Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! The (first) Reign of Judges The time of judges was a strange disruption of government to the patterns of the time. While this isn't a western type democracy as we see it today by any means, it  seems much more egalitarian than the other forms of government at the general inhabitants disposal of the time. This is also a very unique time in Israel's history. I already talked about how assuming that the ante-diluvian and the Israelites under Moses following the same type of church structure misses the mark. We can do the same thing when we think about periods of the nation of Israel. First was the period in the desert, then there was the reign of judges, then there was the reign of kings, then the split kingdoms, then the diaspora, the regathering, occupation under the Greeks and roman, and finally the Christian era.  The way that the Israelites operated under the Reign of Judges seems to be resilient against general apostasy (somewhat more decentralized) but not e...

 Welcome! Before this weeks reading, it would be good to check out Come Follow Me's explanatory note of the histories There are some rough stories coming up. It is important to understand that this is a different place and a different time recorded by different people in a different way. Rather than passing judgement on who the Israelites were and were not, it is better to seek understanding of what this work means. How to play very dicey games The story of this week is the people of Israel playing on the edge of a knife. God gave them them land of Israel and told them to inhabit it. The people knew the Israelites were coming and were preserved miraculously, but the groups described chose to defy the armies of Israel. Joshua's people were surrounded everywhere by enemies and all they had were God's promise/covenant/command to possess the land and follow in His footsteps. It is at these times that you need to be exactly obedient to the voice of God and hearken very closely....

 Welcome! pull up your deut and lets get slicing! The evolution narrative vs the dispensation narrative Bottom line up front: The chapters and verses you are about to read emphasize that that which is taught to us today is that which was taught to the Israelites in the dispensation of Moses; it's the same gospel. The same first commandment, the same prophecies of Christ, the same heed to prophets and the commandments of God and anyone looking with the spirit could be told these things. Some days it seems like academics are hard-welded to studying the scriptures as though the central figure, God, doesn't actually exist. Like studying McDonalds but ignoring burgers. You might explore why people keep coming to this place, develop theories on what motivates them, what comforts, they may be trying to obtain, or what past traditions led to them to think of McDonalds as a daily Mecca. the people who actually go to McDonald's would probably give these people a good shake (pu...

 Welcome! There are a lot of cool stories in the reading this week! check out the first 3 minutes of this The Chosen episode for an interesting insight into the brass serpent. You have permssion to watch the rest too, I did :D The thanksgiving way vs the way of complaining We always have the choice to open up or to close down. God has given us the thanksgiving way to keep us always open to the greater things. The devil is always trying to get us to close down, to disconnect, and distance. This is what happens when you become cynical, then you become trapped because you see the problem as outside of you and not part of the flow and that can lead to bad places. For Israel, it literally led them away from the promised land and back into the desert. Moses' whoopsie Moses forgot to praise God for the water delivered to the Israelites. This is a poignant lesson because it seems to easy to fall into the same thing for me. How do you adequately recognize God in your life? Can any of us do ...

 Welcome! The great secret of the temple Understanding the Tabernacle requires a different mode of thought than the world. The world wants to treat the mysteries like a giant treasure hunt, a labyrinth of clues that leads you to ultimate power, enlightenment, presence, whatever you want to call it, and that the secret of the temple is these hidden clues and symbols that you collect like Pokémon cards until you you've caught them all and you are ready. Its not exactly wrong, because there is a great treasure and there is a map and there are symbols and secrets to understand. But for the most part, its actually bypassing the whole point of the temple experience, past and present. All the secrets you need to know to understand the temple are in fact hiding in plain sight, but the key to unlocking their knowledge requires a lifetime of work. The temple is a miniature representation of the cosmos, and the temple ceremonies past and present are the story of eternity packaged in a way tha...

  Welcome! No post this week! Look at  the last post  here if you missed it. Have a great study! 

 Welcome! The summum bonum of Exodus. Exodus 20 is in a way the summit point of the entire book. This is where God offers to the people of Israel everything, even to come back into his presence. It was also a fulfilling moment of the promis of Abraham that through this people the whole earth would be blessed. This had deep ties to the priesthood. I talked about this year during our reading in Section 84 , check it out to understand better the connection. In Chapter 19, God, through Moses, warns that this cannot be taken lightly. To approach the presence of God when not ready is to risk one's life. This can be very intimidating to those who understand it, but it misses the point. God wants us and is preparing us for this moment, and is hastening the day that we can do this. It is up to us to be part of this hastening ourselves, so that God can 'quicken' us, so that we can endure His presence. In the temple ceremony, where we ritually enact this, it is not a process to test ...

Welcome! Exodus as a Liberation Chiasm As we are about to reach a pivotal point in the book of Exodus I think it is a good time to point out that the book of Exodus is the story of the liberation of the Israelites from terrible bondage. It first tells the story of physical liberation from the hands of the Egyptians, then it tells the story of spiritual liberation from the traditions of the Egyptians. Chapters 14-17 help to emphasize the point that while the Lord has made His people physically free, They are not yet spiritually free. Once in the desert, they are angry with Moses enough to stone him. Knowing only bondage, they expect a God who will take care of them in soft bondage of having an easy life with all their needs provided for rather than the Egyptians who took care of them in a harder bondage of work. God does not want them to be in bondage at all, soft or hard. He wants them to be free. at this point they are free physically to go where ever they want. Unfortunately they fin...

  True worship i'd like to focus on the strange events that happen after Moses gets called.  You would think that if God calls someone to do something, He would just bulldoze all the obstacles away but that is not what happens. It is the same experience with Nephi and with Joseph smith as well. Its like every opportunity is a growth opportunity for God's servants. Here Moses goes down to Egypt, and all the Israelites recognize him and worship God and everything is going just great, and then he goes to Pharaoh and tells him what's what... And then Pharaoh basically says 'scram, and you know what, I'm going to make the Israelite work harder just because you thought you could do this before pharaoh'. So what's up with that? God's ways are not man's ways. Even (especially) on God's mission, we are given the refinement worthy of Godliness. The wickeder the world, the more glorious the mission. Ten plagues as the creation backwards The ten plagues have...

 Today, I'm going to keep it short and on a traditional topic. The Miracle of Forgiveness This week unfolds possibly the most touching story of the old testament where brothers who thought they destroyed their brother and saved by him, where they defend their youngest brother against any such fate, where Joseph shows the hand of God in all their actions, and where they all frankly forgive each other and find temporal and spiritual deliverance. Joseph is the last of the patriarchs, ending the middle period between the flood and the house of Israel. In him, the old mysteries of the ante-diluvian period and the current mysteries of the astronomy of Abraham and the science (or alchemy, as it may be) of the egyptians is closed up as far as the biblical history is concerned. The more traditional Israelites that we are familiar with (more discussion on this though, stay tuned) are about to emerge. We don't have the prophecies of Joseph publicly available, except the scant record we wi...

Prepared in all things. The story of Joseph is a well known narrative from Genesis. There are many lessons That can be taught including trust in the lord, the promises of Israel, archtypes of Christ, etc. I'd like to focus on Joseph as a way of fulfilling these passages of scripture from Zenos, taken from Alma's teachings 3  Do ye remember to have read what  a Zenos , the prophet of old, has said concerning prayer or  b worship ? 4  For he said: Thou art merciful, O God, for thou hast heard my prayer, even when I was  a in  the wilderness; yea, thou wast merciful when I prayed concerning those who were mine  b enemies , and thou didst turn them to me. 5  Yea, O God, and thou wast merciful unto me when I did cry unto thee in my  a field ; when I did cry unto thee in my prayer, and thou didst hear me. 6  And again, O God, when I did turn to my house thou didst hear me in my prayer. 7  And when I did turn unto my  a closet , O Lor...

  Jacob's trials Jacob's experiences are much like Isaac's experiences in many ways. He has many challenges to overcome despite being a seeker after the Lord's Righteousness. These chapters are a good demonstration of how God doesn't want to shield us from trials, but instead to make us mighty to overcome all trials. Jacob first has a vision of a ladder going to heaven. As a child I thought of this as a simple dream where someone climbs to heaven. Now I understand it better as God showing Jacob the necessary levels of change one must go through to become like God. Hugh Nibley, in One Eternal Round, has a part dedicated to the Ascension Dramas that have pervaded all time and culture. His point is that these aren't randomized stories; they are a consistent pattern of God showing man the path to get back to heaven, leading them to things higher than they could have realized. God strengthens Jacob again with his wrestle with the Angel before meeting Esau. This was s...

What it means to live as a covenant family  The readings for this week talk of Isaac's story. They are filled with all manner of lessons - of intrigue, of revelation, of spirit, of faith, of dedication, of simple things, and of great things. The main lesson I get from these chapters are understanding the struggles that a family can go through when following God in a foreign land. Isaac was the son of Abraham, the father of all nations, and yet his life was not easy. He couldn't find a wife to begin with, and then he had to hide her from his neighbors, had to dig his wells over again, had to work between his sons making hard choices, and then dealing with a very complicated birthright situation. Isaac was not the perfect guy. But he was still a patriarch under God. He didn't have a lot of really big problems "magicked" away. But he continually sought God and God provided. God even saved Isaac from himself, as in the example of the birthright.  Rebeckah, for her par...

 Genesis 18-23 has a lot. It gets into some pretty crazy stuff. I was really tempted to talk about Sodom and Gomorrah, as many of us live in the world and there is a lot to learn from these chapters, but one single verse caught my attention more than all the other happenings in the reading this week. God will provide himself a lamb In the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac, Isaac asks, 'where is the lamb for a burnt offering'. Abraham responds in  Genesis 22:8 8  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a  a lamb  for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. Abraham is saying that God will provide, but read it again and see if there is a double entendre. 8  And Abraham said, My son (Isaac), God will provide himself  a  a lamb   (His Son, Christ)  for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.   Is this what Abraham meant when he said it? I obviously couldn't say, this is just what struck me while I was ...

 Abraham is a complicated guy from a complicated time. There are many stories and legends about his life outside of the scriptures as well as what is recorded in Genesis and the Pearl of Great Price. The way he lived his life had a significant impact not only on the nations of his day, but also stretch all the way to our day and to the Second Coming of the Savior.  One way to understand the Abrahamic Covenant This week's Come Follow Me Reading included Abraham chapters 1 and 2. Notably, look at what Abraham says after the covenant in Chapter 2 12  Now, after the Lord had withdrawn from speaking to me, and withdrawn his face from me, I said in my heart: Thy servant has  a sought  thee earnestly; now I have found thee; 13  Thou didst send thine angel to  a deliver  me from the gods of Elkenah, and I will do well to hearken unto thy voice, therefore let thy servant rise up and depart in peace. 14  So I, Abraham, departed as the Lord had said unt...

Did the Flood really happen? The Flood narrative took a beating by academia over the 1800s and 1900s. Virtually all groups subscribed to the gradual theory of earthly evolution, where cataclysmic events had no place. Even at Brigham Young University, there are professors who have said that we will never find evidence of the flood. Noobs. They couldn't be more wrong There was a scientist in the 1900s that basically had his career ruined for his consistent claims from evidence he discovered that a catastrophic flood event happened in the world some few thousand years ago. I can't remember his name but if someone is interested in the comments, I can go find it. by the end of the century, the same organizations that had destroyed his career slowly came around, acknowledged that his evidence was compelling, and even slowly recognizing him for his work. In my opinion, they should have done a lot more than they, they should have recognized that their own organizations were incredibly ...

 The story of the fall and after the fall are tied together. I mentioned Adam and Eve's sacrifice in the last post. In this post, I would like to focus on Cain, and the preaching. Cain is not a story thrown in for historic relevance. It is a microcosm of the battle in every human soul and over the whole earth. God said that the creation was good. Cain judged the creation as unfit and killed his brother able because his sacrifice was not accepted. We all fall short of our goals in one way or another. Cain is a reminder that if we give seed to the bitterness of soul, it ends in death, misery, and outer darkness. We don't want to go there. It also outlines the plan of the evil one which centers around turning lives into money and souls into property. Once the opposition was loosed on the earth, God sent prophets and ministers and the great plan came into full swing.

 We discussed last week about how the worldly view of biblical stories is to look at them for more of explanatory power, while God wants to use this to purify and refine our souls. The Story of Adam and Eve is the story of the sacrifice our first parents made to follow God, and of the peculiar joy of the saints. It is another story that is intrinsic to the plan of God, not a simply functional facilitation of reaching a desired state.

We (humanity) tend to look to bible stories for their explicatory power. How was he earth created? by the creation. How did man come to be? by Adam and Eve. Where did rainbows come from? The flood (Okay, I don't know anyone who uses this story primarily for the rainbow phenomenon, but you get the point. The rainbows are not the point.) God teaches these stories less for answering curiosities and more for the fulfillment of our spiritual destiny. The creation is taught to us to understand the Atonement and the works and mind of God. It is an integral part of the plan of salvation, not simply a facilitation of functional necessities of the plan. Here are a few quick points. There are many more to understand.  - The elements worshiip and obey god as he speaks. There is no difference from his words and reality - We are part of the creation. The elements rejoice in being part of the creation and being part of us, and we (our souls) rejoiced to share the creation with them. - The creatio...

Welcome to the Old Testament and a new year! The Old Testament is very challenging! I plan to write what I learn and see where we get. I also will rely on the Louis Segonde translation (french) as a second reference to understand certain passages better, Hugh Nibley's works to walk through Abraham particularly, and Jordan Peterson's lectures as we walk through Genesis. I may be able to pick up some other references as we go along. Keep in mind that thousands of scholars have studied this book for thousands of years so there is no way to be comprehensive, and there will probably be interesting takes contrary to what I find here. We are just going to go for it, and I invite any and all discussion you have. contrary to the D&C format, we are going back to subjects instead of sections or chapters as our headings As you Study this week's chapters, take some time to think about the manner of men Moses and Abraham were and their relationship with god. Think about this scriptur...