The Old Testament

I'm nearing the end of my (it turned out) 18-month project to read the Old Testament, which I'd never done before.

As a kid, I read Old Testament Stories, and I always new the narratives, their details, and the characters.

But there is a lot in the OT that isn't narrative.  Readers of this blog perhaps know this, but it was a surprise to me.  Many of the longest books (Ezekiel, Jeremiah) are records of prophecies that all predict the same thing (Israel's destruction), over and over.

I've heard that the god of the Old Testament is the angry one and that the god of the New Testament is the loving, forgiving one.  Since they're the same God, this didn't make sense to me, and it turns out to be untrue.

There is plenty of destruction and consequences for poor choices in the Old Testament, but there is also the same love and redemption that we find in the New Testament.

The Book of Micah is kind of a microcosm of the entire Old Testament. I enjoyed reading it because it was short--its prophecies of destruction only took five chapters instead of sixty.  Chapters six and seven of Micah are a wonderful summary of God's direction to and love for His children.

What does the Lord want of us?  Micah 6:8--"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

And what does the Lord have in store for us at the end? Micah 7:18-19

18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

So really, I've found the Old Testament, summarized nicely in Micah, to be a good allegory for life.

1. We receive commandments from a loving God.
2. We forget Him often and fail to keep those commandments
3. We suffer the spiritual and temporal consequences of disobedience
4. When we repent we are forgiven
5. When we sin again, we suffer; when we repent again we are forgiven
6. A merciful and loving Father wil again have compassion upon us and cast away our sins

Faith and desire; knowledge and power

I read the story of Ammon and the King the other day, specifically Alma 18, which is the chapter after the arm-lopping and saving of the flock.  King Lamoni wonders if Ammon, so powerful was he, is the Great Spirit.

No, Ammon says, "I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God, and I am called by his Holy Spirit to teach these things unto this people, that they may be brought to a knowledge of that which is just and true; And a portion of that Spirit dwelleth in me, which giveth me knowledge, and also power according to my faith and desires which are in God (v 34-35)."

What a model.  How can one get the knowledge and power to succeed in life?  By having faith in and a desire to serve God.

I'm also quite confident that, though I can do all things in the strength of the Lord, I wouldn't be nearly so successful as Ammon in smiting arms and thieves with a sword and sling.  I picture Ammon much like he's drawn here:

I'm not nearly so burly.

I get the sense that Ammon was prepared from the time he was young to be able to handle such situations, which would make him a more effective missionary.  I'd like to think that he had thoughts and desires to strengthen his body, and that the Spirit was directing him subtly to do so throughout his life.

Since I haven't had the same kind of guidance and don't have the body to carry it out even if I had,  I started thinking about what attributes I did have that I could put in the Lord's service if I spent the time to strengthen those and prayed for an increased desire to serve.

I came up with something that I won't write here.  Instead I focus on the principle of the thing.  If I have a desire to serve, and faith that the Lord will assist me as I work at it, then I know that He will give me the knowledge and power to use the talents I have to serve Him better.

Thanks, Ammon, for the example.

Living Water

I listened to this talk by Elder Bednar the other day.  He focuses on how to use a variety of techniques and patterns of scripture study to partake of the "living water" that Christ talks about in John 4:6-15.  Living Water is a symbol of Christ himself.

6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

What does it mean to "never thirst" if we drink of the Savior's living water?  In the eternal sense, Jesus is speaking about the eternal life that is promised to those that believe in Him (John 3:15-17).  That's a promise by itself that is worth looking toward.

The Gospel and Doctrine of Christ have current applications for our temporal well beings as well.  Christ's Living Water is available to us now, and is designed to support us in this life.  The water "springs up" to everlasting life, and in doing so can quench our thirst immediately.

This life is full of dry spells that result in thirst.  The trials we face do make us thirsty, which ought to lead us back to the source of living water that is constantly available and springing up for us.

We are here to learn.  The fallen nature of the world gives us plenty of opportunity to learn as we encounter wickedness, sin, folly--both our own and the choices of others.  Christ offers us the Living Water that enables us to overcome those trials, and to be happy and hopeful now in the midst of all the hardships that the world constantly offers and forces upon us.

Eternal Life is a wonderful thing to look forward to.  But I am most happy that Christ has drawn for me the water that is always available to me in a thirst-inducing world.  As I learn through trials to turn to him, that is what it means to never thirst.

Overcoming obstacles

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are mostly about the efforts of the Jews to rebuild a temple and build a wall around the city.  It takes decades, and many people conspire to stop their progress.  Check out these chapter headings:

Ezra 1: King Cyrus of Persia lets the Jews go back to Jerusalem to build the temple—Cyrus returns the vessels of the house of the Lord taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Ezra 2: Faithful people contribute to the building of the temple. Ezra 3: The altar is rebuilt—Regular sacrifices are reinstituted—The foundations of the temple are laid amid great rejoicing. Ezra 4: The Samaritans offer help, then hinder the work—The building of the temple and of the walls of Jerusalem ceases. Ezra 5: Zerubbabel renews the building of the temple—The Samaritans challenge the Jews’ right to continue their building work. Ezra 6: Darius renews the decree of Cyrus to build the temple—It is finished and dedicated, and sacrifices and feasts commence again. Nehemiah 2: Artaxerxes sends Nehemiah to Jerusalem—Sanballat and others oppose Nehemiah in rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 4: The Jews’ enemies seek to prevent them from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem—Nehemiah arms the laborers and keeps the work progressing. Nehemiah 6: Sanballat engages in intrigue against Nehemiah and the building of the wall—The Jews finish the construction of the wall.

According to this lesson plan, the period of these two books spans 100 years.

The lesson that I take from this is that the Lord does prepare ways to accomplish his commandments, even in the face of tremendous difficulty and seeming impossibility.  Yet with patience and faith, if we persevere, we will discover what the Lord's ways are, and according to His schedule, we can overcome all obstacles and fulfill His commandments.

Over and over again

I read 1 Nephi chapter 16 today.  Here's what I learned.

There is a lot of murmuring and repenting going on in this chapter.  It starts out with Laman and Lemuel complaining that Nephi is being too hard on them (v 1).  Nephi knows this, but it's because they are self-conscious because of their own guilt, and they should be more diligent in keeping the commandments (v 3-4).  In verse 5, they repent.

This is a cycle seen in earlier chapters, and it is repeated here a few more times.  Well, the families all marry each other and get blessed exceedingly and honeymoon in fertile parts of the wilderness.  They get the Liahona and all goes well for a few days, and then Nephi's bow breaks.

So, more murmuring (v 20) because they get hungry.  Lehi joins in complaining against the Lord also.  Nephi again calls them to repentance (v 22), and then goes and makes a new bow and gets everyone some dinner.  The family appreciates this, and humbly repent again (v 24 and 32).

Doesn't last long, though, because Ishmael dies, and people murmur anew, this time going so far to plot the murder of their father and brother (v 36-37).  But, the Lord calls them to repentance again (v 38), and they repent again (v 39).

But was it really repentance?  This chapter makes it pretty clear that they aren't forsaking their sins, even if they confess and are called out for them.  The Lord probably sees this pattern, knows that they are likely to murmur again, and will surely just brush this hard-time repentance off as so much background noise.

Nope.  The Lord blessed them again (v 39).

That's what the Lord does.  My Stake President says that Jesus's favorite thing to do is forgive people.  And Laman and Lemuel and their followers aren't much different from us, in that they sin all the time.  And that their sins are often manifestations of the same weaknesses that they've exhibited before.

Yet, the Lord frankly forgives them, even though their pattern is obvious, and their repentance is caused by chastisement from others.

That's what we experience in our lives as well.  No wonder Jesus loves us so much.  We give him the opportunity to do his favorite thing over and over.

Stumbling Blocks

And it shall come to pass, that if the ^aGentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself unto them in word, and also in ^bpower, in very deed, unto the^ctaking away of their ^dstumbling blocks.

That's 1 Ne 14:1. This verse is spoken by the Angel that shows Nephi the vision of the Tree of Life, the Savior, and the future of his posterity.  What are stumbling blocks?  I looked up the footnote.

Isa. 57:14; Ezek. 7:19; 1 Cor. 1:23; 1 Ne. 13:34 (29, 34); 2 Ne. 26:20.


Ezekiel 7:19 expands a bit and calls them the "stumblingblock of their iniquity."  1 Cor 1:23 is about how the lack of faith being a stumbling block, whether one replaces his own wisdom ahead of faith (Greeks) or insists on a sign in order to believe (Jews).  The Book of Mormon references are about how the fallen church creates stumbling blocks for people by removing the "plain and precious" truths from the Bible.


But in reading 1 Ne 14:1, I thought of stumbling blocks as temptation, because I'm likening the scriptures to me and those I know.  And I like that interpretation best.  That if I do a better job of listening to and following the Lord, and I will have His word and power more, to the point that temptation is less of and eventually an overcome block that no longer causes me to stumble.


Wouldn't that be awesome?

Promptings or random thoughts

I hadn't realized it has been so long since I've posted.  It's because of baseball.  I announce for a minor league team, and since their season started a few weeks ago I've been working most Sundays with them and many other nights.  That and a social life has kept me away during my regular writing times.

Also, I've been reading the books of Chronicles in the Old Testament, which is a lot of repeated information from the books of Samuel and Kings, and hasn't struck me with things that I've felt to write, except for what I wrote the first time I read them, in the previous books.

So, today I'm thinking about prayers and promptings.  I've spent a lot of time praying for understanding and knowledge about what to do and say in several situations, including work, romance, missionary efforts, and family.

I'm trying to take the advice of my wonderful Stake President.  When I asked him how he could always feel so confident that the Spirit was prompting him what to say, he replied, "I try to live so that I have the companionship of the Spirit, and then I assume every thought I have the Spirit put there."

Further, he says sometimes he's wrong, but when that happens the Spirit stops him pretty strongly. So, that's where I'm going, just assuming that there's no need to try and differentiate between my own thoughts and spiritual promptings.  Just assume they are all guidance and I'll get stopped if I'm wrong.