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Bulletin articles
The Scarlet Cord
Most of the people we read about in the Bible have serious character flaws. From start to end we read about liars, cheaters, adulterers, and murderers. We are introduced to a king who “sacrificed his own son in the fire” (2 Kings 21:6) yet repented and found forgiveness from God (2 Chron. 33). Then, of course, there’s Rahab the hartlot.
Think for a moment about al these tainted people. Now imagine interviewing them for a job: you’d take one look at their résumés and quickly reject them. Nope, can’t use you. Sorry, you aren’t qualified. God, however, seems to relish telling us about some of the worst people through the ages who were transformed by Him and found salvation. Frankly, most of the salvation stories of the Bible are amazing and dumbfounding. But, if we are honest, we soon realize our stories are the same: all of us have cheated, all of us have lied, all of us have had terrible, sinful thoughts, “…all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Yet God stoops to save us. There’s a word for what God does. It’s called grace and it’s amazing. All we need to tap into that amazing grace is faith in God — a faith like Rahab had. Trust Him and obey Him and amazing things happen.
Just look what God did with Rahab: He “…took her tarnished portrait, cleansed it and hung it next to Sarah in the gallery of the heroes of faith (Heb. 11:1, 30, 31).”* God let a saved, heathen harlot become the great grandmother of King David and an ancestor of the Messiah (Matt. 1:5).
Rahab’s faith was demonstrated by a scarlet cord, and that scarlet cord is a type for Christ whose scarlet blood can save the most vile among us.
* Pia Thompson, “Christ as the Scarlet Cord of Rahab,” the-scarlet-thread.com
(from Types & Shadows, Matt Hennecke, page 48)
- 20240818_The_Scarlet_Cord.pdf (199.37 kB)
