The Book of Deuteronomy: Keeping the Commandments & Not Worshiping False Gods

The Lord Expands on the Commandments

The Book of Deuteronomy is the last book in the Old Testament written by Moses and in it the Prophet reviews instructions for the Children of Israel from the Lord. He talks about statutes and judgements and then gives promises if they are kept. He states first and foremost "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish it" the reason for this is simple so that "ye may keep the commandments". How can you keep the commandments if they change? He follows that with "Fear the Lord and keep His Commandments" so that your days may be prolonged. The logic of these two together is inescapable, but He follows with reasons, its not just 'do this because I said so as some would have you think'. By following these statutes and commandments He promises "that you may live, and go in and posses the land which the the Lord God of your fathers giveth you", "by cleaving to the statutes you will be known as a wise and understanding people". So following the commandment helps us not only to retain the promised land, but to be wise and understanding. That is a worthy goal.

One of the goals that we have is to let other people know of the truth, however one thing that happens sometimes is people end up falling in love and marrying people who don't share their beliefs. The Lord warns about this. Marrying outside of the covenant can bring conversion to other gods however as we are either enticed by the faith of our spouse or not given support in our own faith by our spouse. The Lord did more than warn against marriage outside the covenant for the Children of Israel, he prohibited it and gave the reason why at the same time. In Deuteronomy 7: 3-4 “ Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.” When you marry outside your religion it is harder to stay faithful to your beliefs, it is not impossible, but it is harder because depending on your position you have anywhere from less support to outright opposition. What you don’t have is your  partner working with you to help you grow and understand and walk the path, something each and every child of God deserves. We must be joined in a covenant marriage to enter the Celestial Kingdom, a marriage must be bound in the Temple to last for eternity. If Satan can make us forget this then we think that marriage in the Temple and making our marriage work is not important.

When that marriage produces children we have even further responsibilities. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" We have a responsibility to teach our children the word of God. The more we can teach them and not by rote, but teach them to love the Lord and love His word the better we are doing our job.

The Lord knew that to teach children the parents had to love the Word also. Its the same as if you want to raise a child who loves to read - they should see you reading. So what did He tell the Children? "And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." The Children of Israel ended up taking this command literally creating phylacteries and mezuzah. The phylacteries are tiny pieces of parchment with scripture written on them that are folded and put into leather boxes about 1 ½ inch square that are tied to the head or over the bicep. The mezuzah (Hebrew for doorpost) is similar except the scripture is inserted into a tiny, cylindrical box and attached to the door frame. They came into use when the children of Israel took the word of the Lord literally. Not taken literally you would take the word of the Lord into your mind and into your home, keeping in the front of your mind & keeping your house for the Lord.

After giving instructions to parents  Moses goes on the relay the instructions about worship. Heavenly Father warns in clear and with no uncertain terms that we are not to worship anything or anyone but him. He goes even further to say that if anyone tries to entice us into doing so we are not to take pity on them and “neither shall you spare them” no matter if it be brother, sister, son, daughter or friend. Romans 1:25 elaborates on the foolishness of those who worship the things He created rather than the Creator changing the truth of God into a lie.

By reading His Word for ourselves we find out that the Lord has reasons for His rules - Keep the Commandments and grow wise, study the word and learn to love it that you may teach your children. There are reasons and promises for them all.

Do You Have a Golden Calf?

Thoughts on the Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-4 

1.And when the people saw that Moses ^adelayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us ^bgods, which shall ^cgo before us; for as forthis Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we^dwot not what is become of him.

 2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the ^agolden earrings, which arein the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bringthem unto me.

 3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a ^amolten calf: and they said, ^bThese be thy^cgods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

 5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.

 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought ^apeace offerings; and the ^bpeople sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

It appears to me that Aaron thought he was directing them toward the Lord. They did the appropriate sacrifices, he named the day a day of Sacrifice to the Lord. However the words and actions did not match. The Golden Calf was still there.  We need to be careful that we don't have a golden calf in our life. The Old Testament Student Manuel discussion on the 10 Commandments warned of this also in that a worshiped graven image can take many forms. Cars, computers, education, tvs, phones, games ...is there an object in our life that we are putting before the Lord. Beware of the Golden Calf in your life. I know I will in mine.

Leadership and Responsiblity

Thoughts on Leadership and Responsibility

It is known that the Lord calls who He wants and needs.  We don't always agree with His choices, but He always knows who is best for the job. Often we learn much from what we are called to do. In some cases others learn just as much from watching our journey to live up to our callings. Moses did not see himself as a leader at all, yet he is remembered as a great leader. He argued with the Lord, he insisted that he could not do this and was granted Aaron to help him speak. Moses and Aaron leaned upon the Lord and through His power freed the children of Israel and led them for over 40 years. 

 

How many of us have said "I am not a leader." How many of us have said "I don't want that responsibility" I can't be just me right?  Well, how about we all start with this. Moses's journey started when he stopped an Egyptian from abusing a Hebrew slave.  Let's start by being responsible for ourselves - following the commandments and then lets take the next step being aware of those around us. Doing whatever small actions we can to make life better for those around us. By taking action to help others we are being leaders and obeying the commandment to serve others all at the same time.

Murmuring in the Wilderness

Murmuring in the Wilderness

For my in depth study of this week I chose Exodus 15:23-27, 16-17 on the topic of Murmuring in the Wilderness. I wanted to do this because I really didn’t understand it. I have never understood the constant murmuring of the Children. One thing is for sure the children of Israel did a lot of murmuring. Let’s starting with defining what murmuring is.  Freedictionary.com defines it as “An indistinct, whispered, or confidential complaint; a mutter.” Therefore, this means that the children were complaining and whispering among themselves but none of them were bringing any complaints up to the leadership. Moses, Aaron or from what we can tell praying to the Lord about it either. They were just griping (murmuring) among themselves.

Three days after celebrating the Lord for delivering them from Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, in Exodus 15:24 they are murmuring “What shall we drink?” another miracle was provided and then they came to Elim where there was plenty of water.

After leaving Elim, 2 months and 15 days into the journey we find the whole congregation of the children murmuring against Moses and Aaron (Exodus 16:1-3) accusing that they were brought out of slavery only to be starved to death. The Lord provides another miracle, manna from Heaven with one stipulation every day it will rain the same amount, but on the 6^th day it will rain double for the children are to gather extra that day because nothing will fall on the seventh.  Moses warned them not to try to save any and to trust in the Lord and still they did not listen.

I think my favorite verse is Exodus 16:28 “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?”

The Lord is providing bread (manna) from Heaven for the children and again when they arrive in Rephidim the children start murmuring again. In Exodus 17:3 “…Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” Moses immediately takes the problem to the Lord “What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me.” In addition, there is the problem with murmuring. If the concern had been addressed earlier the emotion would not have built up, but can you imagine what it must have been like in that camp for Moses to say that to the Lord? The Lord saved them and brought forth water from a rock using Moses and his staff.

Nephi suggests in 1 Nephi 16:1-3 that people murmur against leaders when hard truths are spoken and difficult things are asked of them that they are not ready for, when truth cuts them to the core.  This suggests that many of the children of Israel were in a crisis of faith, not having enough faith in the Lord, Moses and Aaron to keep them safe.  If Moses and Aaron are not able to address and stop the murmuring then the children could fall away from the Lord as Lamen and Lemual did. Nephi suggests in 2 Nephi 27:35 that learning the doctrine is an antidote for murmuring. This is a great suggestion as learning and studying doctrine leads to understanding and increases faith. The children of Israel did not have faith in the Lord even after seeing miracles. Lack of faith and lack of gratitude for what had happened to them was a large part of their problem I believe.

Do not cease to give thanks for what you have. Do not forget to ask for what you need. The Lord will supply all our needs.

Who Am I?

Who Am I?

Exodus 3:11-12 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

The take away, I believe from this is that it doesn’t matter who we are, it matters who God is and that we are doing as He commands

  

A Preacher once told me that to understand the Bible better (and it certainly applies to all the Scriptures) that we need to remember we are reading about the lives of real people and try to put ourselves in their shoes and understand what their lives are like and what is happening.

I think this is the closest I have ever felt to Moses who has always been an imposing figure. Thinking of Moses at this point in his life. He knew he was adopted, he knew his entire life he was different. Moses who committed a murder to defend the Hebrew slaves. He is now commanded to go back and face the Pharaoh and demand the freedom of all the Hebrew slaves. I can certainly understand his question to the Lord “Who am I to do this?” Remembering that when we lean up on the Lord it doesn’t matter who we are as long as we are in His service and obeying Him, it is His power, His words, His greatness not ours.