She did steal away the hearts of many

  Here are Alma’s words to his son Corianton to rebuke him for immorality:

3 And this is not all, my son. Thou didst do that which was grievous unto me; for thou didst forsake the ministry, and did go over into the land of Siron among the borders of the Lamanites, after the harlot Isabel.

4 Yea, she did steal away the hearts of many; but this was no excuse for thee, my son. Thou shouldst have tended to the ministry wherewith thou wast entrusted. (Alma 39:3-4)

These are not pleasant verses to think about, but there is something important that I wanted to point out that I noticed recently. It stuck me as particularly curious that Alma says of Isabel, “she did steal away the hearts of many.”

Our idea of a harlot is someone who exchanges sex for money, but there is something odd about this harlot, as described by Alma. He says she stole many hearts. Prostitution doesn’t seem like the kind of thing where hearts are stolen; it seems like it would be more of a non-committal thing, not engaging the heart.  So, there are three possible conclusions from this— either 1) prostitution steals hearts men never expected to give away, or 2) Isabel was a different type of harlot than we usually think of, one unique to that culture and its surrounding areas, or 3) Isabel took things much further than usual and created a one-sided emotional intimacy, stealing the hearts of many, but never giving her own.

“Stealing away the hearts of many”—there’s a cold-bloodedness in that which is scary. Like the theft was calculated and targeted. It’s dishonest, since the hearts she stole were not free to be given. That means her machinations broke up homes and ultimately caused misery wherever she went. If she was doing it to amuse herself, stealing only one heart didn’t satisfy her; she kept going, stealing more and more.  It’s also probable that she was emotionally needy and/or had been abused and was trying to collect all those hearts to make up for a lack of love in her childhood.

Whatever the reason Isabel stole hearts, it made her dangerous. But she probably didn’t look dangerous at all.  She probably was beautiful and very charming. But that was what drew men in.

Alma said Corianton had forsaken the ministry and gone after Isabel into the land of Siron among the borders of the Lamanites. I doubt Corianton would have gone off after some woman he only met once. There’s a relationship implied here. Perhaps Corianton tried to help Isabel and Isabel was just toying with him, and he deceived himself that he was just concerned about her until carnal desire took over. Then, by the time she left, he was in so deep that he felt like he couldn’t just let her go.

Another observation I have is that Satan used Isabel to distract Corianton from the ministry. The work of saving souls can be hard and thankless. There can be a lot of rejection involved. Love, or the appearance of it, can be very tempting to one who has suffered a lot of rejection. So can freely-given respect and admiration.  Alma notes in some earlier verses that Corianton had boasted in his own strength; Corianton probably felt deprived of respect and was trying to meet his own emotional needs.

Going back to Alma’s observation that Isabel stole away the hearts of many, it is interesting to ponder how Alma knew she had done this. Maybe Alma had to hear confessions from men who had sinned with Isabel. Maybe he himself was targeted and he resisted. At any rate, Alma knew Isabel had wide appeal, and he finished his observation with “but this was no excuse for thee, my son.” Corianton’s sin was understandable, but not excusable. He had a ministry to tend to, and he had neglected it.

How can knowing this help us today? 

First, there are people who want to steal hearts. Not just women, but men also. There are pick-up artists who hone their interpersonal skills and their approach with the goal of hooking people with charm and flirtation for their own gratification, and they sell instruction on how to do this. They may not be put off by finding out their target is married. Sooner or later, any of us may find ourselves in their cross-hairs.

Second, we may come in contact with others who have such an emotional need for love that they will try to get it anyway they can, even by stealing hearts. It is important to remember to keep proper emotional boundaries.  Be cautious and protect yourself. Remember your covenants.

Taking Reproof and Repenting like an Astronaut

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 I’ve been reading an Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield, and in it he shares a lot about how NASA deals with mistakes made and turns them into learning experiences.  I want to quote a section that I think can teach some neat spiritual lessons:

“In any field, it’s a plus if you view criticism as potentially helpful advice rather than as a personal attack.  But for an astronaut, depersonalizing criticism is a basic survival skill.  If you bristled every time you heard something negative—or stubbornly tuned out the feedback—you’d be toast.

At NASA, everyone’s a critic.  Over the years, hundreds of people weigh in on our performance on a regular basis. Our biggest blunders are put under the microscope so even more people can be made aware of them: “Check out what Hadfield did—let’s be sure no one ever does that again.”

Often, we’re scrutinized and evaluated in real time. Quite a few simulations involve a crowd: all the people in Mission Control who would in real life work that particular problem, plus the trainers who dreamed up the scenario in the first place and the experts who best understand the intricate components of whatever system is being tested. When we’re simulating deorbit to landing, for instance, dozens of people observe, hoping that something new—a flaw in a standard procedure, say, or a better way of doing something—will be revealed. They actually want us to stumble into a gray zone no one had recognized could be problematic in order to see whether we can figure out what to do. If not, well, it’s much better to discover that gray zone while we’re still on Earth, where we have the luxury of being able to simulate a bunch more times until we do figure it out.  The main point is to learn—and then to review the experience afterward from every possible angle.

The debrief is a cultural staple at NASA, which makes this place a nightmare for people who aren’t fond of meetings. During a sim, the flight director or lead astronaut makes notes on major events, and afterward, kicks off the debrief by reviewing the highlights: what went well, what new things were learned, what was already known but needs to be re-emphasized. Then it’s a free-for-all. Everyone else dives right in, system by system, to dissect what went wrong or was handled poorly. All the people who are involved in the sim have a chance to comment on how things looked from their consoles, so if you blundered in some way, dozens of people may flag it and enumerate all the negative effects of your actions. It’s not a public flogging: the goal is to build up collective wisdom. So the response to an error is never, “No big deal, don’t beat yourself up about it.” It’s “Let’s pull on that”—the idea being that a mistake is like a loose thread you should tug on, hard, to see if the whole fabric unravels.

Occasionally the criticism is personal, though, and even when it’s constructive, it can sting.  Prior to my last mission, my American crewmate Tom Marshburn and I were in the pool for a six-hour EVA evaluation, practicing spacewalking in front of a group of senior trainers and senior astronauts. Tom and I have both done EVAs in space and I thought we did really well in the pool. But in the debrief, after I’d explained my rationale for tethering my body in a particular way so I’d be stable enough to perform a repair, one of our instructors announced to the room, “When Chris talks, he has a very clear and authoritative manner—but don’t let yourself be lulled into a feeling of complete confidence that he’s right. Yes, he used to be a spacewalking instructor and evaluator and he’s Mr. EVA, but he hasn’t done a walk since 2001. There have been a lot of changes since then.  I don’t want the junior trainers to ignore that little voice inside and not question something just because it’s being said with authority by someone who’s been here a long time.”

At first that struck me as a little insulting, because the message boiled down to this: “Mr. EVA” sounds like he knows what he’s doing, but really, he may not have a clue. Then I stopped to ask myself, “Why is the instructor saying that?” Pretty quickly I had to concede that the point was valid. I don’t come off as wishy-washy and I’m used to teaching others how to do things, so I can sound very sure of myself. That doesn’t mean I think I know everything there is to know; I’d always assumed that people understood that perfectly well and felt free to jump in and question my judgment. But maybe my demeanor was making that difficult. I decided to test that proposition: instead of waiting for feedback, I’d invite it and see what happened. After a sim, I began asking my trainers and crewmates, “How did I fall short, technically, and what changes could I make next time?” Not surprisingly, the answer was rarely, “Don’t change a thing, Chris—everything you do is perfect!” So the debrief did what it was supposed to: it alerted me to a subtle but important issue I was able to address in a way that ultimately improved our crew’s chances of success.

At NASA, we’re not just expected to respond positively to criticism, but to go one step further and draw attention to our own missteps and miscalculations. It’s not easy for hyper-competitive people to talk openly about screw-ups that make them look foolish or incompetent. Management has to create a climate where owning up to mistakes is permissible and colleagues have to agree, collectively, to cut each other some slack.

I got used to public confessionals as a fighter pilot. Every Monday morning we got together for a flight safety briefing and talked about all the things that could have killed us the previous week. Sometimes pilots confessed to really basic errors and oversights and the rest of us were expected to suspend judgment. (Deliberate acts of idiocy—flying under a bridge, say, or showing off by going supersonic over your friend’s house and busting every window in the neighborhood—were a different story. Fighter pilots could be and were fired for them.) It was easier not to pass judgment once I grasped that another pilot’s willingness to admit he’d made a boneheaded move, and then talk about what had happened next, could save my life. Literally.

At NASA, where the organizational culture focuses so explicitly on education, not just achievement, it’s even easier to frame individual mistakes as teachable moments rather than career-ending blunders. I remember one astronaut, also a former test pilot, standing up at a meeting and walking us all through an incident where his T-38 (the plane we all train on to keep up our flying skills) slid off the end of a runway in Louisiana. For a pilot this is hugely embarrassing, a rookie error. There wasn’t much damage to the plane, so the guy could’ve either kept his mouth shut, or the moral of the story could have been, “All’s well that ends well.” But as he told it, the moral was: be careful because the asphalt at this runway is slicker than most—it contains ground-up seashells, which, it turns out, are seriously slippery when it’s raining. That was incredibly useful information for all of us to have. While no one thought more of that astronaut for sliding off the runway, we certainly didn’t think less of him for being willing to save us from doing the same thing ourselves.” (pp77-80)

Thinking about this spiritually, I think we can learn a lot about sincere repentance.

How often, when we’re repenting, do we take time to have a debriefing meeting with ourselves as we discover we have sinned or made an error?   Do we concentrate on what we can learn and refrain from labeling ourselves or beating ourselves up? How often do we try to dissect exactly what went wrong, from the thoughts in our mind, to our energy levels, to the pressures that were on us, to the principles that we forgot or were decided to ignore?   How often do we notice where we fell into a gray area where our standard operating procedures of sin resistance training hasn’t been built up?  How often do we amend our inner manuals to ensure it never happens again?   

Faith in Christ is necessary to repentance, but so is self-analysis to figure out what to do better next time.  If our standard ops don’t change, have we really changed?  Not really.

Another thing I notice is that in Hadfield’s experiences, when people gave criticism, it focused on what he did, not who he was.  Even calling attention to his authoritative manner wasn’t designed to attack him, but point out something he was doing.  You have to give him credit that he stopped to think about why it was given and he examined himself enough to realize that there was something to what had been said.

Lessons: Constructive criticism has to be very specific and focused on what people are doing, not who they are.

To receive reproof well, you have to think carefully about whether there might be a reason for it, then find ways to adjust.

Here are some great things that Guide to the Scriptures says about chastening (or reproof):

Correction or discipline given to individuals or groups in order to help them improve or become stronger.

·       Despise not the chastening hand of the Almighty:Job 5:17; ( Prov. 3:11; )

·       Blessed is the man whom thou chastens, O Lord:Ps. 94:12;

·       All scripture is given for reproof, for correction:2 Tim. 3:16;

·       The Lord chastens those whom he loves:Heb. 12:5–11;

·       The Lord sees fit to chasten his people:Mosiah 23:21–22;

·       Except the Lord chasten his people, they will not remember him:Hel. 12:3;….

·       They were chastened that they might repent:D&C 1:27;

·       Whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven:D&C 95:1;

·       All those who will not endure chastening cannot be sanctified:D&C 101:2–5;

·       My people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience:D&C 105:6;

·       He that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom:D&C 136:31;

I’m okay at receiving constructive feedback in some things, but in other things I am not so great.  I suppose I will have to some careful self-analysis about that in preparation for improvement.

I like what the D&C says, not just about chastisement, but about how we should respond.

31 My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom.

32 Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear;

33 For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly. (D&C 136: 31-33)

Sometimes reproof and chastisement comes because we are ignorant. We don’t know what we don’t know and we don’t know how to make it better.  I like that the above scripture says that if we humble ourselves and pray for the Lord to help us see, the Lord will enlighten us.  The Lord is both gentle and powerful when He enlightens.  The times He has enlightened my ignorance about what I’ve done, it has not caused me pain, but it has deeply impressed me as to the importance of changing and doing things differently such that I become very motivated.

..with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you— (D&C 95:1)

I love how this scripture is so similar to 1 Nephi 3:7.  Just like the Lord prepares a way for us to keep the commandments He gives, He also prepares a way for us to be delivered from temptation when we are chastised.  

Another spiritual principle we can see in from Hadfield’s experience is that our painful experience can be very helpful in preventing others from getting into difficulty and can help others get out of it.  I’ve heard of how sharing in a safe environment is an important part of addiction recovery meetings.  I know I have been helped by all those who have shared their struggles with me and how they’ve overcome them.  If we look carefully in the gospels, we can find instances where Jesus shares principle of resisting temptation.   

This leads me to a question that I’ll pass on to you:  What do you think is the difference between sharing experience with sin and escaping it in order to help others  versus dwelling it and wallowing in it, as we’ve been instructed not to do?

Bonus insight: What might the NASA debriefing meetings tell us about the kind of accountability interview we might have on Judgment Day?  If the lives of astronauts are so valuable that so much effort is made to keep them safe, and if their technical decisions on spaceflights are so important that they are hashed over so carefully, then what does that say about what awaits us on the other side considering God has told us near the beginning of this dispensation that the worth of souls (our own and others) is great in the sight of God?   Also consider Jesus’s words here: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36).

I can't end without noting how awesome it is that the Lord helps us with all stages of repentance. He brings about chastisement and reproof so we can realize we've sinned.  He has given us our conscience so we can have an inner connection to Him, no matter what spiritual stage we're at.  He invites us to repent.  He gives us this time of probation in mortality in which to repent before the full consequences of judgment come. He promises and gives enlightenment if we're not sure what to do instead or how exactly we're off.  He takes our sins when we have faith in Him. He helps deliver us from temptation.  He gives us grace to overcome.    

How wonderful that we can repent!

New lessons from Isaiah’s words about a book that is sealed

I was reading along in Isaiah and I hit those verses in Isaiah 29 that in our church are commonly spoken of as referring to the behavior of Charles Anthon concerning the gold plates—“I cannot [read them]; for it is sealed” and I wondered if there might be more meaning to be gotten from this section if we think of it also as though Isaiah were speaking of the people in his day.

10 For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

13 ¶Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:10-14)

If we shift our perspective to see what Isaiah was saying to his own people, we can see that Isaiah came down hard on those who had become so blind and deaf to the truth that when they read the scriptures—that which Isaiah calls “the vision of all” the prophets—they had no idea what any of it meant.  It was a sealed book to them.

Furthermore, this sad state was everywhere in his society.  If Isaiah took the scriptures to someone who was learned and asked them to read it and tell him what it meant, the learned said, “I don’t know” because it was beyond his comprehension… or perhaps the learned didn’t want to believe the things in it that condemned his favorite sins, so he would tie himself in interpretive knots and eventually have to give up and confess he didn’t know.

On the other hand, if Isaiah took the scriptures to the unlearned, and asked him to interpret them, the unlearned made excuses that he didn’t have the training and thereby justified himself in not reading it at all.

So from top to bottom, no one in Isaiah’s day knew the scriptures.  And yet, they claimed to draw close to God.  What can you say about a society that claims they are close to God but who don’t understand or read the scriptures?  They are actually far from God and are learning and believing the precepts of men instead.

And God can’t have this.  He can’t let it go on forever, so He cleans things up with chastisements and punishments and so forth.  If the people could understand how God really works, they would know what He was doing and be comforted, but because their views are so twisted, it is going to look to them like something horrible is happening.  It will look like God has forsaken His people completely.  That’s quite a marvelous work and wonder, for God to work and yet for His people to think He’s completely missing from the world’s arena.  It’s a mystery what God is doing; no one sees it or understands.  The wise man’s wisdom can’t account for it, and the prudent men are found to be anything but.

While the prophecy about Charles Anthon happened once, this other view continues to be useful to us today because it warns us how important it is to understand the scriptures and live by their righteous principles.  We must not let the words of the prophets become like a sealed book to us.

Elsewhere in the same chapter, there are words of hope for those who study the scriptures and try to live by them:

18 ¶And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness….

24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.  (Isaiah 29:18-24)

Isaiah 9 - 10 in Pictures

So we have three different images that are combined together here, from three different sections of Isaiah 9.
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6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7, emphasis added)

That should be pretty familiar to us.

The next one is where Isaiah skewers the pride of the people.

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8 ¶The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.

9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,

10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.  (Isaiah 9:8-10, emphasis added)

The people are so stiffnecked that they don't see the destruction they've already suffered as chastisement.  They only look at it as an opportunity to build bigger and better.  Repentance isn't even on their radar.

 Third image in the drawing..

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13 ¶For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.

14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. (Isaiah 9:13-16, emphasis added)

From the first drawing of this set:

18 ¶For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:  (Isaiah 9:18-20, emphasis added)

That's a pretty strong principle there in v18 -- "Wickedness burneth as the fire."  Wickedness is destructive, even leading to cruelty in families.  It is strongly marked by selfishness and dissatisfaction. 

For the image about injustice:

1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 10:1-4, emphasis added)

Simply put, judges who make unrighteous and unjust decisions that take away rights will eventually suffer from injustice themselves.

For the image about the Assyrian attack against Judah:

5 ¶O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets….

12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks….

15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire….

26 And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. (Isaiah 10:5-6, 12, 15-16, 26-27, emphasis added)

 In short, once the Lord is done using the Assyrians to chastise Israel, He will turn on the Assyrians and punish them for their pride.

The ark of God is taken by the Philistines

1 Samuel 4 describes how the Lord fulfilled the prophecy-warning given to Samuel about the distressing thing to be done to Israel and the removal of Eli and his sons.

The Israelites fight the Philistines and lose. (We have no idea what started this series of skirmishes.)  The Israelites decide the ark of the covenant can save them if they bring it to the battleground, and they get all excited and shout.  The Philistines hear and remember how the Lord plagued Egypt and their morale drops, but they decide to fight their best anyway, and they end up not just beating the Israelites but capturing the ark.  In the battle, Eli’s sons are killed, since they were with the ark.

Naturally, the Israelites are beside themselves with distress at this news.  There is much crying, so much so that the whole city Eli was in (Shiloh) was filled with that noise.  Eli gets the message, and falls and breaks his neck and dies.  When his daughter-in-law hears, she goes into early labor and dies saying the glory of Israel was departed.

Here's what the elders say in reaction to their first defeat by the Philistines, which leads them to call for the ark:

Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. (1 Samuel 4:3)

It seems they recognized that if the Lord was allowing the Philistines to beat them, then the Lord was smiting them.  But instead of taking that admittedly good reasoning to the next stage and concluding they had sinned and needed to repent, they decided to use the ark of the covenant as a religious shield.  They probably reasoned that the Lord would be afraid to allow His ark to be captured, so the Israelite armies would be saved if they brought the ark with them to battle.  And as we have seen, that was soooo wrong.  It was like waving a flag in front of a bull for the Lord’s own people to mock the Lord that way.

Based upon the way the Israelites treat the ark, it seems pretty plain that they had an attitude of complaisance that seems to have led them to act wrongly.

The ark was a token of God’s presence, glory, and power, but they seemed to think of it as a good luck charm to bring victory regardless of their righteousness.  This attitude might have built up over the period of years they saw Eli and his sons ministering in corruption with no divine judgment coming upon them.  They may have concluded after a while that righteousness wasn’t necessary to have the support of God.

God would know this and would be anxious to get rid of those false notions (in addition to the wicked priests) so that Israelite worship could be purified.

The Israelites probably remembered when the ark was carried with the armies across the Jordan river that parted and when it was carried around the city of Jerico and the walls fell down when the Lord fought for Israel.  Perhaps with the rarity of prophetic words in Eli’s days and the rarity of open vision it seemed as if miracles had ceased, and all had hoped to see those miracles begin again with taking the ark into battle.  They probably assumed having the ark would ensure miracles happened for their armies.  Yet Israel had fought many other battles with the Lord’s help when the ark wasn’t there and when the people were righteous.

How do the Israelites react to the ark’s capture?

--The messenger from the army rends his clothes and puts earth on his head to show his grief.

--The people at Shiloh cry out at the news.

--Eli falls off his stool at the gate at the news, breaks his neck, and dies.

--His daughter-in-law goes into early labor at the news and before dying, gives her baby a name conveying her sense of desolation.

The daughter-in-law of Eli gives birth to a son whom she names Ichabod, which literally translated (according to the footnote) means “Where is the glory?”  It is as if she sees the defeat and loss and death as a sign that the glory of God has departed from Israel and will never return again.  It is almost a cynical disillusioned throwing up of the hands, saying “What is the point?”

From one perspective, if we consider the wickedness of the priests and the people, the glory of God had departed long before that.  If they had been righteous, they would have been delivered in battle, even without the ark. 

The thing is, we see from the larger perspective that the whole distressing sequence was in fulfillment of the word of the Lord to Samuel.  The glory of God was there.  It had just departed from Eli and his house.  They had refused to see it for so long that they could not see it for what it was.

The Lord had told Samuel something disastrous was going to happen.  Remember that “I will make everyone’s ears tingle” and “I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken”?

That declaration ahead of time tells us the Lord knew the errors and sins of His people, He knew what He would do about it, and He also knew exactly what everyone’s reaction would be.  He wanted Samuel to know the Lord was behind it and that it was for a purpose, according to plan, and that when it happened he was not to think things were going horribly wrong, even though it would look that way.

And when you consider all the things that happened, all the circumstances that combined to bring about the fulfillment of that prophecy, you can’t help but see the Lord allowed it or was behind it. 

·      The wickedness of the priests contributed to the false ideas of the elders that the ark would bring them victory without needing to repent.  (In this way, wickedness created a way for its own destruction.) 

·      The Philistines were terrified of the ark considering the history of God fighting for Israel, and even though their morale was shot, they somehow summoned the courage to fight their best anyway, capturing the ark and killing the priests.  This was the hand of God using them as an instrument of chastisement against Israel and Eli’s sons. 

·      Eli died from a broken neck after falling backwards off a chair, a very unexpected way to die. 

·      And who would have thought that Eli’s daughter-in-law would suddenly go into early labor at the news and die in childbirth?  Death in childbirth is not unheard of, but added to those circumstances gives her a share in the judgment as well.

God used the loss of the ark to purge the tabernacle of bad priests and even a priest’s wife.  Who would have thought that the loss of the ark could have that effect?

Now, how can this story help us today?

I think it warns us to be careful not to buy into superstitions about holy things.  For example, we can avoid the same sorts of complacency about the temple and its grounds.  I once heard a story of someone getting shot on one of the temple’s grounds and bystanders had a hard time getting temple personnel to help because they just could not believe that violence had occurred on temple grounds!! 

We believe the temple is sacred space and is divinely protected, but if people going to the temple are not pure in heart, will it be a holy place?  If we profane it, can we expect protection there, spiritual or otherwise? 

The temples are built to last “through the millennium,” but that doesn’t mean God can’t destroy them with natural disasters if He chooses to.  And what if a temple is destroyed?  The sealing power is still on the earth and temples can be rebuilt.  The important thing is to stay repentant and keep a broken heart and contrite spirit.

We often hear the saying that the church will never again be taken from the earth.  That's great, but that doesn't mean each of us are guaranteed to remain a part of it.  If we don't keep a broken heart and contrite spirit, we will apostatize from it.  Also, there are warnings in 3 Nephi from the Savior Himself that if the Gentiles do not repent after the gospel they have received--implying the Gentiles have received the gospel and converted, but sin--the gospel will be taken from them and they will be trampled underfoot by a remnant of Jacob.

So again, the important thing is to stay repentant and keep a broken heart and contrite spirit.

Reflections on Lukewarm Laodicean Saints, Rev 3:14-18

I read these verses recently and something seemed to hit home for me.  They contain words John heard in a vision of Jesus Christ, who spoke messages to the Saints in Laodicea. 

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Rev. 3:14-18)

First, let’s look at verses 15-16.  We usually interpret these verses to mean that the Lord prefers us to be either for Him or against Him, but that He can’t stand our apathy.  But if we think more carefully, we see that this interpretation doesn’t quite work because it doesn’t make sense for Jesus to want someone to be a “cold” enemy.  He wants all to come to Him.  So we have to ask, “Why do both hot and cold seem to be preferable to lukewarm?” 

I got a little bit of a clue from Keith Krell’s online article at Bible.org called “How to Make Jesus Sick (Revelation 3:14-22).” (Kind of an off-putting title, but the article is good.)  In it he suggested that in these verses both cold and hot were positive terms for drink temperatures.  This made sense to me.  Both hot and cold drinks are helpful to us at different times.  Cold drinks are lovely when we have worked up a sweat and need to cool down, while hot drinks (hot chocolate, anyone?) are wonderful when we are cold and we need to raise our core body temperature.  Cold drinks refresh, and hot drinks warm. This suggests that there are “cold saints” and “hot saints” and that both are good. 

Okay, so how could “cold saints” be refreshing?  Well, when we are worried, busy, and wrought up, a “cold saint” is one of those serene people who would calm us down, help us understand that things will work out for the best, and remind us that Heavenly Father will help.  On the other side, when we are reluctant and sluggish, a “hot saint” is one that encourages us, reminds us of our duty and great privileges, who warms us to life and action, and helps us catch the fire again.  When we look at it this way, it is obvious we need both types of saints for the particular good they can do at the right moment! 

A lukewarm saint, however, is useless for either need because they are not enough of either.  They don’t have enough serenity to calm and reassure others, nor do they have enough warmth and passion to encourage and motivate.  We would do well to see where we fall on the continuum of hot and cold.

Okay.  What else did Jesus say to the Laodiceans?  It is clear that he sees their true situation and He also knows how they see their situation.  The two are polar opposites.  

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (v17)

The Laodiceans seem to think that things can’t get any better—they have wealth, they have plenty of goods, and they don’t need anything more from life.  But Jesus knows it is a showy sham.  He applies five adjectives to describe them:

1.     Wetched – of poor quality or condition, very unhappy, morally reprehensible, deserving or inciting pity, having physical misery

2.     Miserable—very unhappy or uncomfortable, of the most contemptible kind, contemptibly small in amount.

3.     Poor—having little money or few possessions

4.     Blind—unable to see, unable or unwilling to perceive and understand

5.     Naked—unclothed, without protecting or concealing cover

I suspect that “poor” was meant to refer to the size of their store of treasures in heaven, that “blind” meant they couldn’t see their own condition for the tragedy it was, and that “naked” meant that their sins were obvious, had not been repented of, and thus had not been covered by the Atonement.

I have to say here that if we’re in comfortable circumstances, it is very easy to become like the Laodiceans.  And even if we’re not in a cushy place, that cushy ideal is a big part of the programming in our societal messages, the place we aim for.  Can we imagine ourselves rejecting that ideal?  I wish I could say that I was independent of it, but I sadly, I realize that it is part of me to the extent that when I try to imagine myself without it, I feel odd, a bit unmoored and at sea.

To remedy the situation, Jesus counsels the saints of Laodicea to buy from Him (and He is the only source) the following:

·      “gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich” – If Jesus is the only source of this gold, then it is highly symbolic, referring to the refinement of the soul. Through this expression we learn the principle that the refining of our soul through trials is what makes us rich.  These are the kinds of riches that can’t be stolen.

·      “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear”—The white clothing is purity and we buy it from Christ through repentance and then He covers our sins.

·      “anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see”—Jesus wants to heal our perspective so we can see the spiritual realities of life.

If we notice, the counsel Jesus gives is meant to address the three conditions of “poor,” “blind,” and “naked.”   I imagine the conditions of misery and wretchedness would naturally take care of itself.

It seems to me that the remedies Jesus lists have to be done in a certain order.  First the eyesalve so we can see our status for what it really is, then the white clothing as we repent, and then the gold tried in the fire, as we become better through our trials. 

At bottom, Jesus used a different standard to measure the Loadiceans’ lives from the one they used for themselves, and His standard was based on different priorities from the world.  To the Laodiceans, the ideal was wealth, security, and needing nothing.  To Christ, the ideal was to be refined by trials and purified while keeping an eternal perspective. 

In what ways can we reach more toward Christ's standard?  I think paying tithing and fast offerings is one way that we demonstrate that; can you think of any other things?