Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

19:27-38 - The destruction of S&G was so prolific that even Abraham saw "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace," from the plains that he was staying at. Even though Lot had asked the angels to let him take his family and stay in Zoar, at this point "he feared to dwell in Zoar: and went and dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters." This is where it gets weird, Lot's older daughter says to the younger one, "our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father." I've read some articles about this and there are some good points brought up in them. First, when the angels tell Lot to go convince his sons in law to come with them, I thought that they were married to other daughters that Lot had, but apparently everyone else interpreted this to mean that these men were...

I can’t believe that I’ve been gone from here for almost 4 months. I can definitely tell a difference in my daily life when I haven’t been doing a deep daily study of the scriptures. I’ve tried to read the Book of Mormon everyday but the deep reflection and study everyday really helps me stay focused spiritually. I had to study pretty intensely for a test that I had to take for work and I did that everyday for 2 months. It actually helped a lot to give up my in depth study of the scriptures because I told myself, “you are giving up scripture study for this so you better get to studying.” I probably won’t know if I passed for another couple of weeks, so that’s a little frustrating, but I’m optimistic. I took that test on October 5th, then I started a new job on October 10th so I’ve been working during the day training for that, and now I’m finally back on nights where I have a bit more breathing room to do what I want to do, which is study the scriptures. 19:12-26 - Lot has just told th...

The three “angels” or holy men have agreed to spare the city of Sodom if there are only 10 righteous people in it. Abraham asked these questions knowing full well that his nephew Lot and his family were there. Now I don’t know exactly how big Lot’s family was or if his family alone exceeded the 10 person requirement, but I know he had a wife and at least two daughters, so that’s only four people altogether, assuming they were all righteous. This really begs the question, why did Lot even live there if the whole city was so wicked? It’s really an interesting question, why does he stay? These angels walk toward Sodom and Lot sees them because he “sat in the gate of Sodom.” An article about this chapter form bibleref.com notes that Lot was probably “sitting at the gate as a leader and elder of the town.” When Lot sees these men, the article makes a good point of noting “he probably doesn’t yet know that these are angels sent to investigate the sins of the city’s people in preparation for...

The men that have visited Abraham and Sarah “rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom.” It’s important to note that Abraham and Sarah have been incredibly hospitable to these visitors as illustrated by the fact that what Abraham offered and presented to these visitors was described in detail. It seems like the visiting men have a debate among themselves whether to “hide from Abraham that thing which I must do,” which seems like an interesting event considering that they are probably having this conversation within ear shot of Abraham. They consider telling him because they believe that he will “command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and to justice and judgment.” The IM comments, “This verse records one of the keys of Abraham’s righteousness. Not only did he keep the commandments but he taught his household to do so too. Of this fact President Kimball said: ‘Abraham’s desire to do God’s will in all things led him to preside over hi...

There is a bit of confusion in the first verse of chapter 18 because it says that after Abraham had circumcised all the male members of his household like the Lord commanded him, “the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day… and, lo, three men stood by him.” The IM says, “we are not justified in teaching that our Heavenly Father, with other heavenly persons, came down, dusty and weary, and ate with Abraham. This is not taught in the 18th chapter of Genesis. The first verse of that chapter should read as follows: ‘And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre.’ That is a complete thought. The second part of this paragraph has nothing to do with the Lord’s appearing to Abraham.” It’s like that thing that says, “Let’s eat Grandma!” or “Let’s eat, Grandma!” Punctuation saves lives. I think this is another example of that. In fact, the IM says at the end of this explanation, “In the Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 18:23 sta...

17:1-14 - Ishmael is born and suddenly there is a flash forward 13 years and we find that “the Lord appeared to Abram.” He gives Abram the command to be perfect. I’ve never really liked this because it implies that perfection is possible in this life or that some people might be born perfect or close to it. But I like the IM’s quote saying, “Salvation does not come all at once; we are commanded to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. It will take us ages to accomplish this end, for there will be greater progress beyond the grave, and it will be there that the faithful will overcome all things, and receive all things, even the fullness of the Father’s glory.” Perfection isn’t commanded like it is our only goal to get there as fast as possible, but it’s a complex and complicated concept that takes eons of time to achieve. God also promises, by covenant, that he shall “be a father of many nations.” There is an extensive JST from verses 3-12 which gives a lot more insight i...

Abram and Sarai are old, and even though the Lord promised Abram that after 400 years his descendants would inhabit the land of Canaan, they still don’t have any children. Probably seeing that her childbearing years were behind her, Sarai gave her “handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar” to Abram and basically told him to have sex with her so that she can get pregnant and have a child, “that I may obtain children by her.” This seems weird to us, but anciently, this was a very standard practice, the IM comments, “According to the custom of the time, Sarah’s giving her handmaid, Hagar, to be a wife to Abraham was an expected and logical act.” Abram does what Sarai asks and Hagar gets pregnant, “and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.” I always thought that Hagar was bad because of this, she should have just known how important Sarai was and calmed down, but at this point, I can’t ever in any way condemn someone’s reaction to their enslavement...