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"I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever . . . . .
He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth" (Dan. 4: 34, 35).
(See also the proclamation of Darius and Cyrus: Dan. 6: 26, 27 and Ezra 1: 1-3).
Moses had sung at the Red Sea, some forty years before the incident of Josh. 2:,
these words:--
"The people shall hear and be afraid; sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of
Palestina . . . . . all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away" (Exod. 15: 14-18).
The confession of Rahab shews their fulfillment. Two of the wonders mentioned by
Rahab are the drying up of the Red Sea, and the destruction of Sihon and Og. She was
thoroughly convinced that the Lord was God, that the land was given to Israel and that
her own people were under sentence of destruction. Realizing this, she had but one
thought--"What must I do to be saved?" We hear no theological disputation with the
spies as to the rights and wrongs of the case. Rahab is a true type of the sinner seeking
salvation.
"Give me a true token."--It is important to remember that it was the same cord that
was used to let down the spies to safety that become the token of Rahab's salvation:--
"Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down
by" (Josh. 2: 18).
It is as though the spies were acting out Paul's statement that the gospel that saved him
was the gospel that must save all. The preacher must always point to the means of his
own salvation as the only way of salvation for all the world. Scarlet is used repeatedly in
the law to set forth redemption by the shedding of blood (see for example Lev. 14: 4, 6,
etc.). The scarlet thread in Rahab's window which saved her and her house from
destruction, and the sprinkled blood on the doorpost and lintel at the time of Passover
were both "tokens" of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:--
"Give me a true token . . . . . this line of scarlet thread in the window" (Josh. 2: 12, 18).
"And the blood shall be to you for a token" (Exod. 12: 13).
Rahab, moreover, manifests a true spirit in that she does not merely ask her own
safety; in fact she only mentions herself incidentally:--
"Since I have showed you kindness, swear that ye will also show kindness unto my
father's house, and give me a true token. And that ye will save alive my father, and my
mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives
from death" (Josh. 2: 12, 13).
"And she bound the scarlet line in her window" (Josh. 2: 21).
It is impossible to believe without acting upon that belief. Faith without works is
dead. Rahab's trust was not in her kindness to the spies, nor in the mere possession of the
scarlet thread. "She bound it in her window." It is idle to speculate as to what would
have become of her if she had failed to exhibit this token; it is sufficient that she obeyed