Thought: “The gift to teach with the Spirit is a gift worth
praying for. A teacher can be inept, inadequate, perhaps even clumsy, but if
the Spirit is powerful, messages of Eternal importance can be taught. We can
become teachers, very good ones, but we cannot teach moral and spiritual values
with only an academic approach. There must be spirit in it.” “Teach Ye
Diligently”, BKP p. 276.
Book of the Week: Understanding
Isaiah, Donald
A. Parry, Jay A. Parry, Tina M. Peterson.
Job- An eternal perspective on our mortal probation- A great
literary work about a real person. King Benjamin taught the same message in
Mosiah 4:9-10-"Believe in God, believe that he is….
"Job is considered one of the world’s great ancient poems. In the
first lines of the Preface of his Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem,
Michael Austin quotes none other than Victor Hugo, Thomas Carlyle and Alfred
Tennyson praising Job to the skies. Hugo is quoted as saying
that if all other literature were to be destroyed, he would save Job and Tennyson
describes it as, “the greatest poem of ancient or modern times.” (Austin,
p. ix). C.L. Seow, in the first of his two-volume commentary on Job admits the
same thing. “There is perhaps no other biblical book that has been as universally
and extravagantly praised as an exquisite specimen of literary art as Job.”
(Seow, p. 74). (The Long and Short of the Book of Job by Terry L. Hutchinson
5:17 -Happy
is the man whom God correcteth…; 13:7-15;
19:25-26-( 2 Nephi 9:4); 40:8- The Lord
to Job-"Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" 42:7-13- Job's final trial was to pray for
and forgive his friends. 2 Nephi
2:2
James E. Faust - CR - Oct. 2004. My message is one of hope and counsel for those who may wonder
about the seemingly unfair distribution of pain, suffering, disaster, and
heartache in this life. Some may ask: … Life isn’t fair. We know some people
who have done some very bad things, and yet they seem to have everything they
want or need.”
Dr. Arthur Wentworth Hewitt
suggested some reasons why the good suffer as well as the wicked: “First: I
don’t know. Second: We may not be as innocent as we think. Third: I
believe it is because He loves us so much more than He loves our
happiness. How so? Well, if on
a basis of strict personal return here and now, all the good were always happy
and all the bad suffered disaster (instead of often quite the reverse), this
would be the most subtle damnation of character imaginable.”
President Kimball gave this
insightful explanation: “If pain and sorrow and total punishment immediately
followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace
and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no
evil—all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There
would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers,
no free agency. … There would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection,
eternal life, and godhood.”
Now all this suffering might
indeed be unfair if everything ended at death, but it doesn’t. Life is not like
a one-act play. It has three acts. We had a past act, when we were in the
premortal existence; and now we have a present act, which is mortality; and we
will have a future act, when we return to God. We were sent into
mortality to be tested and tried. As the Lord explained to Abraham, “We will
prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord
their God shall command them.”
We learn much about dealing with
suffering from “a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was
perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Satan
obtained leave from the Lord to tempt and try Job. Job was rich and had seven
sons and three daughters, but his property and children were all destroyed.
What effect did this have on Job? Said he, speaking of the Lord, “Though he
slay me, yet will I trust in him,” and, “Job attested, “For I know
that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God.” Job completely trusted the Lord to take care of all of the other
concerns.
President Hunter once said, “God knows what we do not
know and sees what we do not see.” None of us knows the wisdom of
the Lord. Said the Lord, “He that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of
my kingdom.” “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”
As we live on earth we must walk
in faith, nothing doubting. When the journey becomes seemingly unbearable, we
can take comfort in the words of the Lord: “I have heard thy prayer, I have
seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.” Some of the healing
may take place in another world. We may never know why some things happen in
this life. The reason for some of our suffering is known only to the Lord.
President Brigham Young offered
the profound insight that at least some of our suffering has a purpose, "Every
trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation.”
1 Kings 12-16-The division of the Davidic kingdom
was a preparatory step to the scattering of Israel, in which God took a
personal role.
Chapter 12 - Go to Shechem (Abraham - Gen. 12:6; Joseph's
bones-Josh. 24:32; Joshua's plea-Josh 24:1-15; 1 Kings 12:1- Rehoboam came with
hopes of getting support of the northern tribes.
Were the
demands of the people justifiable? Vs.
7- Listen to the guys in grey! Vs. 20 -I find myself cheering for Jeroboam,
just like I did for Saul, David and Solomon. His fall was much more speedy. He
couldn't have the temple so he improvised with counterfeits. 2 Chron. 11:13-14
indicates that all the legitimate priests went south. Vs. 21-24 -Rehoboam is
ready to go to war against the northern tribes but a prophet named Shemaiah
tells him the Lord forbids it.
Chapter 13 - A story of 2 un-named prophets who were buried in
the same grave.
Chapter 14 - Ahijah, the same prophet who foretold the
kingship of Jeroboam (1 Kings 11), now foretells the kingdom being taken from
his descendents and the (vs. 15) scattering of Israel. Vs. 19a-note footnote. Vs.
21-31- Things are no better with Rehoboam in Judah. The invasion of Shishak
from Egypt is the basis "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
Chapter 15 - Vs. 1- note how they use 1 kingdom to introduce
the other. Vs. 6 & 15- These were not kissing cousins, but Isaiah 11:13 tells that it will someday
change. Asa served righteously for 41
years. His religious reforms get more attention in 2 Chron. 15 than in 1 Kings.
Chronicles also mentions the movement of people from Ephraim & Manasseh to
Judah. (BoM!)
Vs. 23
mentions in passing Asa's diseased feet. 2 Chron. 16:1-12 teaches us that the
disease was brought on because of the righteous king's negligence in calling on
the Lord in allowing the escape of Aram's army and then imprisoning a prophet
(Hanani) for reproving him. It must be hard to be a humble king.
Chapter 16 - Jehu, from Judah was the son of Hanani, also a
prophet whose ministry lasted about 50 years, prophesied against Baasha (vs.
1-7) Baasha's son Elah and his household were overthrown by Elah's servant
Zimri and Zimri set a new record for short service as king- 7 days! Zimri
committed suicide when he saw that Omri had the support of the people. Omri
reigned 12 wicked years. Maybe the worst thing that Omri did was to sire a
son-Ahab. Even as bad as Ahab was, he
married beneath himself. A real Jezebel. Vs. 34- Note Joshua 6:26- They weren't
supposed to rebuild Jericho.
"During
the 200 years the kingdoms existed side by side, Israel had 19 kings from 9
dynasties. Judah had 12 from 1 dynasty. Judah survived 130 yrs. longer than
Israel & still had only 20 rulers, only 1 more than Israel. David was
promised a royal lineage. Jeroboam of the northern kingdom was promised the same,
but because he was disloyal to the Lord, the promises was not fulfilled."
(Ogden p. 30)
