UNDERSTANDING HISTORY

 

At the beginning of the year I wrote a post in which I mentioned my history professor tell us that we should be careful how we judge history because it is written by men from men’s perspective. That was a few years ago but I have never forgotten it. I try to think of that even when I am reading the scriptures.

The perspective of the author is not the only thing that matters but also cultural differences of the time, manner of speaking, changes in language and what Joseph Smith claimed were ‘certain errors that had crept into the Bible through arrogant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests’ (Joseph Smith Teachings, p 327)

The Old Testament is particularly susceptible to incorrect text because it has been translated many times. We are fortunate to have modern day revelation that makes a lot of doctrines simpler to understand through corrections that are needed for further clarification. I am particularly grateful for the JST and I always refer to it. Sometimes it’s just a missing word that makes a whole verse make more sense.

Already this year I have come across three important examples of what I am trying to say here:

1.      Exodus 6:3: “And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”  I ask, why would the forefathers not know His name??? Well they did….JST says: “….and unto Jacob, I am the Lord God Almighty; the Lord JEHOVAH. And was not my name known unto them?”

2.      Exodus 2:11-15: these verses say that Moses saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew and he ‘slew’ him. In King James English, the words ‘smote’ and ‘slew’ are both translated from Hebrew word NAKHAH, meaning to ‘beat down’. Different ancient writings and commentaries claim different things regarding this incident but the Church OT student manual quotes Elder Mark E. Petersen as saying that there must have been a good reason for Moses’ act as “most assuredly the Lord would not have called a murderer to the high office of prophet and liberator for his people Israel.” (Petersen, “Moses” p 42, Student Manual 1 p 105).  

3.      Exodus 4, 7, 9, 11: In His instructions to Moses regarding the plagues of Egypt, the Old Testament records the Lord saying He will harden the Pharaoh’s heart so he will not let the Israelites go. The JST says in every instance that Pharaoh will harden his heart which makes so much more sense. Why would the Lord try to stop His own work to the point where He had to do something so dire as extinguishing the lives of Egypt’s first born?

With the amount of study material available to us in the Church today, there really is no excuse for not understanding anything. But most important of all, make an important friend…..him who administers to all sincere seekers of truth……”and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5)

And now this promise: “I the Lord am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me and delight to honour those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end….and to them will I reveal all mysteries of my kingdom…for by my Spirit will I enlighten them…..(D&C 76:5-10)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Receiving the Spirit by Danny Hahlbohm)

THE GREAT I AM

 

When Moses was 40 years old he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and he left the Egyptian court. He joined his people Israel preferring God to the riches of Egypt and believing God would by his hand deliver his people but they ‘understood not’ (Hebrews 11:24-27; Acts 7:25).

In short, Moses went from the privilege of his Egyptian upbringing to slavery, to being a shepherd in the land of Midian where he married and received the priesthood from Jethro, his father-in-law (D&C 84:6). After another forty years of pastoral life, Moses finally had confirmation that he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He was by then 80 years old.

When God spoke to Moses on Mt Sinai out of the burning bush, He identified himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” and commanded him to deliver the children of Israel out of the Egyptian bondage (Exodus 3:6-10).

But Moses was not content to go to Israel telling them ‘the God of your fathers sent me’ so he asked God to identify himself by His name which he would take to the Israelites (v 13). God answered: “I am that I Am. Tell them I AM sent me” (v 14).

I AM is the name that identifies Jehovah. It is the equivalent of “Yahveh” or “Jahveh” now rendered “Jehovah” and signifies “The Self-existent One”, “The Eternal”, “The First and the Last”. So sacred was the name regarded by the Jews that their traditionalism forbade the utterance of it. (see James Talmage, “Jesus the Christ”, p 412)

Hence the Lord was not saying “I AM THAT I AM” but rather, “I am ‘that’ I AM”. I am Jehovah.

During His earthly ministry, the Saviour identified himself as seven main I AM’s as contained in the Gospel of John:

-          I am the bread of life (6:31,51)

-          I am the light of the world (8:12)

-          I am the door of the sheep (10:7,9)

-          I am the good shepherd (10:11,14)

-          I am the resurrection and life (11:25)

-          I am the way, the truth and the life (14:6)

-          I am the true vine (15:1,5)

As I look at these seven proclamations I could summarise them in this one scripture: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

As we approach this Easter season and yet again acknowledge the Saviour’s Atonement, may we reflect on who He really is and more importantly, who He is to each of us individually. We should know that.

My favourite name for the Saviour is “The Great I Am” (D&C 39:1) and surely He is. There is no greater. Hallowed be His name…..forever and ever.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Chris Brazelton)

 

 

 

AN ENSIGN TO THE WORLD

 

“Every man and every person who lives in this world wields an influence, whether for good or for evil. It is not what he says alone; it is not alone what he does. It is what he is. Every man, every person radiates what he or she really is….

“It is what we are and what we radiate that affects the people around us. As individuals, we must think nobler thoughts. We must not encourage vile thoughts or low aspirations. We shall radiate them if we do. If we think noble thoughts; if we encourage and cherish noble aspirations, there will be that radiation when we meet people, especially when we associate with them.”

-          President David O. McKay, “Man May Know For Himself” p 108

I believe we are the greatest missionary tool the Church has. I know we are told it is the Book of Mormon but I see it in a deeper context. We should be living examples of what that book is.

I had a friend some years ago who was very intent on giving out the Book of Mormon to all and sundry. She carried copies of it everywhere she went, even to the movies. She would give the book out to the ushers. I knew those books would end up in trash because a lot of people are not interested in religious books.

The greatest and the most successful way to share the Book of Mormon is when people know us and who we are. When those who know us become so impressed with the value of our character, they want to know how we got to be so. That’s when we can hand out the Book of Mormon. We will get the people of the world to read it when we become the product of its’ teachings.

Now consider the responsibility we have been charged with:  “You are one of those angelic messengers called from before the foundation of the world to wave the ensign of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “An Ensign to the Nations” April 2011 GC)

Our calling as the disciples of Jesus Christ is more important in the world today than it has ever been. Never before have we been as divided as we are today. There is a major religion today that seeks to extinguish Christianity. This can never happen and it will NOT happen.

Who we are needs to stand out in stark contrast to who THEY are. Whereas they seek the destruction of the believers, we have the duty to teach life everlasting through Him who has told us not to destroy but to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us (Matthew 5:44).

We cannot just call ourselves Christians. We need to BE Christians. It’s a state of being rather than a religion. We need to know ourselves and most importantly, we need to know HIM…….

Who is the Lord and there is none else,

Who is God and there is no God beside Him,

Who has made the earth, and created man upon it,

 He is the Lord, and there is none else.

A just God and a Saviour, there is none beside Him.

Look unto Him, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: 

for He is God, and there is none else.

Unto Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess,

He is the Lord and there is none beside Him.

-         Isaiah 45

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Hallowed Be Thy Name by Jay Bryant Ward)

FAITH

 

“There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen.

“There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people.

“It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things….It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Direct and channeled, it has great effect….”

-          Boyd K. Packer, “What is Faith” in FAITH [1983] p 42-3

 

For now I walk unsteady steps

On this earthly soil beneath my feet

But one day I will run to You

With perfect faith in waves of deep.

 

And when in distance Your glory beckons,

When You come to take me home,

I will run into Your arms

And forever be Your own. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Focus On Me, Not the Storm by Brent Borup)

A BABY OF PROMISE

 

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them: lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them out of the land. 

Therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens…..But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel…… and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage….. (Exodus 1:8-14)

“We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions….when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies….When a wrong needs righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it.”  (F.W. Boreham)

And it was a doomed baby, a beautiful baby, that was meant to be saved when a great wrong needed righting, a truth needed preaching, and people needed saving….and his name was Moses (Acts 7:20)

You mothers who have experienced the euphoria after giving birth, imagine the government of your land had decreed that the baby you were holding in your arms had to die. It doesn’t bear thinking does it? Think of Mary, Elizabeth and the mother of Moses…..

Imagine having to place that baby in a basket and set it on a river hoping someone would find it and look after it because you cannot bear to see its life extinguished. Then imagine a woman in pre-mortal life saying: send me to the Egyptian royal court and I will save that Hebrew baby that would one day float down the river…… this was the beginning of a man who was to become the greatest prototype of the Messiah.

And here is the full story. A Levite by the name of Amram, who was afraid for his whole nation and the baby his wife, Jochebed  was carrying, prayed to God one night begging Him for deliverance from the miseries his people were enduring at the hands of the Egyptian masters  who had proclaimed a death penalty on all the newborn.

God of Israel heard that prayer and ‘stood by him in his sleep’ and exhorted him not to despair for the child his wife was carrying for that very child shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they were under. What’s more, “he shall be concealed from those who watch to destroy him….that his memory shall be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also….”  (Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities” p 97)

And this answers how Moses’ preservation came about through the involvement of Him who makes all things possible and who fulfils all His promises. Amram and his wife concealed the baby boy in their home for three months after which Amram decided to trust the baby’s safety and care to God rather than to depend on his own uncertain ways of protection: “He believed that God would in some way procure the safety of the child in order to secure the truth of His own predictions”. (ibid p 98)

Hence the cradle made out of bulrushes and the infant left to God’s preservation floating down the river. Imagine the faith of that father and the longing of that mother to hold that baby against her breast….imagine the lesson learnt that when you put your trust in God, He comes up with a perfect plan because He did send that willing woman to the Egyptian court to save that baby of promise….. whom the Egyptians themselves raised to break the bands of their inflicted bondage of God’s favoured people.  

Oh the irony of the perfect plan of the perfect God whose work for the salvation of men cannot be frustrated!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Artist Unknown)

 

GENERAL CONFERENCE

 

“A message given to a General Authority at a general conference – a message prepared under the influence of the Spirit to further the work of the Lord – is not given to be enjoyed. It is given to inspire, to edify, to challenge, or to correct. It is given to be heard under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, with the intended result that the listener learns from the talk and from the Spirit what he or she should do about it.”

-          Dallin H. Oaks, “The Dedication of A Lifetime”, CES Fireside for Young Adults, 1 May 2005

I will add just one thing. We should not look to General Conference to teach us how to be better mothers, fathers, neighbours, citizens….or how to be successful in any of our endeavours, overcome our weaknesses, addictions and sins and ‘to further the work of the Lord’. We should look to General Conference to tell us what we need to know here and now how to develop the Christ-like attribute that we need here and now. This is all that matters…because in the process of becoming like the Saviour, one attribute at a time, we become good mothers, fathers, neighbours….we overcome our weaknesses, addictions and sins, we become a success overall and we further the work of the Lord.

This is His Church…a shelter from the storm that is seeking to swallow us, a place that seeks to embrace us and keep us under the shadow of His wings. A place that is preparing us for the day “when He shall appear and we shall be like Him” (Moroni 7:48). This is all that matters……

Thou art our everlasting God

Jehovah, our King,

Hide us under the shadow of Thy wings

That we might not cause Thee sorrow;

And help us wait for Thee

In the dawning of tomorrow. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Clouds of Glory by Greg Sargent)

MOSES, THE VOICE OF GOD

 

“The Lord’s concern for His chosen people can be seen in the call of Moses. So great was Moses that forever after the Lord and His people have used him as a standard, or model, of a prophet. Even Jesus Christ was called a prophet like unto Moses (see Acts 3:22; 7:37; Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19; 1 Nephi 22:20-21; 3 Nephi 20:23-24). Indeed, Moses was a similitude or living symbol of Jesus Christ (see Moses 1:6).”

-          The Old Testament Student Manual Genesis 2 – Samuel p 103

“The true Moses was one of the mightiest men of God in all time….. He walked and talked with God, received of divine glory while yet in mortality, was called a son of God, and was in the similitude of the Only Begotten. He saw the mysteries of the heavens and much of creation, and received laws from God beyond any other ancient man of whom we have record.”

-          Elder Mark E. Petersen, “Moses”, p 49)

“He had few equals as a general and none as a prophet, to the extend that in all his pronouncements, one seemed to hear the voice of God himself.”

-          Flavius Josephus, “The New Complete Works of Josephus” p 119

As mighty and exemplary as Moses was, he was not perfect. It seems he made a crucial mistake which cost him entrance into the promised land (Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 32:51-52). Some sources say, however, that other factors might have contributed also (see the Old Testament Student Manual 1 p 208).

The children of Israel certainly were a whining lot and one can see how easy it was for Moses to be led to the mistake he made being driven by the frustration of their complaints. The story unfolds when they arrived to the desert of Zin and found there was no water there. They immediately accused Moses and Aaron of taking them out of Egypt and bringing them to ‘this evil place’ that they might die (Numbers 20:1-5).

The Lord told Moses to “speak” to a rock at Meribah and to strike it with a rod to bring forth water for the children of Israel. The instructions were, however, not adhered to properly. Gathering the people to witness the miracle, Moses never spoke to the rock and instead struck it in anger and suggested to the congregation that he and Aaron were responsible for the saving water that issued in response to their accusations (v 8-11).

Think for a moment what this could have meant to a people who were exposed to the idolatry and sorcery of Egypt for 430 years. Now think about it in the context of Jehovah being the living water and how this incident could have impressed this on their minds. Every miracle, every answered prayer, every conquest had to be attributed to the God who would make them “a peculiar people” that would carry the banner of the one true and living God into the land of Canaan to conquer the unbelievers and claim their inheritance.

And Moses? The merciful Jehovah took him to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab and showed him the promised land before He took him unto himself (Deuteronomy 32:49) and that in itself was a far greater land of promise (Alma 45:19).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Be Still My Soul by Mark Missman)