The Courage of RahabSample

Obedience Often Requires Public Confession

Rahab’s sins were as scarlet as the thread the spies told her to drape from her window, and every bit as obvious. That’s why God’s grace is so amazing. When we confess our sins—literally let them all hang out like Rahab’s red thread—and repent, leaving the old life behind as Rahab did, we are forgiven and washed clean, without a spot or blemish left. We no longer look like scarlet sinners; we look like grateful grace bearers.

On Rahab—on all of us—red is a very becoming color when it signifies a confession of our sins and our desire to trust God. Red is also the symbol of blood, of life flowing into death. Or, more accurately, death flowing into life, like the red blood of a sacrificial lamb smeared over the doorpost of a house so that all who lived there might be spared when the Lord passed over. Or like the doubly thick scarlet cloth that kept the Proverbs 31 woman’s family safe and warm.

When Rahab hung the scarlet cord out her window, exactly as the spies commanded her, she marked herself as a prostitute, not only for the two who’d come for her, but for all the Israelites, including Joshua himself. She didn’t “blend in” with her new people—she stood out. To their credit, they embraced her.

To her credit, she was not afraid to wave her red flag and say, “Here I am, that harlot! Somebody save me!” Sharing with others your shameful past and God’s glorious grace doesn’t bind you to your past—it frees you from its power to hurt you any longer. Tell your story, dear heart! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, and give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds.

What shame do you hide that might bring glory to God if you were no longer ashamed of it? Consider offering this to God so he can free you to use your history for his glory.