In Joshua 2 we see the beginning of the story where the Israelites are heading into the promised land.  Their first stop is Jericho.  Jericho was a heavily fortified city with giant walls so Joshua sent spies into the land to scout out the lay of the land.  The king finds out about the spies and tries to hunt them down but the spies are given shelter by a harlot named Rahab.  She knew that God had already delivered the land into the hands of the Israelites so she made a deal, she would hide them and they would save her and her family.  To signify to the warriors who they should protect, she was to hang a scarlet thread from her window.  The red thread became her identification and her salvation.
            The red cord hung from her window is symbolic in so many ways.   It was a symbol of her shame—by identifying her occupation—and a symbol of her salvation—by identifying her home.   She was, by profession, a harlot or a prostitute.  This profession, back then and still today, is not held highly in society as a good moral job.  Rahab was an outcast and  a reject.  The scarlet thread, much like the scarlet letter, marred her image in society.  In the Israelites’ eyes it marked her home as a refuge.  A place of salvation.
            Each of us are in need of a red cord of salvation because each of us are marked by the red cord of sin in our lives.  Regardless of the “level” of sin in our lives, whether we are little sinners or big sinners, any amount of sin demands salvation.  The same red cord that marks our lives for destruction is the cord that becomes our salvation.
            Jesus’ blood is a symbol that declares we are sinners but it is also the symbol of our salvation and deliverance from sin.  The blood that marks us as sinners also marks us as saved.  It is by his blood that we are saved.  Where the world sees fault and failure, God sees our salvation.  His blood washes away our sins.  Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
            To have the scarlet thread in our lives is not our shame.  To not seek our salvation from our sin is our shame.  You do not have to live with a scarlet thread declaring your shame, rather let it declare your salvation.  Let the blood of Jesus wash you today!