Hey, Carpool Crew. Welcome back to Carpooling with Heroes of the Bible. We're in episode three of our Rahab series, the brave believer. If you're just joining us, here's where we are. Rahab is a Canaanite woman living in the city of Jericho. Two Israelite spies have shown up at her house, and the king of Jericho is hunting for them. Rahab hides them, risks her life, and tells them she believes their God is the real God. Now we get to one of the most beautiful parts of the whole story, the scarlet cord. So quick question to kick us off. Have you ever made a deal with someone and you wanted to make absolutely sure they kept it? Maybe you traded something at school. Maybe a friend promised to give you something back that they borrowed. Maybe you and your siblings pinky promised to share the ice cream. Or you promised that if I ride in the front on the way there, then you can ride in the front on the way home. Sometimes a promise needs a sign, something you can point to, something you can see. That is exactly what's happening in this part of the story. Listen to Joshua chapter two, starting in verse 12. Rahab is talking to the spies. She has just hidden them, and she told them she believes in their God, and now she's asking for something. "Now please swear to me by the Lord that since I have shown kindness to you, you will also show kindness to my father's family. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death." So Rahab is not just saving herself. She wants her whole family in on this, her dad, her mom, her brothers and sisters, every single person. She believes Jericho is going down. She believes her city is doomed, and she wants the Israelite God to rescue everyone she loves. The spies, well, they agree. They say, our lives for yours. If you don't report our mission, we will show kindness and faithfulness to you when the Lord gives us the land. But they needed a way to find her house when the army shows up. So they give her one simple instruction. Tie a scarlet cord in your window, the same window she just used to lower them down to the ground. Now stop. Let's talk about the scarlet cord for a second. In the original Hebrew, the words are chut hashani. Chut means cord or thread, and hashani means scarlet, like a deep, rich red. So we're talking about a bright red rope, probably something Rahab already had lying around her house. Since she worked with flax and linen, it wouldn't be impossible. Some scholars think it could have even been made from the same flax we talked about in episode two. So here's what's incredible about the color red in the ancient world. In a lot of ancient cultures, red was considered a protective color. People would mark doorways with red. They would tie red threads on babies and children to ward off harm. Red was the color of covenant, the color of agreement, the color of life and blood. But the most important parallel is not from a foreign culture. It's from the Bible itself. Carpool Crew, do you remember the story of Passover? All right, way back in the book of Exodus, when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, on the night God was going to free them, he told every Israelite family to take a lamb, sacrifice it, and put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their house. Then God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. A red sign, a red mark, a protective covenant, an agreement that would save their lives. And now, hundreds of years later, in a totally different country, a Canaanite woman is told to put a red cord in her window. Same idea, same God, same plan. When the army comes, when judgment falls, the people inside the house with the red sign will be safe. See, this is not a coincidence. God is teaching the same truth in a thousand different ways throughout the Bible. The truth is this: God's rescue requires a sign of faith, and anyone who trusts in that sign is safe. And it points us forward to something bigger. Hundreds of years later, Jesus would shed his red blood on the cross. And the Bible tells us that anyone who puts their faith in Jesus, anyone who is covered by his blood, anyone who hangs the scarlet cord of trust in the window of their own heart is rescued. Not because they earned it, not because they were good enough, but because they believed. Rahab, a Canaanite woman, was from a doomed city. A woman who lived on the edge of society, a woman who would have been overlooked, written off, or worse. And she gets to be one of the clearest pictures of the gospel in the entire Old Testament. Here's one more thing that's just incredible. Archaeologists have actually dug up Jericho. They have found layers showing the walls collapsed in a major destruction event, which lines up almost exactly with the biblical timeline. Now, here's the wild part. Some sections of the wall fell flat, but other sections did not. Some pieces remained standing. And some scholars believe that Rahab's home, built into the wall, may have been one of those sections that stayed up. The Bible doesn't say that for sure, but the archaeology fits the story. Here's one big takeaway I don't want you to forget, Carpool Crew. God keeps his promises. When you put your trust in him, when you tie that scarlet cord in the window of your life, he sees it. He notices it. He remembers it. And no matter how loud the world gets, no matter how shaky things feel, his rescue plan covers you. You don't have to be born into the right family to be loved by God. You don't have to live in the right neighborhood. You don't have to have the right last name. You just have to trust in God the Father and his son Jesus. It would be great if your family took some time and discussed this. Here's a couple of questions for you. Where in your life right now do you need to remember that God keeps his promises? And what is one thing you have been worried about that you can hand back over to God today? Thanks for riding along with Carpooling with Heroes of the Bible, episode three. In episode four, the walls of Jericho come down. We're going to see what happens to Rahab and her family on the day God's promise gets fulfilled. We'll see you next time, Carpool Crew. Have a good one.
