The sign of the jubilee years in Isaiah 37

In Isaiah 36, kingdom of Judah was confronted with an invasion by the Assyrians, who did their best to demoralize them with statements about how there was no way their God could save them, since no other gods saved the other nations the Assyrians destroyed.

In Isaiah 37, when King Hezekiah of Judah heard it, he took the national troubles to the Lord and prayed that the Lord would save Judah so that the Assyrians would know Judah’s God really was God.

Then, Isaiah came to tell King Hezekiah that the Lord would answer his prayer and he was to send a message back to the Assyrians with the following sense:  1) You’ve blasphemed against God, and we scorn you, 2) Our God got you where you are today, so of course the other nations were not strong enough to stand up to you, 3) God knows where you live and everything about you. (Implication: You’re in for it now!)

Then without warning, Isaiah shifts into a message for King Hezekiah, and this caught my attention:

And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. (Isaiah 37:30)

What is this?

It is nothing less than a promise from the Lord that He will feed the people of Judah for 2 years with whatever crops grow all by themselves with no cultivation.  It is essentially a proclamation of a Sabbath year and a Jubilee year, one right after the other. 

If you remember, the Sabbath year was every seventh year when the land was to rest, and the Jubilee year was the 50^th year, or after 7 Sabbath years had happened, and it was meant to be a time of deliverance from debt.  So to have these two years was a message of rest and deliverance to the whole nation in a way that would could be appreciated for days and weeks and months…  It was a also a tender mercy; after all, one can’t be planting and cultivating when one’s land is under siege from invaders.   But it would also require their faith for them to experience the rest.  They had to believe that it would be all right.

What a great blessing!  The Lord through the prophet didn’t just speak assurance to the king, He also gave assurance to the common man who would be very worried about how their livelihood was being disrupted by the invasion of the Assyrians.  In an environment of tension and worries about captivity, death, and famine, God gave a promise of sustained rest and deliverance and providence.

I think the lesson from this is that if we turn to the Lord in our troubles, He will have mercy on us and help us in miraculous ways.  Sometimes through tender mercies, sometimes through great miracles, always in ways that we need.  No trouble is to great or too small.  No station is too high or too low to be blessed, whether king or commoner.

All wholesome herbs God hath ordained

I’m revisiting D&C 89 and some things stuck out to me.

And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man— (D&C 89:10)

This time through I noticed the word “wholesome.” It is interesting that this verse does not say that all herbs are wholesome; it says all wholesome herbs are ordained for man. So we learn that there must be certain herbs that are NOT wholesome and do not promote mental, spiritual, and physical health.

Something else that sticks out to me is the list at the end of the verse: “for the constitution, nature, and use of man.” I ask myself why use all three of those words—constitution, nature, and use—and not just one of them. To study them better it seemed like it might be easier to think about them individually if I were to pull them apart.

For the constitution of man
For the nature of man
For the use of man

Where’s my dictionary? (Michaela rummages around in her shelves) Okay, got it.

constitution of man

Obviously in this context it is not the founding document of the United States that is meant. The dictionary says that constitution is “the physical makeup, the structure, composition, or nature of something.” So we learn (and nutritionists can show) that the chemical make-up of wholesome herbs is such that humans can consume them and be nourished, and they contain what we need. The verse shows us that God planned it that way.

nature of man

“Nature” in this context means “the basic quality or character of a person or thing, or the disposition, temperament, or natural feeling in one’s attitude.” This shows us that wholesome herbs are adapted to appeal to humanity’s taste and smell. They are calculated to be beautiful so that we want to eat them. I see this is true as I find myself most attracted to salads with lots of color and texture. I love the broad rich green leaves of spinach, the bright orange of carrots, the deep reds of tomatoes and bell peppers, the yellow of corn. I like the red outside of radishes and their bright white inside. I love the purple cabbages and the stringiness of alfalfa sprouts. I could go on all day about avocados, strawberries, pomegranates, peaches, garlic, onions, celery, and so on. (Yeah, I know, I’m naming some fruits with the vegetables, but if we’re talking about beautiful and tasty, fruits deserve to be mentioned too!)

use of man

“Use” is such a basic word, but if I’m looking at definitions, I might as well do this one too. It means “to put into action or employ, to consume, to carry out a purpose by means of something, to behave towards.” This suggests that wholesome herbs may have good uses beyond that of food. We use extracts and essences, we make perfumes, medicines, flavors and spices. We use plants as decoration, filtration, shade, erosion protection, soil renewal, and more. We even make clothes out of them.

In studying this verse, I can see God’s wisdom in providing food for us with His creations. He knows about body chemistry and plant chemistry and He knows what nourishes and what doesn’t. He wants us to learn that too, so the next verse says this:

Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving. (D&C 89:11)

Prudence means “the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason, discretion and shrewdness in the management of affairs, skill and good judgment in the use of resources, caution, circumspection.” We develop good judgment when we learn of the health benefits of wholesome herbs and fruits.

We know the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but do we know what nutrients apples have and what else we should eat to make up for what apples have less of? I don’t. It seems to me that I need to learn more of this kind of thing so that I can make my cooking and eating decisions with more prudence, rather than relying so much on mere enthusiasm.

The Lord also wants us to use wholesome herbs and fruits with thanksgiving and to appreciate them at their full value. I sense that this can be done best if we learn of their qualities and health effects. I believe that the more I learn and do these things, the more I will see good herbs and fruits as something great and I will thank Heavenly Father for them.

What herbs and fruits have you learned about that have helped you better appreciate them and use them wisely?

Image: cornucopia.jpg, http://www.cordondorcuisine.com/newirishgallery.html.

Feeding our friends at midnight

5 And he [Jesus] said unto them [his disciples], Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Luke 11:5-10)

This is an interesting parable because we know that it is teaching us to pray, but the situation Jesus describes in the parable is less familiar to us than the meaning behind it. Yet there are things that can be picked out from this parable that bring it closer to something more familiar to us.

It struck me that this perfectly describes those times when friends come to us in the middle of a very dark and difficult time and they want help. It is as though they have been traveling at night and they’ve gotten to “midnight”--the darkest time of their affliction--and they just can’t go on any more. And they want answers. And we want to say something that helps them, something that nourishes their soul. They need the bread of life and while we’ve taken care of our own spiritual needs, we haven’t prepared anything specifically for them, so we’re not ready. They come so suddenly, you see.

So what do we do? We say those hurried silent prayers for help that the Lord will give us the words to say--the bread of life--for us to give to our tired friends. But unlike the friend in the parable who had already put his household to bed, who had closed his door, and who protested before giving, the Lord stands ready to give as much as we need.

Notice that each person in the parable was a friend. Even if our friend comes to us instead of going directly to the Lord, the Lord is still their friend as well as ours. In coming to us, they actually give us a chance to advocate for them to the Lord and become a type of Christ.

I think this parable is very widely applicable. It describes how we can help people in deep distress when they come to us. It describes how church leaders counsel with members. It’s the essence of successful visiting teaching and home teaching. It describes how parents can teach their children when/if their children come to them with serious questions and worries. It is the epitome of “helpmeet” in the spousal relationship (and goes both ways).

What if the words that come to us don’t seem to help them? Was it the wrong thing? The rest of the scripture seems to answer this.

11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:11-13)

This affirms that if we say the words the Lord gives us, then it will be the nourishing answers that are needed, whether the hearer takes it that way or not. (This is very comforting to me because I have had many times when I knew I was saying the right thing, but it wasn’t accepted.)

Will you share an experience with me of a time when someone helped you through a hard time by sharing with you some of the “bread of life”?

Image: Bohemian diary, http://iamembracinglife.blogspot.com/2010/08/surprise-candlelight-dinner.html.

Water to Wine: an Object Lesson about Repentance and Obedient Service

Consider the symbolic nature of how Christ performed this miracle.

1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, [what wilt thou have me to do for thee? that will I do; for] mine hour is not yet come.
5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. (John 2:1-11, JST bracketed)

When I was reading this today with my husband, the bit about how the waterpots were used by the Jews for purifying struck me. I remembered how the law of Moses had so much about washing things in order to mark the transition from ritual uncleanness to cleanliness. With so much concern about the difference between the clean and unclean, a careful observing Israelite would have to have a lot of water handy all the time to take care of those little slips into uncleanness. So large storage waterpots were necessary.

I had a feeling that Jesus was even here trying to teach something through this miracle, which would explain His use of those waterpots. So I tried to imagine some kind of modern equivalent. Imagine there is a wedding reception going on in the cultural hall and the punch runs out. Jesus’s miracle might be something like making more punch out of water from a filled baptismal font. If we see it this way, we can understand the message He wanted to send. Since wine is often associated with joy and gladness in the scriptures, Jesus may have been trying to teach that the best happiness and joy come from purification (repentance). To the servants who saw the governor of the feast drink what they had seen was only recently water used for purification purposes, He may also have been trying to show the necessity for inward purification more than outward cleanliness.

Another thing I though of: the first round of wine could have been symbolic of the law of Moses. It was adequate, but those who had tasted it didn’t know it wasn’t that great until they were given something better—the new covenant, something completely transformed and transcendant. It is also interesting that the governor of the feast was practically blaming the bridegroom for holding back on them. (Do we blame the bridegroom-Christ for holding back on us? How ready are we?)

Yet another way of looking at this story is from the perspective of the servants.

Mary tells the servants, “Whatever [Jesus] tells you to do, do it.” This is a great reminder for everyone who serves the Lord. Obedience is the first law of heaven.

Jesus has the servants fill the waterpots to the brim. This could be compared to how we must fill ourselves with the living water. Then Jesus tells the servants to draw out some of that water and take it to the governor of the feast. This could be compared to how teachers take their lessons to their classes.

It is interesting that this story NEVER says exactly when the water actually became wine. (We may never know unless there is some revelation about it.) Consider what the servants may have been thinking if Jesus had asked them to carry what looks like jars of water to the governor of the feast. They may have thought, But it’s just water! This isn’t what they want! This is a great teaching moment for the disciples to see that what they draw of the living water and bring to the people ends up being better than what the people thought they were going to get and far better than what the servants may have thought it was going to be. This shows those of us who are preparing talks and lessons that though we may feel like what we’re bringing is inadequate, the power of God can transform it into exactly what is needed, exceeding all expectations.

Here’s something else that occurred to me as I was considering how the servants may have felt about taking what looked like water to the governor of the feast. Because the scriptures never actually say when the transformation occurred, perhaps the water wasn’t transformed into red wine. Perhaps it changed into white wine, which looks clear-to-light-yellowish. (I looked up “white wine” on Google Images, and that’s what the pictures show—clear-to-light-yellow, which may have been the same color as their water..) If so, then the only way to know it was wine was to taste it (or smell it?) This suggest to us that the only way we may know whether a lesson is good or not is to taste it by hearing it. “Doth not the ear try words? And the mouth taste his meat?” (Job 12:11)

In summary, through this miracle, Jesus taught the joy that comes from repentance. It also shows us how the power of God can change our weak efforts as servants into something that exceeds all expectation.

3 Nephi 18, 20: Jesus teaches different lessons through the sacrament

There are two different instances of Jesus administering the sacrament to people in the Book of Mormon and I recently noticed that the contexts were different and that Jesus used the act to teach different lessons.

1 And it came to pass that Jesus commanded his Disciples that they should bring forth some bread and wine unto him.
2 And while they were gone for bread and wine, he commanded the multitude that they should sit themselves down upon the earth.
3 And when the Disciples had come with bread and wine, he took of the bread and brake and blessed it; and he gave unto the Disciples and commanded that they should eat.
4 And when they had eaten and were filled, he commanded that they should give unto the multitude.
5 And when the multitude had eaten and were filled, he said unto the Disciples: Behold there shall one be ordained among you, and to him will I give power that he shall break bread and bless it and give it unto the people of my church, unto all those who shall believe and be baptized in my name.
6 And this shall ye always observe to do, even as I have done, even as I have broken bread and blessed it and given it unto you.
7 And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.
8 And it came to pass that when he said these words, he commanded his Disciples that they should take of the wine of the cup and drink of it, and that they should also give unto the multitude that they might drink of it.
9 And it came to pass that they did so, and did drink of it and were filled; and they gave unto the multitude, and they did drink, and they were filled.
10 And when the Disciples had done this, Jesus said unto them: Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done, for this is fulfilling my commandments, and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you.
11 And this shall ye always do to those who repent and are baptized in my name; and ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you, that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you. (3 Nephi 18:1-11, emphasis added)

I learned something very interesting recently from one of the talking heads in the DVD “Reflections of Christ”*. In this incident of the sacrament, Jesus points out that they should eat in remembrance of the body that He had shown unto them. It was noted that here Jesus was making the sacrament a symbol of the tangibleness of the resurrection.

I thought that was very enlightening, since so many times I’ve read through that part and my mind would just assume that Jesus was drawing a comparison to His body that had been “bruised, broken, and torn for us”, creating a symbol of the crucifixion. (And we certainly could take it that way.) But now, I realize than in our sacrament prayers, the words are “that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee” (Mormon 4:3) and there is no mention of the ordeal of crucifixion in this particular prayer. It simply asks us to remember His body, which could suggest two different things for us today. First, it should help us remember the condescension of God, that Christ became mortal for us. Second, it should help us remember that Christ was resurrected and regained His body.

I find this gives an expanded meaning to the sacrament. Not only does it remind us of Christ’s Atonement and death, but it reminds us of His mortal condescension and His resurrection! It symbolically encompasses His whole mission.

Now, interestingly enough, there is this other time when Christ administered the sacrament to the Nephites during His visit. There are some different circumstances, and Christ uses those circumstances to expand on the sacramental symbols.

3 And it came to pass that he brake bread again and blessed it, and gave to the disciples to eat.
4 And when they had eaten he commanded them that they should break bread, and give unto the multitude.
5 And when they had given unto the multitude he also gave them wine to drink, and commanded them that they should give unto the multitude.
6 Now, there had been no bread, neither wine, brought by the disciples, neither by the multitude;
7 But he truly gave unto them bread to eat, and also wine to drink.
8 And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.
9 Now, when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard. (2 Nephi 20:3-9, emphasis added)

It has always seemed interesting to me that Christ provided the bread and wine miraculously. This is like feeding-the-five-thousand redux, only better. The thing I realized today was that He was using the miraculous providence to draw a comparison for them similar to what He did in the New Testament with His bread of life speech to the Jews; He was strongly tying it to an awareness of the miracle of the manna in the Old Testament. Just like manna came down from heaven, Jesus came down to the Nephites from heaven. Just like the manna miraculously fed the children of Israel, Jesus miraculously provided bread and wine for the Nephites. And just like the manna filled the children of Israel when they were hungry, Jesus promised the Nephites that those who partook ate to their souls and their souls would never hunger or thirst but be filled. This was the promise of satisfying a deep soul-hunger. And we see in verse 9 that this promise was fulfilled; the Nephites were filled with the Spirit and were couldn’t refrain from shouting praises to Jesus.

Jesus used this miracle to teach in a stronger way what the promise of the sacrament was. The first time they were all agog over His resurrected body, so He pointed out how the bread was to remind them of it. The second time, He miraculously provided the bread and wine and while the people were amazed by that, He taught how they would be filled with soul-satisfaction that was just as miraculous as the way the bread and wine was provided. The manna came from heaven, the bread and wine Jesus provided came from heaven, and the Holy Spirit came from heaven. Hunger satisfied, hunger satisfied, and… soul-hunger satisfied.

* I can't say enough good about this DVD. It really helps to bring to life the Savior's visit to the Americas. It makes an excellent Family Home Evening lesson. (Disclosure: I am not associated in any way with the makers of the DVD or those that sell it, and I am not receiving any compensation for this endorsement.)

Feeding the Five Thousand versus the Leaven of Pharisees

5 And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6 ¶ Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. (Matthew 16:5-12)

This little bit always puzzled me. I just didn’t understand how Christ would explain His beware-the-Pharisee’s-leaven speech by referring to the miracle of feeding the five thousand and the leftovers that they collected afterwards.

So I went back to the beginning of this story and thought about why Christ may have said those words in the first place. It seemed to have arisen over the apostle’s realization that they had forgotten to take bread. (I don’t know whether this meant the apostles had forgotten to eat or whether the apostles had forgotten to pack their lunch.) But it suddenly occurred to me that Christ tended to use ordinary happenings to teach important principles and that this might be one of those cases. He wouldn’t have said what He did if there hadn’t been an important idea to impress upon the apostles.

The circumstance was that the apostles were hungry. I think Christ knew that there were different kinds of hunger besides physical hunger. He knew that the apostles would have times when they were spiritually hungry as well. It is hard for us to imagine that apostles could be spiritually hungry, but we have to remember Christ’s words elsewhere: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). This indicates that the apostles, by virtue of their character, were destined to experience this hunger very often.

Hungry people have to get food somewhere. But where? “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Christ wanted to make sure that the apostles didn’t go to any old source for spiritual nourishment, particularly the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had blunted the effect of the law of Moses through their corrupted traditions. That source was tainted.

Of course the apostles were thinking with their stomachs and so Christ’s words seemed strange to them. They figured He was a little irritated that they hadn’t brought bread with them in the first place. If they perceived Christ’s spiritual message even dimly, they probably thought He just meant that they should make sure to always be spiritually full.

I realized that Christ knew it was impossible to be spiritually full all the time, and He wouldn’t warn them away from the doctrine of the Pharisees and Saducees without giving them a better alternative. This is why He reminded them of the miracle of feeding the five thousand. Just like the food to feed all those people was produced miraculously—essentially coming down from heaven like manna—nourishing doctrine would come to them from heaven right when they needed it. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). That fullness would come through revelation and inspiration. They were to depend on God to fill them with doctrine.

Volunteering at the cannery

Today I volunteered at the Mesa wet pack cannery. With hair net, rubber gloves, earplugs, 20-second soaped hands.. We bottled maple syrup. I don’t know whether it was the real stuff or not. We bottled syrup for 4 ½ hours. My job was to put a little red cap on the bottle and give just one twist. It couldn’t be too tight. That’s what I did for four hours by a conveyor belt, and my pant legs around my ankles got completely soaked from all the water that was dripping of the conveyor belt. (It had to be mechanically sprayed down to keep it from getting uncleanably sticky from any spilled syrup.) I was sooooo glad that this kind of assembly line work is not my day job!

It was really interesting how we were oriented to the job. They showed a 9 minute video that started out with the really well known comedy sketch of Lucille Ball scrambling to wrap chocolates on an assembly line and getting totally backed up as the conveyor belt whizzed by at high speed. (Hilarious and painful to watch at the same time.) Then the video switched to showing the church’s wet pack canning, with lots of inspiring music. As a viewer I got the feeling that this operation was not a hurry-hurry type of thing and that it was more worker friendly. We saw people working factory equipment. We saw people smiling. We saw lots of bottles of food. Then the scope of the video began to include other parts of the church welfare program. We saw people weeding fields of crops. We saw people working at Deseret Industries. We saw people in Africa getting boxes of donated clothes. We saw people shopping at the bishop’s storehouse. We saw families eating. We saw a whole bunch of these things in really short clips one after another, bam, bam, bam, and I started to feel overwhelmed by the wonder of all of it. I thought, Man, if the Lord gave me a heavenly vision of the whole scope of the church’s welfare program, I think this is exactly what I would see! And that’s when it hit me that it was important for me to have this vision, this global view of the great work I would be engaged in so that I could appreciate it as more than just some piddle-y mind-numbing task, and the video was meant to give that vision to everybody.

You may think I’m a complete dweeb, but I was so inspired by what I saw that the first two hours I worked away quite happily, amusing myself by singing hymns.

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Make this stone into bread...

1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luke 4:1-4)

This is one of those episodes that we read over really quick and we assume that we know exactly what it means. “Duh! Man needs more than food to live! Man needs the word of God! Okay, next!”

Today, I ran across this incident in my reading and I noticed something that didn’t quite make sense to me. Christ is hungry after fasting 40 days. (it just boggles my mind that someone could fast for that long!) The devil is quick to offer a solution—“You’re the Son of God; just make some stones into bread!” I didn’t get why Christ resists this temptation by saying that He needs something else—the word of God--to live too. As if He says, "Yeah, so what? I'd rather read my scriptures right now."

I'm thinking, "Yes, you need the word of God, but right now, you are physically hungry!! How is the word of God going to solve that?! You might DIE!! What good is a Savior that lets Himself die of hunger!?"

A-ha! But if Christ is really the offspring of God and a mortal woman, then He won’t die…unless He decides it is time. No one could take His life from Him without His consent, no physical privation or stress could make His spirit leave that tabernacle unless He agreed to go. He had complete freedom to decide when and where and under what circumstances He would give up the ghost. (If He didn’t, how could His death be a voluntary sacrifice?)

How would Christ know when it was time to die? He had to have guidance about this, because so much depended upon it. He got that guidance from the word of God, both through personal revelation and the prophecies recorded in the scriptures. He lived by the word of God.

So when His stomach told Him that He was going to die if He didn’t eat immediately, and the temptation to change rocks to food came, because Christ knew His own nature and destiny and was committed to it, He knew being hungry wouldn’t kill Him. So, if hunger couldn’t kill Him, the body could wait a little longer for Him to get some bread the right way.

So what does this mean for us today? I consider this story of Christ valuable, because it shows that even a very urgent biological need can be put off a little while longer. It shows me that we can ignore the alarms of our biological clocks and live by the Lord’s schedule. We can refrain from sexual intimacy until He says it is right, and the Lord says it is right between a man and a woman lawfully married. We don’t have to eat all the time when we are hungry. If the Lord asks us to wait, it is for our good.

Epiphany on the Sacrament

Devon and I got in a discussion about the sacrament as he was preparing for his primary lesson.

I started thinking about the symbolism and realized that that piece of bread symbolized Christ's flesh and that water symbolized Christ's blood that had been shed for my sins.

I held out my hand and in it I visualized a piece of flesh torn from Christ's body and a little cup of His blood and thought, "That is the price of my sins."

I thought about whether I could possibly dare to commit sin if I knew that my best friend was going to have to pay for it with a chunk of flesh and a cup of blood and I knew then that I could never do it.

If anytime I was tempted to sin if only I could remember that flesh and blood torn for me, I wouldn't ever want to sin.

And then I realized that is precisely what we covenant to do in the sacrament--to always remember Christ and his suffering for us and the effects of our sin on him. (Michaela runs out of the room crying)

The sacrament will never be the same for me again.