Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

The first 5 verses of chapter 24 pertain to divorce. TB said that while there is no law allowing for divorce in the Torah, it’s mentioned so frequently that it’s clear that it was common enough in Hebrew society. First is says that if a man is displeased with his wife, he can give her a ‘bill of divorcement” and let her leave and marry another man. I have mixed feelings on this, especially considering that I am divorced myself. Back then, I’m sure that it was devastating to have your husband divorce you, just like it is today. But there was probably the added difficulty of shame and limited options of remarriage, but then again maybe not, I really don’t know. But on the other hand, if a man is tired of his wife and doesn’t want her anymore, it seems more likely that he’ll abuse her if he can’t divorce her, so in that case it’s best that she be allowed to leave and marry someone else. I don’t know it’s complicated, but I know for sure that having your husband throw you away is devastati...

The first several verses of chapter 23 have to do with the “congregation of the Lord” which according to the IM and TB, has to do with who can participate in which levels of government. There was extensive lecture and a big section in the IM that goes through who exactly is allowed to do what and participate in which levels of government, but I’m not going to go through all that because frankly I don’t understand it all and don’t really care that much. There are a few points that I think are worth pointing out though. First is that there didn’t seem to be any prohibition on who could become a believer and accepted as an Israelite by belief and there were even levels of participation depending on how involved the person who wasn’t born an Israelite wants to be. For instance, if a man wants to be a believer but doesn’t want to get circumcised, then there was a level to which that man could participate, etc. The second point that I think is important to bring up is that Ruth was a Moabi...

Now we get into relationship issues and what I think is important to remember is that at this time in the ancient world, as far as I know, women were considered property of their husbands and fathers and had limited rights and considerations legally, so when we get into the laws given here, even though they are abhorrent to us now, they were pretty progressively pro-woman for the time. First, if a man marries a woman “and hate her” one of the options he had was to go to the council and accuse her of not being a virgin when they got married. It seems to me that this happened probably pretty soon after the wedding so not like 15 years into the marriage, but I’m not sure about that. So the man who decides he doesn’t like the wife that he chose accuses her of not being a virgin on their wedding night. The wife’s father will counter saying that he gave this man his daughter to marry and now he doesn’t like her and is making up lies about her. They way that this dispute gets solved is the sa...

Chapter 22 covers a lot of different topics, the first 4 verses have to do with finding your “brother’s” animal outside of where they are meant to be kept. The word “brother” here is probably meant as “kinsman” which would make sense because Israel was usually grouped together by tribes and clans. If the animal was to be found outside of the pen or enclosure, the person who found it couldn’t pretend they didn’t see it, they were obligated to take the animal back to the person it belonged to and if they didn’t know, they were supposed to keep the animal and take care of it until the owner came around looking for it. I would imagine that after a certain amount of time, that animal could just be counted as theirs but that’s not expressly written. Finally, if an animal is injured or hurt, whoever finds it is supposed to help it. There was a significant discussion about the next topic in both the IM and by TB but it only is one verse, verse 5 which says, “the woman shall not wear that whi...

Chapter 21 is separated into two parts, and TB has hour long lectures on each, which are interesting. Verses 1-9 have to do with what to do if someone is found in the land who is dead that has been murdered but no one knows who did it. One reason why I don’t think I could ever commit murder is because I’m confident that I would be caught immediately, which is a deterrent, because there’s no way that I could do something like that in a way where I was not immediately caught. All this is to say that this topic took me by surprise because it never occurred to me that people could just dump a body and body and not get caught. If someone is murdered and no one knows who did it, then wherever that person’s body was dumped, the closest place that is “neither eared nor sown” is where the priests should take a heifer, break it’s neck and then behead it, and pray over it “so shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right tin the sight of th...

When Israel is going to go to battle, first they are commanded not to be afraid because “the Lord thy God is with thee… For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for your against your enemies, to save you.” Then priest will come out and pray over the people. The order on these instructions might be a little confused, because I would imagine that the priest would pray over the army right before they attack, but here Moses is giving the options for people to leave the army is they meet a specific criteria. The first out option is if a man had recently built a house but had not dedicated it yet. TB notes that there is no other reference or command for the people to dedicate their houses, so this is an odd one to note. But the thought process might be that if a house has been built but not yet inhabited and that man dies in war, then that house could go to another family and out of his family’s control. Another out option is if a man planted a vineyard “and hath not yet e...

It’s really interesting to reflect on the perspective of a Hebrew soldier facing the task of invading a land of people to expel them. TB says that the census of 600,000+ eligible men of fighting age was literal and some of the other articles that I’ve read say that as well, while some say that it was figurative. But the general consensus is that regardless of the actual number, the armies of those living in Canaan outnumbered those in Israel, so they were at an inherent disadvantage from the beginning. TB says, “On the one hand the Lord acknowledges that Israel WILL be going up against armed forces which are both larger than Israel’s AND which have technological superiority (chariots). However verse 1 tells Israel to recall whap happened in Egypt. Israel not only had no weapons, but it had no army. Israel had no ability to free or protect itself from Egypt; God simply brought a superior power to its knees in supernatural ways. Therefore since God is with Israel, and it is God’s holy wa...

TB noted that the past couple of chapters “described the 4 main types of human governmental authorities that God ordained to rule over Israel: kings, judges, prophets, and priests. As we begin chapter 19 today we enter a 3-chapter section that will deal with matters that fall under the control of these various government authorities.” If that wasn’t clear from the last few posts, then that’s my bad. Moses reminds them that this is for when they get to the promised land by saying, “When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the Lord the God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their houses.” TB makes a profound statement about the meaning of that verse, saying, “What this first verse is bringing to mind is that even though it is the 600,000- man army of Israel that is about the enter into battle to conquer the Land of Canaan, this is actually the Lord’s war. Therefore whereas a general of an army might promise his people that HE wa...

Chapter 18 is also short, just 22 verses but contains a very interesting topic. The first topic Moses covers here is the Levites and reiterates that they won’t have any inheritance of land and that they are to sustain themselves (and presumably their families) through the sacrifices offered, specifically the sacrifices of the first fruits, which is the offerings of the first born animal and produce. The second and very interesting part has to do with prophets and the spiritual abilities of the people that are allowed. TB notes that at the time the Hebrews left Egypt, and really all the cultures around them, relied heavily on priestcraft as a dominant portion of their “spirituality”. TB points out that trying to decern the future has been a human focus since the dawn of time and really, it makes sense. I’m definitely guilty of this, especially right now, with the thing that happened in my family, I’ve spent the better part of a year trying to figure out why this happened, what could h...

It has been a very interesting week. I’m obviously going through a very spiritually intense time right now and I have a lot of thoughts and I considered just doing a post on my spiritual thoughts of the week and maybe I will do one later, but I think the only one that I will put out right now is something that I heard that said, “everyone wants an angel to appear to them, but usually when angels show up they just recite the scriptures. So if you want angelic visitations, read the scriptures.” I thought that was pretty interesting. I’ve had some significant scriptural insights this week, among other methods but they’ve been things I’ve never heard before even though I’ve read the Book of Mormon like a hundred times. Little nuggets that I’m hearing for the first time, but I’m sure have been there the whole time. I really like chapter 17 for several reasons that we will get into. In the beginning of the chapter Moses talks about worshipping false gods. The IM comments, “Moses set the pen...

Chapter 17 is actually shorter than the last 3 chapters but there is so much more that is interesting here. The first point that is worthy of discussion is the IM’s introduction to the section on chapters 17-33. I’ve been thinking recently about what the point of this life is for so many people who seem to be “throw aways”, meaning those who’s lives seem just to tragically brutal. For instance, what about these man who, in this country, have been sentenced to life in prison for crimes that are disproportionate. For instance in the state of Florida, there are several crimes that are “punishable by life” such as armed robbery, drugs, all types of stuff and so I’ve been seeing these posts interviewing this prisoners who went to prison when they were 17 and have been in there for 25 years and are never going to be eligible for parole and I just think how absolutely tragic. So many of these men are now dedicated to God and run ministries in prison and help rehabilitate younger offenders an...

Chapter 16 is shorter as well, and mostly deals with the festivals that we have covered previously. One thing that I think is interesting to note is that the word that keeps coming up when describing these festivals is “rejoice”. I was talking to my daughter tonight and she said something to the effect of “I want you to have something good in your life that you live for.” I’m obviously still pretty upset about the issue that happened in my family and I guess probably just life in general, it’s always been a giant slog through. There was a very short time during 2005-2006 when I was happy and generally not super stressed out, but that’s it, that was the only time, like I said, everything else has just been soul crushing. But when my daughter said that, and reading it here now, it almost makes me wonder if, for me, if “rejoicing” and being “happy” if that’s not the ultimate demonstration of faith. That’s interesting, I’m going to have to think about that. I’m always pessimistic and prepp...

Chapter 15 is short and just reviews the policy forgiving debt and freeing indentured servants. From what I remember, I thought that debts were forgiven and servants freed only every 50 years, on the year of jubilee but this chapter says that it’s every 7 years. What TB pointed out was the while previously it had been discussed that it would be every 50 years, in practice, it became a problem because every 7 years the land was supposed to rest which meant that servants or debtors couldn’t repay their debts because there was no food to be harvested from the fields. So this new 7 year rule was implemented as to not further indebt someone because they couldn’t pay back their debts during that year. They were already going to be hungry enough, compounding debt on top of that would have been catastrophic for the very poor among them. They are also to be given gifts, and this whole thing is a reminder that everything they had belonged to and came from God, so if someone had a lot, then that ...

Chapter 14 is all stuff that has been discussed previously, such as a prohibition on self-mutilation and dietary restrictions. Interestingly, I just saw a Reddit post asking, from an LDS perspective, if self-harm was a spiritual defect. All the responses, which I agree with, was that this was a mental health issue and not indicative of a spiritual problem. If I recall correctly, when this was discussed previously, TB noted that anciently the pagan worships of the people around the Israelites at this time would do extensive decorative cutting of themselves and tattooing and this was God saying not to do that, for various reasons but also to set Israel apart from the pagans surrounding them. As far as self-mutilation in these days, obviously it’s not ideal, but does that extend to piercings and tattoos? I have tattoos and I know there has been counsel from the pulpit several years ago against tattoos, I personally don’t think it’s the end of the world, I thought about getting more, but s...