THE ROYAL LINE

A. McKay

Joshua 2: 1, 6–10 (to ‘Egypt’), 15–21

We were speaking this afternoon about one who was brought into the royal line. Ruth, who Scripture tells us, was the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. Rahab is another woman who is brought into the royal line. It is a long line and it is continuing. There is room for you and there is room for me in it. It may involve a little exercise, secret exercise.

The key to this chapter seems to be what is secret. We do not know too much about it, because being what we are we always like some kind of publicity. We like brethren to know what we are doing. And it is all right too in one way for the brethren to know what we are doing. We may sometimes do things which we would not like the brethren to know about, especially when we are younger, and maybe when we are older. But the Lord knows anyway, and it is the Lord’s assessment which we really should be interested in.

This woman, we are told, had a house upon the wall, and there was a window in that house. So if she liked she could go out and have her part in Jericho, or she could have a view out of this window. Apparently there was a mountain somewhere. and this mountain was safe. Every believer has a window like this. Do we really take advantage of it? Do we care for this view, or would we rather dabble a little in Jericho? It is very evident that she had had her fill of Jericho and it had not satisfied her, because she was looking for something else. What are you looking for? Young ones are usually very interested in their careers and it is right to be diligent when we think along these lines. But then there is something else, and when you get older you begin to see that what maybe looked very attractive in the distance, when you get nearer does not hold the same attraction because it belongs to the scene where Christ is rejected. Wherever you go and whatever you touch, you find that the shadow of the cross lies over it.

There was one man who could say, “Far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”, Galatians 6: 14.

We may get the first part but not be too keen on the second part, but I think this woman anyway had arrived at it that Jericho was no place for her and she was no person for Jericho.

What would have happened if they had found out? They would have killed her. She was a spy. She had no allegiance to the king of Jericho. I do not know if too many of us could speak like that. Abraham had to leave his country and his kindred and his father’s house before he was any use. He quickly came to where he saw two things and he was given a choice. He saw Bethel on the one hand and Ai on the other (see Genesis 12: 8). I understand that Ai means ‘a heap’ or ‘a heap of ruins’. Bethel, as we know, is the house of God. We have to develop and distinguish. We find in Abraham a developed man. When we come to the book of Hebrews we are told all about Abraham. But it also speaks there of food. It says, “solid food belongs to full-grown men, who, on account of habit, have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil”, Hebrews 5: 14. Abraham was developing in manhood. So he knew that if there was a heap, that was not God’s thought.

It may be your thought, and I may be content with it, but when we come to God we must think on the lines of formation. Bethel implies divine formation and Abraham identifies himself with that. He maybe moved a little to the right or left later on, but he is brought back.

If you once get hold of the divine intent, you may deviate from it but you will come back to it.

Rahab gets a look out of this window. There is a mountain, and she knows it is a safe place. This is a secret mission. How did she know these spies? It distinctly says that the two spies were sent out secretly, but she knew. Scripture does not tell us, but there must have been communication of some kind somewhere. It is up to you, dear young brother or sister, to lay yourself open for divine communications. I do not think Samuel was very old in 1 Samuel 3. He was not able to distinguish to begin with, that is true, but after a first or a second time someone will help you to distinguish. Then you will have these divine communications; that is, you will be brought into the divine secret. The divine secret must involve your links with Christ and the place God has given Him, and the place God has in mind for you in relation to Him.

So Rahab takes the men up to the roof where she has flax. She covers them with it. She is in the secret and she wants to keep that secret. It must be kept from Jericho. There will be failure if Jericho is brought into this secret. So she must cover these men who had the secret.

Do you realize what it is when you are brought into the presence of the divine mind? It is a wonderful secret. Do we really understand the fulness of what is involved when we look at the emblems on Lord’s day morning, the wonderful unfolding of the divine mind, the love of the Lord Jesus for the assembly, involving God’s love also? Think of the divine expenditure, think of the cost, and think of the result—what there will be in glory in a day to come in myriads of blood-bought saints, including Old Testament saints. The many families all stand in relation to that glorious Man who was here unrecognised. In John 4 He sat, “wearied with the way he had come”, at the well. He was waiting for one woman who was just like this woman Rahab. She went back into the city and she upset the whole city. She, in effect, took the town. It fell down flat; the men of the city came out to Jesus. If you are brought into the divine secret, there is no telling what the results may be in eternity on account of what the Lord may do with you.

Rahab little thought when she was covering these men with stalks of flax that some day she would be in the royal line. She did not know. That was not her outlook. So we simply want to go on quietly and in our places fill out our part according to the divine direction. David had a list of mighty men and there are two very interesting ones in that list. I am not speaking only of Uriah. He was a man in a class by himself. I am also speaking of Joab’s armour-bearer.

Joab is not there but Joab’s armour-bearer is (see 2 Samuel 23: 37). Why would he be in that list? I think he had a very difficult job. Joab would be a very difficult man to serve, but he was serving that man as if he was serving the Lord and I think that is why he was distinguished. He filled out his service to a difficult man, but he took his commission as from the Lord. We may not always have been right, but if we did it with a right objective, the Lord can put His own assessment, whatever it is, on it.

So Rahab can go right back in history to the Red Sea—“We have heard that Jehovah dried up the waters of the Red sea before you”. There are different expressions used about the waters of the Red Sea, but I think when this expression “dried up” is used it means ‘annulled’. The Lord annulled death; there is no trace of it left. Rahab knows. Why? Because something in her own history had run parallel with this. Your history and mine, what does it mean? Does it mean anything like the history of this woman? Apparently, by her label, she is not much, although it may mean that she simply, at one time at least, had been consecrated to some heathen deity, but there was no satisfaction in that for her. She wanted a link with a living God. She says, “Jehovah your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2: 11). Certain persons are given impressions which form them. We sometimes get wrong impressions and we may take character from that, but I think the Lord would give us to be with Him so that we might get right impressions. Jonah had wrong impressions, but he came to it that God was “the God of the heavens, who hath made the sea and the dry land”, Jonah 1: 9. The Lord knows your circumstances and whatever circumstances we are in we can get an impression which will make us superior to them.

Rahab wants to be preserved. She knows that Jericho is going to come down. This world is going to come down. In Revelation it says, “Great Babylon has fallen” (Revelation 18: 2), not ‘will fall’, but “has fallen”. When the Lord said, “It is finished” (John 19: 30), that was anticipative. The ground was cleared for the carrying through of the divine plan; everything that is not of Him and for His glory will have to go. So Rahab lets them down by a cord through the window.

I would like to say a word as to this cord. It is mentioned three times and in three different ways. It is “a cord”, then a “line of scarlet thread “, then “the scarlet line”. Essentially it was strong. Rahab was not indefinite and weak. She was a stable person. What she has to offer in the way of support is strong, strong enough to hold a man anyway. The “line of scarlet thread” would no doubt relate to the flax with which she covered the men. It also relates to their safety. It is a way of escape. She points out the mountain to them and she brings in three days, so she knows what she is talking about. We cannot help anybody if we have not been through something of it ourselves. So she knows something about the three days. That involves, in its meaning, the three days the Lord Jesus lay in death. What it meant for the Father that the Lord Jesus lay in death; what it means for you and for me. “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and ... was buried”, 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. So she did not want to carry too much of this ‘Rahab’ along with her. Typically she knows something about Christ dying for her sins and being buried and being “raised the third day, according to the scriptures”. The third day is important. In Genesis on the third day the dry land appeared (Genesis 1: 9). It is a wonderful thing to get on to dry land.

She points to the mountain. You are safe if you get to the mountain and remain there three days. Go through soul exercise and you will find that Jericho will have no influence with you; the powers of Jericho will not be able to deal with you. Can we speak like that? She is one thread and the spies would be other two, but it needs a lot more threads to make up a line, and when you are woven tightly together you merge your identity. So if we want to be in the royal line, we want to merge our identities. You would not be able to identify these threads, not for any length of time. You may not see them, but you know they are there. They give body. Some are inside, unseen. Would you not like to be in this royal line, something that will give the testimony some body? It not only related to their safety; it related to her safety, and the safety of the whole of her father’s house. We are not told about any exercise they had. We are not told whether they were concerned about the state of things in Jericho or whether they were exercised about hindering the people from getting into the enjoyment of the land. That is what Jericho was doing. It was hindering God’s people from getting into their inheritance. We are not told of any of them being concerned about that, but the point is that if you get into the line you will provide a safe place for others who may not be so exercised.

Many of us are where we are because persons have been exercised about themselves and about us. It is up to you now to be exercised so that you might be brought into this long line. We know that the scarlet connects with Matthew and we find not only that Ruth is there, but that Rahab is there (see Matthew 1: 5). And it is the city of the great King (see Matthew 5: 35). Then the Lord says, “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28: 20. That is that we might be equipped and conscious that we have the Lord’s service and support as we would seek to stand for Him in a scene that has the features of Jericho. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Grangemouth
15 March 1980