Ruth and Hannah were strong figures in the Old Testament who demonstrated faith and established a righteous lineage. This week we are paying special attention to what we can learn about God’s pattern of revelation in Ruth and 1 Samuel 1-7. Sometimes the Lord asks hard things, but when we know it comes from God, it makes it worth it to obey.
The Book of Mormon prophet Jacob had wise words concerning those that look “beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:14). This week’s discussion from the book of Judges contains an important truth about hitting the mark and never missing. There is even a Hebrew word that changes the way we think about hitting the proverbial bullseye of the gospel.
After 40 years the Israelites have arrived at their destination, but without Moses they were in need of a new prophet and leader. Enter Joshua. The Book of Joshua contains his words to his people, battles, and the continued fulfilled covenants from the Lord.
The final words of Moses can be summed up in Deuteronomy 2:7 “He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee.” God is with us in wilderness and He will still be with us in our Promised Lands. We are going to study the book of Deuteronomy through a different lens today, and in the words of our guest hopefully “learn heaven through art.”
The wilderness can mean different things to different people. Maybe you first think of mountains, desert, beach, or just a Motel 6. Whatever you imagine, today’s wilderness in the book of Numbers is wild. And the stories from the wilderness not only teach us life lessons, but the word wilderness interestingly enough is a lesson on life itself.
When God wanted to dwell with His people anciently, he asked them to build a place of holiness in the wilderness—a tabernacle. When we want to be closer to God today we can visit the temple too. Exodus 35–40 and Leviticus teach the Israelites details of their one traveling tabernacle, and if we read closely we can see the similarities to our hundreds of temples all over the world.
The Come, Follow Me scriptures this week contain commandments and promises from the Lord to the children of Israel. The 10 Commandments and the subsequent instruction from the Lord are a lesson in obedience and commitment. Today we are relaying stories of what it takes to follow the commandments of God, and what it means to Latter-day Saints to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
After countless miracles leading to the people of Israel leaving bondage, the Lord continued to bless his people in the wilderness. They received food and water, and deliverance from their enemies. As we study Exodus 14–18 look for how God supports us, as we sustain our faith.
Exodus chapters 7–13 contain the ten plagues of Egypt. Although we won’t likely see frogs, lice, and flies infesting our livelihoods day after day, there is a lot of sorrow and disaster in the world. And it seems to affect both God’s people as well as those who aren’t following Him. But our faith grows as we learn to look for small miracles instead of focusing on the plagues.
“The more we know these prophecies, the more we can step forward with courage and strength and do hard things and help gather Israel.”
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Abraham experienced the kind of trials we could only imagine. And time after time he was reminded of future promises, while still having to go through more hard things. We are studying the trials of Abraham found in Genesis 12–17 and Abraham 1–2 today and how we can apply those experiences to persevere in our lives.
In December the Church announced an update in the general handbook concerning translations of the bible. So as our Come, Follow Me year of studying the Old Testament gets into swing we invited a couple of bible scholars to share their thoughts on what we can gain from different translations and how they can help us gain appreciation for the ancient context in which the bible was written. For those that are still a little bit afraid of the Old Testament, let this new guidance help you find scriptures that bring you closer to God.
God makes covenants to His people. Even when the people don’t want to hear His voice. In Genesis 6-11 and Moses 8 we have the stories of people that hear what God has to say and do the exact opposite from the Tower of Babel to the wickedness around Noah. But through it all God makes covenants, and those covenants are promises that we can lean on today even when the world around us seems as chaotic as when the flood rain was starting to come down.
We can learn about what our Zion should look like by modeling after Enoch’s Zion in Moses 7. Even if we might not walk exactly with God in this life, we can strive to be of one heart and one mind with those around us. Zion isn’t just the city we live in or the ward we go to, Zion is a condition of the heart and spirit. And creating a Zion people, starts with us.
Enoch was a prophet, he taught what was good. Music is important in developing and sharing testimonies. Today as we study the story of Enoch and his walk with God in Genesis 5 and Moses 6 we will do it through music. Hopefully these songs can bring you close to your Heavenly Father and bring to life the stories of the scriptures.
In Hebrew, Eden means delightful, luxurious, or dainty. But that does not mean there wasn’t conflict and opposition in Adam and Eve’s first home. We are studying the Fall found in Genesis 3–4 and Moses 4–5 with specific attention to how an understanding of the Hebrew words can shed new light on an age old story.