Readings for May 31-June 4

"All the city doth know that thou art a virtuous woman."

Mon, May 31: Ruth 1

Tues, June 1: Ruth 2

Wed, June 2: Ruth 3

Thurs, June 3: Ruth 4

Fri, June 4: 1 Sam 1

What happens when there is no prophet

The reign of the Judges is just that - leadership given by God, but not under the Melchizedek Priesthood. Even after the Children of Israel turn to worshipping idols - again - and the Lord's anger turned hot against them and let their enemies do what they want, the Lord still offers help in the form of Judges. Even though Israel forgets the Lord, he still has reason to preserve Israel and maintain some political power.

Judges are mainly military leaders, but also act as civic leaders filling the judiciary, executive and legislative duties. The Judges that were most successful were those that turned to the Lord for help and were humble. The tribes of Israel were not a cohesive unit during these 200 years, though sometimes they helped each other. A judge was over a region, and therefore might be a few judges at a time. It is interesting to me that although we see the cycle of peace and apostasy many times during the reign of Judges, there were extended periods of time with peace. The Children of Israel have a bad reputation for being disobedient, but the consecutive years for peace ranged from 20-80 years, and the consecutive years for unrest ranged from 3-40 years. The total years of peace outnumber the total years of unrest. So, Israel knew how to be peaceful and how to keep covenants, it's just unfortunate they had to go through the cycle many times.

I had a hard time with this lesson. There are parts of the Bible that i wish we knew exactly what is a correct translation or not. This is one of those parts. How lucky we are to have Mormon rehearse a story and then say "And thus we see. . " and he tells us the meaning of the story. So many stories in the Old Testament just do not make sense with how we know the gospel today. The story of Samson is one of those stories. I think I must have brooded too much over this, but in chapter 4 of Judges we are told that marrying outside of the covenant was "of the Lord" and I just couldn't figure out why, in addition to "the Spirit of the Lord" coming upon him when performing a physical feat, when he obviously broke his covenants. After thinking about why the Lord would help Samson even though he is doing unrighteous things, here's what I think. I think Samson is an antithetical type of Christ. They have things in common in the beginning, but not toward the end.

Both the birth of the Savior and the birth of Samson were announced by an angel.

Both Samson and the Savior were given calls to deliver Israel.

Both Samson grew up dedicated to God.

But when Samson came of age and considered marrying, he chose a different way than the Savior.

Samson killed, Christ helped people live.

Samson focused on himself, Christ focused outward.

Samson gave into temptation, Christ did not.

Samson set aside covenants, Christ lived within the covenant even though he knew he would be the one to fulfill the covenant.

Samson's motives were revenge, branching from pride, Christ's motives were love even to those who did wrong to him.

The bottom line is, Samson was sent to do a job and was blessed with great physical strength to do it. He was also blessed with spiritual strength, but he chose to use physical strength to accomplish the goal himself. His strength actually became his weakness. In addition to many other possible lessons, I think we are to learn that deliverance doesn't come with physical strength or by anything we think of on our own. Deliverance comes physically and spiritually and the only one who can help us with that is the Savior. I think it is a point to the later Jews who were looking for a Savior to save them politically. They assumed that they didn't need a spiritual Savior because they were living the life of sacrifices and laws. But the Savior came to save us spiritually and physically as well.

There is so much more that I learned from this lesson. It was impossible to discuss all the connection that were given to me. But I am so thankful for those connections and for the source.

Idols, idols, idols

Being loyal to the Lord seems to be a prevalent theme throughout the Old Testament, which is understandable considering human nature. For us, we at least have history to support our belief. But for the Israelites and other people during that time, their belief was based on prophecy. I can see how hard it would be to forget their God, without having anything but prophecy to support. Not that we don't have that problem today. In fact Moses said we would. In Deut 4:29-30, we are told that we will have these problems in the latter-days:

But if from thence thou shalt ^aseek the Lord thy God, thou shalt ^bfind him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30 When thou art in ^atribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the ^blatter days, if thou ^cturn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

Here is a list I came up with as motivations behind idolatry:

1. PRIDE: Deut 8:13-18

2. ENTITILEMENT –

3. UNGRATEFULLNESS Deut 8:14

4. LIVE IN THE NOW /FORGET THE MIRACLES OF THE LORD – Deut 8:15-16

5. Seeing is believing – FAITHLESSNESS Deut 4:15-16

6. All this leads to DISOBEDIENCE Deut 8:20

7. LACK OF WORK – Deut 6:10-12 physical and spiritual

8. FEAR as we know it. Deut 32:15-17 Fear because of sin. Men trying to avoid the discomfort of the fear of consequences. Let’s make idols that do not make us feel uncomfortable.

Here is a list of ways to avoid idolatry:

1. LOVE the Lord thy God Deut 6:4-6

2. TEACH the words of the Lord. Especially to your children. Deut 6:7 Family Home evening quote. Plug FHE on church website.

3. Keep the word of the Lord with you, in your heart and with you always. Deut 6:8-9. READ THE SCRIPTURES. A work about phylacteries. What is the difference between a symbol and an idol? While we do not know if the Lord intended for the children of Israel to make these small boxes for their heads and hands, I think they did so with good intent. Though through the years, they evolved from a symbol and reminder of faith, to a showing artifact indicating supposed faith. The Savior accuses the Pharisees in Matthew 23:1-5. We need to be careful of this as well. Be mindful of why you come to church. Do you come because what would people say if you didn’t, or do you come to learn. Do you have pictures of Christ or the temple in your house because all good Latter-day Saints have such pictures in their homes or do you do it for reminders and respect.

4. KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS (the words keep the commandments or statutes are mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy at least 25 times). Deut 6: 17-19

5. This implies WORK Deut 11: 13-15. The Lord will uphold his promise to bring them into the Promised land, but then in 16-17 makes sure they know that if they do not continue to love the Lord and serve him, He will not bless the land and in the end will scatter the tribes of Israel for their lack of loyalty.

6. “REMEMBER all the way which the Lord thy God led thee” Deut 8:2 Multiple times throughout Deuteronomy the Lord rehearses what he did for the Children of Israel. Not only should you remember them, but you should teach your children about them. What better place can children learn from than a trusted parent. Duet 6:20-25 BE OBEDIENT. Prophets of all time have taken this to heart. Nephi, The Lord himself in 3 Ne and the D&C, Jacob, Abinadi, Nephi the son of Helaman, Alma, even King Limhi, Paul, and Luke.

7. GIVE THANKS Deut 8:10

8. FOLLOW THE RIGHT PROPHET DEUT 13:1-3 Also, KNOW THERE IS A PURPOSE AND A PROVING

9. Know that REPETITION IS GOOD. Brigham Young quote.

10. Pray for an ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE. Deut 32:29 “O that they were wise that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”

Make up post: Bondage, Exodus and Passover

I am fascinated with the Children of Israel. I think I am fascinated with them because they always seems to miss the obvious. But that's not really being fair to them because I can read about their experiences and predicament in one day, whereas they had to live through every moment. Another reason they are a fascinating people is they are whiners like we are. Yup, we are whiners.

• The Egyptians hold the Israelites in bondage. We are held in bondage (whether by our own actions or the actions of others).
• The Israelites accept their bondage, get comfortable, but still look forward to being released from bondage as per prophecy. We sometimes get comfortable with our bondage/lot in life, but have a great hope that someday we will be free or that there will be a change.
• They are told that they will be freed so they stop fulfilling their responsibilities. We assume things will happen that fast too and do not continue with our responsibilities.
• They are punished with more and harder work. So are we, which may make us want to give up even more.
• They are obedient to what Moses tells them to do in order to escape. Their hearts are in it at the time, but not for the long haul. Ditto for us at times.
• They are given the Passover, the great symbol of the Savior's sacrifice and help for the obedient, which will happen in the future, are asked to believe and act. We are given the doctrine of the Savior's sacrifice which happened in the past and are asked to believe and act.
• They are told to teach their children about the Passover - in word and deed. We are told to teach our children about the Savior - in word and deed.
• Israelites are the recipient of many miracles and are made aware of the author of such miracles. We too are the recipient of many miracles, and are made aware through some channels, if we listen, but since many of our miracles are more individualized (at least that we know of, in comparison) we have a great responsibility to acknowledge where the miracles come from. I suppose they did too.
• The Israelites had these momentous experiences to teach them and give them hope and inspire them. We have these experiences too. But like the Israelites, sometimes we live in that momentous moment but we do not let them change us. We deny the very purpose of that experience by marking it in our journals, telling other people about it, but then go back to our habits and comforts of knowing where we were yesterday. We whine that we either have to change (requiring work) or that we must do something (work) or that it's not what we want, it's not how we pictured life to be.

Well, quit whining and change! Here's my favorite quote from Elder Holland about whining: "No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse." Ensign, May 2007

Readings for May 10-14

"Beware Lest Thou Forget"

Mon, May 10: Deut 6

Tues, May 11: Deut 8

Wed, May 12: Deut 11

Thurs, May 13: Deut 32

No, seriously

It's been nearly a month since I've posted anything. We've just had another Stake conference, which means that I will be two weeks behind some people, but I am re-commiting myself to at least one weekly post. I will be doing some make-up posts since I am recording my ramblings as journal entries, then will catch up to this week, which for me in Numbers 22-24. It's a good thing I believe (and I hope you do too) in mercy!