Who Should I Forgive?

 

This is why we're urged to study and study and study our scriptures and consider how we should apply them in our lives.

Then when the question of "where do I draw the line on forgiveness" arises, we already know the answer and how we should respond 

Nothing in this passage, or the entire section of Doctrine and Covenants 64 says it's going to be easy, but often things the Lord requires are hard to do.

This, from Matthew 18, applies as well, of course:

A Scriptural Duh Moment

A thought struck me as we discussed poor King Saul in the Old Testament on Sunday: Likening the scriptures to ourselves means looking micro, not macro.

First, the story of King Saul. Israel wants a king, and the Lord settles on Saul, a member of the tribe of Benjamin and self-described as coming from the least of the houses of the smallest tribe. He’s given the kingship and advised that Samuel, the chief ecclesiastical authority, will arrive at a certain spot when representatives of all twelve tribes are gathered together to perform peace and burnt offerings to inaugurate Saul’s reign.

But Samuel is late so Saul takes it upon himself to perform the sacrifices – keeping the gathered tribal representatives together but completely overstepping his authority.

Macro view: Sometimes our leaders get their heads full of fart, overstep their authority, and get duly shuffled off to Buffalo for their crimes.

Maybe that applies. But the micro view is this: How might we, ourselves, and just us be overstepping our authority, putting our own kingdom – our own salvation – at risk? Maybe we’re taking it upon ourselves to reason that, for example, gay marriage might not be a completely bad thing. And maybe we’re taking that beyond individual thought and getting things organized to convince others of the same thing. I admit to the former – but have not yet wandered into the latter, beyond a few blog posts.

My point is it’s really easy to see faults in others and genially overlook the same faults in ourselves.

Here’s the ah-hah moment in 1 Samuel 15 verses 22-23:

And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Keeping Your Fat Yap Shut

It seems I don't learn. Or at least I learn at a pace that is imperceptible to gods and man.

First, go back and read this. Then come back and I'll give you yet more examples of how I should just keep my fat yap shut.

First of all, what I'm about to tell you happened during scripture study, when we're struggling to get our kids to pay attention and, I'll be honest, sometimes to pay attention ourselves. We do our scriptures in the study, where a television, three computers and an entire library of scratch paper, pencils, and crayons beckon.

We were reading Third Nephi Chapter Three, in which Giddianhi, the leader of the Gadianton Robbers, sends a letter to Lachoneus, the Nephite governor, basically saying that the robbers are the tops, the Mona Lisa, the Colosseum, and such. I tried to sup up that part of the speech by saying, "well, this guy thought he and his army were all that and a bag of chips." Forgetting, of course, that there would be little ptichers listening that would have to be filled. So I had to explain what "all that and a bag of chips" meant which, of course, led into other interesting segues, the least of which was a week ago when I took our oldest to Webelos after Michelle and I had a sneaky lunch at Pickett's Bambinos he insisted he could smell French fries in the car and I convinced him it was his Scout shirt.

So five minutes later we're back to studying the scriptures, and then I get to the part where the Nephites decide to gather all together to defend themselves against the robbers and, in my not-keeping-my-fat-yap-shut way, I tried to explain it like this: How would it be if we had to leave Sugar City because El Guapo, the big, dangerous guy who wants to kill us, was coming to get us, so we had to go somewhere else to be with a big group of other people to be safe?

That, of course, led to this:

Used under the fair use doctrine for commentary purposes.

So another five minutes later, we were able to finish our scripture study, a good fifteen minutes behind schedule. All because I haven't yet learned to keep my fat yap shut.

Or maybe I just need to wait a few more years until our kids are fully thrust through the doorway that leads to cultural literacy among the Davidsons, which would be of enormous relief to me.

KJV @ 400

Just a reminder today of the debt we owe people who went on before us, and for Deseret News reporter Sara Israelsen-Hartley, who wrote an interesting article on the 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible, which contains quite a few reminders of what we owe the scholars and translators -- and King James himself -- for creating for us a spiritual and literary treasure.

I don't pretend to be a scholar of anything, let alone one of the Bible. But I can agree that the language used in the King James version does have that poetic, lyrical quality that makes other translations I've read -- and certainly the paraphrases I've read -- sound stilted and shallow in comparison.

Christmas, of course, would not be the same for me without the Gospel of Luke, delivered thus:

It's hard to believe this scene would be as impactful had Charles Schulz used a different version of the story, such as this:

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified,

but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

To those who like the New Living Translation, let me be clear here: I'm not saying the NLT is bad. I am saying, however, that maybe if the KJV is a bit more difficult to understand, it is more mellifuous. And I'll say that when we study the scriptures with our children, we do paraphrasing when we explain what we just read, but at the tame time we want them exposed to the sound of scripture, so they grow accustomed to it.

Going back to what Israelson-Hartley writes, I like what Tim Brearley, director of the King James Bible Trust, says about the book:

"The King James is poetry," said Brearley, director of the King James Bible Trust, a group established in England to commemorate the 400th anniversary through conferences, performances, celebrations and publications. "You find that as soon as you start saying it out loud, it helps you. The words start to carry you along and it's got that resonance to it."

The rhythm has been captured in famous speeches, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream," and his allusion to Amos 5:24: "No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream," and Isaiah 40:4-5, "I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted."

"Would a modern translation have that force?" asked Brearley. "I don't know. I think that would be a tough one."

I think we've all got bits of the Bible that we enjoy reading, if not just for the spirit, but also for the sound. I enjoy reading Habakkuk Chapter 1, certainly for the message but also certainly for the sound of the words.

And what a debt we owe William Tynsdale, who years before the King James Version, translated the original Greek and Hebrew into English, giving us much of the Biblical language we know today. (I won't go over the history here; read Israelsen-Hartley's article instead.) Certainly here was an inspired man, working with the will of God to bring His message to those who needed to hear it.

Explaining the Law of Moses Using Wrestling Masks -- And Failing

Remember, it does say in the scriptures not to wrestle your neighbor!

You know, we're trying to do what The Bretheren have asked. We're reading the scriptures with our kids, and trying to "liken them unto ourselves," as Nephi tells us.

Then I try to explain what it was like for the Nephites to live the Law of Moses (hear that evangelicals?), as described in 2 Nephi 25, verses 24-27:

  24 And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled.

  25 For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments.

  26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

  27 Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away

I thought I'd be clever in explaining about the Law of Moses in saying "How would it be if every time you left the house you had to wear a Mexican wrestling mask -- you could only be seen outside in a mask. And then one day someone said we didn't have to wear them any more, because the commandment that made us wear them had expired?" They thought that was pretty cool. I was losing them.

Then Dumbass Dad comes up with this: "Well, how about if all of a sudden someone said we didn't have to wear pants any more?"

We had to stop scripture study right then. Argh.

Fathoming Isaiah

The Isaiah Chapters? Who knew? This is news beyond sorrow, I must say.

I do not boast of being a scriptural genius. At best, I barely get by. Especially when it comes to the dreaded “Isaiah chapters” in Second Nephi. We – and I mean my wife and I and our three children, younger than 10 – read this last night, for instance:

  28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages.

  29 They are gone over the passage; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramath is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

  30 Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.

  31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

  32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

  33 Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down; and the haughty shall be humbled.

  34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

As is our practice, we try to explain the verses as we read them, so the kids – and us, too, natch – understand what’s going on. This is what I got out of this passage:

A bunch of people are having a slumber party at Geba. Ramath got scared, as did Saul, so they both went home early. Maybe because of Gallim’s daughter’s singing, which was apparently loud enough to be heard several houses away. The singing (or maybe the ensuing panic as Ramath and Saul fled) caused more to flee, or at least gather at the Geba’s house preparatory to flight in order to ascertain whether the situation is as bad as Ramath and Saul implied. Dad Geba had to stay at Nob and is a bit frustrated with the brouhaha, perhaps because somebody advertised the party on Facebook or something. But he’s coming home to put an end to the shenanigans and, as the wizards in Terry Pratchett’s Unseen University might say, “kick some righteous donkey.”

I’m sure this isn’t what Isaiah meant.

I don’t write this to be sacreligious; it’s just for humor. Because Isaiah really meant this. I think:

The Assyrians are making progress on their invasion of Jerusalem. They’re in the neighborhood – some in the neighboring countries/cities/regions have fled, others are getting ready to flee. The people of Anatoth have already sent out their cry of warning. The Assyrians have taken the city of Nob. The Assyrians will be used by God to humble his people.

You’ll note no mention of Facebook or a slumber party anywhere. But my kids liked my version, I must say.