The Scarlet Cord (I)
What this image and its meaning meant to the Canaan-conquering Israelites.
The Scarlet Cord; like so much of Scripture, men have disagreed over its significance (including if it bears any significance) for a very long time. Any topic or aspect of Scripture that has had that much debate has had it because there is no absolute and clear answer—this means we must tread carefully and think critically before holding fast to a position. In this post I want to posit what I believe is the most logical explanation as to why the Israelite spy chose a scarlet cord hung in Rahab’s window to be the sign that destruction should pass over her household. Let us consider Joshua 2:15-21 (LSB):
Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. And she said to them, “Go to the hill country, lest the pursuers reach you. And hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way.” And the men said to her, “We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household. And it will be that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear.” And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” So she sent them away, and they went; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
There are four main arguments that I have found relating to the significance of the scarlet cord. This post will be reviewing three of them, and then I will be posting another article to address the fourth:
Sometimes a cord is just a cord: there is no special significance.
The blood of Christ: the cord is symbolic of and points to the blood of Christ.
Another Passover: the imagery of the scarlet cord in the window is pointing back to the Israelites’ time in bondage to Egypt—specifically to the first Passover when they painted the blood of animals on their doorposts, in faith to the word of God, so that the angel carrying out the judgement of God would pass over their households.
My level of specificity in the above has likely betrayed which position I am arguing for; however, this is the most reasonable position to take in relation to the meaning that would have been attributed to it by an Israelite in that day because of the many parallel elements between the Passover in Egypt and the Passover in Jericho:
God was judging Egypt and promised destruction for the firstborn of every household
God was going to enact judgement on Jericho; not just on the firstborn of each house, but for the entire nation
God provided a way of salvation for the firstborn children in Egypt if the household obeyed the word of God by painting the blood on their doorposts
God provided a way of salvation to Rahab and her household by sending messengers (this is how James sees them in his epistle) to her—she exercised her faith in God by protecting the spies and then secured a promise of salvation from Jericho’s coming destruction if she hung the scarlet cord from her window
Israel was freed from Egypt’s slavery as a result of the destruction of the first Passover, and a number of Egyptians, as a result of God’s mighty acts of power, would eventually leave Egypt with the Israelites and be grafted in as they trusted in God, His word, and His promise of destruction against Egypt and salvation to His people (in essence, this is God saving His people and a partial fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to be a blessing to all the nations through his descendants)
Rahab and her household were freed through the Jericho Passover from its impending destruction; more importantly, Rahab was confirmed to have also been freed from the slavery of sin and death as a result of her faith in the word and promises of God (in essence, this is God saving a household through the faith He caused to exist in Rahab, and it is also part of the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham that his seed would be a blessing to all the nations—Rahab and her household were blessed by the destruction of Jericho passing over them and by being brought in to God’s covenant people).
God sent a messenger (angel) of death to carry out the destruction in Egypt but the destruction of the Passover in Egypt was attributed to God
Joshua is a book in which we see parallels from Exodus, but the people of God are more actively involved in carrying them out. When they cross over the Jordan it is because God parts the waters; however, the people now have the ark of the covenant and must move the presence of God themselves. It is only when the priests carrying the ark enter the water that the waters part—this is to show that God is doing the work and going before them, but the people of Israel are participatory in God’s working in the world. Similarly, instead of God sending an angel of death to destroy Jericho, He ordained the men of Israel to carry out the task; part of this task was to pass over Rahab’s household! The very things that God had accomplished through His angel and the waters of the Red Sea in Exodus He has now accomplished through His people.
A final consideration: if you were one of the Israelite spies who found himself before Rahab having to give a sign that would indicate to your people that they should pass over the house of Rahab during the destruction of Jericho, what more logical sign would there be than putting scarlet outside of an entryway to her home? God’s people were a storytelling people who passed on the events of the Pentateuch verbally, so we know the spies would have grown up hearing about the awesome account of God saving His people from Egypt. Would not God’s penultimate act of destruction and mercy in the Passover at Egypt, only overshadowed by His salvation and destruction of Pharaoh and his armies at the Red Sea, have informed the instruction to Rahab?
This was a period of war for Jericho, evidenced by the fact that the King was seeking out the Israelite spies with the knowledge that they were scouting out the land in order to take the city and kill its inhabitants. Rahab had to keep a low profile, as the taking of Jericho wouldn’t have been immediate. Killing an animal and painting its blood around the frame of her window would have drawn a lot of attention; however, the cord was a much more inconspicuous sign that still affected the same imagery and meaning to anyone looking for it.
Why don’t I think a cord is just a cord here? Argument above, of course. Why don’t I think it is symbolic of the blood of Christ? I am not saying that it isn’t about the blood of Christ in an ultimate sense; as I wrote earlier, this post is addressing what the cord would have been symbolic of and have had specific meaning to for the Israelites who would be destroying Jericho. I am not claiming that there is no greater meaning, but I would argue that the greater meaning would have been lost on the Israelites except for their understanding of the Passover, as the blood of Christ is directly related to God’s judgement passing over all who would hear and believe in God’s promises. Jesus Christ is our ark of salvation that shelters us from God’s wrath. It is Christ who makes it possible to be adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters. May we not miss this vital connection between Passover and Christ.
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