The Scarlet Cord

Joshua 2

It represents the line of the Messiah\r
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Genesis 38:28 birth of Zerah (in the line of Jesus - Matthew 1:3)\r
Rahab, in Joshua 2, also is in the line of the Messiah (David's great grandmother was Rahab - Matthew 1:5).\r
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Jesus dressed in a scarlet robe (Matt 27:28)\r
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It represents the blood sacrifice\r
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It is the color of blood, where God said the life was (Lev 17:11). So blood represents life, also death, and salvation (Passover, the sacrifices). \r
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Its colors were woven into the veil, and the priestly garments (36:35, Ex 39:1) Blue represents heaven, purple: royalty, scarlet: sin and blood atonement sacrifice. Finely twisted linen represents purity. \r
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It represents Purification\r
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When someone (or a house) was cleansed of leprosy, it was used in the sacrifice (Lev 14:4, 49)\r
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Used in the ceremony of the Red Heifer (Numbers 19). The ashes of the red heifer were used to sprinkle on an unclean person to cleanse them. The ashes were mixed with water known as the "water of separation." \r
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Isaiah 1:18 Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be white as snow\r
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Hebrews 9:19-20 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying," This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you." ESV \r
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Joshua 2:18 - Rahab (also mentioned in Hebrews 11)\r
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It can also represent corruption\r
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Oddly - the color scarlet is worn by the woman who rides the beast (also scarlet) in Revelation 17. Could it also represent corruption or blaspheme?\r
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The Jews created the dye used to make the color scarlet from the insect coccus ilicis. The female would lay eggs, then attach herself to a tree covering the eggs. She would then die, and her body protected the eggs until they hatched. It is the dead body of this insect that they used to make scarlet.\r
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So why a scarlet thread? Scarlet is easy to see (just as our sins are evident to God), and it is impossible to get out, except by bleaching (we can't wash ourselves free of sin). It also marks our Messiah, who will be forever be identified with our sin (Revelation 19:13 "robe dipped in blood.")\r
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By tying a scarlet cord in her window, Rahab was marking herself as different from her people and her town. She was making a stand. For us, spiritually, we hold out a scarlet thread to God saying "I am a sinner in a doomed world, and I hold out hope in your salvation from my state of stained sinfulness."\r
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