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I was so inspired by what I learned about flax that I ordered myself a packet of seeds to plant.
These are scarlet, but the most common blooms are light blue. (Featured in the letters in "flax" in the study graphic.) They grow to be 1 to 3 feet tall, and 9 to 18 inches wide. Some varieties can grow even taller. (Learned all this from a simple google search...)
A few things I already knew about flax before I started this study--
--Flax seeds can be eaten and added to smoothies or yogurt for added nutrients and fiber.
--Flax seed flour and oil can be used in baking and cooking.
--Flax seed can be mixed with water and be used as an egg replacement in baked goods.
--Flax seed can be sewn into fabric and placed in the microwave to warm you and soothe aching muscles. (My personal favorite!!)
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However, when I was studying the background of linen in Exodus, I learned something I didn't know and you could've knocked me over with a feather. Flax is processed into linen. (I know that didn't have the dramatic effect since we just talked about it yesterday. But at the time, I was stunned.) We spent a whole day on linen as related to the tabernacle, Linen, but I saved a lot of info for this study.
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I watched a video on youtube of a lady from California who made linen from planting flax seeds to spinning the dried flax on a spinning wheel. It took her a year, start to finish. I was getting antsy during the hour long video, I can't imagine being committed for a whole year! It is an elaborate process involving harvesting, pulling, stooking, rippling, retting, breaking, scutching, hackling, spinning, weaving, bleaching. (Vocabulary words for your homework 😉)
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While linen is mentioned over 100 times in the Bible, flax is only mentioned around 10 times. Here are a few examples.
Hosea rescued Gomer from a life of prostitution and married her at the LORD's command. She ran back to prostitution again and again, thinking --
"I will follow my lovers, the men who gave me my food and water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."
Hosea says "She doesn't know that it was I who gave her all of this..." Hosea 2:5,9 (A picture of God and His love for Israel as much as a picture of Hosea and his love for Gomer.)
The Proverbs 31 Woman, the famous wife of noble character, is known by one of her many positive attributes--
"She selects wool and flax, and works with willing hands."
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From the above accounts, we learn that flax was a valuable commodity. It was a treasured gift; it was a necessity for covering and clothing. It was spun and woven into linen through an intricate working of the hands. But this next story is my favorite flax story....Joshua 2 and 6.
When the Israelites are finally ready to leave the wilderness behind, they are leaving their leader- Moses- behind too. He died in the wilderness and God Himself buried Moses somewhere only He knows. Joshua, Moses's right hand man, is the obvious pick for the next leader.
(for me, this is the stand out proof--"The LORD would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend, then Moses would return to the camp. His assistant, the young man Joshua the son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent." Exodus 33:11)
God commissions Joshua to lead the people into the Promised Land. This 11 day journey had taken them 40 years and I can't imagine the excitement and apprehension the crowd of millions must have felt. To get to the promised land, though, the group had to fight for the right to pass through enemy territory. The gateway city was Jericho.
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First order of business, Joshua sent two men as spies to scout out the land. Their first stop? The house of Rahab, the....prostitute. And they STAYED there!! Their stay was so suspicious that the king of Jericho reached out to Rahab and told her to turn the men over. She tells the king that they WERE there, but they left when it got dark, and maybe if he hurried he could catch them. But Rahab had hoodwinked the kings' men, because she'd actually hidden them under the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
Rahab goes up to the roof to tell the men they are in the clear for now. She asks them to do her a favor in exchange for their safety--when Israel comes to defeat Jericho, they need to promise that she and her family will be spared. The sign of the promise between them will be a scarlet thread hanging from her window, and she and whoever in the room with her will be saved. After the conquest of Jericho, the men keep their promise and Rahab and her family are saved.
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Flax is mentioned one time in Rahab's story. Flax that is drying--or stooking-- on her roof, step 4 on it's way to become linen. Linen, the cloth worn by priests and kings, in the hands of a prostitute. Why? What can we learn from Rahab and her flax? We can find the answer in what she said to the men as they lay under the flax, future linen.
"I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below." Joshua 2:9-11
It's no accident that Rahab is drying flax when these spies seek refuge in her house. We are meant to see the process of flax into linen as the process of salvation and sanctification in Rahab's story. She knew the LORD is in control of the Israelites' march across Jericho and into the promised land. She believes that it was the LORD's miraculous power that dried the Red Sea for the Rescued to cross. She trusts that God is God in heaven and on earth. God is working on Rahab, whose identity has been wrapped in her sin. He is taking her brave, strong, resilient, stained, impure stalk of flax--symbolic of rebirth and perseverance, and He is in the process of working her into linen--pure, holy, righteous. Salvation. Sanctification. For a sinner like Rahab. For a sinner like me.
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