WHOM DO YE SAY THAT I AM?

The Sermon on the Mount offers us an interesting lesson besides the obvious one by which Jesus declared He was the Bread of Life. The Gospel of Matthew records that 5,000 men plus women and children (Matthew 14:21) had followed Christ to the mount to hear His words. When the evening drew nigh and the time of departure had come (JST Mark 6:36) all three gospels record that the Twelve came to Jesus and told Him to send the crowds away to go and buy victuals and feed themselves (Luke 9:12). However, John's version differs slightly. John recorded that Jesus said to Philip, one of the Twelve, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do." (John 6:5,6). It's almost as if He was saying: Ask me to feed this people out of nothing; Ask me to perform a miracle; Ask me to show you that I am the Christ. Could it be that the miracle of feeding 5,000+ was as much for the benefit of his disciples' conviction of His divinity as it was for His declaration of being the Bread of Life? If Philip's conviction was iron clad his answer would have been: "You are the Christ, You can feed these people because you can do all things". Philip answered instead that even two hundred pennyworth of bread was not enough to feed them so the problem remained unsolved, until the Saviour offered a solution.

Luke records immediately after the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus asked the Twelve the crucial question: "Whom say the people that I am?" (Luke 9:18)  They came back with various answers according to people's opinions. Then Jesus asked a more personal and direct question: "But whom say YE that I am?" And Peter straightway answered: "The Christ of God", Christ being the title of Greek translation of "The Anointed One". Thus Peter's answer was: "Thou art the Anointed One of God" (Luke 9:20).

A long time ago I heard this poignant saying: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence?" This question of course highlights the importance of us living Christian lives. But anybody can perform acts  of Christian values out of the goodness of their hearts. Of us as members of the elect House of Israel we should ask this question: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, is there enough evidence that you know Christ?" Our lives should reflect our deep knowledge and conviction of His character and attributes which has been manifest through our faith in Him and all He can do. Have we enough proof in our personal lives that He forgives sins; that He heals our hearts; that He performs miracles; that He provides and watches over us; that He is a lamp unto our feet; that the power of His Atonement has wrought a change in our hearts; that we are encircled about in the arms of His love? If we were tested as Philip was, we should be able to answer: "You are God, you can do all things".

When the Saviour comes again, He might ask each one of us "Who do you say that I am?" and we will not be able to rely on other people's knowledge of Him. Our own conviction will need to be such that we will be able to say:

Thou art the Christ and there is none else.....

Thou art the Redeemer and there is none else...

Thou art the Saviour and there is none else.....

Thou art the Lord and there is none else....

Thou art the Anointed One and there is none else.....

Thou art  God and there is none else.....

(Isaiah 45)

A WOMAN'S WORTH

There is a story in the Old Testament that would no doubt enrage the feminists of our day. It is the story of Esther. This story unfolds in Babylon around 478 B.C. under the rule of Persian King Ahasuerus, known in history as  Xerxes (Greek form of his name). After showing off the wealth of his kingdom to all the princes and nobles of Persia and Media in the third year of his reign, King Xerxes made a seven day feast for everyone that was found in Shushan palace, both great and small (Esther 1:5). After seven days of limitless drinking  (Esther 1:8), the King commanded that Queen Vashti present herself and show her beauty to all present. The Queen did the unthinkable, and for some unknown reason, refused. Perhaps she felt it was beneath her to parade herself in front of a bunch of unruly drunkards or maybe the feminists among us would suggest she did not support objectifying  of women. There could be another side to this story however. This King was obscenely rich, so much so that it took him 180 days to show off the riches of his kingdom (Esther 1:4). It could very well be that he valued his queen above all that he had and saved the best for last. In his mind he was probably paying her a compliment by showing her off and maybe even feeling proud that he could have a wife such as this.

Vashti's stuborness did not do her any favours. What followed next could by today's standards be deemed the worst case of suppression of women. The story goes on to say that seven princes, which sat first in the kingdom, realised that if the queen refused to obey her husband, that all the women in the kingdom would follow suit so they decided to make an example of Vashti and convinced the king to do away with her (Esther 1:15-22). By one act of assertion she became a whole new threat to the patriarchal order of life. Once the Queen was done away with and the King came to his senses he realised he no longer had a queen. His servants however, came up with a solution. They suggested that all the 'fair young virgins' be paraded before him to select another queen. Here is another case of objectifying of women, because they were chosen for their beauty. Could it be however that it was considered that a man's value increased by being married to a beautiful and pure woman? Certainly purity in women, once highly valued, is something greatly missing from our liberated society. When we read the scriptures, it is plain to see that men's worth was calculated by how many children he had, sons in particular who could carry on the paternal lineage. Would it not make sense that mothers of those children were equally valued as were the wives of those sons who could not continue the family line without them?

As we know a Jewish girl by the name of Esther was chosen for her outstanding beauty to marry King Xerxes. I doubt very much that she had any say in whether she wanted to marry this man but I dare say this opportunity would have been considered a stroke of fortune in the ancient world. Which would have been better? Being a Jewish captive in a foreign land or the queen of that land? Now here's the interesting thing....Esther was marrying outside the covenant which was a big no no for Jews. There is a heart wrenching story in Ezra 10 about the exiles who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and who started inter-marrying with the heathen women of the land. When Ezra got there with the second party of returning exiles and discovered this he was so horrified he pulled the hair out of his head and wept and cast himself before the temple Ezra 9:3, 10:1). Why was he so distraught? Because men that married outside of their faith followed the religious convictions of their wives and Ezra knew this would lead his people back to idolatry and the God of Israel would not be pleased..... So strongly did Ezra fear this that he convinced these men to give up their heathen wives and even the children they had by them (Ezra 10). In my opinion this is one of the saddest stories of the Old Testament. Even King Solomon was not exempt from this weakness and succumbed to his wives' idol worship in his old age (1 Kings 11:1-10).

But in Esther's case, the roles were reversed. She was a God fearing woman and the man in her situation was the heathen. Esther did not seem to be at risk of abandoning her faith. She kept her religion and continued to worship the God of heaven. She did not adopt her husband's religious practices. I am not saying here that men are weak and highly impressionable and that women are stronger than them. What I am saying is this....When God gave a commandment in the beginning that a man should leave his mother and father and 'cleave unto his wife' (Genesis 2:24) I believe that somehow this became a very literal mandate for men, with women being given the advantage and privilege of influence.....as was proven by Esther who saved her entire nation from annihilation (Esther 8). And now here is the greatest lesson for us women....did Esther rely on her beauty and her womanly wiles to convince King Xerxes not to kill her people? She could have done that. The King was clearly smitten by her to the point that he would have granted her every wish and given her even half of his kingdom (Esther 5:3,6; 7:2). Instead of relying on her womanhood, Esther employed God's assistance in her influence over the king. She designated a three day fast for all the Jews in the kingdom and offered two banquets to the King and his right hand man Haman who was intent on Jewish annihilation. The 24 hours in between those two banquets was crucial because during that time the King had a sudden desire to read the records which threw a light on the situation at hand. This desire was obviously inspired from above (Esther 6). The fasting of Esther and her people brought the Lord into the situation. It's a rather lengthy story but a highly entertaining one. The whole event is celebrated even today among the Jews through the Feast of Purim all because of the power of a righteous woman.

We are enjoying freedoms today never before known to women. With this comes a great responsibility.  Our influence knows no bounds. We can tear down or build up. We can inspire or degrade. We can soften men's hearts or lead them to destruction. We can lead them away from truth or bring them to God. Such is the power of women. Mordecai, a relative who raised Esther, suggested to her that she was probably raised up at that time to save her people, that she was foreordained for such 'a time as this' (Esther 4:14). Esther in Persian tongue means 'a star'.   She honoured her name well for she was no doubt there when 'the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy' (Job 38:7). We, noble women of the covenant were there too, foreordained for such a time as this, to lift humanity to higher ground, to prepare for the great day of the Lord when He shall come in His glory to save His people Israel. We were the morning stars sent to support, love and influence our husbands, our sons and our brothers to be the sons of  God now and forever.

IT IS UP TO US

Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem

by Rembrandt

The biggest heroes of the scriptures are the ones that make things happen. They are workers who understand that God's will is up to His children to put into effect. When we read scriptural prophecies we tend to think that God will miraculously make things happen or that someone else will suddenly appear to fulfil the promises God has made.

Daniel of the Old Testament is a good example of making things happen. As we know he lived in Babylonian captivity in service to heathen kings for most of his life. He was very much devoted to the God of Israel and had Israel's welfare at heart. He eagerly hung onto the Lord's promise that Israel's captivity would last only 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). It is suggested by historians that when Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon that he found Daniel there in his governmental capacity,  and that Daniel  pointed out to him the prophecy of Isaiah that was given 140 years before the fall of Jerusalem, that the Lord would raise up a mighty king who would free the Jewish captives in Babylon and allow them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the holy city. Isaiah even named Cyrus by name.....210 years before he even appeared in Babylon. Astonishing isn't it? It certainly was to Cyrus because he freed the Jews and allowed 50,000 of them to return to Jerusalem. The rest chose to stay until Ezra's second party of 17,000 some years later after the construction project was completed. It is significant here to note that Daniel who so loved his homeland and his heritage did not choose to return to Jerusalem but chose to remain in Babylon to continue to serve God in a foreign land. The point is this. Daniel in all likelihood played a huge part in this historical event. This theory can be supported by another example of Daniel's doing.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the temple, they encountered bitter opposition from Samaritans who reasoned that they should be involved in the project. Because Samaritans were not pure Israelites and had practised a variant religion of Jehovah worship heavily intermingled with pagan and other unauthorised religious practices, the Jews refused. In retaliation the Samaritans influenced the Persian kings who succeeded Cyrus to halt the rebuilding project for 17 years. In steps Daniel again. In the first year of King Darius, Daniel again petitioned the Lord about Jeremiah's prophecy. Daniel 9:17-19 shows Daniel's prayerful concern for the unfinished temple and the city of Jerusalem. The Lord answered Daniel and raised two prophets in Jerusalem: Haggai and Zechariah. You might wonder how prophets could finish construction of anything, right?? You might wonder why God didn't send someone with political clout, negotiation expertise or even military power....but instead he sent two of his servants to finish the job....and finish they did....Haggai alone showed the Jews exactly why they were not able to finish the project. He taught them that all temporal problems arise out of spiritual weakness and that if they would put God first, they would extricate themselves from abject poverty they were in which was their main problem.  It makes for compelling reading. These two prophets instructed the governor Zerubbabel, the high priest Jeshua and the Jewish people how to complete the temple in spite of persecution, poverty and governmental red tape (Haggai 1:1-5, 12-14; Zechariah 4:9, Ezra 6:14). Even though these two prophets got the job done, in reality, this began with Daniel and was his doing.

President Kimball prayed and petitioned the Lord repeatedly regarding the priesthood for the black members of the Church. I am sure President Nelson did the same regarding the many changes he has brought in since his calling. They didn't sit back and think things will happen out of thin air. The state of Christ's Kingdom when we present it to Him upon His coming will depend on us. The Church as an administrative body takes care of the physical entity of the Kingdom but we, its' member body take care of its spiritual condition. We must consider this our responsibility because we will be the ones to usher in the Millenium. The scriptures state that at the beginning of the Millenium Satan will be bound and will have no power for 1,000 years. This loss of power will not be because God will bind him in chains and throw him in a dungeon but because we, God's saints and disciples of Christ, will be so spiritually strong that he will simply have no power over us and will therefore no longer have a role to play. We will simply make him irrelevant.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild, the first thing they built was the altar of the temple, even before the foundation of the temple was laid (Ezra 3:1-6). They knew that the altar was the heart of the temple and the temple was the heart of the Jewish religious life.  Our temples today dot the earth, and all without much sacrifice from us. Our temples set us apart from other religions, they make us a 'peculiar people' to the world and a 'peculiar treasure' to the Lord (Exodus 19:5). They provide us with spiritual backbone through our obedience to its covenants. It is in the temples of our God that we will be armed with His power to bind Satan and to become a holy people (D&C 109:22); and it is in the temples that we will find refuge from the storm that is yet to come upon the saints of God in the last days. Consider Elder Featherstone's words:

"Before the Saviour comes the world will darken. There will come a period of time where even the elect will lose hope if they do not come to the temples. The world will be so filled with evil that the righteous will only feel secure within its walls. The saints will come here not only to do vicarious work but to find a haven of peace. The covenants and ordinances will fill us with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction and death, we as a people will rest in the shade of trees, we will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm; we will mount up as on eagles' wings; we will be lifted out of an insane and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun ad clear as the moon. When the Saviour comes He will honour His people. Those who are spared and prepared will be a temple-loving people. They will know Him. Our children will bow down at His feet and worship Him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. They will bathe His feet with their tears and He will weep, and bless them for having suffered through the greatest trials known to man. Let us prepare them with the faith to surmount every trial and every condition. We will do it in these holy, sacred temples." (Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, Manti Temple, April 1987)

May we worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in our hearts, in our homes and in our temples that we may possess God's power and ever remember that "we have a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay to conquor the enemy of all righteousness." (Moroni 9:6)