Mormon 5
5:1-10 - After moving the plates to safety Mormon "did repent of the oath which I had made that I would no more assist them; and they gave me command again of their armies, for they looked upon me as though I could deliver them from their afflictions." I find this to be the ultimate irony here, they look to Mormon to save them, but then they won't do what he says, which is to repent and turn to the Lord, they just know that he can do it, but only if he tells them to win the way that they want to, it's really ridiculous actually. And Mormon knew that he wasn't going to be able to turn the tides of the war because of his incredible military skill, he's still one man fighting against an innumerable host, and without God fighting along side of them, they're done. HN makes an astute comment, "Notice again, here is the essence of tragedy- the fact that there is no hope here. He does the heroic thing, but he's devoted to a lost cause. He dies for the cause, He knows it's not going to do any good, and yet he does it for the people- the truly heroic figure." I always wondered why he went back to them instead of just hiding in the mountains like Moroni did, I always thought that that would be smarter, but then again, surviving isn't everything. There are several more back and forth battles, with the one thing in common that the aggressors usually weren't successful, it was the defenders who usually won the battle, which makes sense. As they retreated "whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites... and those whose flight was swifter than the Lamanites' did escape, and those whose flights did not exceed the Lamanites' were swept down and destroyed." This is interesting to me because it reminds me of the warnings like in Matthew 24:19 which says, "And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!" I always thought that this was a terrible thing to say, "hope your not pregnant during war because you will die!" I always thought, who would murder a pregnant woman, and I guess the answer is, a lot of people. Apparently, the number one cause of death among pregnant women is homicide, so there you go, here we see an example of what might happen when that prophecy is fulfilled.
5:11-22 - Verse 11 is so powerful, while speaking of those who will receive the record that he was keeping, Mormon said, "For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus." It would make sense that those who read the Book of Mormon are not hard hearted, that they are sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and that the destruction of the Nephites would be spiritually painful for them, which is interesting because just last night I said how depressing this was. But the concept of being "clasped in the arms of Jesus," I love it, and I definitely needed to be clasped in his arms today, it's been a rough last few days. "Clasped" means to be held on tightly but gently, when we think of the clasp on a necklace, it's strong but not pinchy, to me it means to be secured and to share a moment with someone else, it's such a vivid and descriptive term I truly feel like I could imagine being held securely and lovingly by the Savior. Mormon continues to give the purpose of the Book of Mormon "that they may be persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his covenant." The Book of Mormon is simply there to help us come unto Christ, to be happy in keeping his commandments, all that work just for us, we have to learned the lessons from the unfortunate Nephites, who insisted on learning the hard way, and "the Spirit of the Lord hath already ceased to strive with their fathers; and they are without Christ and God in the world; and they are driven about as chaff before the wind." I've never really understood the concept of the Spirit not striving with a people, it's just very complex for me, the IM quotes President Harold B. Lee as teaching, "Mormon described some people, his people, from whom the spirit of the Lord had departed, and when I read that... it seems clear to me that what he was talking about was not merely the inability to have the companionship of or the gift of the Holy ghost, but he was talking of that light of truth to which every one was born into the world is entitled and will never cease to strive with the individual unless he loses it through his own sinning." Now that's an interesting perspective, sinning so much that the light of Christ, your conscience, has abandoned you. I guess it makes sense because I think back to my days of craziness and wonder, "how could I have allowed myself to do that?" And really if I think about it, where was my conscience? Curled in the corner crying. I could deteriorate deeply and quickly because my addictiveness was so strong that there was nothing that I could say to pull myself out of it, it was really quite terrible. But you get to where you rationalize to yourself so much that your inner voice eventually stops talking because it gets no attention. All of this loss of the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost illustrates the fall of these people who "were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ for their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father. But now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they." The IM quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley as commenting on the term "delightsome," when he said, "There is the great blessing of wisdom, of knowledge, even hidden treasures of knowledge. We are promised that ours shall be a delightsome land if we will walk in obedience to this law. I can interpret the word land as people, that those who walk in obedience shall be a delightsome people. What a marvelous condition to be a delightsome people whom others would describe as blessed!"
5:23-24 - Now we come to the impacting verses of the day. Like I said, it's been a very emotional weekend for me, the last several days actually, and I was having a little break down for most of the day, and when I came to these verses, this was the Lord's answer to me, I've been praying and crying inside the whole day pretty much and the Lord told me, "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll? Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him." There's more to the verse, but that's where my portion ended I think. I think what was the biggest kick in the face for me was "repent ye, and humble yourselves before him." I thought "isn't that a little bit harsh?" But really if we look at the meaning of "repent" it means to turn away and face God, so in essence what he's telling me is to turn away from my freaking out and turn towards him. I need to stop acting like I can control God and that he needs to bend the universe to serve me, and start trusting that he is in charge and that he's doing all things for my good. I need to stop telling him "I can't do this anymore" and start asking him, "please help me get through this." It's empowering to do it the other way now that I look at it, and honestly, maybe I was overreacting a little bit, no maybe not. But regardless, my message was loud and clear, and loving, God is in charge, he knows all, he sees all, he knows the end from the beginning and he's so involved in the everyday aspects of my life that I can believe that he's blowing the wind in it's direction for my good, that he's moving stumbling blocks and making stepping stones for me to progress and live in eternal happiness with him. His call for me to humble myself was telling me to chill out, to calm down, to be still and know that I am God. Here's a screenshot of the IM teaching of verse 23, it's long, good but long, and I'm spent.
5:11-22 - Verse 11 is so powerful, while speaking of those who will receive the record that he was keeping, Mormon said, "For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus." It would make sense that those who read the Book of Mormon are not hard hearted, that they are sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and that the destruction of the Nephites would be spiritually painful for them, which is interesting because just last night I said how depressing this was. But the concept of being "clasped in the arms of Jesus," I love it, and I definitely needed to be clasped in his arms today, it's been a rough last few days. "Clasped" means to be held on tightly but gently, when we think of the clasp on a necklace, it's strong but not pinchy, to me it means to be secured and to share a moment with someone else, it's such a vivid and descriptive term I truly feel like I could imagine being held securely and lovingly by the Savior. Mormon continues to give the purpose of the Book of Mormon "that they may be persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his covenant." The Book of Mormon is simply there to help us come unto Christ, to be happy in keeping his commandments, all that work just for us, we have to learned the lessons from the unfortunate Nephites, who insisted on learning the hard way, and "the Spirit of the Lord hath already ceased to strive with their fathers; and they are without Christ and God in the world; and they are driven about as chaff before the wind." I've never really understood the concept of the Spirit not striving with a people, it's just very complex for me, the IM quotes President Harold B. Lee as teaching, "Mormon described some people, his people, from whom the spirit of the Lord had departed, and when I read that... it seems clear to me that what he was talking about was not merely the inability to have the companionship of or the gift of the Holy ghost, but he was talking of that light of truth to which every one was born into the world is entitled and will never cease to strive with the individual unless he loses it through his own sinning." Now that's an interesting perspective, sinning so much that the light of Christ, your conscience, has abandoned you. I guess it makes sense because I think back to my days of craziness and wonder, "how could I have allowed myself to do that?" And really if I think about it, where was my conscience? Curled in the corner crying. I could deteriorate deeply and quickly because my addictiveness was so strong that there was nothing that I could say to pull myself out of it, it was really quite terrible. But you get to where you rationalize to yourself so much that your inner voice eventually stops talking because it gets no attention. All of this loss of the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost illustrates the fall of these people who "were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ for their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father. But now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they." The IM quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley as commenting on the term "delightsome," when he said, "There is the great blessing of wisdom, of knowledge, even hidden treasures of knowledge. We are promised that ours shall be a delightsome land if we will walk in obedience to this law. I can interpret the word land as people, that those who walk in obedience shall be a delightsome people. What a marvelous condition to be a delightsome people whom others would describe as blessed!"
5:23-24 - Now we come to the impacting verses of the day. Like I said, it's been a very emotional weekend for me, the last several days actually, and I was having a little break down for most of the day, and when I came to these verses, this was the Lord's answer to me, I've been praying and crying inside the whole day pretty much and the Lord told me, "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll? Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him." There's more to the verse, but that's where my portion ended I think. I think what was the biggest kick in the face for me was "repent ye, and humble yourselves before him." I thought "isn't that a little bit harsh?" But really if we look at the meaning of "repent" it means to turn away and face God, so in essence what he's telling me is to turn away from my freaking out and turn towards him. I need to stop acting like I can control God and that he needs to bend the universe to serve me, and start trusting that he is in charge and that he's doing all things for my good. I need to stop telling him "I can't do this anymore" and start asking him, "please help me get through this." It's empowering to do it the other way now that I look at it, and honestly, maybe I was overreacting a little bit, no maybe not. But regardless, my message was loud and clear, and loving, God is in charge, he knows all, he sees all, he knows the end from the beginning and he's so involved in the everyday aspects of my life that I can believe that he's blowing the wind in it's direction for my good, that he's moving stumbling blocks and making stepping stones for me to progress and live in eternal happiness with him. His call for me to humble myself was telling me to chill out, to calm down, to be still and know that I am God. Here's a screenshot of the IM teaching of verse 23, it's long, good but long, and I'm spent.
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