Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Chapter 27 is the last chapter in Leviticus and has to deal with one of the ways that the temple is funded, consecrating property and people to the Lord. It’s also important to note that at the time when this principle was first given, the Israelites were still wandering in the wilderness so they were using the tabernacle instead of the temple that would be built in Jerusalem under Solomon. I don’t really understand this concept that much, from what I gathered from TB this was a way that the temple made money to support itself and their priests but was also a way for the people to focus God and learn the principles of consecration and redemption. TB gave the example of consecration and why people would do it from the saying, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Having operated out of foxholes myself, I don’t think that that statement is true, but I digress. He also referenced a Burt Reynolds movie where the actor swims out to sea to kill himself but when he gets to the point of no retu...

26:1-13 - Chapter 26 is so far one of my favorites in the Old Testament so far. The law has been given now toward the end of Leviticus and God is telling Israel what will happen if they both obey the law and if they disobey the law. The promises for keeping the law are: rain and a bountiful harvest every year to the point that you won’t be able to eat all the food you take in before the next harvest happens. He promises so much food, they’ll have to throw away the old food because of the abundance of the new harvest. This must have been unconscionable to the Israelites hearing this, after everything with the manna and hunger and not even having a land to farm at this point. This is like when Jacob was blessed by God when he was living with Laban and whatever agreement Jacob and Laban would come to, Jacob’s portion would be extraordinary and Laban’s would not. There is absolutely no way that Jacob could have arranged for more spotted goats to be born when that was his portion, but yet i...

Chapter 25 is similar to chapter 23 in that, even though it’s kind of long, it’s pretty dry, the IM doesn’t say a lot about it, but TB has a 3 hour lecture about it. Chapter 25 is about the year of Jubilee, which is an event that happens every 50 years where the land can not be farmed for the whole year. If we remember from previously, every 7 years the land was to take a sabbath, where nothing could be planted or harvested. This jubilee was in addition to that 7th year, so essentially, every 50 years there was to be a double year of the land resting. The 49th year would be a year of sabbath for the land and then the 50th year would be a double sabbath for the land. The question that the Israelites asked, rightfully, was “ok then what will we eat?” The first regular 7th year of land rest, God tells them that he will increase their harvest in the 6th year so that they can save up enough food for the next year, and the year of jubilee is similar, that God will provide two years’ worth...

24:1-9 - There are two main concepts addressed in chapter 24, the first in verses 1-9 were a description of “a perpetual fire is to burn outside the veil in the tabernacle,” according to the header of this chapter. God wanted “pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.” TB notes that “continually” is a mistranslation and is more accurately “regularly” so it doesn’t meant that there has to be a light burning all day, everyday, but instead at some times but on a regular basis. But the most significant part is the way the oil is to be extracted from the olives for the lamp light. TB says that most olive oil was pressed out at the time and that was the most efficient method to extracting that oil. However, this requirement for the oil to be beaten out of the olives increased the difficulty factor significantly. I imagined the people taking branches with olives in them and hitting them onto the ground to “beat” the oil out of them but from the various so...

3. Feast of week, or Pentecost – The Hebrew term for this festival is Shavout. This feast was also considered a sabbath, but came on a certain calendar of the year, 50 days after Passover, not necessarily on THE Sabbath, although that would happen naturally every 5-7 years. This is a little bit more difficult to follow in the TB lecture because it’s combined with some other ones, so I’ll just talk about what I figured out. Google says that “Shavout, also known as the Feast of Weeks, has two main purposes: it commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai and marks the beginning of the wheat harvest. It is celebrated with customs like all-night Torah study, eating dairy foods, and decorating homes with greenery.” It is also one of the 3 pilgrimage feasts, meaning that at least one man from each Jewish family was expected to travel to the temple in Jerusalem to represent his family during the celebration. What is interesting in the Pentecost though, isn’t what it w...

What is interesting about chapter 23 is that it is long, 44 verses, but pretty boring honestly, and the IM explanation is short. The IM summarizes chapter 23 saying, “The Lord indicated five holy days or feasts that were to be observed by all Israel.” That’s it, that’s what this chapter talks about, so I was surprised when I saw that TB did 3 hour long lectures about this chapter. I’m not sure how much detail I am going to go through and I’m only through the 2nd hour of TB’s lecture on this chapter so I’ll do this bit tonight and then if there’s something else that’s interesting to comment on tomorrow I’ll come back and add more. But I just realized that there are only a few chapters left in Leviticus so there’s an excellent chance I could be done with Leviticus and moved on to Numbers by the end of my work week. It also just occurred to me that I’ve been in the Old Testament for almost 3 years now and am only just now finishing the 3rd book. I made it through the New Testament in 5 ye...

I guess it's kind of interesting getting back into things that I was doing before everything changed. I had a dog for 10 years that went to live with my daughter in February, and I just got him back a few weeks ago, and it's weird having him back, even though I had him for 10 years, I don't remember what life was like before but everything is different now. I don't know how he feels like things are, when he left, the house was full and loud and chaotic, but now it's just me and it's quiet and I bet that's weird for him. But just like going back to study the scriptures for this blog, like it's weird to go back to doing stuff I was doing before but in a new life. Hopefully this will be just as good, but we'll see. It might take some time to get back into it. Chapter 22 is a continuation of chapter 21 which the IM describes as "special rules and requirements for the Levitical priesthood, especially the high priest." The instructions are thin...

I am finally finished with my MBA program, I passed my last class a few days ago so I fully intend on coming back to the blog now, in fact it was one of my main focuses, so that will be good. As far as what has happened to my family, it is still really bad, just soul crushing. This is the worst thing I've ever experienced and I hate every second of it and I don't think that that feeling will ever go away. I was already exhausted from everything else that has happened to me in life and then to add this on top of it is almost too much. I only say "almost" because I'm still here, but truly it is too much. These last 7 months have been absolutely transformative, but not in like a wholesome, Hallmark movie type of way, where everything works out for the best and everyone is happy at the end. But ultimately, I have to repeat that if there was a way to accomplish God's will in a less painful way, but God chose to inflict more pain than was necessary, that would make ...