THE LAW OF OBEDIENCE

 

I have heard it said that the most important of the Ten Commandments is the one you are struggling with the most. There is a lot of wisdom in that. In reality though, there are only two real commandments because they underlie all others.

The Saviour was asked during His earthly ministry which is the greatest of all the commandments. The Saviour replied: to love God and to love your neighbour….on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40). If we obeyed these two commandments, there would be no need for any other and here is why:

“Any person who truly understands the implications for daily living that are part of the commandment to love God with all his heart, might, mind, and strength and to love his neighbour as himself, can function well with no additional laws. One does not need to warn a person who loves God properly about idolatry, for any act of worship not devoted to God would be naturally offensive to him.

“The prohibitions against stealing, adultery, murder, and so on are not required if a person truly loves his neighbour as himself, for to injure his neighbour in such ways would be unthinkable. But, of course, the vast majority of men fail to understand and keep these two commandments, and so the Lord has revealed many additional laws and rules to show specifically what the commandments require……. all such commandmnets do nothing more than define and support the two basic principles: all the law and the prophets are summarized in the two great commandments.”  (The Old Testament Student Manul p 186)

Moses spent 40 days on Mt Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. Before he went he entered the children of Israel into a covenant of obedience. The covenant bound God to support, defend, and save them and the people were bound to God to fear, love, and serve him.

This covenant was written in the book of the covenant, a sacrifice was offered, half the blood was sprinkled on the people and the other half on the altar. The covenant was binding when the people proclaimed: “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:1-7).

You can only imagine the outrage Moses felt when he descended the mountain 40 days later to find the Israelites breaking the very first command by worshipping a golden calf. It is no wonder he broke the tablets of stone containing the commandments written by the finger of the Lord (Exodus 32:19).

Historians have speculated why the people turned away from the covenant so quickly. There is no scriptural explanation for this or Aaron’s seemingly unobjected fulfilment of the camp’s request for other gods to worship (ibid v 1-5). Their idolatry was a metaphorical ‘return’ to Egypt by worshipping an Egyptian highly revered idol of a cow but their greatest sin was giving the golden calf credit for bringing them out of Egypt (ibid v 4).

The Israelites paid a heavy price for breaking the covenant. Jehovah’s punishment caused 3,000 men to be slain (ibid v 27,28). Aaron also was nearly destroyed and was saved only through Moses’ intercession in his behalf (see Deuteronomy 9:20).

And Moses? He proved he truly was a prototype of Christ. He returned to the Lord and begged for Israel’s forgiveness, and if the forgiveness was not granted, he asked the Lord to blot out his name from the book of the covenant instead as intercession for the people’s sin (ibid v 31,32). The weight this man carried on his shoulders is astounding. But not nearly as heavy as the weight of the God of Israel.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

 

STAY FOREVER

 

“The Lord Jesus Christ extends to each of us the invitation to abide in Him. But how do we actually learn and come to abide in Him?

“The word abide denotes remaining fixed or stable and enduring without yielding. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explained that “abiding as an action means ‘to stay’ – but to stay forever. That is the call of the gospel message to…..everyone…in the world. Come, but come to remain. Come with conviction and endurance. Come permanently, for your sake and the sake of all the generations who must follow you.”

“Thus, we abide in Christ as we are firm and steadfast in our devotion to the Redeemer and His holy purposes, in times both good and bad.”

-          Elder David A. Bednar, “Abide in Me and I in You; Therefore Walk With Me” Liahona May 2023

 

I know You are watching me

From the shadow of Your love,

Hoping I will remember You

And our celestial home above.

 

I see You beckoning

For me to rise majestic and tall

But my path is unsteady beneath me

And I seek a soft place to fall.

 

Angels are around me,

They whisper and they mourn

Spreading their wings to catch me

Wanting to take me home.

 

I want to go with them

I am tired and all alone

I yearn to feel the comfort

Of that everlasting home.

 

Yet I don’t know if I am ready,

If I have given my very all,

So I can join You in Your shadow,

The safest place to fall.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In the Shadow of Your Wings by Daniel Gerhartz)

THE LIVING WORD

 

“For the gospel to be written in your heart, you need to know what it is and grow to understand it more fully. That means you will study it. When I say study, I mean something more than reading. For conversion you should care more about the amount of time you spend in the scriptures than about the amount you read in that time.

“I see you sometimes reading a few verses, stopping to ponder them, carefully reading the verses again, and as you think about what they mean, praying for understanding, asking questions in your mind, waiting for spiritual impressions, and writing down the impressions and insights that come so you can remember and learn more.

“Studying in this way….you will be giving place in your heart for the word of God, and He will be speaking to you. Remember Alma’s description of what it feels like: “It beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”

“You will know that the gospel is being written in your heart, that your conversion is happening, as the word of the Lord from His prophets, past and present, feels more and more delicious to your soul.”

-          Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “When Thou Art Converted” April 2004 GC

I add my testimony to that of Alma and Elder Christofferson. I began to study the scriptures in earnest 30 years ago during the darkest time of my life. They became my lifeline……I would get lost for an hour or more every day as I pondered, searched and savoured how delicious those words became to my soul…..and in them I found more than I expected. I found the Saviour.  

In the Old Testament I saw the merciful Jehovah; in the New Testament I saw the loving Saviour; in the Book of Mormon I saw the promised Messiah; in the Doctrine and Covenants I saw the majestic Christ and in the Pearl of Great Price I saw the pre-mortal promise of salvation. I saw the whole of Him.

The scriptures are still my lifeline. It’s the place I go to whenever I want to hear Him speak……

I stand in awe of Your sacrifice

And Your soul’s pain;

The body freely given

For nothing of You to remain.

 

I ache, I ache,

Knowing the cost;

Then I read Your living word

And I am comforted

Knowing nothing is lost.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Hosanna to God and the Lamb by LDS Art)

A GLORIOUS HOPE

 

“When we go out of this life, leave this body, we will desire to do many things we cannot do at all without the body. We will be seriously handicapped and we will long for the body; we will pray for early reunion with our bodies. We will know then what advantage it is to have a body….” (Melvin J. Ballard, “Crusade for Righteousness” p 213)

I have never much appreciated my body in until I entered the stage of prolonged bad health. Simple tasks became huge ordeals and successfully putting on socks came to be a triumph. I have longed to walk unassisted and to perform the simplest tasks with ease, the ones I used to take for granted.

The other day as I was struggling with my socks and its frustration, I came to understand the above quote. I could see how a spirit without a body he or she once experienced would feel without it. Indeed, we get a glimpse of that from President Joseph F. Smith’s vision of the spirit world which tells us that ‘the dead looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage’ (D&C 138:50). I began to appreciate that maybe my body is a privilege……

The other day I quoted Melvin J. Ballard who shared his conviction of our unreserved willingness to come to earth and obtain a body whether it be cripped, maimed, or deformed. I thought as I was struggling with my socks, surely those afflicted with such bodies would have regretted that choice. I know all about physical pain and limit of movement. I cannot imagine that to be my whole earthly experience.

Elder Ballard continued to express our pre-earthly knowledge of the necessity of a body for our ascension to godhood which enabled us to be centered on an eternal view rather than the sorrows and troubles of this life ("Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, p 179). Reconciling our pre-earthly perspective and the reality of living on this side of the veil is something of a challenge though.

In his last conference talk Elder Bednar spoke about enduring to the end and he connected to it a very necessary component, that of trust. It is something that has been on my mind of late. As I considered his talk I realized that this is the key to acceptance of earthly suffering and the power to endure to the end.

I realized my willingness to trust that my life is playing out according to God’s plan for me and my trust that what is to come in next life is imperative for my existence here and now.

And my ultimate trust comes with a hope which is this: to be faithful and valiant in my testimony of Jesus whilst in mortality with ‘a hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ’ (D&C 138:12-14)

Because the valleys do not

Lead to where I need to be,

You give me mountains to climb

To reach Your divinity.

 

You are so high

And my reach is so low.

To come to Your arms

I accept the mountains

That show me which way to go.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Ponder Anew by LDS Book Store)

MOMENTS OF DESPAIR

 

When I feel forsaken

In my greatest moments of despair,

I yearn to feel You near me,

I wonder if You are there.

 

I know You are watching,

And whispering for me to know:

To know your strength to conquer,

Some moments you have to face alone.

I understand, it has to be so,

I faced mine at Calvary long ago.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In the Wilderness by Ron DiCianni)

THE FOOT OF HIS THRONE

 

I carry my cross every day to the foot of Calvary

Where You carried yours so valiantly to the top;

I wait for You there to lift me

To meet You at the foot of Your gilded throne.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Behold the Man by Simon Dewey)

THE GOD OF VICTORY

 

As the children of Israel marched toward Canaan, their magnitude and size drove fear into the nations they encountered along the way. The most warlike nation they encountered inhabited the lands of Gobolitis and Petra and were called Amalekites (the descendants of Esau).

This is what the Amalekites saw: a formidable army of strangers, which by their strength, escaped the slavery of Egypt and which needed to be crushed before they came to be prosperous and take over the cities and all their goods…..therefore they had to be destroyed. (Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities” Book 3, Chapter 2:1).

The Amalekites made two big mistakes. The first was making the wrong assumption of the Hebrews which were ill prepared for war, who had nothing and only escaped Egypt through the strength of their God. The second mistake they made was cowardly attacking the rear end of the marching Israelites killing the feeble and the faint and the weary. This did not sit well with God who commanded the Israelites to “utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14; The Old Testament Student Manual p 123).

This slaughter of their weak members drove incredible fear into the rest of the camp. Lucky for them they had one great advantage over all the other nations they would encounter in their sojourn. They had a living prophet among them. Moses exhorted his people to be courageous and to look upon their entire prosperity at the hands of God since they left Egypt and to believe that God will deliver them again (Josephus, "Jewish Antiquities" Book 3, 2:2).

Moses had a brilliant battle strategy: First, he appointed as the captain of the army a man of great courage, of great abilities and very serious in the worship of God, and very much like Moses who the people could have confidence in. Enter Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim. Secondly, he directed his brother Aaron and Miriam’s husband, Hur, to stand on each side of him and uphold his hands to be a beacon of God’s power which would ensure the victory (Exodus 17:8-13)

The children of Israel won that war, terrified the neighbouring nations and enriched themselves with the spoils, having not lost one soul while those of the enemy’s army were too many to be numbered (“Jewish Antiquities” p 117).

I wasn’t going to write about this part of the Israelite’s journey but I saw something very significant in it. I saw the importance of a living prophet who represents the one who stands at the head. The Israelites could never have made it to the promised land if they did not have a prophet holding his hands up invoking the power of Him who had said:  “….and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12)

Never in the history of the world have we needed a living prophet as much as we do now. The spiritual battle is raging, the evil power is the greatest it has ever been. The battle ground is fierce. Our promised land awaits but we need not fear.  I offer thanks this day that we have a prophet who is willing to hold up his hands to remind us we are led by the God of victory.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)