Join the Winning Side

UV 936-10,000 Join the Winning Side Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee Joshua 2 v 18 Rahab proves the principle of “ rehab.” Though only a prostitute, she became a forebear of the Messiah Himself. She had heard of how the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and how they had completely destroyed Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan. She was smart enough to understand that “ the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” She knew that the seemingly invincible Jews were on the doorstep of Jericho. She realized that in the circumstances for her own survival or salvation, she better join the winning side. She therefore received the two Jewish spies sent by Joshua their commander- in- chief. She hid them on the roof under stalks of flax and told the messenger of the king of Jericho that they had left already. The next day she let them down from a window on her house that was part of the city wall with the help of a scarlet rope. That scarlet rope is the symbol of the rope the Lord dropped down from heaven in the form of the Messiah for each man’s salvation. When we were in a time of prayer, the Lord revealed that since “Like Rahab you have done your level best to bring up or lift up the people of your family as well as those who are not from your family, I will bless you and your generations.” The scarlet thread that I now have is the influence and power of my office that the Lord has bestowed in His grace. There is no way we can struggle against the Lord and win. Instead, when we join the winning side, He blesses us like He blessed the accursed Rahab and her generations. Within one generation, Rahab’s son Boaz became a respected and prosperous farmer in whose farm Ruth, the other forebear of the Messiah came to glean for corn. Indeed, we should likewise trace our “faithline” and not our bloodline in our respective genealogies or family history. Prayer and the Word are the windows through which we let the light of heaven to shine in our lives. Though we are in ourselves weak and vulnerable, the Lord makes us formidable and invincible like Israel under Joshua. Regardless of the circumstances of our lives, we have joined the winning side. The scarlet rope of our salvation that the Lord has let down for us to climb to safety will never give way or fall short of the glory of fulfilling God’s perfect purpose in our lives. It will remain as a source of salvation and blessing for succeeding generations too. It is the only sure sign of inheritance of the promises of God that we can leave for our spiritual and physical descendants. Prateep V Philip