"what's the book of Deuteronomy about?" the Sunday school teacher asked...no hands, no responses. i felt awkward, sad, that i could not speak out as others around me seemed to falter as well. i am a latter-day saint, i am preparing myself and my family to usher in the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, surely i should know the scriptures better. surely i should have known what the book {and other books} for that matter in the scriptures teach us. if i do not know, then how can the scriptures affect my life. how can i follow the teachings when i don't know what the teachings are.
Deuteronomy. i don't know...another book in the Bible.
the lesson- "Lest ye forget..." I cannot forget what i do not know. i cannot progress if i do not learn.
yesterday i felt a simple yet strong need to repent, by which i mean that i need to change my ways. how many, many things do i place before me to occupy my time instead of enriching myself with gospel study? how often have i taken for granted my PRIVILEGE and OPPORTUNITY to have the FULLNESS of the gospel at my fingertips. "what are you doing with that privilege?" my Relief Society teacher question.
yesterday we attended our new ward here in tooele for the first time. i could't help feeling a nervousness at starting new again and a sadness at leaving familiarity and ward family behind in idaho. but yesterday, i was exactly where the Lord needed me to be. i NEEDED to hear the things that were taught to me by my instructors and through the Spirit especially.
i need to do better. much, much better. the Lord expects it of me. i have a great responsibility ahead, i can feel it and i need to prepare. i need to become a scholar of the scriptures and the gospel. i need to be able to share the gospel readily. the Spirit can only teach through me if i know what i am talking about, if i have testimony, if i have done my part to prepare.
"please, brothers and sisters, i urge you to go home and read Deuteronomy. fall down in prayer to your Father in Heaven and evaluate what you need to do in your lives to follow the commandments He teaches us here."
i listened. i began reading today, and *wow*, i am humbled.
Deuteronomy is the 5th and final book of Moses, taking place approximately 40 years after the Israelites were brought out of Egypt by God. This book is a result of Moses being called upon by God to make a final recitation to the children of Israel of all that befell them during their 40 years in the wilderness and what the Lord expects of them as they enter the land of promise.
Deuteronomy 1: Moses is nearing the end of his life. He has been traveling and travailing in the wilderness for almost 41 years with the people of Israel. "why don't they listen? why do they so easily forget the Lord? why can't they seem to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in their lives?" we may all ask. common gospel doctrine discussion of how "naughty" the people of Israel where....really? i don't think we're studying the children of Israel. no, not really, we're studying us. yup, us. "why don't WE listen? why does it takes us so long to see the hand of the Lord in OUR lives? why can't we remember?"
Moses is reminding the people that the Lord gave them the opportunity soon after leaving Egypt to enter a land of inheritance, but the people were afraid to enter the land, to follow the instructions of the Lord. They doubted that God would protect them (ch 1: 19-33).
vs. 29 "...Dread not, neither be afraid of them." (meaning those in the Lands that they would have to conquer to possess the land). vs. 30 "The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes; (31) And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bare his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into place. (32) Yet in this thing ye did not believe in the LORD your God, (33) Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in cloud by day."
God had
provided all for them and they still did not believe that he would protect them if they followed his instructions in entering the land of inheritance. how do we not believe that God will protect and provide for us? how often do we doubt His hand?
Because they refused to exercise faith in God 39 years earlier when he gave them the opportunity to inherit a land he had provided for them, all Israelites who were adults at that time- except Moses, Joshua, and Caleb- would die in the wilderness before inheriting their land of promise. This is one main reason why it took 39 years of the people living in the wilderness before they were able to receive the promise of a land that was provided for them!
The new generation of Isrealites had exhibited faith in God and were prepared to now enter the land of promise, which Moses knew he would not enter, as the Lord had told him he wouldn't. He is as a parent, soon to pass on, who needs to tell His children everything He feels He has failed to teach them, and was given the opportunity by the Lord to instruct the people before they would pass on before him.
He taught the people in the land of Moab, just east of the Jordan River and the promised land, after which Moses was translated, or taken into heaven without tasting death (see Alms 45:19)
use your scriptures, footnotes, gospel manuals and other LDS resources to understand the scriptures better. I am able to grasp and retain information better when I glean from several sources and take notes for my future reference. this post will be long and word-heavy for sure, but it's mostly for me to be able to understand the scriptures and teach my children. i want to draw parallels between the scriptures and the latter-days. it helps me understand the relevance as to why we have all of the historical information in the scriptures and what we can learn personally from these histories of peoples.
The first four chapters of Deuteronomy are a "remembering" of Israelite history. According to the Bible Dictionary, the word Deuteronomy means "repetition of the law."
On over TWENTY occasions in Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people to REMEMBER, REMEMBER LEST YE FORGET, or FORGET NOT the teachings they have received. are we not the same? are we not CONSTANTLY REMINDED what we have been taught? remember, remember. what can i do to remember? obviously the natural man needs to take extra steps to remember what we have been taught.
some of the things we talked about yesterday in Sunday School to help us remember were all of the standard answers like Family Home Evening, personal and family prayer, scripture study, church and class attendance, temple attendance, wearing and honoring our garments...standard, typical answers. but completely necessary for us TO DO in order to REMEMBER. how often do we NOT DO these things? they are simple and they are required of us.
again, i say i was humbled by the simplicity of the things i need to BE DOING.
Remembering also entails seeing the hand of God in our lives and REMEMBERING it. How often does he bless us and we forget? How often do we feel neglected by God when it is us, who have neglected Him? If we would open our eyes and see around us all that we have and are...with nothing extra provided us, we are so blessed far and above so many others! but we are provided with extra, so much extra.
Israelite blessings
manna, water stricken from a rock, raw meat to eat safely in the wilderness, clothing that lasted them, guidance by fire and cloud...complete guidance and instruction by God of how to conquer their enemies and receive lands that God Himself had provided for them.
blessing of posterity
vs. 10-
the first promise "the Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude (TG seed of Abraham). vs. 11 (The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye
are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)"
blessing of good leadership/structure
i also want to touch on something i see as a blessing in moses' leadership as we speak of the great multitude of people he was leading. he goes on to state in vs. 12 "How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?"
Moses then organizes the people in leadership, captains over 1000's, 100's, 50's, 10's and officers among the tribes (vs. 13-17). He teaches the people to choose wise and prominent leaders among their tribes, men who feared God. He organized judges who would deal justly, unbiased.
i love how the Lord prepared Moses to be a leader through his upbringing as a prince of Egypt. Moses had been prepared in the courts of Egypt and had gained much experience in military and other responsibilities (Acts 7:22- "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds") Politics must have been a major portion of his training. When he became a shepherd he undoubtedly spent thousands of hours caring for his sheep, and most certainly realized the striking resemblance between people and sheep (as David does in psalms 23). He was also humble, unconcerned with wordly wealth and comforts and more concerned with relationships with God and others. These skills, directed by a strong relationship with God, made Moses a model leader of people.
He delegated to others to lead and resolve conflicts that he did not need to be involved in, but the biggest and most important conflicts he would preside over when necessary (Deut. ch 1. vs. 17).
He also listened to the guidance and advice from others, such as his father-in-law Jethro, who wisely counseled him to organize the people into self-governing groups (Exodus 18:13-27). I liken this to our prophet, Joseph Smith who said, "I teach them [the people] correct principles and they govern themselves" (quoted by John Taylor, Millenial Star, 15 Nov. 1851, p. 339- www.lds.org)
this makes me want to digress upon another subject i need to learn more about and get better at implementing, and that is teaching my children to govern themselves with correct principles. for another day of study...
returning back to the organization of leadership, it was brought to my attention during a lesson in idaho falls several weeks ago that Joseph Smith also paralleled Moses' strategy when he organized Zion's Camp in groups of 50's and 10's, with a captain over each. It was during Zion's Camp that true unity and loyalty was formed amongst the brethren who endured those hardships, and out of which the new leadership and structure of the church was formed with the formation of the Twelve Apostles, all of which men who were called had participated in Zion's Camp.
i am sure it was the same with their journeying in the wilderness, that the true leadership of the Israelites sprang forth from their hardships during that time.
we see more parallels between the Old Testament leadership of Moses and our latter-day prophet, Brigham Young as described in a talk given by Russell M. Nelson, "The Exodus Repeated" (Ensign, July 1999). this is all so very interesting to me...
"Brigham Young was likewise prepared for his leadership role. In the march of Zion's Camp he had observed the leadership of the Prophet Joseph Smith under difficult conditions. [He] aided in the removal of the Prophet Joseph Smith from Kirtland...and directed the move of the persecuted saints from Missouri to Nauvoo. For both the Israelites and the Saints, civil and ecclesiastical law were unified under one head. Moses bore that responsibility for his people.
Brigham Young- the modern Moses (D&C 103: 16 "Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel") - led the latter-day Saints' movement west, with the Lord's blessing.
Moses and Brigham Young followed parallel patterns of governance (D&C 136: 1-3 "The Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West: Let all the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who journey with them, be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God. Let the companies be organized with captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and captains of tens, with a president and his two counselors at their head, under the direction of the Twelve Apostles."
Brigham Young then proceeded to organize the large group of men, women, and children for an orderly migration {or EXODUS} to the West.
Nelson goes on to state that: "We lament that leaders of both groups had to endure dissension from their close associates. On occasion Moses encountered opposition from his beloved Aaron and Miriam (Numbers 12: 1-11). Latter-day saint leaders also suffered contention among their trusted associates."
are we not asked today to follow our leaders and not participate in murmuring against them? it is indeed one of our responsibilities. not to follow blindly, but to uphold those whom the Lord has called. we can always receive a witness for ourselves when we pray to the lord to soften our hearts if we are experiencing questions or problems with leadership.
"Nevertheless, the same unified pattern of government will come again when the Lord shall be "King over all the earth" (Ps. 47:2) and govern from Zion and Jerusalem."
we will have the same organized leadership under the Savior as he has placed upon the earth today through our prophet and apostles. i love that it all makes sense.
"The journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai took about three months (Exodus 19:1). The journey from Winter Quarters to the valley of the Great Salt Lake also took about three months (111 days). The destination for each group was described by the Lord as a land flowing with milk and honey. The pioneers turned their wilderness into a fruitful field and made the desert blossom as a rose- precisely as prophesied by Isaiah centuries before (Isaiah 32: 15-16; Isaiah 35:1)."
There are also many miracles that have been shared: "Both groups shared many miracles that are memorialized annually. The celebration of the Passover [was instituted to commemorate the passing over of the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when God smote the firstborn of the Egyptians, and more generally their redemption from Egypt] (Bible Dictionary). Each July we repeat legendary stories of our pioneers. Both groups traversed deserts, mountains, and valleys of untamed wilderness. Ancient Israelites left Egypt via the parted waters of the Red Sea 'as by dry land' (Hebrews 11:29). The pioneers left the United States crossing the wide waters of the Mississippi River- frozen to become a highway of ice."
certainly this is a part of the fulfillment of the gathering of the 12 tribes. in Isaiah 19:23, it states: "In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt." In 2 Nephi ch. 21 vs. 11, "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea" (simply meaning that the children of Israel had been scattered and are to be gathered by the hand of the Lord). vs. 12 "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, (see October 1989 talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley entitled "An Ensign to the Nations" for further understanding) and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth"...vs. 16 "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left...like as it was to Israel in the days that he came up out of the land of Egypt."
for those who are waiting for the gathering of Israel to take place, it has already begun! the gathering is not only physical, but also spiritual, as more and more peoples of the world and able to have access to the gospel of Jesus Christ and are coming unto Him spiritually.
Back to Nelson's talk: "The book of Exodus reports that quail were miraculously provided to feed the hungry people ancient Israel (Exodus 16:13, Numbers 11:32, Ps. 105: 40). The pioneers had an equivalent experience. After the last of them had been driven out of Nauvoo, many were sick and some had died. Their provisions were meager. On the river bottoms near Montrose, Iowa on 9 October 1846, many quail miraculously flew into camp. The quail were cooked and fed to some 640 destitute people. It was also miraculous that a permanent settlement survived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Plagued by crickets destroying their crops, seagulls flew in, ate the insects and became a great miracle among the saints. God preserved ancient Israel from plagues sent upon Egypt (Exodus 15:26) and similarly, God preserved the Saints from the plague of the crickets, the plague of the United States Civil War, which caused more American deaths than any other war."
Nelson does not go into detail here, i researched this to remember what took place. i found that the miracle was that preceeding the Civil War there had been a great influx of indians heading in and through the Utah Territory and troops had been stationed there to protect against raids. Mineral deposits and ore found by soldiers encouraged migration of non-Mormon settlers in Utah. However, at the onset of the war, the War Department pulled Federal Troops out of the Territory and reassigned them to other regions where they were more immediately needed to quell the brewing rebellion. The void of military presence in Utah allowed the Church to regain control over their territory, and the Nevada and Colorado Territories sprung forth as a result of trying to organize non-Mormons in the area.
For both the Israelites and the Saints, their trials forged great strength. i believe this is a main understanding that God is trying to help us "get" through reading these scriptures. recognize and REMEMBER his hand in our lives and GAIN STRENGTH from our trials!!! it's a natural process that God uses to strengthen the strong and empower us to endure to the end.
i am committing myself to strive harder to recognize God's hand in my life. i want to be full of gratitude and have a resulting happier outlook and more positive view of the future. "For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am" (D&C 84:119). i may not always be able to understand right away but with faith in God all will reveal itself in time. i have already learned this many times in my life as i look back upon my blessings or how things have worked out in my life and the lives of my family.
when we recognize not His hand in our lives and don't exhibit faith in Him, He will withdraw from us, as He did from the Israelites (Deut. 1:42) "I am not among you." It will be up to us to repent and take the necessary time to come back unto God.
he has given us the fullness the gospel, just as the children of Israel (Deut. 4: 8) "And what nation is there so great, what hath statutes and judgements so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (9) "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, LEST THOU FORGET the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life: but teach them..."
