Rahab, Woman of Faith

Joshua 2

It isn't common to hear women mentioned in the scriptures, much less have stories told about them. Here is a story of a woman of faith, Rahab. Jacob sends in two spies to determine if they can take the city. Jericho is terrified of the Israelites and their God; their legend precedes them--and Rahab gives them refuge.

She asks for a “true token” (vs 12) that the Israelites will spare her family when they come to destroy Jericho, because of the kindness she has given these two spies. There are similarities in this token with what was required of the children of Israel to ward off the angel of death in Egypt.

Joshua 2:18-19

Rahab	Children of Israel
Bind the line of scarlet thread in the window	Paint blood on lintels and posts of doors
Bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee	Stay inside but be prepared to leave, the angel of death will pass over
Whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head	Those who didn’t follow the instructions, wouldn’t be spared.

We know that Rahab and her family followed these instructions and that Joshua held up the part of the token made by the two spies. We read about this in Joshua 6.

17 ¶ And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

…

21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

  22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.

  23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.

…

  25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Not only did he spare Rahab and her family, Joshua spared “all that she had.” This, to me, is a type of mercy the Lord has.

By being a woman of faith who believed in God, Rahab was able to save her family and “all that she had.” Her city faced utter destruction and she found the way to make it through. This is a powerful witness to us as we are living in the latter-days.

How Do We Change The World?

The knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and coming to have faith in him could change the world. 

In Mosiah chapter 4, King Benjamin tells us three simple things that if we do them, will bring about life changing benefits:

•   Humble ourselves in humility
•   Call on the Lord daily
•   Be steadfast in faith

 “if [we] do this [we] shall always”

• Rejoice
• Be filled with the love of God
• Retain a remission of our sins
• Grow in knowledge of God and of what is just and true
• Have no thought to harm one another, but to live peaceably
• Care for our children
• Teach them to obey God’s laws and not fight and quarrel with each other
• Teach them to walk in the ways of truth
• Teach them to love one another
• Succor those in need of succor
• Give of our substance to those in need

It seems to me that if everyone would do those three simple things, just about every problem facing the world right now would end.

Help Thou Mine Unbelief

During a study session for my Becoming Project on faithfulness, I received a bit of pointed chastisement.

I took time out before writing this and posted about how crazy life has been the past few months to make my feelings more understandable. Because of all this crazy in my life, I have been seriously contemplating asking to be released from my temple calling, instead of going back in a couple of weeks when my leave time runs out.

Fall semester starts next week and I am taking two classes. Homework has been a challenge with Bubba in the house. I come home from work and he wants to spend time with “uh-ma.” With my new job, I no longer get to leave early on Fridays. I used that time for homework.

During my leave from the temple, I have thoroughly enjoyed having my Saturdays again. I have been using them to do homework, putter around and get things done in the house, and play with Bubba. Thinking about going back makes me sad. This shouldn’t be the reaction to returning to my temple assignment. Looking at the calendar yesterday, at the day I am supposed to go back, literally made me sick to my stomach. I stayed home from church yesterday and went to bed.

My problem is that I know I am supposed to go back.  I have been praying that He would help me change my desires to match what He wants me to do. This hasn’t happened. I have come to the slow realization that I have to do this because I have to do this.

Now to the chastisement.

I was reading the talk Help Thou Mine Unbelief by L. Whitney Clayton. There were three things that jumped out to me:

•   To have faith in Jesus Christ means to have such trust in him that we obey whatever he commands. There is no faith where there is no obedience.

• We simply go and do the things the Lord has commanded, even when we are weary, trusting that He will help us to do exactly as He asks.  As we do so, the Lord helps our unbelief, and our faith becomes powerful, vibrant, and unshakable. 

• No matter who we are or where we live, there is much about our daily lives that is routine and repetitive. As we go about this dailiness, we must be deliberate about doing the things that matter most. These must-do things include making room first for the minimum daily requirements of faithful behavior: true obedience, humble prayer, serious scripture study, and selfless service to others. No other daily vitamins strengthen the muscles of our faith as fast as these actions.

There you have it. If I truly want to increase my faithfulness, this is what I have to do. I must simply go and do what matters most and trust that the Lord will take care of the rest.

Making Faith a Choice

In my continued study of faith, I read a talk by Neil L. Anderson called Faith Is Not by Chance, but by Choice. 

I was drawn to this talk because of the concept that in my journey to gain more faith, I can be, as Elder Bednar says, an agent “to act and not merely be acted upon.”[1]

Elder Anderson says that “faith does not fall upon us by chance or stay with us by birthright.” This is wonderful. Everyone has the same opportunity to develop faith.

“Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from heaven that comes as we choose to believe and as we seek it and hold on to it.

Your faith is either growing stronger or becoming weaker.”

These two sentences hold so many keys to gaining and keeping faith throughout our lives.

1.     It is a gift from heaven

2.     It comes as we chose to believe

3.     It comes as we seek it

4.     It comes as we  hold on to it

5.     It is either growing stronger or becoming weaker

Elder Anderson gives keys to increasing faith, or helping it to grow stronger.

“How we live our lives increases or diminishes our faith. Prayer, obedience, honesty, purity of thought and deed, and unselfishness increase faith.

Without these, faith diminishes.”

He then references Luke 22:32, and asks “why did the Savior say to Peter, ‘I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not?’”

 31 ¶And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

He answers “because there is an adversary who delights in destroying our faith! Be relentless in protecting your faith.”

First off, verse 31 is frightening. The idea that Satan wants to sift you as wheat is chilling. Then conversely, Jesus prayed for Peter, knowing full well that Peter was about to betray him; then told him to strengthen his brethren when he himself was converted. I wonder if that was alluding to the betrayal and subsequent realization of what he had done.

Just as Satan had “a desire to have” Peter, he wants us too. I find Elder Anderson’s admonition to be “relentless” in defending our faith interesting.

One of the words defining relentless is unrelenting, which is defined as: not yielding or swerving in determination or resolution, as of or from opinions, convictions, ambitions, ideals, etc.

Not only should we work to build and strengthen our faith, but we should be unrelenting in defending it. I believe unrelenting is a very appropriate term.

Satan is ramping up his game. 

We need to ramp up ours. 

The choice really is ours.

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[1] David A. Bednar, Watching With All Perseverance, April 2010 

Can Faith Alone Save Me?

Becoming Project Week 2

My goal this week was to study some verses I identified on Faith in the second half of the New Testament.

James 2:14-17

14.  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?

15.  If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food,

16.  And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17.  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

If we want our faith to be alive, we have to act. We must add works to faith. What does that mean? How can we know if our works are sufficient to keep our faith alive in Christ? I found this:

“We hear much about benchmarks. A benchmark is “a standard of excellence [or] achievement … against which similar things [are] measured or judged.”¹⁰ There are four benchmarks that can help each of us know if our personal faith in Christ is being “made perfect” by our works. These benchmarks are:

1.      The choices we make

2.      The devotion we exhibit

3.      The obedience we practice

4.      The service we give”[1]

Ok, these are great benchmarks, but still, what is it we are supposed to be doing to meet these benchmarks? Peter seems to have answered the question well.

2 Peter 1:5-8, 10

5.      And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6.      And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7.      And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8.      For if things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

10.  … for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall

Although this lays it out fairly clearly, I thought it would be beneficial to make sure I really understood all these terms that are supposed to be added to faith. So, I turned to the inter-webs and got me some definitions.

First we need to be diligent in our faith:

Diligent: characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort.

The word energetic is interesting. While steady and earnest connote the turtle, slowly and determinedly plodding along, the word energetic indicates to me a frame of mind that has an excitement for the effort being made.

To faith we first add virtue:

Virtue: morally good behavior or character.

Then we need to add knowledge:

Knowledge: the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association.

This suggests to me the need to continually study the scriptures and the words of the prophets, and gain experience by living in a way that this knowledge dictates.

Next we need to add temperance:

Temperance: moderation in action, thought, or feeling: restraint.

Next comes patience:

Patience: bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint; not hasty or impetuous; steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity.

Yes, patience—easier said than done. My dad used to joke that he prayed to God for patience and God sent him six children. I guess we have to exercise patience while developing patience.

After patience we add godliness:

Godliness: believing in God and in the importance of living a moral life.

This definition surprised me. I thought godliness meant behaving like God. I read that the word godliness is translated from the Greek word for “piety,” which means “the quality of being religious or reverent.” Knowing this, adding godliness seems much easier than I had initially thought.

Now we add brotherly kindness. This one wasn’t so easy. Being a term and not one word to define, I had to do a little searching. After reading multiple commentaries on this term, I found one explanation: 

Brotherly kindness: after godliness (being religious or reverent), we have to add brotherly kindness so that your godliness isn’t sullen or morose, but kind and courteous.

But this seemed to be the main consensus:

Brotherly kindness: a love of those who are Christians.

Which makes the following virtue, charity, all the more important:

Charity: benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity.

We aren’t supposed to keep our good works just within the Christian community. We need to behave this way toward all humanity; exactly as Jesus would do.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone showed brotherly kindness to all of humanity?

---

[1] Bishop Keith B. McMullin, Faith and Worksin a Secular Society, BYU CES Fireside Address, Nov. 5, 2006

Becoming More Faithful

Becoming Project Week 1

My goal this week was to study some of the verses I identified in the New Testament which refer to faith.

Matthew 14:31

I began with Matt 14:31 which is Jesus speaking to Peter after he had the faith to get out of the boat and briefly walked on water, but then faltered when he focused on the storm and began to sink.

And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Footnotes lead to Mark 4:40 (my third chosen verse) which Jesus said after He calmed the storm, to the Apostles who had feared for their lives, because “there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full” (vs 37).

And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?

Footnotes lead to Alma 44:4 in which Moroni speaks to Zarahemnah after the Nephites had surrounded the more numerous Lamanites in battle.

Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.

And thus we see: if Jesus can calm the storm, cause mortal men to walk on water, and support and keep safe a much-outnumbered army, then he can care for me and give me the support I need and keep me in his care, so long as I am faithful unto him.

Matthew 21:21

Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not … if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Verse 22 goes on to say

And all things (blessings), whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

And thus we see: God can move mountains. The Apostles could move mountains with enough faith. I need to have faith that God can give me the blessings that I need. My prayers need to have faith, I need to believe. I need to doubt not!

Luke 22:32

In verse 31 Jesus tells Peter:

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

Jesus then tells him in verse 32:

 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou are converted, strengthen thy brethren.

And thus we see: Jesus has got our backs! Jesus is greater and more powerful than Satan. Jesus wants our faith to be strong and fail us not. All he asks in return is that we will then go and strengthen our brethren.

The footnote to strengthen points to: Fellowshipping; Missionary Work; Sustaining Church Leaders. I believe sharing testimony of our trials, being strengthened through Christ, and what we have learned through the process, is also a form of strengthening our brethren.

Weekly Reflection

I love what Elder Oaks says about our canon being open.

Because of our belief in continuing revelation, we Latter-day Saints maintain that the canon (the authoritative body) of scriptures is open. In fact, the scriptural canon is open in several ways, and continuing revelation is crucial to each of them.[1]

He goes on to say:

Our belief in an open canon also includes private revelations to individual seekers of the meaning of existing scriptures. Such revelations are necessary because, as Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve observed, “Each pronouncement in the holy scriptures … is so written as to reveal little or much, depending on the spiritual capacity of the student” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985, p. 71).[2]

I feel I have experienced some of that personal revelation during my study this week. Some of the things that I have been impressed about:

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. This stood out to me because I am going through some challenging circumstances with my family right now. This was a powerful reminder that a God who can cause both a barren woman and a virgin to give birth, can certainly help me find new employment, can help my daughter through this separation and possible divorce, and can rescue my wayward daughter. I just need to do my part and have faith in him.

Christ’s royal birthright was through both fathers. I either didn’t catch it or didn’t remember that he had a royal birthright through the lineage of David and would have been the rightful heir to the civic throne. He was King through all aspects of life.

The faith shown by Peter and Andrew when Jesus asked them to come follow him and they "straightway" left their nets, (Mark 1: 17-18) is a great example to me of the kind of faith I want to develop. That is my focus for my Becoming Project.

I believe that studying the life of Jesus Christ can only have a positive impact on me. I am excited to learn more about his life and to gain a deeper testimony of him.

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[1] Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Scripture Reading and Revelation, January 1995, lds.org.

[2] ibid

Straightway Toward Faith

One of our assignments is to choose a Christlike characteristic that we want to work on and develop throughout this class. I have chosen faith.

The world is crazy and our family is facing several challenges right now. I felt that learning more about and developing greater faith would be beneficial.

And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men.  And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him.

Mark 1:17-18

This is a perfect example of faith. I love the word "straightway" in this verse. They didn't stop to think about it. They didn't worry how they would feed themselves or make money to sustain life. They dropped their nets and went.

Marvin J. Ashton said this:

Straightway is a power word. Straightway is an action word. It means immediately, without delay or hesitation. It means at once. Also, it is associated with having no curve or turn—a straight course, track, or path. Procrastination would be the very opposite of straightway. To procrastinate is to put off intentionally and habitually something that should be done. Procrastination is unproductive delay. Someone has wisely said, “Procrastination is a silly thing, it only makes me sorrow; but I can change at any time—I think I will tomorrow!”

I don’t know if it is possible to develop that level of faith, to immediately “for[sake my] nets and follow him,” but I hope that through studying the life of Jesus Christ through the words of His Apostles, I can at least gain a greater understanding of the principle and cultivate a deeper faith.


Reference:
Straightway, Marvin J. Ashton, April 1983