Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Just as an overview of what has been discussed, let’s go back to chapter 19 for just a minute. It’s hard to keep track of all of it, for me anyway, because like I said yesterday, we’ve been covering this “covenant” since July, so 5 months of keeping it all straight is a little bit more difficult. At the beginning of chapter 19, the Lord has Moses bring the people to Mount Sinai and he went up and down a couple of times, I think, conveying the words of the people to God and the words of God to the people. And there was smoke and fire and quaking, and “the voice of the trumpet.” Then God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and other ancillary laws, and then made the promises at the end of chapter 23. The IM gives an overview of these promises, saying, “God promised five things to Israel for their obedience. First, an angel of the Lord would lead them into the promised land. Second, they would be blessed with good health. Third, they and their flocks would be greatly multiplied. Fourth, th...

23:27-33 - One of the overarching themes of the Book of Mormon that I find so fascinating is the concept of personal righteousness being the deciding factor in war and all the supernatural ways that God plays into that victory. And it’s not just the Book of Mormon, but the Old Testament as well. I’m excited to get into the nitty gritty of individual engagements, but here God gives us a preview of one of the ways that He can ensure victory regardless of the abilities of Israel’s army. He says that he will instill “my fear before thee, ad will destroy all the people of whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.” He will send fear into the hearts of their enemies and personally defeat them. Additionally, something that I found interesting was his promise to “send hornets before thee,” which will drive out certain enemies. Interestingly, the word “hornet” is cross referenced with Joshua 24:12 where God says, “I sent the hornet before you, which dr...

23:20-26 - Starting in verse 20 there is a complete switch of the narrative from God giving laws to Him making promises. He promises to “send an agnel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” He is to be obeyed because he will have the full authority of God and if he is obeyed “I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversary.” Additionally, it’s not just victory in combative situations, it’s blessings on “thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” It’s a general protection from those who intend to do harm but also blessings of health and having enough physically. I think it’s a scary thing for me because I grew up poor, so I know what being hungry is like and I’ve worked so hard so that I don’t have to live in that situation again and so that my kids don’t have to experience that again. It’s terrifying to consider going back to that again. But I think it’s one of t...

23:10-13 - Now we come to agricultural practices, which is interesting because at this point the Israelites are “wandering” in the wilderness for 40 years before settling in the promised land, so this begs the question, just how much planting and harvesting in the same area over a 7-year time frame were they doing? Because I don’t know. Anyway, the people were to “sow thy land” for six years, but in the 7th year “thou shalt let it rest and lie still.” I don’t know much about agriculture but I think that this is a well-recognized practice now, in order to preserve the nutrients in the soil. During the 7th year, “the poor of thy people may eat” which I don’t know if this is one of those ancient practices where poor people could go and collect whatever food sprang up naturally, or if they could use it to grow their own food. I’m not exactly sure. The work animals were also to follow the 6 days work/1 day rest cycle, just like people. Additionally, there was to be not even any mention of...

Just a few thoughts on what’s been going on, especially since I haven’t been posting as much as I would have liked. First, I’ve been finishing a bachelor’s degree and November was my last month and I had to really buckle down to finish some final tests as stuff so that’s been my main focus this month because if I didn’t finish them then I would have been out a lot of money and time to finish it the next term. I’m hoping to start an MBA program in January, I don’t know how time intensive that will be, but I assume that it will require the same time commitment from me so work through in an efficient manner so postings might be similar is infrequency for a while. But I do want to make it more of a priority. I’ve spent the last 3 years in the Old Testament and in that time I’ve only gone through Genesis and half of Exodus. This includes spending this entire year only on Exodus. At this rate I’ll get through the Old Testament in 20 years and that’s too long. I need to make it more of a p...

23:4-5 - The next two verses deal with what to do if you find an animal lost but you know who the owner is, and of course, it says that you would help that animal if it was stuck and also return the animal to it’s rightful owner. Interestingly though, It’s not if you know the owner, it’s if it’s an enemy or “him that hateth thee.” I wonder if this means that it was obvious what the right thing to do was if the animal belonged to a friend or relative, but it had to be spelled out if it was someone that you didn’t like. It’s interesting to think about, if you would let an animal suffer just because you didn’t want to help the person that you didn’t like. The IM notes that these verses decry “where many people refuse to get involved in the problems or misfortunes of their neighbors.” I think that boundaries are important but that people should help too. It can be a fine line. 23:6-9 – I’m not exactly sure what these next two verses are saying, but from what I can deduce from context, it...

23:1-3 – the first 3 verses of chapter 23 are all judicial code about court proceedings. TB comments, “Generally speaking these verses are referring to judicial integrity; that is, they are about the proper behavior for witnesses, judges, and the litigating parties… Many of the rules we have encountered so far have been very bound up in ancient Hebrew culture but these laws are plain, contemporary, and timeless.” He then goes on a tangent decrying “political correctness” and “secular humanism” that I disagree with, so take that with a grain of salt if you look up the lecture. I think that perhaps TB might be a bit more “Old Testament” than I am, and I would be interested to know what he thinks the ideal societal set up would be. These lectures are from 2016 I think but it looks like TB still uploads some lectures so he seems to be alive a kicking. Some of the stuff he says, I have to ask myself who he votes for in this upcoming election, just an interesting thought that I have. I lov...