Psalm 71:5; Joshua 2:8-21, Tikvah

In our previous post we spoke of Petah Tikvah, the “Door of Hope.”  Today let us just think of the Hebrew word for “hope” (tikvah).  We should be aware as we read and study the Old Testament that many Hebrew words derive their significance in the story where the word was first used.  For example the word “good” (towb) is first used in Gen. 1:4 when God pronounced His creative work to be good.  The pitch (Gen. 6:14) that covered the ark, wherein Noah and his family were saved, became the term for the ransom price for redemption, the price that covered our sin (e.g. Ps. 49:7).

The first use of the word “hope” is found in the story in today’s reading.  Did you see it?  Likely not because it wasn’t translated “hope.”  It is in Josh. 2:18,21.  Rahab was to bind a line of scarlet (v18), a scarlet chord (v21), hanging it from her window.  When the army of Israel took Jericho they would see this and they would know that Rahab and all in her house were the ones, the only ones, they were to spare. 

Isn’t that a marvelous picture of salvation?  The scarlet of course reminds us of the blood of Christ.  As the blood over the doorpost at Passover would be seen by the angel of God and would bring salvation to that family, so the scarlet line would do the same for Rahab.  It all speaks of Christ who is our hope. 

Rahab needed to understand that this was her only hope.  The spies made it clear: the scarlet hope must be hanging from the window and her family must be IN the house.  For that reason we gave you Psalm 71:5 to read today.  There is a parallel phrase that reads: You are my trust from my youth.  Trust!  That’s synonymous with hope in many ways.  And do you know the first use of the word for trust (mibtach) in the Bible?  It’s in Job 8:14 where Bildad (one of Job’s so-called friends) speaks of hypocrites whose trust is a spider’s web.  What a graphic picture of a false trust, a false hope.  If you are falling and you grab onto a spider’s web to save yourself you will not be help at all.  Of course.  So if Rahab did not put the scarlet chord out of the window and if her family did not gather in her home they would have died with all their friends and neighbors in Jericho.  And you do remember, I am sure, that Rahab is, by the grace of God, in the genealogy of our Savior, our Hope, our Trust, the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:5).

Who is your hope today for salvation?  In what are you trusting?  Is it as effective as a spider’s web?  Are you trusting in something other than the price of redemption paid by God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, when He died on the cross?  Jesus is the Redeemer.  Believe it or not.  But if you don’t believe, what is your hope?