Women of Faith

Devotional

Day 1: Red Cord in the Wall

Rahab tied a scarlet thread in her window while Jericho’s walls still stood tall. She hid Israel’s spies, defying her king’s orders. Though labeled a traitor and outcast, she declared, “The LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” Her hands shook as she lowered the spies to safety, choosing faith over fear. [42:14]

This cord held no magic—it symbolized radical trust. Rahab staked her life on a God she barely knew, believing His promise more than her city’s strength. Her window became a sanctuary because she acted on whispered truths about Yahweh’s power.

You hang symbols of hope every day—a prayer journal, a cross necklace, a tithe check. What tangible act could declare, “I trust God’s character over my crisis”? Where is God asking you to plant a flag of faith before the battle is won?

“By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”
(Hebrews 11:31, ESV)

Prayer: Ask God to highlight one step of obedience that feels risky but necessary.
Challenge: Write “Joshua 2:11” on a red string or paper and place it where you’ll see it daily.

Day 2: Grace in the Margins

The spies entered Jericho’s red-light district, not the palace. Rahab—a Canaanite woman with no religious pedigree—recognized God’s movement when Israel’s leaders missed it. Her house on the city’s edge became the gateway for Israel’s victory. Fear paralyzed Jericho’s elite, but Rahab’s marginalized position gave her clarity to surrender. [31:36]

God prioritizes availability over status. Rahab’s past as a prostitute didn’t disqualify her; her raw faith rewrote her legacy. Heaven’s invasion plan relied on someone society dismissed—a pattern seen with Ruth, David, and Mary.

How have labels or past failures made you feel unqualified? What if God placed you in your specific community, job, or family to be His unlikely ambassador? When did someone’s “weakness” become the crack where God’s light broke through?

“The LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.”
(Joshua 2:11b, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one lie you’ve believed about your limitations. Thank God He writes stories in margins.
Challenge: Text an encouraging message to someone society often overlooks.

Day 3: Faith Before the Fall

Rahab hung the cord while Jericho’s bricks still mocked Israel’s hopes. No earthquakes rumbled yet. No trumpets sounded. She tied scarlet threads to a window frame, betting her family’s survival on a promise from foreign spies. Faith isn’t sight—it’s building arks before rain, anointing kings while they shepherd, and hanging cords before walls fall. [42:35]

Waiting strains our trust. Rahab’s three days hiding the spies (Joshua 2:22) mirrored Israel’s three-day Passover vigil (Exodus 12:6). Both required preparing for deliverance before dawn broke. God honors proactive hope that dresses in work clothes.

What promise are you clinging to that still lacks evidence? How can you “tie your cord” this week—physically preparing for God’s answer while walls still stand? What practical act would declare, “I believe it’s coming”?

“When we enter the land, tie this scarlet cord in the window… If anyone goes outside your house, their blood will be on their own heads.”
(Joshua 2:18-19, NIV)

Prayer: Name one area where you’re waiting for breakthrough. Ask for strength to act while waiting.
Challenge: Do one thing today that prepares for your prayed-for miracle (e.g., clear debt paperwork, research adoption agencies).

Day 4: Salvage the Household

Rahab didn’t hoard salvation. The scarlet thread spared her parents, siblings, and extended family. Her boldness created a canopy of grace—proving faith isn’t private. When she rallied her household to stay under the cord, she mirrored Noah gathering animals and Lot warning sons-in-law. One woman’s courage shifted generational destiny. [46:33]

Your obedience always ripples. Rahab’s choice led to her marriage into Judah’s line (Matthew 1:5), making her King David’s great-grandmother. God amplifies faithful acts into eternal legacies we rarely foresee.

Who in your circle needs your courage? What family pattern, workplace dynamic, or neighborhood struggle could shift if you fully trusted God’s covering? When has someone’s faith decision changed your life’s trajectory?

“She gave a friendly welcome to the spies and sent them out by another way. In the same way, was not even Rahab considered righteous for what she did?”
(James 2:25-26, NIV)

Prayer: Intercede for one person who needs to “enter your house” of faith.
Challenge: Invite someone to join you in a spiritual practice (Bible study, prayer walk, service project).

Day 5: Threads in the Tapestry

Rahab’s cord wove her into Messiah’s lineage. The thread in her window prefigured Christ’s blood on the cross—another scarlet mark that rescues households. God stitches unlikely people into His redemption tapestry: a prostitute, a Moabite widow, an adulterer’s widow, and a teenage refugee. Their stories whisper: no life is beyond rewriting. [47:06]

Your struggles and scars don’t disqualify you—they design your thread’s place in the weave. Rahab’s past became the platform for her purpose. God never wastes a wound when surrendered to Him.

What chapter of your story feels too messy for holy use? How might God repurpose your pain to comfort others? Where do you see His scarlet thread of grace in your personal history?

“Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.”
(Matthew 1:5-6, NIV)

Prayer: Thank God for redeeming one specific regret or failure in your past.
Challenge: Share your faith story with one person this week, emphasizing God’s grace over your “before.”

Sermon Summary

Joshua 2 sets Rahab’s little house on the edge of Jericho inside salvation history. The text introduces a woman that society had already labeled and dismissed, yet God moves toward the promised land through her address. Rahab’s reputation is not revelation; God looks at her past and sees possibility. The narrative shows how God keeps pulling purpose out of places people overlook, and how underestimation becomes the wrong read on the person God is about to use.

Rahab’s confession centers the argument: “the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” Jericho carries terror. Rahab carries faith. That contrast exposes a holy surprise: the people least expected become the most open to God. Scripture’s pattern holds steady. David was overlooked, Moses struggled to speak, the Samaritan woman had a history, Peter was unstable, Paul was violent. Grace has never waited for people to become perfect before God uses them.

The red cord becomes the text’s image for trust. Not a sword or a crown, just a visible sign tied in a window. Its power is not in the cord, but in what it represents: faith, trust, obedience. The cord echoes Passover, where marked doors signaled mercy while judgment moved through the streets. Here, too, judgment is coming, a sign marks salvation, and those under the covering are kept. Faith, then, is “hanging a cord while the walls are still standing,” trusting God before circumstances change, believing before there is evidence.

The text also shows that faith requires risk. Rahab hides the spies and stakes her safety, her remaining reputation, her life. She decides that risking everything with God is better than being comfortable without him. James will later call this living faith, because faith that never moves becomes dead faith. Rahab reorders loyalty, choosing God’s future over Jericho’s security. That is the tension many feel: what is familiar versus what God is calling toward. Security can be loud, but salvation is life.

Finally, the red cord widens into household mercy. One woman’s obedience creates covering for an entire family, and later her name is woven into the lineage of Jesus. Grace keeps reaching into broken places, pulling purpose out of pain, setting overlooked people into holy stories. So the text calls for a stubborn trust: hang the cord anyway when fear rises, when people bring up the past, when the walls still look tall. If God could bring salvation through Rahab’s window, there is hope for every window in the house.

Key Takeaways

1. God pulls purpose from overlooked places [32:39] God keeps starting big stories in small rooms. Rahab’s address sits on the margins, yet that edge becomes the hinge of deliverance. Being underestimated is not the last word when God is writing the chapter. The place others pass by may be the place God passes through. [32:39]
2. Hang the cord before walls fall [42:35] Faith ties a public sign to a private trust while the rubble is not yet on the ground. The cord has no magic; its meaning is obedience that points to mercy. Like Passover’s painted doorposts, visible trust marks those who belong to God while judgment moves. Belief that waits for proof is not trust; faith believes before there is evidence. [42:35]
3. Faith moves, risks, and reorders loyalties [44:52] Rahab hides the spies and stakes her life on the Lord’s future, not Jericho’s safety. That move is costly, but living faith always steps, acts, and risks. James calls it faith with works, not dead belief stuck in neutral. Real trust lets go of familiar systems to grasp a better salvation. [44:52]
4. Your past does not cancel purpose [41:09] Labels stick to memory, but grace sticks to destiny. Rahab’s history does not bar her from God’s story; it becomes the backdrop for mercy. Her obedience shelters a whole household and later threads into Christ’s lineage. God’s call reaches people with scars and turns them into cover for others. [41:09]
5. Grace moves first and finds outsiders [38:19] Prevenient grace meets hearts before they know how to reach back. Rahab has no synagogue pedigree, yet she recognizes God’s movement and responds. The Lord keeps showing up through people religion tries to avoid. When grace arrives early, the door opens for faith to act. [38:19]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:57] - Announcements: graduations and feast
[05:01] - June Bible study invite
[06:09] - Call to worship and song
[25:19] - Women of Faith: week three
[25:43] - Scripture: Joshua 2:8-21
[29:59] - Prayer for the Word
[31:36] - Rahab on the margins
[32:39] - Purpose from overlooked places
[34:39] - The red cord: hang it anyway
[38:19] - Grace moves first: Wesleyan lens
[38:58] - Faith over fear in Jericho
[43:53] - Risk, works, and living faith
[46:33] - Household covering and Christ’s lineage
[55:39] - Benediction and sending

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
- Joshua 2:8-21 (ESV)
- Exodus 12:13 (ESV): “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
- James 2:25-26 (ESV): “And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

Observation questions

In Joshua 2:11, Rahab says, “The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” What does this confession reveal about her understanding of God compared to the rest of Jericho?
The spies instruct Rahab to tie a “red cord” in her window (Joshua 2:18). How does this action parallel the Passover story in Exodus 12:13?
According to the sermon, what are three examples of biblical figures (other than Rahab) whom God used despite their flaws or societal labels? [38:02]
James 2:25-26 connects Rahab’s actions to “living faith.” What specific risks did she take that demonstrated this faith?

Interpretation questions

Why might God have chosen Rahab—a marginalized, Gentile woman with a questionable reputation—as a key figure in Israel’s conquest of Jericho? What does this reveal about His priorities?
The sermon states, “Faith is hanging a cord while the walls are still standing” [42:35]. What does this metaphor suggest about the relationship between trust in God and visible obedience?
How does Rahab’s story challenge the idea that people need to “clean up their lives” before God can use them? What does this imply about grace?
The red cord saved Rahab’s entire household (Joshua 2:18-19). How does this outcome reflect God’s broader heart for community and generational impact?

Application questions

“Hang the cord anyway when fear arises” [47:49]. What is one situation in your life where fear is tempting you to delay trusting God? What would it look like to “hang the cord” (take a step of faith) in that area this week?
Rahab’s past did not disqualify her from God’s purpose. Are there labels or mistakes from your past that make you feel unqualified to serve others or pursue God’s calling? How can her story reframe your perspective?
The sermon mentions that “faith requires risk” [43:53]. What is a practical, tangible risk you could take to move from “dead faith” (inaction) to “living faith” (action) in a relationship, decision, or habit?
Rahab’s obedience brought salvation to her family. Who in your circle (family, friends, coworkers) might be impacted by your choice to trust God boldly? How can you intentionally “create covering” for them through your actions?
The red cord had no power in itself—its significance came from what it represented. Are there habits, rituals, or symbols in your spiritual life that have become empty? How can you reconnect them to their original purpose (trust, obedience, dependence on God)?

Sermon Clips

47s

“I'll leave you with this final thought as I close. What if the very thing you're scared to trust god with is the doorway to your next season? What if the very thing you're scared to trust god with is the doorway to your next season. See, the the beautiful thing about Rahab's story is this. The red cord didn't just save her. It saved her whole household. One woman's faith created covering for an entire family. In church, that's why your faith matters this morning and every day. You never know who's connected to your obedience.”

from 00:46:03

49s

“Rahab rearranged her loyalty because she believed god was doing something bigger than what Jericho was. And, honestly, some of us are standing here in some of that same tension right now between what feels familiar and what god is calling us towards. Jericho represents security, but god represented salvation. And sometimes following god means living behind systems. Sorry. Let me rephrase that. Sometimes following god means leaving behind systems, identities, and fears we thought that we needed.”

from 00:45:15

59s

“Later on, Rahab becomes part of the lineage of Jesus himself. I I want you to think about think about that. The woman society dismissed became part of the story of redemption because that's what grace does. Grace reaches into broken places. Grace pulls a a purpose out of pain. Grace takes overlooked people and places them into holy stories. And maybe somebody this morning feels ordinary, forgotten, or perhaps even overlooked, but god sent this word to remind you he still uses people like Rahab, people with history, people with scars, and people with complicated stories, people that others counted out.”

from 00:46:50

57s

“There's a red cord hanging from a window, not a sword, not not a crown, not money, not influence, just a red cord. And somehow that cord becomes a a sign of a faith, a sign of salvation, a sign that god can protect what belongs to him. It may be the question this morning is, what are you holding on to while you wait on god? What are you holding on to this morning while you wait on god? See, god uses people that others tend to write off.”

from 00:35:19

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Women of Faith - Rahab