Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3168
“She bound the scarlet line in the window.” Joshua 2:21.
EVERY little incident in a remarkable conversion like that of the harlot Rahab is worthy of notice. The Apostle James selected her as an illustration of the fact that faith is always attended by good works, and he asks, “Was she not justified by works when she had received the messengers?” while Paul quotes her as an instance of justification by faith, and says, “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not.” If both these eminent Apostles found an illustration of an important Doctrine in her life, we may surely do the same. If the hiding of the spies under the flax had some significance, so also had the hanging out of the scarlet line.
The two spies whom Rahab had concealed made an agreement with her that she should hang out a scarlet line in the window by which she had let them down, that they might know, in the day of battle, the house in which she dwelt. She fulfilled their request and displayed the chosen emblem. In connection with that scarlet line, I observe four things.
I. First, I see here AN OBEDIENT BELIEVER.
She was told to tie the scarlet thread in the window and she did it—there was exact obedience. It was not merely a thread, a line, but the scarlet line. She did not substitute a blue, or a green, or a white line. The order was this scarlet line, not another, and she took that particular one. Obedience to God will be very much seen in small matters. Love always delights to attend to the little things and thereby makes the little things great. I have heard of a Puritan who was charged with being too precise, but his answer was excellent, “I serve a precise God.” The Lord our God is a jealous God and He is very jealous of His commands. It appeared a little mistake that Moses made when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, and yet he could not enter into the promised rest because of his offense! A small action may involve a great principle and it is for us to be very cautious and careful, searching out what the Master’s will is, and then never halting or hesitating for any reason whatever, but doing His will as soon as we know it. Christian life should be a mosaic of minute obediences. The soldiers of Christ should be famous for their exact discipline.
I commend scrupulous obedience to all of you and especially to those young people who have lately made a profession of their faith in Christ. Do not be as your fathers were, for the generation which is now going off the stage neither reads its Bible nor cares to know the Lord’s will. If people searched the Scriptures, we would find them come together in union—but the least-read book in all the world, in proportion to its circulation, is the Word of God. It is distributed everywhere, but it is scarcely read anywhere with care and attention—and with a sincere resolve to follow its precepts at all hazards. You come and listen to us and we give you little bits taken from it here and there, but you do not get a fair notion of it as a whole. How can you? Ministers make mistakes and you follow them without enquiry. One elects this leader, and another that, to the creation of varieties of opinions and even of sects which ought not to be—and would not be if all stood fast by the standard of the Inspired Truth of God. If the Bible were but read and prayed over, many errors would die a speedy death and others would be sorely crippled. Had that Inspired Book been read in the past, many errors would never have arisen! Search, then, the Book of God, I pray you—and whatever you find there, be sure to attend to it! At all costs, keep to the Word of God.
Notice, next, that hers was obedience in a very small matter. She might have said, “I do not think it is essential to tie a piece of line in my window. Can I not be preserved just as well without it, seeing that I believe in the God of Israel? I have faith and I have shown it by my works by hiding the spies—you cannot suppose for a moment that I shall perish simply because I have not complied with a regulation about a scarlet line!” In this way many, nowadays, enquire whether
they may not omit those duties which they consider to be non-essential to salvation. Now this is a question which I never intend to answer for anybody else because I never intend to ask it on my own account! Whether or not a Believer will perish because some known duty or Scriptural ordinance is neglected, is a question which only selfishness would raise! Are we only to do that which will procure our progress, or secure our salvation? Are we so grossly selfish as that? Does a loving child say, “If I refuse to do my father’s will, shall I not still be my father’s child? Shall I not still be fed and clothed by him?” Only an evil child would talk thus! The true son enquires, “What would my father have me do? I will do it cheerfully for his sake. What does my father forbid? For what he forbids shall be hateful to me.” Rise above all questions concerning essential and non-essential and learn to obey in all things—if it is only tying a scarlet thread in the window, or washing in water, do as you are bid—and in nothing rebel against the Word of the Lord!