Lent Day 16: A breach in the wall
Mar 26 in Lent
Our scarlet thread now takes us through the desert for 40 years, a whole generation learning a new way of life, leaving wrong attitudes / wrong ideologies / wrong behaviour / wrong attachments / idolatries behind, a circumcision of the heart (am I seeing any parallels here to my life?) … being trained, prepared, purified, tested and tried, taken to a dry place where they can no longer rely upon themselves, their own resources, their wit, strength or ability, but are having to turn to God daily for their sustenance, learning God’s ways; “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands” Deuteronomy 8:2 before they could enter into the fullness of God’s promises.
Our thread reappears on their entering the land, this time, standing on God’s Word and following His instructions they walk around the walls of Jericho for 7 days according to God’s command. We find a cord of scarlet thread in the house of Rahab, a prostitute whose house was in the wall. She was the breach in the wall, a way in for invading armies. What a picture!!! Where we allow sin into our life, it opens a doorway to the enemy to come in to steal, kill and destroy. Reminds me of the broken down walls in Nehemiah 1, Jerusalem was left without any type of protection, as the wall acted as a defense. The gates were burnt down; anyone could enter in as they pleased. What do we find him praying? “We have acted very corruptly against Thee and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which Thou didst command Thy servant Moses” Nehemiah is sent to rebuild the walls, that they no longer be a reproach.
Repentance covers that breach with His blood, Rahab recognised that the Israelites had God on their side, remembers how He delivered them from Egypt, she changes sides. Repentance means to change direction for you suddenly see something in a different light; you turn your life around, back to God. She hangs the scarlet thread from her window and is spared; begins a new life, adopted into a new family “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself… by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” Ephesians 1:5-7 – she now becomes part of the blood line of Christ …
… together with Ruth a Moabite …