Update

 The Book of Job slide show had some errors and omissions. I have fixed it now. So if you looked at it before, you might go back and look again. 

The Book of Job

 Here is a link to my new slide show on Job. 

Please be sure to read through the presenter notes beforehand. 

To use the presenter notes as you share the slide show, click on the Slide Show drop-down menu on the top right side of the screen and choose "Presenter View." This will cast only the slides to the TV and will show both the slides and the presenter notes to you on your device.

Here is a link to my old lesson on  Job.

The Book of Esther, the Queen of Persia

I have previously published a lesson on Esther, which you may find at this link. It is a deep dive into the story, its possible writers, its alternate form in the Greek Bible, and its comparison to the story of Daniel and his three friends.

Since then, I have purchased The Bible Storybook: The Old Testament, vol. 2., by LDS authors and Bible scholars, Josh and Sarah Sabey. Just as the Bible writers fancified their histories a bit to teach their lessons and prove their points, the Sabeys have fancified Esther a little bit to make her relatable to our day. Reading their story, "The Queen of Persia," I got a whole different perspective on Esther than I had before. I loved it so much that I wrote and requested permission to include it in its entirety which the Sabeys graciously allowed. Here it is for you. You're welcome.

Illustration by Maddie Baker from The Bible Storybook

(Used with permission. Please do not copy.)

THE QUEEN OF PERSIA

by Josh and Sarah Sabey

Hadassah lived in a place called Persia. When she was young, her mother and father had died, and so she was raised by her cousin Mordecai. And even though they lived in Persia, they were not actually Persian. They were immigrants. Well, sort of. They had not chosen to come here. Their great-grandparents had been taken out of Jerusalem by an army and plopped here to help build buildings, clean streets, and paint houses. And so while Hadassah and Mordecai lived in Persia and spoke Persian, they were also part of the family of Jacob. And they were called Jews. And while some Jews had returned to rebuild Jerusalem, Hadassah and Mordecai stayed behind. They thought things would be better for them in Persia.

But sometimes Mordecai would talk about their ancestors in Jerusalem and what their life would have been like. He'd tell Hadassah the stories of Ruth, and David, and Moses. But Hadassah didn't want to look back or care to imagine a world she'd never known. Instead, she looked out the window facing the big, beautiful palace in the center of the city and listened to the giant parties, smelled the huge feasts, heard the loud music, and dreamed of a different life. A better life. A better life for her and for Mordecai. And the best life she could imagine was here in Persia, in that palace.

That's right, she wanted to be a princess. And who hasn't imagined being a king or queen, and having a palace with servants? But Hadassah was not just a dreamer. She was a believer. And she trusted that one day she'd get the chance to impress the king, and he'd be so struck by her charm and beauty and wit that he'd fall in love and make her his queen.

And so when the king announced that he was hosting a contest to help him pick his next bride, Hadassah jumped for joy. "It's going to be me!" she shouted. And people must have thought she was crazy to even try to compete. How could an orphan girl, an immigrant and refugee, become the queen of the most powerful empire in the world? There were lots and lots of perfectly fun, smart, rich, and beautiful Persians who were lined up ahead of her. Why would the king ever pick Hadassah?

Do you remember the princes who refused to eat the Babylonian food or say the Babylonian prayers? That is the opposite of what Hadassah did. She wasn't going to miss out on her one and only opportunity. She would do anything to win. Hadassah learned to look, smell, dress, eat, and talk like a Persian. 

She ate their meat and drank their drinks. She switched her linen and wool clothes for silks and velvet. She did all the fancy baths and beauty treatments. Nothing could stop her. Not naysayers, not poverty, not her ancestry. She'd give up sleep, time, and her own name if she had to. And it turns out she had to. Her name was too...foreign. It wasn't Persian enough. And so she changed it. She started to call herself Esther, and Mordecai called her Esther, and soon everyone was calling her Esther.

And she learned to walk in high heels, and figured out dresses and colors that complemented her complexion. She practiced applying mascara, foundation, blush, and eyeliner. She learned to tell jokes and laugh loudly but not too loudly, and to eat food without spilling like she was already a princess.

On the day of the competition, as she walked through the doors of the palace, she couldn't help but gasp. The windows were draped in rich, blue linen tied back with thick silver rings. The floor was made of marble and shells that collected into pictures that told stories all the way down the halls. There was gold and jewels on all the cups and plates, and utensils. It was even more gorgeous than she could have imagined. And she thought, "How could this ever be my home?" And for a moment, she doubted herself. But Mordecai came up behind her and whispered, "You've got this," and that was just what she needed. So Esther took a deep breath and a step forward.

When it was her turn to compete, she walked with confidence. Her hair was thick. Her skin was smooth. Her face was bright. Her clothes were perfect. Her body smelled like jasmine and rose. And as she walked through the palace, she heard the contestants around her whispering together in despair because Esther looked like a queen already. And she smiled, a stunning, radiant smile. She was steps away from a new life. She took a deep breath, then turned down the hallway to see the king.

And the king immediately saw what everyone else had seen already: Esther was going to be the next queen. And so he threw a huge party and put a crown on her head. She had done it. And soon enough, they were married and Esther became a queen, joined a family, and received a country.

It was just like she dreamed. She was given a giant bedroom filled with beautiful things and lots of women to do her hair and draw her baths. Her sheets were made of the most comfortable silk. Her windows were stuffed with flowers. Her dresser was filled with jewels. She had money to spend and influence to wield. This was all even better than she'd imagined.

But in another way, it wasn't quite what she had hoped. Because living in a palace surrounded by people who take care of you isn't necessarily the same thing as living in a home with people who care about you. And while the king thought Esther was beautiful, he wasn't around very much. She was never asked for her opinions about anything important. In fact, she wasn't even allowed to go and talk to him uninvited. If she came to him with her own ideas, or thoughts, or even just to talk, she'd be kicked out of the palace and maybe even killed.

And so she spent her evenings alone and remembered her time with Mordecai, when he would tell her about life in Jerusalem, and their ancestors, and she felt an emptiness that no throne, or jewel, or wardrobe could fill. And one day, as she was looking out the window, thinking of Mordecai, she saw him. But he wasn't coming to visit her. He was holding a poster above his head, protesting at the palace gate. Why? Esther sent a servant to find out.

As it turns out, Mordecai had a good reason. The king was planning to drive out the family of Jacob. Even though the Babylonians had taken the family of Jacob from their homes and brought them into their city to do their work, the Persians didn't want them anymore. There were just too many of them now. They were taking good Persian jobs, joining gangs, and causing crime. They had to get rid of them, one way or another.

Mordecai cried, "You have to stop this!"

Esther swallowed hard, "What can I do about it? I'm Persian now. I've changed my clothes and my name, the food I eat, the laws I keep. I don't belong to the family of Jacob anymore. I never really did."

"Hadassah," said Mordecai, "you are still part of the family. You can put on new clothes, change your name, and conquer the whole world, and still you would be part of our family. It's not something you can get out of. It's who you are. You did not become queen because you are Persian. You became queen because you're a Jew. Your strength, your beauty, your determination, those are gifts from your parents. Remember the old story of Ruth, who left her family to take care of her mother-in-law? You are like Ruth to me. Remember David, who was a shepherd boy who became a king? You are like David. And remember Moses, who saved his people even though he didn't think he could? You are going to need to be like Moses now. Save us."

And Esther, who had broken every Jewish law, who had worked so hard to become the perfect Persian queen, who had spent months forgetting old habits and learning new manners, decided again to become Hadassah the Jew. She prayed and she fasted. She trusted and hoped. And then she stormed right up to the king and told him who she was. "I am Hadassah, a descendant of Kish, the great-grandson of Benjamin of the family of Jacob. And so if you're going to get rid of the family of Jacob, I guess you're going to have to start with me."

The king was speechless. Esther could hear the servants whispering together. She'd come uninvited. She would be banished for sure, if not killed. But Esther did not die that day. Instead, the king was impressed with her bravery, and the family of Jacob was saved.

And as Esther walked away, she no longer felt lonely or empty or hollow. Instead, she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. She felt home. And she ran out to tell Mordecai the good news. She ran out through the large palace doors. She walked through the crowded streets, past mud-brick buildings, along the open sewage lines, to the neighborhood where she'd grown up, into the home where Mordecai was. And as she entered their old, broken-down apartment, she never felt more like a queen.

Ezra and Nehemiah

 RETURN TO JERUSALEM

This lesson takes us back in time 400-500 years before the first "Christmas" in Bethlehem to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.  Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries and colleagues in the rebuilding of the kingdom of God.  The two books go together and are actually just one book in the Jewish Bible.  Babylon, where the Jews had been taken, had been overthrown by Cyrus of Persia, as foretold by King Nebechudnezzar's dream of the great image (Daniel 2).  Cyrus encouraged the Jews to begin their return to Jerusalem to build up their temple.  And why did he feel inclined to do that?  Because he found his name in the prophecy, foretelling that he would.

Ezra 1:1-4:  "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven [remember, that is the Persian term for the God of the Jews; see previous post] hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah."

Josephus wrote, "This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies; for this prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision:--'My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple.'  This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished.  Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfil what was so written; so he called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said to them, that he gave them leave to go back to their own country, and to rebuild their city Jerusalem, and the temple of God, for that he would be their assistant, and that he would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighbourhood of their country of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver for the building of the temple, and besides that, beasts for their sacrifices."  (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XI, Chapter 1, verses 1 & 2)

Here is the prophecy Cyrus read about himself as recorded in our present-day Old Testament:  "Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things...That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid."  (Isaiah 44:24, 28)  The prophecy to Cyrus continues on in Isaiah 45, promising the Lord's aid to Cyrus as he performs this work.

So nearly 50,000 Jews went back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple.  The joy for the Jews when the temple was complete was contrasted with the sorrow of the old men who remembered the glory and splendor of the previous temple, as recorded in Ezra 3:11-13.  "Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house [remember this was 70 years after they had been taken captives in Babylon, so these people must have been nearing 90 or 100 to remember the first temple] when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy" (Ezra 3:12).  (Institute Manual 29-4, 29-14)

EZRA

The first six chapters of Ezra take place 60 to 80 years before his time.  There is no record of what happened in those years (Bible Dictionary, p. 669), but it must have been something bad, because a lot of damage had been done to Jerusalem.  Ezra was a priest (Ezra 7:6), and he received the king's permission to lead another group of Jews back to Jerusalem and reform the Jews living there.

"Along with Nehemiah, [Ezra] took steps to instruct the people in the Mosaic law.  Hitherto, the law had been to a great extent the exclusive possession of the priests.  It was now brought within the reach of every Jew." (ibid.)  In other words, most of the people had never had access to the scriptures, never heard them read in their entire lives, and their worship had, obviously, drifted and deviated from the Word of God.  It was a time similar to that following the Dark Ages in Europe, when Wycliffe and Tyndale translated the Bible into English and made it available to the commoner (although Wycliffe and Tyndale paid the price for their effort with their lives).

Read Nehemiah 8:1-4, 12, 17-18 for the beautiful account of the reading of the scriptures to the people.

(For much more on Ezra, see the Institute Manual.)

NEHEMIAH

Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer (Neh. 1:11), a high-ranking civil servant, was allowed to go back as well.  Nehemiah became the leader of the re-building effort and, while under attack, rebuilt the walls of the city.

"Nehemiah stands out as one of the noble men in the Old Testament. As he fulfilled a necessary mission in his day, he demonstrated the highest level of dedication and courage, both in the practical matter of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and also in the spiritual matter of rebuilding the religious life of his people" (Institute Manual).

“[Nehemiah's] career presents an exceptional combination of strong self-reliance with humble trust in God, of penetrating shrewdness with perfect simplicity of purpose, of persistent prayerfulness with the most energetic activity; and for religious faith and practical sagacity he stands conspicuous among the illustrious personages of the Bible.” (J. R. Dummelow, ed., A Commentary on the Holy Bible, p. 278, quoted in Institute Manual)

For more on Nehemiah, see the Institute Manual.

Two more July links

Here are links for my previously-published lessons that correspond to the next two weeks' study.

July 6-12

2 Kings 2-7 with Bible Balderdash

July 13-19

2 Kings 16-25 (Hezekiah)

Slide Show for June 28 & July 5 Lessons

 June 21-28 "Hear Thou in Heaven Their Prayer" - 2 Samuel 11-12; 1 Kings 3; 6-9; 11 (begins at slide 1)

June 29-July 5 "If the Lord Be God; Follow Him" - 1 Kings 12-13; 17-22 (begins at slide 14)

Feel free to lead both lesson discussions, choose just one to discuss, or start with the first and see how your class leads you.

CLICK HERE for the link. To show to your class or family full-screen, click "view" in the tool bar and select "slideshow." Hit the space bar or the mouse to advance. Enjoy!

Links for June 8-14; June 15-21; June 22-28; June 29-July 5

Here are links to my Gospel Doctrine lessons from the old curriculum that line up fairly well for the next four weeks' "Come, Follow Me" lessons. 

June 8-14 

1 Samuel 8-10; 13; 15-16

June 15-21

1 Samuel 17-18; 24-26; 2 Samuel 5-7

June 22-28 

I will also be preparing a slide show for this lesson and the next, combined, and will post a link.

2 Samuel 11-12; 

1 Kings 3; 6-9; 11

June 29 - July 5

1 Kings 12-13;

1 Kings 17-22

Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah (Joshua 1-8, 23-24; Judges 2-4, 6-8, 13-16; Ruth 1-4; Samuel 1-7)

Go here for my Google slides on Rahab, Deborah, Ruth and Hannah. There is probably too much to cover in one lesson, so feel free to choose just one or two of them, or skip over slides. Click VIEW from the top bar, then SLIDESHOW. Tap your mouse or the space bar to progress through the slides. Leave a comment if you liked it!

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel

Please follow these links for study material for upcoming lessons. Stay tuned for a slideshow of the corresponding June 7th lesson, focusing on righteous women in these readings: Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, and Hannah. It plan to have it up Friday night.

May 18-24

Joshua 1-8; 23-24

May 25-31

Judges 2-4; 6-8; 13-16

June 1-7

Ruth; 1 Samuel 1

Samuel 2-7

Deuteronomy 6-8; 15; 18; 29-30; 34

 Please go to this link for my previous post on Deuteronomy.

Numbers 11-14; 20-25; 27

When reading the Old Testament, I find it very helpful to remember that this book is a whole different style of scripture than any of our other standard works. 

Painting by Matthew Larson, used with permission

The New Testament is a history and testament of Jesus Christ's mission on the earth and the beginnings of the early Christian church. It includes the literal words of Christ, written by first-person or once-removed witnesses. It contains sermons given by Christ and letters written by His apostles that contain true doctrine that will lead to unity and happiness. Only one book in the New Testament is different than this: the Book of Revelation, which is totally symbolic and teaches of God's eternal plan for His children and Christ's role in saving the world from evil in a dream-like or story-like manner.

"Alma Baptizes in the Waters of Mormon," by Arnold Friberg, 

from Church Media Library

The Book of Mormon is a similar testament. It contains literal history and accurate doctrine taught by Jesus Christ and His prophets to this group of ancient Hebrews who migrated to the American continent during the time of Jeremiah. Many different authors contributed to the Book of Mormon over hundreds of years, each testifying of God's dealings in their lives from their own perspective. There are long, detailed stories of battles written by an army captain, sprinkled with truths of the gospel (Book of Alma). There are very short entries written by keepers of the records as they passed them on to the next keeper (Book of Omni). There are histories within histories, such as the adventures of a group who left the main body with false hope of a reconciliation with their enemies in their home land (Book of Alma). There is a translation of the long past history of a previous civilization that failed (Book of Ether). And there is an editor of much of the book (from Words of Mormon through the end). The Book of Mormon can be trusted as truth, historically and doctrinally. Whenever some anacronism (thing out of place with the time) appears and critics taut it as proof the book is fake, it is eventually proven to be correct (such as horses existing in ancient America). It does contain some chapters full of symbolism (Lehi's vision or passages quoted directly from Isaiah), but they are not the norm.

The Nauvoo Temple, my own photo

 The Doctrine and Covenants is mostly the words of Jesus Christ directly to the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, written by a scribe but without any other middle man. There are only a couple of chapters from other prophets' times at the end of the book. Most of the sections are words from Christ through Joseph Smith to specific people about specific circumstances involving the restoration of His Church and its management. There are sections that are direct answers to questions from individual saints. The whole thing is very literal, very straight-forward, very true.

Joseph Smith Statue at the Joseph Smith Building in Salt Lake City,

my photo (and my nieces)

The Pearl of Great Price is a collection of several different works. There are re-tellings of Old Testament stories with added material revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith as he studied the Bible in depth and through his lens as a seer (Books of Moses and Abraham). There is a copy of one chapter of the New Testament that has particular application to the latter days with President Smith's revelatory changes. There is an autobiographical account of Joseph Smith's call as a prophet, including his vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. And there are the Articles of Faith, written by Joseph Smith.

Noah's Ark, by Edward Hicks, from Wikipedia

And then there's the Old Testament. It's a whole different type of scripture. The origin, writing and compilation of the Old Testament is hugely different than that of any other scripture book (with exceptions of those chapters of other scriptures that came from the Old Testament). 

• The Old Testament stories were not ever intended to tell an accurate, detailed history of a people. They were crafted, honed, and stylized not to be true, but to teach truths and to provide religious memory for a specific group of people, the Hebrews. If changing the literal numbers of things to highly symbolic numbers will carry the meaning better, the symbolic numbers will be chosen. (Think of 40 as "the necessary time for the trial" or 7 as "a godly, perfect, or complete amount." Think of 12 as a priesthood number, a quorum. Think of 4 as relating to earthy, temporal things.) Great events are exaggerated for effect. The number of Israelites who came out of Egypt, for example, is pretty wild and hard to imagine. As we know from our temple teachings, the story of Adam and Eve is allegorical (although Adam and Eve were real people) and we are to consider what it tells us about ourselves.
• The telling and subsequent recording of the Old Testament took place in a culture vastly different from most 21st century cultures on the earth today. To view the Old Testament as absolutely accurate would be to impose our culture upon theirs. Many of us today place a high value on telling the truth, but there are still cultures of the world where accuracy is not that important; conveying the value of something, the importance of a person, the moral of a story is way more important than accurate details. Today, a western political figure dealing with a leader from a vastly different cultural background will encounter problems if they assume that the two have the same understanding of truth or of contracts. A reader of the Old Testament can fall under a misunderstanding of religion and the nature of God Himself if they think of the Old Testament as factual.
• The Old Testament books were written long after the stories within them actually occurred. Very little of the Old Testament was written by a person who was alive and experienced the story. Maybe some of the prophetic writings would fall under this category, but not many. Mostly the stories were told and modified over many generations of illiterate but faithful people. 
• Religions were regional in the ancient world. Gods were connected to specific lands. If you moved, you left them behind and took on the gods of the place you moved to. But Jehovah was greater than that. He led the Israelites as they moved through the land. His goal was to help the people rather than rule over the land.
• The oral stories and instructions were written down by scribes when the Jews were forced out of Jerusalem by Babylon so that they could carry their religion with them. They were modified to fit the current state of the Hebrews, scattered all around the area with no centralized locus of religion. There is a lot of detail about sacrifices, which could be made on an altar anywhere, and very little detail about exactly what the temple ceremonies and practices entailed, once the temple was destroyed. Jehovah was (is) a God you could worship anywhere, if you knew about Him. The written stories provided the knowledge.
• The listener is to put himself or herself in the place of the characters of the story in order to apply them to their own lives. It doesn't matter whether Job was a real person who really experienced the losses listed in his book. It matters that you consider, "Would I be like Job? Would I handle the loss of everything I love and still be faithful to God?" That's the hope that the story is meant to convey.
• The Old Testament came from a people who had worshipped idols and whose neighbors all had multiple gods of their own creation. These gods were created in order for the people to understand their world and have hope for better things. All natural phenomena were viewed as acts of the gods. Every disease was viewed as a curse from a god. Every victory in a war was because of the support of a god. These gods were not understood to be all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful or even filled with love for their constituents. They were much more like the men who created them: angry, vindictive, petty. This environment influenced the way the Hebrews and their storytellers understood  Jehovah, the One True God. They expected that Jehovah took charge over every detail of life: every disease was a punishment, every victory was a reward. They could easily view Him as angry or jealous.
• Paul's statement that "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, but when I became [an adult] I put away childish things" (I Cor. 13:11 NKJV) applies to civilizations as well. They begin as children and collectively mature and develop if they learn from their experience and from the teachings of the more enlightened individuals in their group.The storytellers of the Old Testament were definitely more evolved in their relationship to God the Father and Jehovah than their neighbors were, but civilizations continued to evolve and understand God better through Book of Mormon times in America, through the New Testament with the physical presence and teachings of Jesus Christ, and now with the ongoing Restoration of All Things. 
• I like to think of the Old Testament as art. If you want to show exactly what someone or something looks like, you can come relatively close by taking a photograph or by painting a realistic portrait on sight. But if you want to express a feeling about a scene or an event, you might want to do an unrealistic painting.This is a heart-to-heart way to communicate and that is why so many people love the Impressionist artists such as Monet and Van Gogh. Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" does not accurately depict the night sky but it very accurately conveys a mood of glory and joy that one might experience in viewing a beautiful starry night. As another example, the first time I turned a corner in the Church History Museum and came face-to-face with the painting "For Us," by Walter Rane, I felt the Atonement in a way I never had before. That painting with its jagged, harsh stripes of red felt like pain, agony, suffering. I felt emotionally stabbed! (Here is a link to the painting, but without the texture of the brush strokes, it is not nearly as moving.)

The Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, from Wikipedia

Let's apply these ideas to the story of the Balaam and the talking donkey, one of the weirdest stories in the Old Testament. It is found in Numbers 22. And it is surprisingly relevant to all of us today.

BALAAM AND HIS DONKEY

As the host of Israel passed through various already-inhabited lands, the local tribal leaders became very alarmed. They were afraid the Israelites would consume everything and force them out. When they reached the lands of Moab, the Moabite king Balak was terrified! He sent emissaries to a non-Hebrew "prophet" who was from Mesopotamia and who knew Jehovah. He asked Balaam to come and see him and put a curse upon the Israelites. Apparently, Balaam asked God if it was okay to go (he was offered a lot of riches, after all!) and was answered that he could go to see the Moabites, but he should not be influenced by their entreaties or bribes. He should only say what Jehovah told him to say.

Balaam said no to the messengers and sent them home, but when more powerful and impressive emissaries were sent, he really wanted to go. He was probably afraid to refuse such an entourage. He asked the Lord what he should do. Was the answer still the same? God still didn't want him to go, but He said, "Fine! If you want to do it so badly, then go!" (I remember my mom reacting this way once when I begged and begged her to let me go to a carnival and she thought it was a bad idea. I learned a lesson about how wise she was when I threw up all over the Tilt-a-Whirl ride, and later all over my friend's mom's car. All my money was wasted. Sometimes experience is the only effective teacher.) 

As Balaam journeyed along the way, Jehovah tried to discourage him from getting himself into an alliance with a powerful pagan leader. Balaam's donkey got spooked several times, refusing to go forward and even crushing Balaam's foot against a wall. Balaam got frustrated with the animal and beat her. Then he remembered the donkey's normal obedience and this communicated the message to him, "What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?" Balaam responded, "You have embarrassed me with your insolence! If I had a sword, I'd kill you!" Then the donkey seemed to say, "I don't usually act like this, do I? Have you considered there might be something unusual influencing me?"

Now let me interrupt the story right here and remind you of President Hugh B. Brown's very famous story about his conversation with a currant bush. It was part of a talk given at BYU in 1968 and has been repeated many times in General Conference and other venues, President Brown had been passed over for promotion in the military unfairly, just because he was a member of the Church. He was angry at God. But later, as he pruned a currant bush that was wildly overgrown in his own garden, a powerful connection was made in his mind. He felt the currant bush speak to him as he had spoken to God, angrily asking why it was being cut down. He felt God speaking to him as a gardener, telling him that he was being shaped for a different purpose. 

Now the talking donkey makes sense, doesn't it?

Balaam's eyes were opened after he considered this and he saw the purpose in the animal's behavior. He understood it as a warning from God, and he may have even seen an angel with a sword. The important part is that his imagination of the donkey's speech (or simply her braying) communicated God's message to him that this journey was wrong. And also that beating the messenger was wrong. God, through the angel, said to Balaam, "You can still go if you really want to, but you had better not say anything I don't tell you to say. That should be really, really clear in your mind right now."

When Balaam reached Moab, Balak, the tribal king, attempted to bribe and coerce him multiple times from multiple situations to curse the Israelites. Each time, not only was the answer the same from Jehovah, but the blessing he pronounced upon His people, the Israelites, became even greater. Each time, Balaam seemed to hope that this time, in this location, Jehovah would be willing to curse the Israelites and he would receive all the riches from the Moabite king. But each time, Jehovah remained the same: a loving, supportive God who always desired to bless His people. 

Finally, Balak panicked and said, "Okay, okay! Stop! It's fine if you don't want to curse them, but just don't say anything at all. I don't want them having any more blessings!"

Balaam said, "Remember how I told you that I would come, but I would only say what Jehovah told me to say? It's nothing personal, and it's not me being obstinate. I have to say what He tells me to say. He doesn't change." And he gave another, greater blessing.

Reading these blessings, especially in a version of the Bible that sets them apart from the story text (I like the English Standard Version), is a beautiful experience. It would have been wonderful to hear these blessings recited over and over by storytellers, just as it is wonderful to hear Elder Brown's story of the currant bush told over and over by many other storytellers. Each time our vision of God's plan for our individual lives is reinforced and our faith in Him grows.

This story is also a good one for those of us who ask God a question and are already hoping for a certain answer. If we remember that we "cannot go beyond the word of the Lord," we can more quickly accept that answer. If we try again and again, we may get a "Fine! Go ahead and do it!" answer and then have to suffer figurative bruises from our donkey along our path and not get the riches and glory we wanted from that answer anyway. Ultimately we may reach a dead end.

Remember the donkey and trust the first answer you receive from the Lord!

Donkey photo from Wikipedia

Exodus 35-40, Leviticus 1, 4, 16, 19

Here is a link to my Google slideshow on this lesson. Click the View tab and then select slideshow to put it in full screen. Click your mouse, your touchscreen or your keyboard space bar to advance the slides or play the videos. Enjoy!

Exodus

Please follow this link to my previous post on Exodus 1-13.

Please follow this link to learn more about the importance of 40 in the Bible

Please follow this link to my previous post on Exodus 14-18.

Easter Story For Children and Youth

A LONG STORY ABOUT EASTER AND TEMPLES

For Children, Youth and Adults

Nancy W. Jensen

Long before Jesus was born, God told His people in Jerusalem to build him a house where they could worship Him and He could visit them. God told them how to build this temple and they wrote down every single instruction and put it in their scriptures. It would be a place where heaven and earth would meet. The people would give God gifts at the House of God and God would give them gifts as well. You can read about all of them in The Book of Leviticus in the Bible.

The House of God was amazing! It had a big courtyard around it for people to gather. It was very, very tall–10 stories tall or more, like a small skyscraper. It had gold on the front of it and beautiful carvings. It had colors of the sunset, like blue and purple and red, to remind people that this was where heaven and earth meet. And it had a very small room with golden things to remind them of how God had helped them in the past and what Jesus Christ would someday do to save them. This small but tall room had a heavy veil or curtain instead of a door. This was the Holy of Holies where God could come. Only the high priest could go in there, and he could only go in on one day of the year, The Day of Atonement. For ten days before that day, the people would repent of all the things they did wrong. They would bring their gifts to the temple. Then the high priest would pray to God for them to be forgiven. They would make covenants with God. A covenant is a special promise that brings you close together.

God told the people that coming to the temple would make them rejoice! And it did! It was a place of happiness!

 

But after a while the people began to get lazy and selfish and they weren’t obeying God’s commandments. So God sent prophets to tell them what they were doing wrong so they could change. These people got very angry! They didn’t want to change! So God told one of the prophets, named Lehi, to take his family and get away from Jerusalem because the people were doing so many bad things that God wasn’t going to protect Jerusalem anymore.

We can read their story in The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is a collection of stories written by different people in ancient America over hundreds of years. They were all put together by a prophet named Mormon and that’s why it’s called The Book of Mormon. It’s really “The Books Collected by Mormon.”

The first book in the Book of Mormon tells about what God told Lehi in visions and how he had to buy tents and leave Jerusalem with his family and go camping in the wilderness and then go back to get the Brass Plates (which were the scriptures) and get another family to come with them and then travel to the beach and live there for a while and then build a ship and sail across the huge ocean to America. In America they got married and had a bunch of kids and grandkids and they were farmers and they also had fights. This book was written by Lehi’s son Nephi. After writing the story of their travels, he copied down all his favorite scriptures.

He still had more to write but he didn’t write it here. He started a Second Book of Nephi. Why a whole new book?

The first thing that Nephi wrote in his second book was that God showed Lehi that Jerusalem actually was destroyed (2 Nephi 1:1-4). Another country, Babylon, sent their armies and all the people who lived in Jerusalem were killed or pushed out and forced to live in all different places so the people who won the war could live in Jerusalem instead. The temple, the House of God, was completely destroyed.

Everything was different now. There was no House of God on the whole earth. There was no church of God in Jerusalem. The biggest group of God’s people was in America.

Remember: Lehi’s family had brought their scriptures with them, the Brass Plates. The scriptures had all the instructions for building a temple and worshipping God in the temple. So they built a new House of God in their land. The second book of Nephi is about how these people enter a closer relationship with God and learn more about Jesus Christ because they have a temple where heaven and earth meet. Now, Nephi wrote, “[They] lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27) because of their covenants.

 

Back in Jerusalem, there was another war because the King of Persia wanted Jerusalem. But as he moved to Jerusalem, the king found a copy of the scriptures. He read what God told the prophets to write in the scriptures and he read a prophecy about himself there, taking over Jerusalem! And he also read a prophecy that God’s people will come back to Jerusalem. This makes him decide to let any of those people  move back if they want to and he decides to rebuild their temple. It sounds pretty cool to him.

 

Hundreds of years later, Mary and Joseph took Baby Jesus to this temple to give gifts to God for their baby. They had to travel to get there because they didn’t live in Jerusalem. Joseph and Mary worshipped at the temple as often as they could, probably every time they had a new baby, for example. (They had at least seven other kids.) On one of these trips, when Jesus was 12 years old, he sat in the courtyard teaching the priests! He didn’t even notice that all his relatives had gone home. They had to come back and find him.

When Jesus grew up, he started teaching everyone God’s commandments: how they should be baptized and they should love each other and that God should be the most important thing in their lives so that they could be happy.

He told the temple priests he was God’s Son! It was the best news in the world!

But the temple priests did not want to believe he was God’s Son. They did not want to change. They liked being in charge, being rich, being important.

They finally convinced the leaders of the city to kill Jesus. They found Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, just outside the city. He was praying and crying and he was feeling more sad than anyone in the world had ever been, because He loved everyone so much, even the people who did bad things! And they took him and put him on a cross on a small hill behind Jerusalem. As Jesus hung on the cross, he could turn his head and see the back wall of the beautiful temple.

Because Jesus was the Son of God, no one could kill him, but he could choose to die.  It was the most painful thing in the world to be hung on a cross, but somehow his pain on the cross and before that in the Garden of Gethsemane made it possible for him to bring anyone who died back to life some day. And it also gave him the power to help people when they had troubles or made mistakes. Even us.

Then Jesus told Heavenly Father that he was done, and he let his spirit leave his body and go up to heaven.

As he left the earth, the earth began to shake, and because of the earthquake, the thick, heavy veil of the temple holy place ripped into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. It was as if to show everyone that because of what Jesus Christ did, they could now walk right through the veil and be with God!

 

There were also earthquakes in America. The people there had been getting selfish and wicked, too. They hated each other and they fought and they stole things. They said that Jesus wasn’t real and he wasn’t going to come to earth and they didn’t need him anyway. They said anybody can do whatever they want. They hated the people who still believed in Jesus. They didn’t care about the House of God. Their prophet, Nephi the 3rd, tried to teach them to repent, but only a few people listened.

With the earthquake, buildings crashed down. Lots of people were killed. Everyone who was still alive was crying. The air was black with some kind of volcanic smoke and they couldn't even see.

But the temple was not destroyed and the people gathered there. And while they were there, at the place where heaven meets earth, the sky opened up and Jesus Christ came down to visit them! He didn’t just visit the high priest on the other side of a heavy veil, but He met all of them out in the courtyard, even the little children! He taught them his gospel just as he taught it in Jerusalem. He told them he had finished his sad and painful work, the Atonement, and he had saved the world. He brought angels with him and they blessed the children. He changed their temple worship to help them remember Him and what He did. And he said this was the greatest joy he had ever felt. Nephi the 3rd wrote down everything he taught them except for the very sacred heavenly parts. And then he told his future readers, us, to not do bad things and not hate people, but to repent and get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and join the covenant people. And that’s the end of that story.

Then he started a new book called the 4th Book of Nephi. This book was the story of how people who made new temple covenants with Jesus Christ Himself at the House of God lived. Nephi the 3rd wrote, “And they were blessed [with the many, many promises] which the Lord had made unto them [in the temple]” (4 Nephi 1:11). “And there was no [fighting] in the land, because of the love of God which did [live] in the hearts of the people” (4 Nephi 1:15). “And surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God..[and] they were in one [like one loving family], the children of Christ, and [were promised] the kingdom of God” (4 Nephi 1:16,17). The covenant people loved everyone, even the weird ones. And they shared all their stuff so no one was poor. And they watched over each other so no one was left out.

It was the one time on earth that life was fair! And it lasted for 200 years!

 

Today we have Houses of God all over the world with many of the same things the temple in Jerusalem had, but they are used differently since Jesus did His mighty work. We no longer wait outside while the temple priest makes the covenants for all the people. If we keep our baptismal covenants, we can each go in and make more covenants ourselves. As we do, we get pulled closer and closer to Jesus Christ, as Elder Bradley Wilcox taught us in October 2024 General Conference. Our temples have veils, but now they are plain and white and lightweight and they are made in two pieces! They are made for walking through!

Sometimes hard things will happen in our lives. We might feel like we are suddenly on the other side of the world in a brand new place where everything is different, like Lehi’s family. We might even feel like we’ve been through an earthquake. Some things in our lives will break in ways that we can’t fix. But if we become covenant people with Christ, we can start new stories, better ones. We can feel more of His love and receive more of His help as we come closer to Him in our temples, where heaven meets earth. We can promise to share our money and our time and our stuff to bring others to him. And as we share his love with others, we will get it all over ourselves. And then we also will live “after the manner of happiness.”

Genesis 42-50

Follow this link to my previous post on this section of scripture.

Genesis 37-41 -- Joseph

Latter-day Saint Donny Osmond as Joseph in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," which played on Broadway in New York City beginning in 1982. Image from Latter-day Saint Musicians.

A neighbor of mine shared some very interesting research she had done with our scripture study group that has application to this week's lesson on Joseph, so I will share that here and then I will link my post on Joseph.

When Adam and Eve realized that they were naked (inadequate, vulnerable), they hid from God. When He asked them why they hid and who told them they were naked, they told Him they had learned this from Satan. God's response to them was not to shame them or punish them. Instead, He clothed them in garments of skin (Genesis 3:21). The Hebrew word translated here as "garment" is kethoneth or ketonet.

Bible Hub describes kethoneth or ketonet as "a long, shirt–like garment that served as the basic article of clothing for both men and women in ancient Israel. It was normally woven from wool or linen, extending to the knees or ankles, with or without sleeves. While an ordinary tunic was common apparel, Scripture records several specialized ketonot whose design, fabrication, or use conveyed covenantal and theological truths."

The word kethoneth is used in the Old Testament in this specialized context very few times. This is the first and it refers to a tunic or inner garment worn next to the skin. 

“Yahweh [Jehovah] made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). The first mention of ketonet follows mankind’s fall and sheds light on God’s initiative in providing a covering secured through the shedding of blood. This act foreshadows substitutionary atonement and establishes the biblical pattern that sin requires a divinely provided covering" (Bible Hub).

The second is to describe Joseph's coat of many colors (Gen. 37:3). In this case it is an outer robe, a long tunic. It signified a person of authority, priestly or royal, because it was a garment not practical for manual labor. It was made of finer cloth: wool, linen, cotton, or silk. 

"Jacob’s preferential love for Joseph is displayed through “a richly ornamented robe” (Genesis 37:3). The ketonet here is distinguished by length and embroidery, marking Joseph for blessing and leadership. Its blood-stained presentation to Jacob (Genesis 37:31–33) dramatizes deception and anticipated deliverance. Later, Joseph’s divinely orchestrated exaltation confirms that God’s purposes overcome human malice" (ibid.).

The third time is in reference to the temple priesthood clothing made for Aaron and his sons to wear in the tabernacle (Exodus 28:4). 

The New International Version reads, 

"These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests."

The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek equivalent of kethoneth (chiton) is used to describe the specialized luxury clothing item that Jesus Christ wore to the cross, the seamless garment for which the Roman soldiers cast lots (John 19:24). (See also Psalm 22:18.) 

"In the Septuagint [the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament], ketonet is rendered chitōn, the very word John uses when recording that soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ seamless tunic (John 19:23–24). The High Priest’s linen ketonet, the favored son’s multi-colored ketonet, and the sin-covering ketonet of Eden all converge in the crucified Messiah whose unseamed garment affirms His perfect righteousness and singular priesthood" (ibid.).

The New International Version translates John 19:23 as follows: 

"When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom."

The significance of innner and outer priestly clothing should not be lost to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As covenant temple worshipers, we have the opportunity to receive and wear our own version of kethoneth, temple clothing next to our skin, as well as kethoneth passim, outer clothing worn during temple worship. As Adam and Eve, Aaron and his sons, and Joseph, we are covered by Christ's mercy and that covering is symbolized in our temple garments. Jesus Christ wore His inner garment to the very end of His life, and so should we. (See https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples/temple-garment-faq?lang=eng.)

And now here is the link to my previous post on Joseph.

Genesis 24-33 -- Isaac, Leah, and Rachel

ISAAC'S QUEST FOR A COVENANT MARRIAGE

The overriding theme of the stories of Chapters 24-28 is that it is not easy to come by a covenant marriage, but that when we put forth the tremendous effort required, the Lord will assist and blessings will ensue.  Here are some incidents that teach these lessons:

Gen. 24--Abraham's servant was given the overwhelming responsibility of traveling back to the homeland to find a worthy wife for Abraham's birthright son, Isaac.  He brought great riches with him as gifts, requiring ten camels for transport (vs. 10).  The task was overwhelming, requiring divine guidance.  The servant asked in prayer for a sign that the future wife of his master would be one who would offer him water, and additionally offer the ten camels water.  This would certainly single out the woman, because, although offering water to a male traveler was fairly normal ettiquette, offering to water the camels was well beyond the call of duty.  One camel could drink up to 30 gallons!  It was an extraordinary young woman who would offer this service, perhaps it was even unheard of.  But when the caravan arrived at the well, not only did Rebekah volunteer the service, but she "hasted" and she "ran" to complete it (v. 19-20).  When the servant discovered that she was a cousin, and therefore met the requirement set forth by Abraham, he knew his prayer was answered (v. 23-27). 

Rebekah's family wanted to have a little time with her before she left them to marry Isaac (v. 55), but the servant wanted to obey the Lord immediately, since the Lord had answered his prayer so immediately (v. 56).  Rebekah concurred, and went with the servant, never to see her family again.  Upon their arrival at Isaac's property, she saw a man cutting through the field to meet them (v. 64-65), and was told it was her future husband.  The closing words of this episode of the story are beautiful:  "and she became his wife; and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death" (v. 67).  Loving each other, and comforting each other are elements of a covenant marriage.

Gen. 25--While Isaac's brother Ishmael was blessed with a dozen sons, Rebekah was left childless.  (It's interesting how many righteous women in the Old Testament struggle with fertility issues.)  Finally, she was blessed with twin sons, Esau and Jacob.  An interesting description is given of Jacob in the footnote to vs. 27:  Jacob was "whole, complete, perfect, simple, plain."  Jacob valued the birthright, and bought it from his brother (v. 31-33).  Esau, like so many people, was overtaken by the physical desire of the moment, in his case hunger, and lost perspective of eternity. Unfortunately, many saints today do the same, selling their spiritual privileges for fleeting passions.

Gen. 26--Because Isaac continued in righteousness, the covenant promised to his father was restated in his behalf (vs. 2-5).  The same can be true for each one of us, as covenant children, particularly as we receive our patriarchal blessing.  Like his father, everywhere that Isaac went, he built an altar and called upon the Lord (v. 25).

Meanwhile Esau sold his birthright again, marrying outside the covenant and against his parents' wishes (v. 34-35) while  Jacob remained unmarried until age 40, presumably because no covenant wife was available where they lived.

A little note of explanation: Both Abraham and Isaac, when they moved to a new land, ended up telling the local royalty that their wives were their sisters. Both wives were cousins, so this was true, "sister" and "brother" being general terms for relations. Why hide the fact that they were wives? Camille Fronk Olson explains that if a king desired the wife of another man, he would kill the husband [Women of the Old Testament, p. 32-33]. This deception, therefore, saved the lives of Abraham and Isaac. In both cases, the king, upon discovering that the object of his affection was already married, returned the wife to her husband, and promised protection for the husband from others who might desire the wife. So why did the deception have to occur in the first place? One idea: Perhaps the kings needed to personally get to know the people involved, and gain an appreciation for their integrity, before they would extend this highly unusual offer.

REBEKAH'S LEADERSHIP

"Rebekah is one of the greatest patterns in all the revelations of what a woman can do to influence a family in righteousness...Women are appointed, Rebekahlike, to be guides and lights in righteousness in the family unit and to engineer and arrange so that things are done in the way that will result in the salvation of more of our Father's children" (Bruce R. McConkie, Ensign, Jan. 1979, p. 62, 63).

Gen. 27--Isaac planned to bless his son Esau with the birthright, despite Esau's unworthiness.  This would have been a grave error, and Rebekah saw that.  She conspired with Jacob to put him in the right place at the right time to receive the birthright blessing.  This is an example of a wife who kept her covenant to obey the Lord "in righteousness."  In this case, she would have been wrong to obey her husband, because in a matter of eternal importance, he was following convention and personal preference, rather than the Spirit.  Rebekah, however, had received a revelation before the twins were born that the younger was to be the leader of the family (Gen. 25:23), and besides, Esau had given up his birthright twice, definitely demonstrating that he did not have the integrity or foresight to be the patriarch of the family. 

When Isaac realized which son had received the blessing, he knew it was right.  What a prophet binds on earth is bound in heaven, but also what he looses on earth is loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:19).  Isaac had the power to revoke the blessing, but he let it stand (v. 33), because he knew his wife was right.  The Lord could easily have caused Jacob to be born before Esau, therefore preventing this problem from arising, but instead He chose to teach a lesson for many generations to come:  Righteousness is more important than circumstance, and revelation is more important than tradition.  When Isaac afterwards blessed Esau, he restated through revelation the same truth that had been revealed to Rebekah years before, that he would be subservient to his younger brother.  Despite the outward confusion, the blessings were given correctly through the Spirit, as the Apostle Paul stated, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come" (Heb. 11:20).

Esau was so angry at being tricked, he plotted to kill his brother after his father's death (v.41).  This was told to Rebekah and she sent Isaac away to stay with relatives, saying that otherwise she would lose both her sons in one day: one to murder, and the other to execution (v. 45; see Gen. 9:6).  To Isaac, she stated the reason for sending him away to be the need for Jacob to find a wife among the covenant people, which was definitely necessary.  Of course, this was the Lord's plan as well.

It is worth noting that later Esau took a covenant wife (Gen. 28:6-9), and that when Jacob returned to Canaan many years later,  "Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept" (Gen. 33:4).

THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

Gen. 28--As Jacob went on his journey, he was granted a remarkable dream. 

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, [Jehovah] stood above it, and said, I am [Jehovah,] God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west , and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (vs. 12-14). (Note: The word LORD in all capitals in the Old Testament is a substitution for the name "Jehovah," which the Jews do not speak aloud; therefore the translators substitute LORD in deference. Latter-day Saints believe Jehovah to be the pre-existent Jesus Christ.)

David E. Bokovoy, a doctor of Hebrew Bible studies, recommends circling "the place" or "this place" anytime it is found in the Old Testament, because it almost always refers to a temple place (Know Your Religion Lecture, Feb. 15, 2002, Logan, Utah). Jacob said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!  this is none other but the house of god, and this is the gate of heaven...And he called the name of that place Beth-el" (v. 16-19).  "Beth-el is [short for] Beth-Elohim, which means literally 'The House of the Lord.'" Even more interesting is to note a couple of additions which Joseph Smith made to verse 22 in his translation. (These additions are not among the excerpts that were included in the LDS Bible footnotes, but can be found in the complete book, Joseph Smith's New Translation of The Bible.) The added words are in italics:  And the place of this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be the place of God's house.  (How could Joseph Smith have known that this small change made the passage even more temple-like?)

Jacob possibly received an endowment from the Lord in this temple experience. Some have considered that the message of his dream is that the covenants Jacob made with the Lord were as rungs of a ladder to heaven. He would have to climb the rungs of the ladder God provided (covenants and commandments) in order to obtain the promised blessings that would allow him to enter into heaven with the Lord (Pres. Marion G. Romney, "Temples--The Gates to Heaven," Ensign, Mar. 1971, p. 16)  

By the way, the Hebrew word translated as "ladder" could also be translated as "stairway" or "ramp."  Most Bible translations use the word "ladder" which provides us with a good symbol of the effort and time required to make our way to heaven. Many translations use the word "stairway," which is more beautiful. And if you ever listened to American popular radio, it will remind you of the extremely popular 1970s Led Zeppelin hit--one of the greatest rock songs of all time and banned in most guitar stores because beginner guitarists are not worthy of playing it in public and store owners are sick of hearing it slaughtered. Its enigmatic lyrics, by Robert Plant, have intrigued listeners for decades: the story of a woman who thinks she can buy her way into heaven.

Image from https://www.detik.com/pop/music/d-7251796/semua-tentang-kita-bisa-senasib-stairway-to-heaven-di-toko-musik
 

But I definitely digress!

We as Latter-day Saints, must learn to believe that it is through the merits of Jesus Christ that we are saved, even though He requires us to move at least our feet and possibly also our hands to climb the ladder--or stairway--of covenants. We can't "buy" our way into heaven with our works anymore than the woman in the mystic lyrics can buy her way into heaven with gold. We must work, but we must rely upon Christ to save us. This is the common Latter-day Saint interpretation of the stairway to heaven metaphor. 

But look at the scripture again: in the dream, it is the angels who are ascending and descending the ladder, not the humans! Author Kirsten Burningham points out a new idea:

"In this dream, Jacob isn’t commanded to do anything; he is blessed, and the land is blessed. 'I am with thee,' God says, 'and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until l have done that which I have spoken to thee of' (Gen. 28:15). It seems that Jacob’s dream is less about the covenants Jacob will keep by climbing a ladder and more about God, the kinds of promises God makes, and how God will keep those promises: he will be with Jacob always, it seems to say, wherever he finds himself" (Kirsten Burningham, "Ladders to Heaven," Wayfare Magazine, online, June 29, 2025). 

I absolutely love it when a scriptural passage we all assumed was one way is presented in an entirely different light by someone's fresh eyes. And yes! the dream demonstrates, even more simply and clearly than the cryptic covenant metaphor, that God is continuously sending His angels down from Heaven and back up from earth to assist His children in whatever rocky wilderness place they may be. He can make their place of darkness and trial into a temple. And if they see it, they will say, as did Jacob, "Surely [my Savior] is in this place; and I knew it not" (Gen. 28:16). And as they accept His constant covenantal love, they will desire to enter into a covenant with Him to become more like Him until they are one with Him.

Once Jacob understood God's loyalty to him, God's unceasing effort to help him, He "vowed a vow, saying, [Since] God [is so willing to] be with me, and will keep me [and watch over me] in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall [Jehovah] be my God. [I will worship Him alone.] And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee" (Gen. 28:20-22, emphasis added). Jacob offers his covenant in return, the promise to pay his tithing. He enters into a relationship with God. At the beginning of his statement, Jacob refers to Jehovah in the third person, but at the end, he switches to the second person. This is a Hebrew poetic effect which shows that the relationship has become more intimate. Rather than talking about God, Isaac has turned to face God directly and interact with Him in person. Isn't that beautiful? 

JACOB'S QUEST FOR A COVENANT MARRIAGE

Gen. 29--Interestingly, Jacob met his wife, Rachel, at a well, just as his father's servant had met his mother at a well.  In this case, however, it was Jacob who served Rachel, by rolling away the stone covering, and drawing the water for the flock.  Typically it was the woman's job to water the sheep, however in this instance it seems that a tremendous effort was required to open the well, since the shepherds were waiting for all to be gathered together in order to do it (v. 8).  It was "a prodigious feat for one person--a measure of Jacob's elation at seeing [Rachel]" (Harper-Collins Study Bible, p. 44)  Both of these covenant marriage relationships began with an act of great service: another lesson for us to follow throughout our marriages.

In an ironic twist, Jacob's father-in-law Laban and Rachel's older sister Leah tricked him into marrying Leah first, a similar act to the deception that Jacob and his mother worked in order to procure the birthright blessing.  Of course, in keeping with social convention, the older daughter should be married first, and in all the seven years of labor, there was apparently no other suitor.  Since parents always arranged their children's marriages, and the father had supreme rule over the family, it was not so strange for Laban to control the marriages of his daughters (Sidney B. Sperry, "Hebrew Manners and Customs," Ensign, May 1972). It certainly would have been nicer, though, if it could have been done honestly, as this method set up a conflict and competition in the family at the outset: Leah was "unloved" (another translation for the word used as "hated" in v. 31), while Rachel was cherished (v. 20).

BEING "LOVED" OR "UNLOVED"

The people of the Old Testament times lived in an imperfect society with flawed families.  Plural marriage was particularly plagued with feelings of competitiveness and unfairness, so much so that the problems of "loved" versus "hated" wives were actually recognized and addressed in the Law (Deut. 21:15-17). We today still live in a fallen world with imperfect people and troubled relationships. We may encounter discrimination, negligence, or abuse from others when we expected love and kindness. But God Himself is perfect, and His love is extended towards all. In the lives of Leah and Rachel, as in the lives of Sarah and Hagar, we see the impartial kindliness of the Lord. In both cases, both women found solace in their relationships with God. In both cases, the Lord blessed the less-loved wife with the compensatory joy of motherhood immediately, and allowed the favored wife to wait a while. This infertility, though, was followed by the delight of a son who had the birthright, or earned it through his righteousness. In all cases, the Lord communicated his care and concern to the woman in her individual trial (Sarah in Gen. 21:1, 6; Hagar in Gen. 21:17; Leah in Gen. 29:31-32; Rachel in Gen. 30:22). 

God is always inviting, comforting, and encouraging, and is no respecter of persons. The scriptures show repeatedly that His love is offered to all:  "He layeth down his own life that he may draw all men [humans] unto him" (2 Ne. 26:24); "Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price" (2 Ne. 26:25); "All men are privileged [to partake of God's goodness] the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden" (2 Ne. 26:28); "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men" (Alma 5:33); "Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost" (3 Ne. 12:6).

In our times of affliction or our situations of injustice, we can have confidence that the love of God will find us and compensate. As another Jacob testified, "I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction. O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever" (Jacob 3:1-2).

 
COVENANT MARRIAGES BRING BLESSINGS FOR GENERATIONS
 

 

(This is my own photograph of the Salt Lake City Temple.

I hold the copyright, but you are welcome to use it.)

 

Despite the imperfections of the partners involved, covenants and covenant marriages bring us ever closer to heaven.  Both Leah and Rachel developed great faith through their marriage and child-bearing trials, which carried them through other trials. For example, when their prophet-husband received the command of the Lord to uproot the family and move back to his birthplace, where the threat of being murdered by Esau weighed heavily on his mind, he consulted both women, and both responded, "Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do" (31:14). Jacob did, and was joyously surprised by the heartfelt welcome of his now repentant brother Esau (Gen. 33).  

Generations afterward, when Boaz married Ruth, the blessing of the members of the wedding party to Ruth was that God would make her as great as Leah and Rachel. Together, these two women, with their two handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah, and their husband, bore and built the House of Israel, and their names are honored forever. Today, regardless of our circumstances, we similarly play a part in building our own branch of the House of Israel, and we can also leave a great legacy of faith as we make and remain true to our covenants with God. Whether we are "loved" or "unloved," whether we are married happily or unhappily, whether we are divorced or still single, our God's covenantal love will carry us through life with the greatest amount of joy if we remain bound to Him.