Joshua 2 - Learning from Rahab

Rahab and the spies
So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
... she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.
‘I know that the Lord has given this land to you ... the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.'
'...we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.’
And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

- Joshua 2 (selected verses)

I decided to look at some of the women of the Bible recently and, although I wasn't intending to journal about them, I did get inspired by the story of Rahab.

I recently bought the Complete Guide to Bible Journaling by Joanne Fink & Regina Yoder and it has pages of templates and ideas in the back. One of them was a town scene with a heart hanging from one of the windows. It reminded me of the story of Rahab hanging the scarlet thread from her window. I copied the image into my Bible and coloured the town in drab colours, making Rahab's house the only bright spot in the image, signifying Rahab's faith in the spies' God.

The lettering reads 'Rahab recognised God, responded and was saved'. I love that Rahab was paying enough attention that she saw something good in the spies, acted to help them, and as a result was saved (and became one of the ancestors of Jesus!). She is also a perfect example of an imperfect person being used for God's purposes, which I love. It's a great reminder that God can use anyone if He chooses to, and that even the most messed up of us can still be saved.

The art was quite simple, but I enjoyed doing it. I used pencil crayons to colour the image and Pitt Artist pens to do the line art and lettering.

Mark 4:21-25 - Let the light shine

A lamp on a stand
He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.’
‘Consider carefully what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.’

- Mark 4:21-25

We're working through a sermon series on Mark at church at the moment, which I'm really enjoying. It's great to get more insight into what Jesus did and the context and reasons for that.

This passage appears in the middle of a series of parables, and is Jesus telling his listeners to pay attention to what they're being told, and to understand the meanings. It's been a theme as we're going through Mark that Jesus has to explain things to His disciples because they don't understand what He means.

We don't have the luxury of grabbing Jesus in person and sitting Him down to explain things to us, but we can study the Bible, read what He told other people, and spend time in prayer to get to know what He really means more. One of the things I love about Bible art journalling is that I get to spend more time sitting and reading and thinking about passages than I would if I was just reading a passage and moving on to other things. I love to find out the stories behind the stories - the context and setting for certain parables, the history of what was happening around Jesus and the disciples at the time, and how everything fits in with the rest of the Bible.

I got my inspiration from a series of templates Monica Bauer produced. I loved the stained glass effect and thought I'd give it a go. I'm not 100% satisfied with the art, but I'm happy with the overall message. The crux of the passage, to me, was 'let your light shine' - your light, in this case, being God's glory reflected through us. I know that's not the precise meaning of the passage, but it's what I got out of it. I used the image of a lamp on a tall stand, where it could be seen, and added the text above.

On a side note, looking back over my hand lettering over the last year, I'm very pleased with how much it's improved with practice!

I used a combination of Pitt Artist Pens and watercolour pencils to colour the image. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with the markers on this image. I'm used to getting shadowing with the pens, but find it doesn't shadow so much if I use the pens over the watercolour. However... I was quite surprised to see that the yellow pen I used for the writing shadowed really badly. I managed to cover it, but it was unexpected.

Proverbs 28:1 - The righteous are as bold as a lion

The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

- Proverbs 28:1

This entry was inspied by Rebekah R Jones' Bible Art Journaling Challenge, week 3 (no link because the original challenge post has been take down).

I was in two minds about sharing this entry, which is why it's taken over a year for me to post it up here. From an art point of view I was delighted with it. It's one of the best pieces of art I've done in my Bible to date, and I liked the way the stamping came out. I also liked that the lion's eyes looked kind, as I was thinking of Aslan as a model when I was sketching. I also learned that if I'm going to prep my pages (necessary if I don't want stamping to bleed through) then I need to prep everywhere I'm going to create, or the colour will be different on the prepped to unprepped parts.

But from a spiritual/Bible study point of view I don't feel I actually got very much out of it. Maybe it was because the video that went with the challenge wasn't there to follow, so I couldn't get the extra bit of insight into the verse that I get from that usually. Maybe it was because it was only one verse and nothing more (I find Proverbs can be difficult to journal on for exactly that reason). Maybe it was because I concentrated too much on the art and wasn't really in the right place mentally when I did the entry.

Whatever the reason I've decided to not let it put me off. I'm planning to do more studies on boldness/lions, spurred on by this challenge, and see where it takes me. This entry may not have had much impact on me, but as our pastor said in his sermon this morning, little things can make all the difference to our Christian lives. This little passage could end up paving the way to all sorts of interesting insights into other passages!

What I used: White gesso, black Memento ink, Prismacolour coloured pencils, black Micron pen, selection of alphabet stamps from Dovecraft.