walked past that scarlet cord every day. Some may have laughed. Some may have ignored it. Some probably wondered why it was there. But when the walls fell, that scarlet cord marked the only house that stood under God's promise.

But the scarlet cord wasn't just a sign that Rahab would survive. It was a sign that her story was about to change forever. God's grace doesn't simply rescue us from judgment. It gives us a brand-new future.

In Joshua 6, we read about the fall of Jericho. God instructs the Israelites to march around the city once each day for six days. On the seventh day, they march around it seven times. Then we read:

On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent."... When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted... the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.

-Joshua 6:15-17, 20

Can you imagine what Rahab must have been thinking? As the trumpets echoed through the city...As the ground began to shake...As the walls that had protected Jericho for generations came crashing down...

She stood behind that scarlet cord, clinging to nothing but the promise of God. Everything around her collapsed. But the promise of God did not.

But the miracle wasn't simply that Rahab survived. The miracle was what happened after she survived. Joshua tells us:

"But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day."

-Joshua 6:25

Notice those words: "She lives among the Israelites."

She wasn't merely spared. She was welcomed. She wasn't simply forgiven. She was adopted. She wasn't left standing outside the camp. She became part of God's family.

Isn't that the story of the gospel?

God doesn't merely forgive our sins and then keep us at arm's length. He brings us into His family. He gives us a new name. He gives us a new identity.

The world would have introduced her as "Rahab the prostitute." But God had another introduction. Years later, when the Gospel of Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus, we read these surprising words: "Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab..." (Matthew 1:5).

Rahab married a Jew from the tribe of Judah, Salmon. Rahab and Salmon’s son was Boaz, who married Ruth. Their son was Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David.

Think about that for a moment. The woman known throughout Jericho for her shame becomes part of the family tree of the Messiah.

She isn't remembered only for what she was. She is remembered for whom she trusted.

Grace reached farther than her past. What Jericho called her was not what God called her.

The labels people place on us are not the final word. The cross has the final word.

Maybe someone here still carries labels from years ago: "Failure." "Addict." "Divorced." "Unfaithful." "Unworthy." Maybe those words have become so familiar that you've started believing they define you. But Rahab reminds us that your past may explain your story, but it does not have to determine your future.

Paul writes: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Notice he doesn't say you're an improved version of the old you. He says you are a new creation. God doesn't simply renovate our lives. He recreates them.

Corrie ten Boom once said, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." Rahab is living proof. Her past could not outrun God's grace. Her reputation could not outrun God's grace. Her failures could not outrun God's grace.

And neither can yours.

The same God who rewrote Rahab's story is still rewriting stories today. He takes prodigals and calls them sons. He takes enemies and calls them friends. He takes sinners and calls them saints. He takes the broken and makes them whole. He takes the guilty and declares them righteous through Jesus Christ. That's why the gospel is such good news.

God doesn't invite us into His story because of where we've been. He invites us because of who He is.

The scarlet cord hanging from Rahab's window pointed to a greater scarlet sacrifice that would one day be made outside the walls of Jerusalem.

There, the blood of Jesus Christ would secure salvation—not just for a woman in Jericho—but for everyone who places their faith in Him.