From Slavery to Freedom 4

Hello Everyone,

One more part of Rahab’s story will become your story, too, and that is:

MY STORY IS MARKED BY A SCARLET CORD

Rahab’s story is the story of a prostitute … who faced a choice.

She had to choose one side or the other.

Sin…or salvation?

Slavery…or freedom?

Look at Joshua 2, beginning at verse 15:

So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

Now the men had said to 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; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

“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 2:15–21(NIV).

·         A scarlet cord

·         Red, like blood

·         Hanging outside the city wall

And, of course, you probably know how the story ends.

Israel’s army surrounded the city and marched around it every day, for six days.

Then, on the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times.

And, when they had done so, the sixth chapter of Joshua records the result:

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. … 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 6:20, 25, NIV).

“Rahab the prostitute,” it says again.

And yet … she was saved.

By a choice…by a scarlet cord, hung outside the wall.

She not only found a place of acceptance among the people of God, but she became the great-grandmother of King David …from whose royal line Jesus the Messiah came.

That’s quite a journey, from “Rahab the prostitute” to “Rahab the ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

All from a sinner, and a scarlet cord, hung outside the city wall.

That is my story. And yours, too, if you’ll let it be.

The Bible says:

When the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage (Galatians 4:4–5, The Message).

No matter how bad you think you are, no matter how hopeless your situation, you can be set FREE.

You can be made acceptable in his sight, because, as the Bible says: 

Jesus … suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood (Hebrews 13:12, NIV).

The choice, however, is yours.

Freedom is in front of you.

It can be yours by means of a simple prayer of faith, at an altar which I invite you to pray with me now:

“Lord Jesus, thank you for suffering outside the city walls––

for shedding your blood to secure my salvation.

I confess my sin,

and turn to You,

and claim your sacrifice on the cross

as payment for all the wrong things I’ve done.

I ask you to come into my heart,

and to take charge of my life from this moment on, amen.”

If you prayed that prayer and meant it you have passed from darkness into light.

Get into a Bible believing church and truly I believe Greater things are still to come!