The Scarlet Thread

What happens when the outsiders of Scripture become the vessels of promise?

From Rahab's scarlet cord in a window of Jericho to Ruth's walk from Moab to Bethlehem, the Bible is full of people who were not born into the covenant but entered it by faith. They were not side characters. Several of them stand in the line of the King.

The Scarlet Thread traces their stories one by one. It begins with the covenants of promise and God's heart for the sojourner, then follows the thread through twenty-five lives. Rahab the harlot, saved by a scarlet cord. Ruth the Moabitess, redeemed by a kinsman. Tamar, whose bold act kept the line of Judah alive. Hagar, seen by God in the wilderness. Abraham himself, called out of Ur as a stranger. Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel, brides from a distant land. Joseph on a foreign throne and Asenath, the Egyptian mother of Ephraim and Manasseh.

The thread runs on through Moses in Midian and Zipporah, Jethro the priest, Caleb the Kenizzite who claimed his mountain, the Gibeonites at the altar, and Jael the Kenite. It reaches Naaman the Syrian, the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite woman, Rizpah's long vigil, Ebed-Melech who lifted Jeremiah from the pit, the Queen of Sheba, Ittai the Gittite who would not leave David, and Uriah the Hittite, the most honorable man in a corrupt court.

The book closes with God's promise that His house would be a house of prayer for all nations, and with the one new man grafted into the line of the King.

You will not find perfect people here. You will find people who heard the promise, believed it, and acted. If you have ever felt like an outsider to God's family, their stories are written for you.