The following transcript is intended to aid in your study. However, while we try to go through the transcript, our transcripts are primarily computer-generated and often contain errors. Please forgive the transcripts’ imperfections.

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Segment 1

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How good are you at darts, ax throwing, using a bow and arrow, maybe shooting a rifle, or any sport that includes hitting a bullseye? Now, what does it take to be good at hitting a target, especially hitting the mark of a bullseye? Well, today's discussion from the Book of Judges contains an important truth about hitting a target and never missing the mark, and I think you will be surprised, as I was, to learn the Hebrew word that changes the way we think about hitting the proverbial bullseye of the gospel.

Welcome to the Sunday on Monday Study Group, a Deseret Bookshelf Plus original brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the Come, Follow Me lesson for the week and we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy Uzelac Hall. Now, if you're new to our study group, please follow the link in our description, and it's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your Come, Follow Me study, just like my longtime listening friend, the Caspersens from Inkom, Idaho.

Hi, guys. And listen, I have to tell you about these two. They came to see me at Pocatello, Idaho Deseret Book, and they brought me a bevy of cheese and Diet Coke for my ride home. I love them so much, so thanks, guys. It got me through the two-and-a-half-hour drive back to my house. Now, another awesome thing about our study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, so it's always a little bit different, but you guys, they're back.

I have the dudes. I'm so excited. We have Tyler Collette and Abe Mills. Hi, guys. Hey, how are you, Tammy? Hey, Tammy. Woo, we've been trying for so long to get a date that would work for you two, and we're here. Yeah, let's do it. This is awesome. Yeah. This is so- I love it ... this is gonna be so much fun. And, um, also a fun little shout-out is to the twins who also came to see me, and this...

I love them so much, and they came in to say hello, and they said how much they miss these two guys. So I'm gonna put a picture in our show notes so you can see them, because it was a blast to see them, and they said how much they love Tyler and Abe. No pressure, you guys. Hi, twins. Thanks so much. All right, are you guys ready to do this?

We're not even gonna say a lot other than- Let's do it. Yeah ... Book of Judges. Okay. Because there's so much to say, and I asked them to save their comments until we actually get into the episode, because are you agreed there's so much to say? So much. So many questions. So few answers. You know, it's unfortunate that the Book of Judges only has you reading certain specific stories, because I think the Book of Judges is a, is a must-read for every member of the church.

Like, pay the price. Take- pay the time. It is such a crazy book, and so good. Anyone who says the Old Testament is boring has never read the Book of Judges, am I right? It, it's amazing. I, I don't know. I, I kept thinking, "This has gotta be just like..." I mean, you think of, like, Lord of the Rings, or you think of, I guess, what's the one that's really popular?

I, I've never seen it before, but it's, like, all these kingdoms and stuff. Anyway, that's gotta be at, at least as exciting as that Yeah, totally agree That it was violent. Very violent. So violent. Okay, when we get in, at the end of segment one I'm gonna ask you to give me a rating for the Book of Judges.

That'll be so fun. Okay, so you guys can find the pictures and bios about my friends in our show notes, so go to ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday and check that out. Now, grab your scriptures and something to mark them with and let's dig into the Book of Judges. Okay, first things first you two, just tell me what did the Holy Ghost teach you as you read throughout this book?

Th- this so interesting that this book has so many interesting things in it, that you're just kind of like, "Hmm, why would that happen? Why would they do that? This is so interesting." I said that so many times. And I was... I had that same kind of thought, like, what is the Holy Ghost teaching me? Why is this in the scriptures?

What are we learning from this? And I don't know. I kind of just felt like maybe for me it kind of showed over and over again that, you know, you can make mistakes, you can kind of depart from the path that you know is right, and then, you know, be forgiven and go back. It's... I think it's just a bunch of, to me, it's a bunch of redemption stories.

Hmm. Um, I think that's kind of like what I got out of it. Love that. It's- I actually used that word- ... staying ... in this outline. Go ahead, Tyler. It showed me that, you know, no matter how far you think you've strayed or gotten off your path, you know, th- there's always the way back and God is always accepting.

Through the repentance process, he's ready to welcome you back. Hmm. Yeah. You know, and it showed me that, like, you know, that I could see myself in some of these. I'm like, oh yeah, that's... You know, I, I, I can see, like, not necessarily doing exactly what was done, but like myself going back to things that I'm like, oh, well, I probably shouldn't...

You know, I probably should have a different mindset. I probably should... Or just going away from the Lord, not necessarily in a big way, but just like, you know, how many times do we find ourselves kind of back in the same mindset and then trying to get back to the, you know, back to the Lord- Mm ... and looking to the Lord again.

Yeah. Well, and Tyler, for you to say it's so violent, because fun fact about Tyler, he loves horror movies, and so- Yes, I do ... there's, there's, there's one chapter in here where I'm like, this is... I, I gotta know what he thinks about this one, about the woman that gets chopped up into pieces. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was just- I mean- I mean, you know how they say you read the scriptures, and then every time something new pops out and I'm like, "Whoa, whoa."

Like several times in this, reading through these. Well, you know, it's funny because when I was reading that, that section, I was like, why? What... That's how you fire up a crowd? That's how you get people to... Is sending them pieces of- I couldn't figure that out either ... pieces of- I was gonna ask you guys what that was.

Mm-hmm. But anyway, I'm sure we'll talk more about that. I think it's gonna be a great Halloween decoration. For you it will. For me, yeah. He does a huge haunted house, Abe, every Halloween. Really? At his... Oh, I mean, like- Okay. We try to do something ... everyone from the neighborhood comes and they walk through their, their haunted house.

It's pretty awesome. That's amazing. Yeah. I might have to come drop by Utah or something. Yeah. You should. Yeah. But, but what... Okay, and then I said I was gonna ask for a rating. What would you rate the Book of Judges? Okay. But for me, you gotta realize- I know ... I, I'm not new to gore. Through, whether I watch it on, through a movie or through work.

You know, I'll, I'll give it a, out of 10 being the most grotesque, the, like, ugh, vomit, I'd probably give it a seven. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. So I was thinking, like, okay, I think there was gore, but I think there was just a lot of weird stuff too. So I don't know. Like, if you're just rating gore, I would say, like, eight.

But if you're rating, like, weirdness, I would say, like, nine and a half. Yeah. Oh, I like that- That was weird ... rating on weirdness, for sure. Yeah. Well, one of the things I love that both of you brought up is the story of redemption because you're like, "Why was that story even at the very end? Like, why would we end with that gross story?"

And isn't it interesting how the Book of Judges kind of starts out subtle, and then it gets into some of the most extreme behaviors of mankind? And even that, the Lord is like, "Yeah, I'll still help you." It, it- Mm-hmm ... that's what's mind-blowing to me, is because, like you said, Tyler, no matter how far you think you've gone, the Book of Judges will push that envelope.

It's gonna push the line because you just can't imagine someone ever being forgiven for certain things, but that's not for us to decide. It's absolutely for the Lord and for Heavenly Father because only they know us. And so the Book of Judges is really incredible. It's totally worth reading, and we're gonna get into the whole history of the Book of Judges, but before we do, what we wanna know is how the Book of Judges even starts before the Book of Judges starts.

That's what we wanna know. What's happening before Judges even begins? So we're gonna find out what that is in the next segment.

Segment 2

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Let's find out what happens before the Book of Judges happens. Everyone go to your scriptures. Turn to Joshua chapter 24. That's where we're gonna start. The children of Israel, they are in the Promised Land, and right at the very end of the Book of Joshua, he's about to die, and he's sort of giving his last hurrah to the children of Israel.

This is what he wants them to know before all things end. And go to Joshua chapter 24, and we're gonna read verses 14 and 15. And Tyler, can you read those two verses for us, please? You bet. "Now therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord.

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Classic scripture mastery scripture.

Okay. Mm-hmm. We know that. And so that's what he says to them, like, "Choose. Who are you going to follow? You've seen miracle after miracle throughout the promised land, as well as in the wilderness. You've heard the stories, so choose who you're going to follow." And then Abe, read verse 16, and I wanna know your guys' reactions.

Okay, verse 16. "And the people answered and said, 'God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods!'" Now read that again with emphasis like they're really responding. They're like, "Oh, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods." Right? Okay. A- What? How ridiculous is that? I mean, it's like the lo- I just don't get it.

Like, all right, so we got... Who's talking here? Is that Joshua telling them that? Joshua, uh-huh, Joshua's speaking to them and then they respond. He's a prophet. He's telling them that, and then they're reacting like, "Oh, well, God forbid we should serve other gods." Like, I just don't- We would never, huh? That's crazy.

And then they say it again. So in verses 19 and 20, he says it one more time. In fact, I love 19. It says, "Joshua said unto the people, 'You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgression nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt.'"

I love it when it says he is a jealous God, 'cause some people have asked me, "What does that mean? Does it really mean in Hebrew that he's a jealous God? 'Cause I thought we weren't supposed to be jealous or envious of things." In Hebrew, it really is jealous. He's really saying, like, the first two commandments in the 10 Commandments are no other gods before me, no engraven images.

Mm-hmm. So he's not kidding. I don't want you to worship anyone else but me. So that really does mean jealous. He is a jealous God. He's saying, "Don't serve anyone else except me," and then if you do, you're... it's not gonna turn out well for you. And then Abe, read verse 21. What do the people say to Joshua? "And the people said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve the Lord."

Yeah. And how did they do when you turn into the Book of Judges? Man, I think it should be called Judge Thy Ye Be Not Judged. You know what I'm saying? But yeah, no, I think this is interesting right here- Mm-hmm ... because it does give a good idea as to the mindset of these people going in here. It's like we always wonder, what is wrong with the children of Israel?

You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. They got, you know, they got rescued. They got rescued. Yeah. And they couldn't believe. It was like before Noah, I mean, before Moses could come down for the 10 Commandments, they're already worshiping other gods. And I just... It's crazy that that's just over and over and over again.

But I do understand it how, like, these days, you know, like, say we want something, and we ask God for it, and God, He thinks we need something different, which is basically what Joshua's saying. He's a jealous God, meaning He doesn't want... He doesn't abide you going somewhere else to- Mm-hmm ... receive the help that you need from Him- Yeah

mainly because He knows what's best for us, right? Oh, I love that, Abe. Yeah. And so, but I think it's interesting that, um, you know, they keep turning to something else because they're impatient to receive what they feel like their freedom looks like. Mm-hmm. In fact, let's look and see. Let's just go to the very end of Judges and see how they did with, "We would never serve other gods."

Turn to Judges 21:25, and based on this verse, Tyler, I want you to tell me how you think they did. "In those days there was no kings in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." So to me, that's there's no law. There's every man for himself. You're doing what you wanna do. And as a law enforcement agent, tell me how that verse affects you- Chaos

for the people you look over. Just chaos, right? The, uh, I, I can't think of any, any rhyme or reason to it, really. I mean, there's, there's no there's no system to, to keep things organized, to keep things safe, to keep things, you know- Mm-hmm ... fair. It's kind of like a, a- an addict, right? They go through their addiction to the point where they overdose.

Maybe they die. Maybe they're brought back to life. Uh, then they, "Oh, well, I can't live this life," you know, or, or an intervention's held, and they're kind of forced, if you will, into something. Uh, they get clean, they're doing great, and then they relapse, and it's all o- Mm-hmm ... it just happens all over again.

I don't know. Mm-hmm. Okay. So that cycle is perfect. I love that you just pointed that out. We are gonna draw a cycle. Go to the Book of Judges, your ver- that very first page where it just says, "The Book of Judges." There should be a little space there between Joshua and Judges, and in that space, I want everyone to draw a circle, and we're gonna label that circle because- The Book of Judges is similar to the Book of Mormon.

In the Book of Mormon, you have the pride cycle. In the Book of Judges, you have the sin cycle. And here it is. You call it, you can call it the cycle of sin, the cycle of apostasy, or I really like the cycle of grace. Because in Judges 2:11 it says, "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord."

You're gonna see that phrase repeated throughout the Book of Judges. They will continually do evil in the sight of the Lord. So at the very top of the circle, you wanna write evil/sin. That's what they're gonna do throughout the whole time. Then off to the right, you're going to put oppression. So they do evil, they do sin, and the Lord doesn't help them, just like he said.

He's not gonna help you. So they go into oppression. Armies come in, people come in, nations come in and take them and enslave them. And the children of Israel realize, "Oh, this is terrible. We hate this. We do not like this experience." And so then they are sad, and they start to repent, and they ask God for help.

And then like both of you have so perfectly said, the minute they start asking for God for help, Judges is a story of the next thing on the left side of the circle, deliverance and peace. And the Lord hears their prayers and answers their prayers and redeems them and helps them. I love that, that word redemption.

And then they're redeemed, and they're living life good. And then we go back to the top of the circle again, where they start to do evil, and they sin again in the sight of the Lord. And they will do this over and over and over again for the span of 300 years. That's how long the Book of Judges covers.

Somewhere between 300 to 400 years is what scholars say. Now, Abe, tell me why you're shaking your head no. I just feel like it's interesting because I think a lot of times when we, when we look at history or things that happened in the past, we look at them through our lenses of today. Yeah. And I think we make so many mistakes that way because things were just completely different.

I mean, things were completely different 100 years ago than they were, than they are today. Things were completely different 200 years ago. And you, when you look back at this, I mean, we're talking, you know, a couple thousand years ago, that's ... It's, it's a lot. Yeah. And they lived life like that. You, like, it was basically Mad Max: Thunderdome.

It's like two men enter- Yeah. Yeah ... one man leave. And it was like, that was just kinda like, "Okay, this is the way we're gonna do it." And whoever kind of is the strongest person that can kill the most people or do the, do the worst damage is the one that's in charge, and they do whatever they please, right?

Yeah. Some of them ran. Some of them tried to take over things. People killing people, like, all the time with no judgment or anything. It's crazy. Yes. Yeah. Until they involved the Lord, right? Right. And then they always won when the Lord stepped in. Mm-hmm. So Tyler, you read at the very end that there was no king and that everybody ruled according to themselves, and there were no kings.

So as a result, the Lord had to do something. Go to Judges 2:16. And Tyler, will you read that kind of as a juxtaposition between the last verse you read? Judges 2:16. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them Okay. So that's where we get the name of the book, and so throughout the entire book, we will see story after story of people who do this cycle of apostasy or cycle of grace where they sin, they're oppressed, they repent, and they're delivered.

And it will be a judge that the Lord sends to help deliver these people out of their oppression and into peace for a short-lived time. And so in the next segment, I'm gonna ask these two men how good are they at hitting the mark, and what that has to do with the Book of Judges. We'll do that next.

Segment 3

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All right, you two, how good are you at darts? The way I started at the beginning, 'cause you didn't know I was gonna start that way. Tell me about darts or ax throwing or bow and arrow or even shooting. Well, I'm not very good at darts. I mean, I'm probably better at darts than I am at ax throwing- That's what-

and bow and arrows. Same. Uh-huh. Isn't that weird? That is. Same. You'd think the propulsion of an ax, w- you'd be able to hit the mark. I've done ax throwing. So far off the mark. I- I've never even hit close to it. Do you get it to stick? 'Cause I'm just- No. No ... I don't e- I don't even think I could get it to stick.

Nope. Difficult. Yeah. How do you do that? I don't get it. I'm gonna have to practice that just in case we have to go back to these times. Okay. Love it. So you're gonna have to practice. Yeah. Tell me about being able to hit a bullseye. What does it entail? I mean, have you done a little bit of that, Tyler? Oh, of course.

Okay. Yeah. Tell me about it. It, it... Well, it's... For me, it's easier if you're using a rifle as opposed to a, a handgun. Uh, it's just more stability on a rifle. The barrel's longer, so y- usually your trajectory is straighter. Um- What does that mean, a trajectory? Just the, the path. Okay. The, the path o- of the bullet.

Um- Straight? Usually straighter. Uh, that's not to say a handgun wouldn't be straighter, but, you know, y- most of your barrels on a handgun are anywhere between three and a half to six inches. Mm-hmm. As opposed to a rifle, which, you know, could be anywhere up to 28 inches depending on what you're shooting.

But it, it, e- even comparing those two, you know, if you give a rifle to someone who's never shot before and say, "Okay, hit a bullseye," chances are they may not just because there's a lot more that goes into it. There's trigger control, there's breathing, there's sight alignment. You know, your picture. So it...

There's a lot that goes into it. A- and once you figure those things out, then it becomes easier, it becomes quicker to where, you know, you can do it without thinking. So it, it does take some time. To be able to hit a bullseye, and it takes work and practice. E- even, same with a handgun as well, right? Mm-hmm, I'm writing down all your answers.

Work- Mm-hmm ... practice. What does sight alignment mean? Focus. Focus. Focus. I like that. Yeah, focus for sure. Yeah, give me everything that comes to mind that it would take to become good at hitting a bullseye. You've got work, practice, focus. What else? I think you have to be calm, don't you, when you, when you try to hit a bullseye?

Yeah, I like that. E- yeah. You have to breathe out. Uh, it helps. It- It certainly helps to be calm. I could be calm and just miss the whole thing. Well, I, I'd put that with calm, control, breathing. Those are so good. But, but if you think about it, in those days, where, you know, bow and arrow was the most advanced weaponry they had, if...

They still fought running up towards each other, so I mean, their heart was pumping. Mm-hmm. They didn't have the opportunity to be calm, a- as we think of it today, so their s- their heart is still pumping, you know. Uh, I'm sure they're losing fine motor skills, uh, just with the anxiety of war and anticipation and- Yeah

hey, I've gotta make this shot, otherwise- Maybe he makes his shot. I don't know. But in our, in, in our day, calmness definitely helps. Being calm, you know. Yeah. Yep. Anything else? Any other thoughts, what it takes to hit a bullseye or hit the mark? I, I think experience is probably the number one. I mean, if I look at experience, 'cause like you said, it takes time.

That, that's experience. That's over and over again, like working on it, figuring out the things that work and getting to that place where you almost make it second nature. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I see, you know, my girl- my girls are, and boys are wrestlers, and so when I see, when I go to wrestling matches, I'll see kids that just started, right?

And there's a lot of like, you know, you can get a kid that just started that's really good, but some kid that's experienced normally will beat that kid, not so much because they're more athletic or anything like that. You've seen some kids that just look so athletic get beat by kids that look like, you know, they're not hardly working out, and it's just because they know what to do.

So I could see, you know, if you were gonna hit a bullseye or be good in battle, you know, if there's people who are fighting all week every week and then you got a guy who's been farming, that's gonna be a little more difficult to, to kinda just feel comfortable in that situation. Yeah. Mm, I like that.

Good description. Okay, then tell me this. What would your advice be to someone who consistently just misses the bullseye? Step to the left two inches. Check your... Yeah, check where you're standing. I love that. Move. Move position. Mm. Oh, that's a good one. Aim differently. Oh, that's good. I'm writing these down.

A- and I say that for a purpose. Most people that shoot, say, handguns, if, if- Their, uh, trigger control is off and they're, you know, using a different portion of their finger than they should. Typically, like, if they're pulling the gun with their trigger finger, it'll shoot low left. Hmm. And so if people can't get that out of their head to be like, "Well, I just can't, you know, figure out that- that finger placement on the trigger," aim up and to the right- Mm-hmm

to offset that low left. Or in some cases you might need a new tool, something like a new bow, a new arrow, a new, you know- Oh, that's good too ... a new arrow. Maybe- A new gun ... maybe the sights are off. Yeah. You know? Okay, what does that mean, sight alignment? Tell me what you mean by sights are off or sight alignment, 'cause I just barely learned this and I think it's so cool.

Well, uh, uh, in regards to handgun or a rifle? Whichever. For the common man, how would you describe it? Yeah, just g- in general. In general. Yeah. Sight alignment is basically, uh, your sights, whether that's iron sights on a handgun or a rifle or some sort of, uh, optic that has a zoom capability, and then your target itself, right?

You- Okay ... you wanna make sure that the sights on the weapon- Mm-hmm ... are lined up or are adjusted correctly. And then sight placement on your target. You wanna make sure that your- your, uh, sights are lined up on your target where you are aiming to hit. Okay. Oh my gosh, your answers are so perfect. So I want you to take everything you guys just told me, and we're gonna apply it to the Book of Judges, to one of the coolest verses and meanings in Hebrew.

Are you ready for this? Okay, I want- I want you to just give me all your reactions and connections. So let's go into the Book of Judges and see what hitting a bullseye and missing the mark has to do with this book. So turn to Judges 2:19. This is where we kinda wanna start out, and we're gonna see this play out throughout the Book of Judges.

So Judges 2:19. Will you please read that, Abe? Yes. 19, "And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them. They ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way." Okay.

So right there, the judge who helped deliver them is now dead, so this is the cycle of sin. They just go back to doing what they've done. Now go to Judges 3:9 on the next page. And will you please read that for us, Abe? You bet. "And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them even-" Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother And we'll come back to that later.

But the beginning of verse nine, "When the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer, and then he delivered them." Mm-hmm. So we have this series that we've talked about of sinning, oppression, repentance, and then having peace again. But the thing I want to show you about this whole idea of repenting is go to Judges chapter 20, verse 16, because there's a really interesting word in here that has everything to do with our experience with hitting a bullseye and our experience with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

So go to Judges chapter 20, verse 16. It's talking about a war, and they have now this group of people, the Benjaminites need to recruit some people to help them fight. And when we talk about this, these fighters, verse 16 tells us something specific about them. Tyler, will you read verse 16, please? "Among all this people there were 700 chosen men left-handed.

Everyone could sling stones at an hair breadth and not miss." Now, look at that again. Everyone could sling stones at a hair breadth and not miss. So Tyler, how good are they at hitting the mark or hitting the bullseye? Well, considering they're left-handed, really good. Okay. We'll get into more left-handed stories.

Isn't that fun? They're pretty, they're pretty good Left-handed even plays a role in Judges. No, that's, that's really great. I mean, it, it... I immediately think of David and Goliath. Yes. That's the very first thing that pops into my mind with slinging a stone and being able to not miss. Uh, uh, and, and in, in 16, a hair breadth.

Yeah. Wow. Okay, highlight the word miss. I mean, that's pinpoint. Pinpoint. Hit the word miss in your scriptures. I love this so much. Okay. The word miss in Hebrew is hata, hata. So think of, like, something hot and you don't want it to burn your hands, like a hot potato. Hata. So say it with me. Hata, hata, hata.

Hata, hata, hata, hata. Yeah. Hata. It's so hot. Hata potato. Hot, hata. Hata, hata. Okay. So the word miss is hata. It means to miss, to go wrong, but here's to miss the mark, and it also means the word sin. Hmm. That's what it means. So when you sin- Interesting ... you are hata. You're missing the mark. You are hata. You just...

You're just shy of the bullseye. You didn't quite get it right. Now, apply everything you guys just told me to this idea. When you have a child who sins or a loved one, what do you... what's your advice to them? Who, what... someone who just keeps missing the mark. Keep trying. Definitely. Don't give up, Ryan. I mean, don't you feel the spirit?

You feel the spirit so strong right now. When you said keep trying, I got goosebumps. Mm-hmm. In fact, r- look at everything you guys said. I, and I'm just gonna apply it. You said, "You know what? Check your, check where you are. Move your position." Aim differently. Maybe you need a new tool. You know, maybe your sight alignment isn't on.

Tell me about that now, Tyler, if someone's- Mm ... sight alignment is off when it comes to sinning. Right, yeah. So maybe- Maybe their sights aren't set on modern-day prophets or- Yeah ... you know, maybe they don't pay attention during general conference or e- even sacrament, uh, you know, which has been said is the most sacred and most important meeting of the church.

And y- do people, do, are their sights set on that? Do they treat it as such? Yeah, I think a lot of times, our, kids especially and, uh, us as well, we get so focused on rights in f- what's right in front of our eyes. So, like, if there's something that we're dealing with at that point in time, it's difficult for us to see what's beyond that.

Mm-hmm. And so our, our aim or our, what we're looking at or the mark is off. They call it looking beyond the mark, right? Yes. A little throwback to JR, okay? Right. Right. Always looking beyond the mark. Um, but yeah, if, if you're looking beyond the mark or your mark is off- Mm-hmm ... it could be that you're not focused on the right thing.

Sometimes we might be focused on the problem rather than be focused on the savior, or focused- Ooh ... on the issue rather than focused on the sacrament and what that means to us. Or focused on the wrong person, right? Right. Maybe they're focused on peers, or maybe they're focused on what man may say rather than what the Lord has said.

Yeah. Or sometimes we're focused on another person when the real person is us, right? Ooh, I like that. Mm. Yeah. Where's your focus? Yeah. Yeah. I love that you said you have to work and practice and stay calm and in control, and then again, the focus idea. When I think about my own life... I mean, think about now, go back to when you were a teenager, because when I look at a bullseye, you have all these layers that get you to the bullseye, right?

I mean, I don't... You probably know the numbers, Tyler, but you have the very middle, and then you have layer after layer going out. And my whole childhood and teenage life was experienced in the outer layers. I missed the mark so many times. I'd like to think that the older I get, the closer I'm getting to the mark, to hitting it, to hitting the bullseye, right?

I think I've hit it several times, but then there's just times where I'm clearly missing the mark. And when you think back on your life and all the times that you hata, all those- Mm-hmm ... experiences, tell me one thing that helped you. Tell me one thing that helped you when you missed the mark. The ability, the target is still there.

Mm, I like that. And that I still have the ability to try again.

That's cool. Okay. I think there's a confidence in believing that if you try again, that you'll hit it, and if you keep trying, that you'll hit it one day. Yeah. Well, it, and to that, Abe, kind of what, what Tammy was just saying on that analogy of the target- She was hitting the outside of the rings. I think we all hit that.

But then as soon as we start moving in just a little bit closer, like, "Hey, I'm getting better." And then we maybe move in a little bit closer. And then, you know, maybe, maybe the wind picks up and throws our, our round, if you will, back out to the outer ring. You know, it's like, "Well, I, I know, I know why this happened.

I know my aim point is getting smaller. I know I can hit this, so I'm gonna keep working at it." Mm-hmm. But that's the thing, is you gotta have that d- that desire to keep working at it. Mm-hmm. Yep, the desire. And to not think, "I'm good. I don't need to practice anymore. I've hit this so many times. Please, this is a cakewalk."

And the next thing you know, yeah, you've made some choices. Well, and- You're hot tying all the time. Well, and I think that's the thing. Yeah, yeah. I think that the reason why God puts so many things into our lives that kinda throw us off is because He's realizes that we're kinda like okay with just being, you know, okay.

Ooh, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. We're okay with being okay. And so you start... Right. I mean, I tell this, we, uh, we have this conversation at our house all the time. It's like, this is, you know, when we talk to m- our kids about what they're doing, whether it be music, whether it be sports, whatever it is, schoolwork, it's like, don't compare yourself to what the other person did because, you know, you, if you compare yourself to somebody else and you're like, "Well, I did better than them," you still might be like way below what your ability is, right?

And you're just dis- doing a disservice to everyone. Yeah. Because what if that person that you're barely better than needs you to be this much better in order to be able to look at you and become better themselves? Wow. Yeah. You don't know what the Lord is putting you in there for, so you have to, you have to go at everything and try to be the best that you can at it.

And then, you know, we don't, we don't worry about the fact that we're not as good as this person or... Remember w- in the story of the talents? Mm-hmm. With the talents, they gave them three different talents, three different values. I mean, not because God had to put a value on it. God doesn't put a value on it.

God's not gonna go, "Well, you're only one talent, so therefore I'm not concerned." Mm-hmm. That's the whole point of the story, right? The, he came back, and he was like, "Listen, man, I gave you something and I expected you to do something with it." Yeah. And so it didn't matter to God. It just mattered to us that the one was three and five, like, "Man, I hope they give me five."

Like, what does that mean? It means absolutely nothing to the Lord. Yeah. So if we focus on what the Lord is looking at, right, then we just look at becoming the best that we can. And, like, and guess what? If we start hitting the target every time, God's gonna make the wind come. And He might make you go back farther.

Yeah. He might go, "No, no. Go back there and hit it." Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause that's how you get better. Exactly. That's how you get better. Awesome. Oh my gosh, that was such a good discussion. So that's the theme of the Book of Judges. It's just story after story of people hitting and missing the mark, hitting it or missing it.

It goes back and forth throughout the whole thing. So in the next segment, we are gonna dive into one of my favorite stories of missing the mark and then hitting it, and then we'll just keep sharing stories for the rest of this episode. We'll do that next.

Segment 4

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How do you say sin in Hebrew again? chata. chata. Hata. chata. Hata. See, you'll remember it forever. Now you can teach it. Oh, that's so good. I was just gonna say, I think it's funny in one of these verses it said the Lord was hot with them or something like that. Yeah. That's what they used to tell... That's what you used to tell me- Yeah

like, "Oh, she hot." Like, and this, they weren't talking about when your mom was hot. When she is hot. They was talking about mom was upset. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Okay, I, so you're right. Please. Hata, hata. Okay. I love that. So let's look at a hata story. Here we go. We're in Judges, and we're gonna go to chapter 3.

We already read a little bit of this in verse 9, where Abe read that we're talking about this Othniel. He's the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. Okay, so the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and he's judging Israel, and he went out to war, and the land had rest or peace for 40 years. So the judge was Othniel.

Now, if you're wondering, there are about 12 different judges who will take judgment in the Book of Judges. So there's 12, and this is one of the 12. So everything was fine with him, but then here we go. Judges 3:12, there's that common line. Abe, read that for us. "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord."

All right, and- "And the Lord..." Yeah. Go ahead. Keep going. No, "And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the King- Yeah ... of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord." So as you can imagine, they're so sad because now they're being oppressed. So in verse 14: "The children of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years."

And now they're starting to feel real, real sad. Tyler, read verse 15. "When the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed, and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon, the king of Moab." Okay, now, and either one of you left-handed?

There's that left-handed again. I'm not left-handed. No. I am, or should I say, I am not left-handed. No. You know what that's from, right? Princess Bride. Yes, you should. That's exactly how you should say it. I have a secret. I am not left-handed either. I'm not left-handed. You're right. You're... Okay, so this is so fun.

Now, in the, in the Book of Judges, you're right. The, the tribe of Benjamin was kind of known for having people that were left-handed, and this was, like, the coolest thing. If you had someone who was left-handed, the idea was that they were probably ambidextrous, so they could dual fight with either hand.

But the important thing to know is there are not a lot of people that are left-handed. Fun fact, Tyler: Christie was born left-handed, but we forced her to be right-handed. Oh, that's the right way. 'Cause back in the s- back in the '70s, nobody was left-handed. Interesting. Yeah. We're like, "You're gonna be a weirdo."

I, I apologize to all left-handed people out there. I'm so sorry. We did. We forced my sister to start using her right hand. But left-handed people are more creative. That's true. That's the thing, anyway. That is true. That's what... Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Now, let's look at creativity. Talk about one of my favorite stories, because any time people say the scriptures are boring, this is the story I like to have them go to, and I love to tell it.

So we have this guy named Ehud. He's a man that's left-handed. So if he is left-handed, verse 16, Tyler, read that for us. "But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges of a cubit length, and he did grid it under his raiment upon his right thigh." Okay. What does it mean to have a blade that's two-edged? Uh, it's just got a blade on both sides.

Why is that significant in fighting? You, you could use either side, either hand. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So he may be ambidextrous, but in this situation, he's choosing to use his left hand, because he puts the dagger on his right thigh. Now, why is this important? Because when you go to meet somebody, traditional greeting was right-handed greeting.

And so if you came in with your right hand empty and no weapon in it, you were deemed as safe. Mm-hmm. Nobody thought you were coming in to hurt them. And so Ehud, sure enough, goes into the king in verse 16. He brings a present unto E- Eglon, King of Moab, and Eglon was, mark this, a very fat man. That's what verse 17 tells us.

So this is what Jabba the Hutt was based on? I think- Is that what this is? Yeah ... you might be right. Yeah, because he, how fat was he, you're wondering? Oh, it'll tell us how fat he is. This story is so great. So Ehud brings in a present, and he comes in and he speaks to the king in verse 19. We're just gonna read these verses, 19 through 22.

Each of us take a verse. We'll go Tyler, Abe, and Tammy. Tyler, hit it in verse 19. "But he himself turned again from the quarries that were Gilgal, and said, 'I have a secret errand unto thee, O king,' who said, 'Keep silence.' And all that stood by him went out from him." "And Ehud came unto him, and he was sitting in a summer parlor, which he had for himself alone.

And Ehud said-" "I have a message from God unto thee." And he arose out of his seat And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. And the haft also went in after the blade, and the fat closed upon the blade so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out.

That's so- What in the world. That's a big boy. Listen, when I first- Ah ... read that I s- I was like, "Why do they keep, why do they say that that was, he was a fat man?" I'm like, "Why you gotta say that?" You know? Yeah. Why you gotta say he's fat? That's rude. It was rude, and then, but I was like, "Oh, okay, they're explaining now."

The knife is still there to this day. Boy, and talk about a deliverance. That is the deliverance of deliverances right there. Ehud kills the king, and then if you continue to read the story, what you'll find out is that they were able to, he was able to escape, and then in verse 30, "Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for fourscore years."

Fourscore years is, a score is 20, so 20, 40, 60- Mm-hmm ... 80 years- Mm-hmm ... they're gonna be in peace. 80 years before they start to sin again. And then we have the story where it's gonna just pick up again in Judges 4:1. "The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord." So that's just one of many stories.

But we wanna do a cross-reference. So they were, again, the cycle of sin, the cycle of apostasy, but the cycle of grace. Let's put a cross-reference. We wanna go to Psalms 130:7. So just kinda put that somewhere to the outside of this story. We're gonna have a couple of really neat cross-references about the Lord and how He feels about us.

And who, which one of you have that? Will you read it? 130, verse 7? Mm-hmm. "Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." Thank you. So in the next segment, we are gonna see another story of plenteous redemption. Coming up next.

Segment 5

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This is my favorite story in the Book of Judges, you guys. I mean, I love Ehud, but come on, a story that makes a woman the star? She's the judge. This is so fun. Let's go to Judges chapter 4. Here we go. Again, the children of Israel are doing evil in the sight of the Lord. That's what it says in verse one.

And so the Lord needs a judge, and the judge is a woman, and her name is in verse four, "And Deborah, a prophetess." So this is kind of cool. Not only is she a judge, she is a prophetess. And yes, she is absolutely has all the rights and privileges of a prophet. It says she's the wife of Lappidoth, and she judged Israel at that time.

A couple things I just want to point out. First of all, the name Deborah in Hebrew means honeybee. I think that's pretty cool, 'cause she is busy. She is a busy bee buzzing all over the place with her words that she has for her people. Then it says, "Wife of Lappidoth." So two different thoughts about this.

She could literally be the wife of a man named Lappidoth, or in Hebrew, there's not a separate word for woman or wife. It's the same word. So she could also be the woman of Lappidoth, and Lappidoth in Hebrew actually means fire or light. Hmm. So she could be the woman of light or the woman of fire. Kind of fun, huh?

Yeah. Two different ways to look at her. That's pretty cool. She could be a wife, or she could be this woman of light. It is pretty cool. I agree, Tyler. It says, "She dwells under a palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel." Now, highlight palm tree. I love the symbolism of a palm tree in scriptures. After the children of Israel crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground, the first thing they did was stop, and every tribe sat under palm trees.

And palm tree in scripture is symbolic of victory. When you think about Jesus riding in through Jerusalem the last week of his life, everybody waved palm fronds. So it's victory, victory over an opponent. I love that. And so she's dwelling under this palm tree, which might be symbolism to us saying there's about to be a victor.

And then at the end of verse five, the children of Israel, they came up to her for judgment. Now, they are in bondage. In verse two, it says, "The Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor. And the captain of his host is the man by the name of Sisera." So Jabin's the king. The captain of his host is Sisera, and that means Sisera is basically

Give me a word to describe Sisera. If you're the captain of the host, what are you to the king? You're, like, his, his first in command? Yeah. Love it. Yeah. You're in charge. Yep, you're the right-hand man Rightousness. Yeah. Perfect. So here we have in this story in verse six, she sends and calls for Barak, the son of Abinoam.

With that, there we go. And she says unto him, "This is who is gonna fight." And will you read verse six for us, Tyler, where it starts with the word, "Hath not the Lord-" You, you would give that to me. You bet I would. Okay. Reading this one now. I'm gonna butcher some names here. "And she sent and called Barak, the son of Abinoam."

Did I say that right? Yeah, that was good. Oh. "Abinoam, out of Kedesh-Naphtali; and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee 10,000 men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?" Very good. Awesome. Okay. Verse seven. Abe, read that for us.

"And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, and captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand." Okay, so he's feeling like this is gonna be good. But then we have verse eight, "And Barak said unto her, If you will go with me, then I will go out: but I won't go with, if I don't, if you don't come with me."

So he's basically saying, "Okay, I'll go fight, but Deborah, I need you to come with me. I, I feel like if you're there with us, that we will succeed and we will win this war." And then verse nine, she drops this awesome truth bomb. She says, "I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.

And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh." Highlight that in verse nine, "The Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Okay. So Abe and Tyler are gonna tell that story, but before they do, what you wanna know is they do go into war, they go, go into fight, and they're fighting. And then we have this storm allegedly that comes, and when the, it makes the river bottoms really, really muddy.

So when they ride their chariots into it, the chariots get stopped and people fall from that, and that's verse 15, "The Lord discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all the host, with the edge of the sword before Barak, so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet." And lighted down means literally jumped off and ran.

So Sisera leaves everybody. He's out of there. He doesn't wanna die. Barak pursues after the chariots and after the host, and he falls upon them. And at the very end of verse 16, says, "There was not a man left," except for Sisera. Now you two, continue and tell the story. What happens to Sisera? Well, he ran away.

Yeah. Sisera was ... He did. He was a sissy. He was scared to death. Yeah. I was surprised, actually. He jumped off the chariot. Yeah? Come on now. Horses and chariots gotta be faster than men. Love it. But he was so scared that he jumped off of it. I was like, whoa, okay. Brother's scared. He's really scared. You're really scared.

Where does he go? Well, he went to the- He went and he runs through some- He, he, he found a tent Mm-hmm. And, uh, he basically- I'm assuming there was probably lots of tents set up, would you say, maybe? I, I would think that there probably- And he found a tent and ran into it ... was a lot of it, and he probably went to the first tent that he came up to.

It... That's my hunch, is he- Mm-hmm ... found a tent out of many, went up to it, is like, "Hey, uh, let me come in, please. Uh, and, and can you give me some water? I'm a little thirsty." You know, he's talking to Jael. Jael. Jael. That's her name, verse 17, highlight that. Jael. The wife of Heber the Kenite, yes. Yeah. So she knew who he was, and she probably knew what he had been up to.

Okay. But he- And he comes looking for a place to stay. Yeah. And we've talked about this before in scripture, where there are certain rites of hospitality. There are certain things in scripture that you do. When someone comes to your tent, one of the things of hospitality is you offer them something to drink.

Um, you also offer them water to wash their feet. So know that going into the storyline, that here's Sisera, he shows up at Jael's tent 'cause he thinks, "This is a peaceful place where I can come and hide." And then what happens? C- carry on in verse 18 and 19. I, I'm just trying to figure out how she knew what to do.

She, she gave him drink. She let him in. She covered him up. He said, "Please, if anybody comes, tell them that there is no man here." Like, basically, "I'm hiding, just help me out a little bit." Mm-hmm. And then Tyler, what happened? Well, the, she took one of the tent nails, the stakes, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him.

So she's creeping up onto him while he's sleeping. And smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground. For he was asleep and weary, so he died. Basically she pounded that stake right through his head- ... pinning his head to the ground, and he stays asleep forever. Well, what in the world? I didn't, I never thought of that before, you know?

That's insane. You've never considered I've been camping so many times. But yeah, that's so crazy. When I saw she, she had the stake, and then took the stake- Oh, yeah ... through the dude's head. Yeah. Yeah. And stuck it into the ground. Yeah. That's some tenacity. That's some follow-through. That is. That's some strength.

You cannot be timid. That's for real. And strength. You can't be timid for one second. You gotta know with that first blow, this is where we're going. Yeah. Well, and, uh- Yeah ... on that first blow it's, "Hey, this is, this is make or break." 'Cause there's no- Wow ... there's no turning back after this first strike. If I don't- Yeah

put enough oomph in this, they're gonna wake up. Maybe they're, they have... Maybe they can fight it off, maybe not. But oomph. So the key was this is a fulfilling of the prophecy that Deborah gave, right? Yeah. Yes. So if you think about it from a standpoint of, and we talked about h- you know, Gideon and that kind of thing.

But you remember in Gideon, the whole thing was every man stood in their place. Well, guess what? Jael was like, "I'm a do my part." Oh, I love that connection And when she did her part, yeah, she fulfilled the prophecy by doing her part. So, like, sometimes sh- I mean, this, she was in the tent. I mean, I don't know if she was doing it in a tent.

She might've just been chilling, doing whatever she's supposed to do, or whatever she would normally do. But then the opportunity came and presented itself to her, and so she, she did her, she did her job. Yeah. Oh, I really like that. She handled her business. She handled her business. She's just the wife of, of Heber the Kenite, please.

Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that connection. Well, and that, Tyler, read verse 23 and 24. "So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan."

Very good. Now, highlight chapter five, 'cause here's what you wanna know about chapter five. It's a song. Verse one says, "Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying: They will sing." So this is kind of neat, you guys. Chapter five is a song. It is one of the oldest surviving pieces of Hebrew poetry.

I thought that was really cool to learn. And this whole hymn, it's a hymn of thanksgiving. And so take some time to read this. I highly recommend it. But in this, Deborah gives them a sense of their deliverance. She sings this song to them about how they did so well. In fact, look at verse seven. It says, "The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel."

This is where the term comes from. It originates from this song, A Mother in Israel. I think that's kind of cool, 'cause we've used it throughout our whole history as members of the church. She's the one who coined that phrase. And so she will just sing this beautiful song giving credit, truly, to Jael, who the Lord delivered the hand into.

And the children of Israel will be blessed because of her. And so I think it's beautiful at the very end. The song ends with verse 31. And Tyler, will you read verse 31 for us? You bet. "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years."

Tell me about verse 31. Why do we love that ending? So I feel like we talk about, um, you know, if you, if you take this to the New Testament, you know, it says that we are the light of the world, right? A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. And so he's saying, "Them that love him be as the sun," shine.

Basically to shine and spread the love that He has everywhere you go. Hmm. I like that. I think you're absolutely right. And so we realize that the things that we do are not just for... And then w- what she said was, "Not to your own..." I, I think it was Deborah that said it before. It was not for your own boasting or whatever it is.

Mm-hmm. But she said- She kind of gave the prophecy, and that prophecy basically just lets you know that the things that we do are not for our own praise- Yeah ... but for us to point the way to, to the Lord. Absolutely. I think you're so right in that, because she knew the prophecy came from the Lord, and so the credit went back to Him.

That yes, it was the- that Jael did it, but it was because the Lord said that that's how it happened, and He knew. What a great, uh, just a testament to Deborah being a prophetess and receiving that revelation. Let me ask you this, Tammy. Yeah. So it was nec- w- do you feel it was necessary for Jael to slay Sisera?

Ooh, good question. I think so. So this is what I would say. Oh. Go ahead, Abe. Yeah. No, no, go ahead. So it says, "He will deliver them into your hands," right? And almost every time in the scriptures when it says that, it's like, whew, you know- ... that's somebody gonna die. You know what I'm saying? But I asked, a- and I'm glad you worded it that way.

I ask because my thoughts went to Nephi. Mm-hmm. He was a... I mean, granted, he w- had, had drank too much, but he- ... was delivered, right, so to speak, 'cause he was asleep. He was delivered. Yeah. Yep, he was delivered into his hands, and Nephi followed the, followed, you know, the prompting- Yeah ... of the Spirit and the commandment from God to slay him.

Yeah. And, you know, I feel like in this situation we don't have, you know, we don't have all the, the stuff from, uh, Jael, but I mean, I feel like Jael knew exactly what she was supposed to do- Yeah ... when he came. Yeah. I mean, who... Like I said, how many times do you see somebody picking up a stake and hammering through- Mm-hmm

somebody's head? That was clearly somebody was involved in that that was not just her own thoughts. Absolutely. And, and from a woman's perspective too, I think it's important to recognize she has an unknown man in her tent who is more powerful than she is. Mm-hmm. And she must have had all sorts of thoughts going through her head.

I don't know if she thought she was going to deliver Israel by doing this, other... Maybe she just thought she was saving herself. She didn't know what this would look like for her future. And so this could've been a move out of just sheer terror, and so she knew that she needed to save herself. Who knew...

Well, it doesn't say much about were there children in the tent? Was she saving her, her family? I, I think that's really, from a female perspective, I, I probably would've done the same thing to save myself. And so it's kind of interesting how it all played out. That's, again, when we get into the big seminary in heaven, let's ask some questions.

Let's meet Jael. Let's stand in that line and say, "What were you thinking? What was going through your mind? Because you fulfilled a prophecy given by a woman who was given the prophecy by the Lord." And so I think y- but then I also think he did have to die, because if he had lived, he would've just kept fighting with the Israelites and gone after them.

And so they subdued this group of people, and then they're gonna sin again, and another group's gonna come after them. But it's just one less group of people to make their lives miserable. Well, she hit her mark. She hit her mark. She- Very good, Tyler ... definitely did. Okay, so to outside to verse 31, let's put another hit your mark scripture then.

Let's put Moroni 6:8, and we'll end this segment with this verse. Moroni 6:8, and Tyler, will you read that for us? Or Abe, whoever gets there. Moroni 6:8. Chapter 6 verse 8. Okay, I'm there. "But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness with real intent, they were forgiven." Thank you. Okay, so in the next segment then, we're gonna tell another story about someone who was absolutely forgiven, but he missed the mark up until the 11th hour and the 59th second moment of his life, and then he hit the mark and it worked.

We'll do that next.

Segment 6

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Okay, here we are. Talk about missing the mark. You guys, did this person miss the mark or what? Oh, yeah. Yeah, several times. So many times. Turn to Judges chapter 13. Tyler and Abe are gonna help me with this. You guys, who is, who are we talking about in verses 13 through 16? Samson. Samson, man. Yeah. The Samson and Delilah story.

Let's read this quote. This is by Sister Anne M. Dibb. She gave this in a conference address in 2012, and here's what she had to say about Samson. "Samson was born with great potential. His mother was promised, 'He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.' But as Samson grew, he looked more to the world's temptations than to God's direction.

He made choices because they pleaseth him well," as spoken of in Judges thir- 14:3, "rather than because those choices were right. Repeatedly, the scriptures use the phrase, 'and he went down,' as they tell of Samson's journeys, actions, and choices. Instead of arising and shining forth to fulfill his great potential, Samson was overcome by the world, lost his God-given power, and died a tragic early death."

Thank you. Okay, you two. I want you to just take this story and just share with me what stood out to you about the story of Samson. What thing is, like, on the forefront of your mind when it comes to his story? And just share with us a scripture or s- or two. Well, initially for me was his birth. Okay. Now, a- and, and I wanna ask you to clarify, 'cause the way that I read it, to me it was very similar to Mary and Jesus.

You're right. Give me a verse. How do you see that? Well, uh, verse three. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, 'Behold now, thou art barren. Embarrass not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.'" Yeah Now, I, I'm sure she was like, "Well, how is this gonna be even possible?" You know?

It, and it just took me to Mary and Joseph. Mm-hmm. So some symbolism in that maybe. Oh, Tyler, I think you're absolutely right, 'cause then when you think about Joseph, Tyler, read verse six for us when it comes to Samson's dad. Then the m- then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible.

But I asked him not whence he was, neither told me his name." And I think it should be important to know that very terrible doesn't mean, oh, it was awful, the countenance, right? Am I right when I say that? Mm-hmm. Highlight that. In Hebrew it's going to mean very awesome. Okay. Like, I can't even explain- Like, like-

how incredible it was ... great. Yes. Yes. And then his dad, then verse eight says, "Manoah," that's the name of the f- dad, "entreated the Lord and said, 'My Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.' And God hearkened," I love the word hearken there, it means obeyed.

"He obeyed the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her." Do you remember what happens in the rest of the story with the husband, Tyler? Yeah. He, he basically made sure that, uh, you know, she didn't, what was it? Drink milk or drin- uh, strong drink.

Uh, and didn't eat any unclean thing. So she, she took after him. She, she looked after him rather, uh- Mm-hmm ... and, and made sure that she was following everything that she was supposed to be. And Manoah- Mm-hmm ... wanted his own experience. He wanted to know- Yeah ... was this really from an angel? Like, are we really gonna do this?

And I love how at the end of verse 16 and in verse 21 it says, "And Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord." Like, he got his own experience like Joseph did. So you have these two parents of Samson who have this cool spiritual experience. They know they're going to have a son that's going to deliver the Israelites out of the hand of all of the enemies, and he fails miserably, doesn't he?

Ugh. All right. So you go into chapter 14. He finds a wife that he's just gonna marry, and the thing is is his parents don't want him to 'cause she's not in the covenant, but he doesn't care. He's gonna marry whoever he wants to marry. So real quick, I was gonna say, in 16, whenever you talked about Manoah, he didn't know that he was an angel.

He, he didn't figure it out till later after he, he offered up a sacrifice and something happened, and he goes- Oh, I love that you included that. Yes Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He says- Good point ... he said, "Okay, if this is really that, then this is what should happen." And then when it happened, after they made the sacrifice, uh, there was a flame and it went up towards heaven from the altar, and then the Lord, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar, and then Manoah and his wife looked on it and fell on their knees to the ground.

And then that was when he knew. He's like, "Okay." We know, uh, this is an angel of the Lord. And then he said, "We shall surely die because we have seen God." So then his wife- Very good ... is like, "Man, if God wanted to kill us, he'd have killed us before." Right? Yeah, yeah. He's not gonna kill us. And now we're gonna have this son that we gotta raise- Right

that's gonna do great things. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. Any other stories that stand out to you about the Delilah? Keep going. Well, so then it seems like to me, um, the whole thing with Delilah is kind of interesting because the first thing that he does is he's kind of like, "Hey, go get me that woman for my wife."

Mm-hmm. I don't know if that's the way it came across, but that's the way it came across to me. It is exactly it, yep. He's gonna do- He seemed like he's just- ... whatever he wants to do. He's Samson ... exactly. And, um, it was almost like it seemed like he was, he was ready to fight people all the time. Mm-hmm. Oh, he's a fighter- You know?

for sure. He's strong. Very strong. And what made him so strong? Is his hair. Yeah. They said don't cut his hair, right. Yeah. Don't cut your hair. Well- In fact- ... too late for me. Yeah, too late for Abe. Hey, I- No strength ... I'm still there. Tyler's got a little bit of strength. Um- ... in Judges chapter 16, you can go ahead and mark these verses because these people, they come to Delilah, and they're like, "Listen, we've got to figure out what's making Samson so strong."

So three- Yeah ... different occasions. Verse seven through 10 is the first time where she's like, "Okay, what is it that's making you strong?" And every time he tells her something different, like he's kind of playing into this trickery. Then the second time she asks is verse 11 through 13, and then the third time is verses 13 through 16.

And then lastly, verse 17, we have this, and this is where he finally says, "Look, here's the deal. Here's why I'm so strong." Well, the thought entered my mind of just how consistent, uh, uh, they must have been and how... I mean, they, they were wanting to find his weakness. Because here you- Mm ... have the boy that cried wolf three times, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, every time we think it's this, you know, we, we try to capture him.

He breaks free, you know. Let's give it another shot." Same thing, you know, he... To, to Samson, this is a joke. Mm-hmm. You know, all these are like, "Oh yeah, no, you tickle my feet. That's how you that's, that's my weakness." That's how you get me to- Well, so- ... they come and tickle his feet. He, you know, they... I mean, not literally, but you know, it, it, it's just one of these things that they are so persistent on trying to find this that they're cutting his hair.

Really? That's, that's going to take his strength away? Okay, let's try it. Why not? You know? Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I'm thinking to myself, was there four or five times where he told them something, they did it, and it didn't work? I w- I would stop believing him. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, after the third time. Like, I'd be like, "Yeah, right."

Three times, and then the fourth time- Mm-hmm ... is so- Is when- ... to me, it's like, okay, cutting his hair. Really? Really? Okay, I'm out. Uh- Whatever. If he's just- Yeah ... gonna continue to be this goober and tell me, "Oh, now it's, oh, cutting his hair. Let's cut his hair 'cause that'll take his weakness away." Yeah, right.

You know? And sure enough. Well, it's so interesting just on the cutting the hair thing. So in Judges chapter 16, verse 17, the thing that you wanna notice is, and Ab- Ab- read verse 17 'cause we wanna circle a word in this verse. "That he told her all his heart and said unto her, 'There hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb.

If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.'" Circle the word Nazarite, because back when the angel came to his mother, she said to him in, in Judges chapter 13, in verse 5, "You are going to conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite," there it is again, "and unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines."

Put a cross-reference next to verse five, and the cross-reference is Numbers chapter 6. In Numbers chapter 6, it talks about the law of the Nazarite. And if you raise a child as a Nazarite, these are the rules. You cannot shave their head. They cannot, um, have anything to do with dead people or bodies. They have to eat a certain type of food.

Like, they can't eat any meat. They're going to eat... Now, tell me if this is familiar of anybody in scripture. They are to eat, live in the wilderness and eat honeycomb and grasshoppers and things of the land. And that's John the Baptist. Yeah, that was- He was raised- Mm-hmm ... a Nazarite. That's what some scholars believe, and so this is a very spiritual life, childhood that he had, where he learned, if I cut my hair...

Like, isn't it interesting? Because we, we talk about of all the things to do, was to cut the hair, but what might that tell us about Samson, the fact that he just never cut his hair when it come to, when it ca- even though he sinned and make some poor choices, what did he continually be or do? I think he still had the belief there.

Yeah. Yeah. I think he had belief, and I think it's interesting because I don't think he ever really had a true understanding of what, what the purpose was behind that. Right. 'Cause it, was it the hair? Interesting. Right? It was- Isn't it? It was the Lord, but the hair was a symbol- Mm-hmm ... of his willingness to follow the Lord by not shaving his head ever.

And so when we think about other things in our lives like that, they're symbols- Mm-hmm ... things that we have that can be a protection to us, and do we understand- Yeah ... why we have those things? Do we understand the symbol of what it actually means? Or do we just wear them or do- whatever else with them, and not really ever understand the true meaning, right?

Yeah. That's a good point. A- and it is such a good point because when you go back to this idea of missing the mark, and we look at Samson's story and we think, boy, he missed the mark so over and over and over again. Mm-hmm. But I think one of the things we might need to consider is at least he kept trying.

He did. Right? He didn't walk away from the bullseye. He must have been a really, really, really, like, maybe like a really proud... Maybe that's what it is. It was his pride. Ooh, I like that. Because, because I think he felt like nobody's ever gonna beat me, and so he was never scared of anything in terms of that way.

Mm-hmm. And so that's why he felt like it was fine to tell her. Why would he tell somebody that? Like, it... And then he knew that would be vulnerable, he would make him vulnerable. And this, and, and it is something to say that they did threaten her. The people that she talked to that were her people- Yeah.

Mm-hmm ... threatened her with, uh, burning their father, her father's house, and going after her parents and things like that, which is, you know, why she was so adamant about getting that information. And so she got it, and they- Mm-hmm ... shaved his head, and he lost all of his strength. And then in Judges chapter 16, they arrest him, they take him, and then verse 21 is a classic torture w- device in scripture and during this time.

Tyler, will you read verse 21? "The Philistines took him, and put his eyes out, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house." Okay. Uh, this is... The, the put the eyes out, they do that as the last thing you see. So the last thing he'll ever see is his head being shaved.

Um, they'll do this as torture devices. You'll see this later on in the Book of Kings where they will, um, a man will have all of his sons killed in front of him, and then they'll put his eyes out. So the last thing he saw was his children dying. Very common. That's all he'll ever be able to think of. I don't know how- Yeah

that's crazy. Yes, exactly. I think it's interesting he did grind in the prison house. He spent time there. How much time did he spend there? Look at verse 22. Enough for the hair of his head to start growing back. Mm. Meanwhile, some scholars believe two years later. Hm. So he's in prison, and he has this experience, and this is where I love the both of you connected, that maybe he just always kind of believed.

Maybe that's why he kept his hair long. It was a symbol of maybe... And I think back to all of the times when we think someone we love who has lost their way, but maybe they still kind of believe, 'cause Samson has this moment, and here's what happens. Let's just read this story, and we're gonna start, and we're gonna read in verse 24 through 28, and we'll go Tyler, Abe, and then me.

"And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us." And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport, and they set him between the pillars.

And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may fill the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women that beheld while Samson made sport.

And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Okay. In verse 28, what leads us to believe that he probably always knew? He says, remember me. Yeah. And he says, just bless me this once.

I mean, he knows that God will bless him. And who knows what kind of humility he's gone through in that prison, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But you know what's interesting? Because I look at this and I go, well, at the same time, the other people were worshiping another God saying, our God delivered him into our hands.

Yeah. And God is like, man, y'all did not do that. I'm the one that delivered him into your hands. And it makes me wonder, you know, when we see people go through these things, and I always say this, would God allow you to go through these specific things in order to teach a lesson to you and other people and to give you an opportunity to learn something?

Is Samson better off having finished his life this way, having experienced the things that he experienced, and making the mistakes that he made because he finally got it- Mm-hmm ... and knew that all he had to do was just depend on God? That was all he had at that point. Yeah. God, please, I know it's you. I know you're the one that gave me the power.

Give me power one last time to be able to do this. Um, and so how many times in our, in our lives are we, you know, are we in that situation where we kind of just... We're, we're... I don't want to say p- well, I guess we are proud. Mm-hmm. Where we kind of feel, like, really confident in what's going on. We're not necessarily depending on God.

And, you know, and sometimes that might not be necessarily something that we'd be consi- considered a really bad thing, you know, to be confident in the things that you're doing. But, you know, the children, we look at the children of Israel in the wilderness. Mm-hmm. We look at Samson. You look at many stories where it's just not depending on the Lord on that daily basis- Yeah

what it can do to us. 'Cause like Tyler taught us, your sight alignment is just a little bit off. Mm-hmm. It's, it's not focused on Jesus Christ. It's focused on things going on around you, and maybe something caught your attention. And, and so your s- your sight alignment is just off on hitting that mark.

Great insight, Abe I always had a love, I always had a love and hate relationship with this story, 'cause I'd just be like, "Ah, no, don't tell her." Yeah. Don't tell her this time. Yeah. Keep your hair. Why wouldn't you know? But the pride. Mm-hmm. So finish out the story for us, Abe. Read verses 29 and 30. "And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

And Sa- and Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines.' And he bowed himself with all his might. And the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead, which he slew at his death, were more than they, which he slew in his life." Wow. And- Which is crazy ... yeah. He killed a lot of people in his life.

Yeah. But here it is in- And it, I love it says, "All his might," because it was saying, like, he b- he prayed to the Lord, but then he put in all of his work. He put in everything that he had into making that happen. Mm-hmm. Right? And- At the very end, at the 11th hour- Mm-hmm ... 59th second, right? The, the Lord's like, "I will help you out."

Yeah. Like you said at the beginning, when you said earlier on, you said, "We're not in charge of who God will forgive." Right. Jesus is the only one that can do that, right? So and it's like we, we look and says, "God will forgive. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but for you is required to forgive all men."

But the Lord decides what happens to people. We can't look at a person. I've had conversations this week, I don't know how many times, two or three times, with people about, like, we think that we know who's gonna be there when we get there. Mm-hmm. But don't be caught walking in and being like, "What's that person doing here?

They can't be here." 'Cause then that means maybe we're not there, right? Yeah. The Lord's the one that decides. The Lord's the one that decides. It reminds me of when my youngest, she just came with this indomitable spirit where she just thought she was in charge, and I kinda let her be a little bit. And I remember I was talking to our swim teacher, because she also had a problem with following directions, and this swim coach, I've talked about her before, but she was on the 1970s Olympic swim team.

This woman knows her stuff, and she is tough. She's a mean teacher. And I said to her one day, "I'm really struggling with this kid, because she just won't do what I tell her to do." And she taught me one of the best lessons and the best lines I've used in motherhood throughout my whole mothering experience.

She takes my daughter and puts her up on the side of the pool. And so my daughter is only, like, three, maybe four years old, and she points her finger to her and says, "Hey, little girl, do you pay the bills at your house?" She's like, "No." "Do you pay the car bills?" "No." "Well, what do you, what do you contribute to your family?

Do you, are you... Nothing, right? 'Cause guess what? You're not in charge. You're not in charge, so you don't get to make decisions. You do what your mother tells you to do. That's your job as a child." And I was dying, because for throughout her whole life, she would try to do something, and I would say, "You're not in charge."

You don't know what I know, so let me take care of you until you are older. And I've loved that because I think of this so much time with Heavenly Father where he's saying to me, "Tammy, you're not in charge, so knock it off." Mm-hmm. "It- you need to forgive everybody and just move on, and let me take care of everything else."

And that has come back to hi- kick me in the butt so many times. But with the Book of Judges, you read their stories just like you guys did. Didn't you have that experience where you read the stories and you're, like, judging, like, "What? Get it together, people." And then the Lord's like, "Yeah, you're not in charge, because guess what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna forgive them." It's crazy. I love that- Right ... whole thinking with this. So thank you for bringing that up, Abe. Tyler, anything you want to add? I was just thinking, I, I keep looking at verse 28, and I keep thinking to myself- Tell me why ... well, uh, how, how many of us are in our own metaphorical prison?

Mm-hmm. And in that prison, how many often think, "Well, God's forgotten me"? Oh, yeah. 'Cause Samson says in 28 when he called out unto the Lord, uh, "Oh Lord God, remember me." Yeah. I'm sure he had to have felt, "Well, God's forgotten me." A- and how many times have many of us felt very similar? And here he has this opportunity, a- and where he, he says, "Hey, please remember me."

And then he says, "Strengthen me. Give me my strength back, please." You know? Um, and, and then of course to me, the faith that he would've had to have had, knowing that for, uh, some scholars that you said two years had gone by in prison maybe. So for two years, he, he's not who he used to be as far as his strength goes.

So the faith that he would've had to have after praying to get his strength back to then just kneel down a- and, you know, push against these pillars to topple them over, to me that's... It, it's a good reminder that with our faith, God never forgets us. I- in fact, in a talk that I recently gave in sacrament, I'd made mention that, that Christ doesn't forget us, for he has engraven us on the palm of his hands.

Yeah. And I wonder how quick we are, uh, to forget that- Until we're in our own prison and we feel like we're forgotten. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. That make sense? Yeah. Oh, it's- Yeah ... beautiful, Tyler. Absolutely. It's beautiful. It, it re- it reminds me of a, a thing I saw on the internet the other day. There was a dad who had a kid, and he, like, set up a little trap for him, kind of like s- putting, um, ropes and things like that in the way of, like, getting down the path.

And the dad went up, and he walked over the path, but then the kid went up, and he's, like, thinking, looking at his dad, maybe, like, a two-year-old kid, "How do I get through this," right? But the dad just went down and just watched him just- Mm ... to see what he would do. And I'm sure at that moment the kids could be thinking, "Man, my dad left me alone.

I, I'm gonna have all these things in my way," and all that. But ultimately they said that those kids that dads do that to, they learn how to get through it. And the second time that the kid do it, he got through it a lot faster because he realized, "Oh, I, I'm fine. I can do this myself," right? And he's starting to grow and learn.

And I think sometimes the Lord does that with us. Yeah. Clearly he did it with Samson- Yeah ... left him in prison for a couple of years. Yeah. I mean, we see with Joseph Smith how he did that. We see, you know, even with- Yeah ... the Savior- Uh, perfect ... had that moment in his life, right? Perfect. Yep. And so surely- Good connection

if we're not, you know, we're not above them, so how do we, you know, how do we see these challenges that God gives us? We have the ability to struggle and to, to reach out for God, and then also be able to say, "Okay, what has God taught me so far? What can I do to get through this?" Mm-hmm. And like you said, we're never alone, but he allows us to struggle through that to strengthen ourselves.

Yeah. Absolutely. Wow. And, and, and I would even think that though he is with us and, and we're going through things on our own so we can build our faith, uh, he hasn't forgotten us. Mm-hmm. Al- although it... we as, you know, humans, imperfect beings, may feel like he has, uh- Mm-hmm ... you know, it's, it's, it's easy to think that.

In fact, I would even be willing to say that that's a tool the adversary uses, uh, to get us- Oh, right ... to think that. Uh, for sure. You're not worthy of being remembered. You're not worthy of being remembered. Mm-hmm. You've done nothing for him to even know your name. Yeah, exactly. So you might as well just give it up and- Yep

go about your way Walk away. Do whatever you wanna do. Don't even try. Don't even try. So it, it, uh- That's such great- Yeah. That, that's what I thought of w- uh, in verse 28 anyways. And, and kind of just the thoughts were culminating in my mind. Well, both of you were s- just so spot on and inspired to share what you shared.

To the outside of verse 28, let's just put this last cross-reference then. Put Isaiah 55:7. Isaiah 55:7. And Tyler, will you read that for us? Yes. Verse seven, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord-" And he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

So true. And I love that. So true. There it is. Abundantly pardon, relentless pursuit. I mean, all of these things, um, it's just been such a great reminder. That's the point of the Book of Judges, is that no one's past the point of forgiveness and repentance. No matter where you are in that cycle of sin, it becomes a cycle of grace or a cycle of mercy.

And so there you are, you're working on your bullseye, and you keep missing the mark, and I just go back to everything you guys said. Just stay focused. Keep going. Keep practicing. Change your, your position. I think everything you guys said was awesome because you're going to hata. You will. You'll hata your whole life.

That's why we're here. We are here to hata. We're going to sin. We're going to miss the mark. And the point is to then stop what you're doing and just fix it, change it, have a desire, and then all the answers you said. So thank you so much, you two. What a great discussion. This was awesome. We're done. That's the end.

Ta-ta. Yay. Okay, gather your thoughts and just tell me what is your takeaway, or what eternal truth did you learn from our discussion, or were you reminded of in, from the Book of Judges? You know, for mine, it, it was very similar to the opening, right? And that is that God, through repentance, will still accept us, our imperfections, us as individuals, you as Tammy, you as Abe, me as Tyler, uh, the twins as the twins, right?

All your other listeners as them. He loves us. He wants us to come home to him. He wants us to continue to keep trying. Just do a little bit better the next day, and through repentance, because that is important, you know, uh, w- we'll get there. Yeah, I'm just, I'm just reminded of... That's, that's, that's awesome, Tyler.

I appreciate those words, and I always appreciate hearing your, uh, your perspective on things. Um- Thank you ... the thing that, that it makes me think of is, is, you know, how important, like you, you mentioned just before here, was grace, and how important it is for Christ's grace, the Lord's grace to come into us.

And, um, I think of it like, you know, without sin, without us being able to hata, then the grace would not be necessary. Mm-hmm. And a lot of times I think we think, well, it was because of the sin that the grace was there. But, you know, it's, it's one of those things. They both need each other, and it's important for us to go through that sin and go through that falling short in order to understand how important it is that we look for the grace of God in our lives.

And so these people in the Old Testament were not m- they were not very different than we are. They just had different types of challenges in a different time with, with less things to- Like, I would say a more simplified life. But we can learn something from them even though, you know, the stories are crazy.

And the, the, the thing that we learn is that don't ever give up, always readjust your aim, and always aim for the Savior. And once you've found him, shine like the sun. Mm. And, and be, be that light that guides to Jesus. Wow. Love it. Excellent wrap up from both of you. Thank you so much. And I wrote down some things you said that really were profound to me.

Abe, I love that you said so many of us are okay with being okay, and maybe we just need to be a little better. Like, I love how you talked about rising to the occasion so people who see you, maybe they need that example, and I, I love that, how you teach that to your kids. And Tyler, when you said, "What, what's your advice to somebody who keeps missing the mark?"

And you said, "Tell them the target's still there. Like, it hasn't changed. Just get back up and keep trying. Keep practicing." And when you taught us about the sight alignment, just ke- our focus on the Savior, and both of you just kept repeating that throughout this whole discussion today, and so I thought that was awesome, that we just need to keep trying.

We're going to miss the mark. And thank goodness, because then we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I think of the Savior just kind of standing by me and whispering in my ear, "Okay, just move a little to the right now, and, and, you know, stay a little bit more focused, and maybe take a breath. Calm down.

I still love you." All the things you guys said was absolute perfection, so thank you. Thanks for being my guests. This was so fun. I knew you guys would nail it. Judges was- Hey, we appreciate it ... perfect for you two. We nailed it. And all its craziness. Hey, we nailed it like Jael nailed it. You nailed it like Jael.

There you go. Someone needs to write a song. We nailed it like a tent stake. Nail it like Jael. There you go. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. Nailed it great. Thanks for inviting us, Tammy. Thanks, guys. It's been great. Yes, it has. Okay, what was your eternal truth? Boy, the Book of Judges is crazy, and it's such a good book.

So I would love to know your thoughts. Please share with me anything that struck you while we had this discussion today. Join us on our Facebook or on Instagram and share what you have learned, and then comment on the post that relates to this discussion, because we're going to have a question from it, and I would love to know what your thoughts were on what's your advice for hitting the mark.

You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going for the show notes of this episode at ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday. And go there anyway, because it's where we're gonna have links to all the references as well as a transcript of this whole discussion, so go check it out. The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a Deseret Bookshelf Plus original brought to you by LDS Living.

It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac Hall. And today our incredible study group participants were Abe Mills and Tyler Collett. And you can find more information about my friends at ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday. Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited and mixed by Cole Wissinger.

And our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week. And please remember that even when you chata, you're still God's favorite.