Genesis 18-23: ”Abraham & Isaac”

When the Lord I believe. Thou mine unbelief. May our testimonies as that of Jacob, who when confronted by one who His faith declared, I could not be shaken. Hello my friends. So glad to be back with you. I'm Jared Halverson. This is Unshaken. And if you love deep dives into scripture, then you're in the right place. Today we're going to dive into Genesis 18 to 23, the second half of what we started last week with Abraham and Sarah.

If there was ever a couple that deserved two weeks worth of study and two very long lessons, it's those two. The father and mother of the faithful, uh those to whom we're supposed to look uh by way of example. Last week we ended with circumcision as the token of the covenant. And today we'll pick up where that where we left off. Chapter 18 is

Uh the covenant renewed specifically to Sarah. Then 19, we'll see this destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Twenty, Sarah goes through a second round of a test that we saw last week. Twenty-one, then Isaac is finally born, just to be nearly sacrificed in twenty-two, and then twenty-three is the death of Sarah. And so some really important things to talk about today. I I really pray that the Holy Ghost will help us through it because there are some issues we'll we'll discuss today that

Oh, I think we'd probably prefer to dance around and yet rather than dance around them we need to really wrestle with them. Uh and so pray for the Holy Ghost to be our companion as we as we dig into scripture.

So without any further ado, chapter eighteen, verse one, the Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. I mean you never know w just when God is going to pay you a visit. You might just be sitting there in your tent door, just one other hot, blistery day, and yet the Lord decides today is a day to manifest my hand in your life. So keep an eye out for that.

In verse two, Abraham lifted up his eyes and he looked, and lo three men stood by him, and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground. We don't really get an indication in the Genesis account. of exactly who these three men are. But Abraham seems to recognize them or at least recognize their importance. Uh notice the the verbs. He runs, he bows. There's some speed on his part that we'll keep seeing. Uh there is a sense of

of worshipfulness or at least of humility before these three. There's a Joseph Smith translation later on in this story that identifies them simply as this the angels which were holy men and were sent forth after the order of God. So true messengers sent from God, authorized by him with priesthood authority, after his order, to go do his work.

Well, whatever their specific identity. In verse three, he says to them, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Please don't leave. There's a sense that we'll see in just a moment that well, you probably didn't come for me. There's humility on Abraham's part. You probably have more important people to visit than little old me. But please stay for a while. Stay at least long enough for me to show to you the respect that I know you deserve.

It reminds me a little bit of thirty Nephi seventeen when Jesus is about to leave after that first day of of ministering among the Nephites, and they look upon him as if they would ask him to tarry. They can't even bring themselves to actually ask it. But Jesus is good at reading body language and understanding the desires of the heart, and so he chooses to stay. And here Abraham is asking for a similar blessing. Pass not away. I hope that we feel that way when God's servants pay us a visit.

I hope we feel that way with general conference, like no, the fifth session session's almost over. No, pass not away. I hope we feel that with with our own local leaders as they teach us, or our ministering sisters or ministering brothers. I know that you are sent by God, so stay, tarry. Oh t' abide with me,'tis even tide, another story with that same lesson.

Now verse 4 and 5, notice what Abraham is doing by way of hospitality. And it's important that we understand hospitality, especially from an ancient Near Eastern perspective. I lived in Texas for seven years as a kid and Tennessee for eight years as an adult. And so I got fifteen years of South in me. And uh Southern hospitality is a real thing. But if you think the South uh the Southern United States is famous for hospitality, in the ancient Near East it was a matter of life and death.

Uh to think of such an inhospitable climb, you need very hospitable inhabitants. Or you might not survive your journeys. Uh you never know when it's going to be you in the desert seeking bread and water to survive. And so if someone else comes through, it it's up to you to give them whatever you can to help them on their journey. Sound a little like life? There are times where mortality can feel like a very inhospitable place. And taking care of one another.

really is a life and death kind of requirement for each of us. Abraham and we'll see it again uh next week uh with his servant when meeting Rebecca. Th there's so many great examples of this kind of hospitality. We'll see it e even in we'll see it in Lot in the next chapter. So keep an eye out for this and be thinking, how can I be similarly hospitable? to strangers on their way.

Through mortality. They depend on that. We will too. So verse four and five, he says to them, Let a little water I pray you be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your heart. After that ye shall pass on, for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

Again there's that sign of humility. D you can then pass on because I'm sure that's that's the only reason you're here is some kind of quick pit stop, a a refueling station, since you're probably on to bigger and more important missions. He notice he says a l uh some water, just a little, uh bread, just a morsel. I wonder again if that's him simply being humble.

Uh it's like when we we give someone the best that we have, but think, oh this I I'm so sorry that it's not more. I'm sorry I can't give you what you deserve. But then I mean in some ways it's our uh offering our loaves and our fishes. Father, this is the best we have. Or, stranger, I'm trying to give you whatever you need, even if it's just a little water and a morsel of bread. But notice what he does when they finally agree to tarry awhile.

Verse six. Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, make cakes upon the hearth. I laugh there because I think I I picture Sarah looking at him going, honey, I've been cooking for you for nearly a century now. I know how to make food. I wonder if Abraham is a little nervous, a little overwhelmed by the caliber of guests that they are entertaining. So he's trying to explain to his sweet wife how to make food.

Anyway, meanwhile, while she's doing that, Abraham, verse 7 and 8, runs unto his herd, he fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it unto a young man, one of his servants. He hasted to dress it. He took butter and milk and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

Notice they did eat, not Abraham. He seems to just be standing there at the ready, eager to serve them, to to fill up their cups, or to g to give them seconds. This is s this is a self sacrificial servant. This is someone who's more concerned about others than he is about himself. Again, no wonder God chooses him as the father of the faithful. But also i in the in the spirit of that kind of hospitality.

Look at the verbs. We're gonna do a little lesson on the grammar of God here. I have learned over my years of scripture study that if you stop and and savor the language, literally, go into the grammar of God. There are insights just waiting for you. So let's look at some verbs, an adverb, some nouns, some adjectives, okay? I hope you don't hear your high school English teacher uh laughing in the distance that we don't remember our parts of speech. Well, either way. How about this for verb?

He ran. He hastened. He hasted. Earlier on when he first sees them, he runs. He bows. There's this sense of of speed. I want to meet your needs as quickly as I can. You are a priority to me. If those are the verbs, how about the adverb quickly when he talks to Sarah? Let's do this quickly, again speed. How about nouns? Originally he offered them water, just a little, br uh bread, only a morsel, but what does he finally give them? Butter, milk, a calf.

And how about the adjectives? He asks his wife to measure out fine meal. Let's give them the best that they have. The calf will be tender and good. This is Abraham going far above and beyond the mere call of let me help you survive. No, this is let me help you thrive. Your experience is my priority here.

Now, verse nine, they say unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he says, Behold, in the tent. And then they say, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. That just means a year from now. And lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. Now Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. And in case we had forgotten anything about Sarah, the next verse, verse 11, reminds us: now Abraham and Sarah were old and well-stricken in age.

And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. I love how that's put. They were well stricken in age. To be stricken makes it sound like it's some kind of horrible disease. When well, sometimes it feels that way. The older I get, the more strickener and strickener I feel, right? But it ceased to be with her after the manner of women? Well, ceased to be, it never started.

If you remember last week, the first time we meet Sarah, back in chapter eleven, the first thing we know is that she's barren. And in case we don't know what that means, he reiterates it, she couldn't have any kids. We talked about that last week, that what a painful irony to be defined by what you lack instead of what you can offer. And to be defined by your barrenness when you are the second half of a covenant couple that is to be defined by their posterity.

Remember this sense of I am the weak linking the chain. I am what's getting in the way of God keeping his promises. I'm the obstacle. And what and what am I supposed to do? Well, again this reminder, stricken with age ceased to be after the manner of women. But that's she's not the issue here. The power of God and the timing of God, the will of God, that's the issue. And to borrow that same phrase, it never ceases to be with God after the manner of God.

He is a God of miracles and will never stop being that. That's how the Book of Mormon ends, right? That if there's no miracles, it's not on God, it's on us. What's happened to our faith? Because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he is a God of miracles. Again, it will never cease to be with him. after his own miraculous and tender mercy, loving, generous way. But Sarah is wondering, is that even possible? Now, if you remember last week when when Abraham is first told that?

And he's like, Are you kidding me? No, it's good, it's good. I w through Hagar I have Ishmael, I have a son, you can keep your covenant, uh it's gonna be okay. Well, Sarah responds in the exact same way. But the Lord calls her out on it. It's really interesting. Verse 12, therefore Sarah laughed within herself. And that idea of laughter is an interesting thing because she, like I said, she gets called out on it. In the next verse, the Lord says, wait, wait, why did Sarah laugh?

And then a few verses later, she's like, uh I I didn't laugh. And he's like, oh no, no, you laughed. You definitely laughed. And she said that she didn't because she was afraid. So, with all that language surrounding Sarah's laughter, it does suggest there's something deeper here. When you see something in Scripture, uh again, here's some skill sets to for us to work on. When you see something that keeps coming up.

or that there seems to be an emphasis emphasis in scripture. It behooves us to to pause there and try to dig a little deeper. So what's up with Sarah laughing? Now, on the one hand, this is going to make for a beautiful play on words in Hebrew. Since the name Isaac means to laugh or to rejoice. It's like, oh, oh, you you Isaac. So no, no, I didn't Isaac. No, no, you did Isaac.

Ah and that's okay,'cause Isaac will come as a result. Okay? But again, something more about this laughter. To me it's as if the Lord is saying, Sarah, my promises are not a laughing matter. Trust me on this one. But then again, maybe they are. Maybe Sarah knew more than she realized, and did something more more appropriate than any of us could imagine. Maybe laughter was the exact response that was That was required at that moment. And here's why.

There's something about laughter in terms of, well, let's put it this way: comedies or or tragedies. Okay? You Shakespeare scholars or fans, take your pick. The interesting thing about tragedy is, well, every life, every story, every play has its ups and downs, right?

But tragedies are defined by the fact they end on a bad note. I mean you're leaving in tears of sorrow. It's like I can't believe that happened to them. Whereas comedies, no matter how many ups and downs there are throughout the story, it always ends. with a smile on your face. It ends in joy, in rejoicing. In laughter, Comedies reassure us that

No no matter what happens, this will have a happy ending. And in many ways, Sarah's life and Abraham's life has been almost an unmitigated tragedy. Especially from Sarah's standpoint, all that she's been through. And for her to laugh About this promise. is a sign to us all. This story's a comedy, not a tragedy. It will end. If tears, maybe, but tears of joy, tears of laughter rolling down your cheeks. You're about to Isaac,

And all of us have a happy ending. I've I've told my students this, that Permanent bad news is against my religion. I do not believe that the plan of salvation ends in tragedy. I believe it ends in glorious triumph, which makes life a comedy. Now, sometimes it's a comedy of errors, right? But there is plenty of time for comic relief. And in some ways Sarah here is being provided through this son of promise. Her comic relief.

I read a book once about Sarah and it called her the mother of all laughter. We met Eve as the mother of all living, while Sarah is the mother of all laughter. And there's something about this divine laughter that reminds us that all will be well. There's cause to rejoice. Victor Frankel, the great Jewish psychologist and psychoanalyst that was that survived the concentration camps in World War II, he defined or described laughter as one of the soul's weapons.

And the fight to preserve hope and life. Laughter, the ability to laugh pulls you out of the immediate moment. And proves that I know this isn't all there is. I know there's something better. I have something to laugh about, despite this veil of tears. Uh Reinhold Kn Nieber was a was a 20th century century theologian and he said there's a lot more similarity between laughter and faith than we sometimes realize.

that laughter deals with life's small incongruities, where faith deals with life's larger ones. And sometimes the one can can morph into the other. So maybe, just maybe, God's promises really are a laughing matter. Something to rest assured in and hold out hope for. Because this will have a happy ending. Sarah, you laughed. No, I didn't. Yes, you did. And that's okay.

It's time, it's pastime. It is time for you to rejoice. And by next year, you will be Yitzhakin all the time. You will be Isaacin, literally. Imagine that. Every time she calls her son to the dinner table. Uh with or without Abraham's uh in instructions on how to cook dinner, uh she will just remember this is my son of rejoicing. This is my comic release.

Now she says something else there in back in verse twelve though. When she first starts laughing within herself, and before she gets called out on it, she says to herself, again under the under the chuckles, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And she thinks this is the funniest thought. The word pleasure there is a euphemism for marital intimacy. And she's like, At our age? Are you kidding? No, that ship has sailed. Uh n no worries there.

But the word pleasure is an interesting one. I looked it up in the Hebrew and I wanted to see more what it meant. And it can also be translated as as luxury or as delight or as delicacy. Just something amazing. And and she's thinking at this age, uh the chance for any of that kind of pleasure has passed. Well, the word there also though, here's what blew me away. It comes from the same word as Eden. Yeah, that Eden, as in the Garden of Eden.

And to me it struck me that is that one of the things that Sarah is wondering about? Is that something that we all worry about? Is there pleasure post-paradise? Or maybe we could say pre-paradise, since eventually we we we're planning to come back to the to the garden in the right way and obtain the tree of life. But on this side of paradise.

Will we ever find that kind of deep and meaningful pleasure? Another way to put that would be is there since the word comes from Eden, is there any Eden this side of Eden? And Sarah comes to know in very personal, powerful ways that, yes, there is Eden east of Eden. If any of you are struggling in your fallen state, Physically or spiritually or mentally or emotionally. You will find pleasure.

No matter what situation you're in, you will find Eden, east of Eden. And for Sarah to to come to know that, to understand that, to experience it, oh, again, cause for joyful laughter.

Notice how the Lord responds to that. In the midst of her laughter, the Lord says, Is anything too hard for the Lord? Now if there were ever a rhetorical question worth reflecting on, that's the one. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Do you really don't you really don't think I can help you find pleasure post-paradise? That you're there's no Eden east of Eden? Is anything too hard for me? Like I said, it may have

ceased to be with you after the manner of women, but it has not ceased to be with me after the manner of God. And nothing's too hard for me. Now again, I wanted to understand the Hebrew behind that phrase. Another quick pause here to do some some skill training rather than just content mastery.

Uh you don't have to be a Hebrew scholar in the Old Testament or a Greek scholar in the New Testament to do what I what I want to explain here. As I've openly admitted in prior episodes, I'm no Hebrew scholar. I took just enough Hebrew in college to realize I didn't want to spend a lifetime studying the ancient languages.

Bless those who do. Okay? It's an incredible sacrifice on their part, and they're amazing what they can pull out of Scripture because of it. But I did realize at the time uh and since I was more interested in the worlds that the scriptures create rather than the world that created the scriptures. Uh and so I I spend my time in the King James Version and and try to make sense of how it's been used and abused and misused and argued over and fought about uh ever since it was it was given us.

But that doesn't stop me from at times wanting to know what was the original there. And thankfully, in our day, there are incredible online resources to make that possible, even for novices like me. Uh Bible Hub is my favorite one. It's an online uh website. You just go to Bible Hub and it has every verse in the Old and New Testament and you can see multiple translations of it if the King James is ever unclear.

There are multiple commentaries on it from throughout uh history. Uh there are the the the Hebrew original in the Old Testament, the Greek original in the New, and you can see it verse by verse and line by line, word by word. And you can take those Hebrew words and drill down into them to see nuance and where else is it translated or where else does it appear in scripture?

And how is it translated elsewhere? Amazing resource. And please don't do that with every single word, uh or I mean you thought my lessons were long. You'll never finish, okay? But if you ever see a word That seems to jump off the page at you and almost call out for consideration, those are the times it's worth going to Bible Hub and and drilling deep. We'll see this uh in a little while when we get to Exodus. When Moses sees the burning bush, It's God's attention getter.

And when Moses turns aside to see it, that's when the message comes. So if you ever see a word in the Old Testament that seems to be giving off some light and heat, then that's your burning bush. Turn aside to see it. Look it up. Think about it. Wrestle with it to see if there's anything more. So we saw that with the word pleasure. Well, how about the phrase too hard?

Because that was another burning bush for me. I looked up too hard, and it comes from a Hebrew word that also means surpassing or extraordinary. Just something so far beyond the norm. It's like, whoa, that's it, that's too much. That that's that's shock and awe. Well, is anything surpassing God? No, he surpasses all. Is anything extraordinary to him? Well, no, because even miracles are ordinary everyday experiences for him. Nothing's too hard.

Well that same word, translated here as too hard, is the same word we'll see later in the story of Exodus. about the the wonders and marvels that God will perform to free his people Israel. It's the same word that is used to describe Solomon's temple when it's said that it is wonderful great. I love that. It doesn't even make sense in English grammar, but it's awesome in Hebrew. It's the same word that Job uses.

When he finally waves the white flag and realizes, God, you you know more than I do, and he says, you have done things too wonderful for me. Same word. Even Isaiah's famous marvelous work and a wonder. That marvelous work is the too much, the beyond above and beyond, the surpassing, the extraordinary It's the divine, it's the transcendent, and it's not too hard for him.

It he he will never cease to be after that manner. There's just something beautiful about that that question. And if you are worried about Your post-paradise pleasure. If you're worried about Eden, East of Eden, trust that God hasn't changed, and that nothing is too hard for him. Wayward children can return. mental illness can be can be mitigated. Physical health can be healed. Even death, death itself will be reversed.

We'll see Abraham and and Sarah's faith in that shortly. Nothing's too hard for him.

Well, after this experience with these three holy messengers, in verse sixteen they rose up from thence and looked towards Sodom. We're about to look in that direction too. And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. Well, this mission evidently is going to have good news and bad news. Uh these are not just ministering angels for Abraham. They are soon to be destroying angels in Sodom and Gomorrah.

But notice what happens in the aftermath. Verse seventeen, the Lord he says, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? It's almost this he's talking to himself, kind of mulling it over. Something big is about to happen. They're heading off to Sodom, and I know why. Abraham doesn't. Should I let him in on the secret? Or should I hide it from him? Now I use the word secret uh advisedly.

Because if you remember the famous verse in Amos 3:7, surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets. So I love this internal question of should I hide it from him? Well, of course not. I don't hide my secrets from my prophets. And so Abraham deserves to know. So in eighteen, he again talking himself through it, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

What how does that help the Lord make up his mind on this? There's a sense of Abraham will be the father of the faithful, the father of many nations, and with posterity that large, that many stars and sands, there's going to be good and bad. There's going to be moments of tragedy before the comedy finally ends. And so he needs to be aware of the consequences of things. He needs to know and experience. The full gamut of hopes and fears.

of of goods and bads, of righteous rewards and negative consequences. He cannot be in the dark about these things. I cannot hide them from him. There's a sense of that even in terms of the condescension of Christ that we'll see repeated in just a moment. About the Lord, nothing about human experience can be hid from Christ. He came to experience the entire spectrum.

and as father of the faithful in a much more significant way than even Abraham. He needs to know those things. Verse 19, again speaking of Abraham, but also could be referring to Christ. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

If I ever hope to be able to bring about my promises, Posterity and priesthood and promised land, he's going to have to know the importance of of living up to them and into them. And he seems to be doing a great job of it on his own. But to see the opposite extreme and what will come of Sodom and Gomorrah, this is going to be a righteous father. I any of us that are parents, I I wish verse nineteen applied to us. I hope someday we'll live up to it.

that I know this guy. That's why I picked him as father of the faithful. He's going to be an intentional parent. He'll command his children, his household after them, uh after him. He will do an incredible job of parenting. And many of them, but not all, will listen. They'll keep the way of the Lord. They'll do justice and judgment. But I have to do justice and judgment too, including upon those that

That have neglected the chance to repent, that haven't been open to my offers of mercy. Abraham needs to know this. So in twenty he lets him know.

The Lord says, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous. I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which has come unto me. And if not, I will know. Now that last part, again, is indicative of the condescension of Christ, because I will go down now. There's condescension, okay? But I'm going to go down to see.

To see what? Well to see if the cry and sin are as bad as they say. Now we're gonna come back to those words cry and sin. They're incredibly important because they're referring to two different parts of S two different sides of Sodom. So hold on to those words, cry and sin. But for now, that concept of condescension, in order to seek comprehension, That's mind blowing.

Omniscience doesn't want to jump to conclusions? What? You know everything. Well, true. But there's something about seeing things on ground level. There's something about coming down to experience it, to truly see it in order to truly know it. Not just is it as bad as I hear, but why is this happening? What's going on on the part of the perpetrator to make them want to victimize other people? That's how sins lead to cries. We'll see that more in a moment.

Again, condescension of Christ, that he would come down to do exactly that. Again, not only not even God jumps to conclusions. So, Jehovah, will you go down and see? Will you wrap their injured flesh around you? so that you can experience viscerally, come to know intimately.

their experiences. The good, the bad, the everything in t in between. How does it feel to be a victim? How does it feel to be a perpetrator? In fact, when Elder D. Tod Christofferson was a state president in Nashville, my old stomping grounds, He shared a story when he was state president about a disciplinary council that he was presiding over, where a person was was probably going to lose his membership in the church because he had done horrific things.

However, he had also had horrible things done to him. And Elder Christofferson, President Christopher at the time, just felt overwhelmed with how do I sort this out? How do I distinguish between him as perpetrator and him as victim, since so often it's what we've suffered that leads us to caught to extend that suffering to others? I've sometimes joked with students that have you ever tried to untangle a string or an extension cord, or worst of all, Christmas lights? Horrible.

And you're working at it and you're you're teasing out the tangle and you're doing all this thing and you finally have, oh, I did it. And only to realize, no, I didn't. I cleared this part of the string, but I only pushed down the tangle elsewhere. And I worry sometimes that as far as human judgment and justice are concerned, do we sometimes only Uh pass down the problem. Do we only move the tangle? Whereas Christ, thanks to his condescension, has

assumed within himself the entire strand. He knows every tangle, And so when he untangles the life of the victim, he's not further entangling the life of the perpetrator, because he understands their situation too. Only he encompasses the entire string. And so only he can untangle it. But you servants, go down. You, my ultimate suffering servant, go down and see.

So twenty two and twenty three they do. The men turn their faces from thence. They went towards Sodom. Meanwhile Abraham stood yet before the Lord, and Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Now we'll see in a moment just how gutsy it was on Abraham's part to do this. I'm gonna go talk to God about this. Like, wait, are are you sure? Uh quick question: are you planning on just treating the entire city as just as homogenous, as the exact same.

Because if you do, and and it ends up that Sodom and Gomorrah deserve destruction, what about the righteous? Now what we see from here to the remain through to the end of this chapter is this This bartering session between humanity and divinity. It's it's pretty mind-blowing when you really think about it. When I was in Israel uh as a student studying abroad in college, everything it's a barter economy.

And so you're always haggling over things. And I hated it because I always felt like I was getting ripped off. But the way it works is you look at something and and often the shopkeeper won't even tell you what he's gonna charge. He just wants to see what you're willing to give because maybe uh maybe you're overpricing it in your head. Anyway, you'll come and say, Oh uh uh I'll I'll give you ten shekels for this.

And the shopkeeper, uh, even if it's a a a deal for him, will feign uh outrage and say, Are you ki are you crazy? Twenty shekels is worth. And you're like, oh, maybe he's right. But I can't I can't just give in that easily. So uh I'll give you twelve then. He's like, oh well okay, special price for you, uh eighteen shekels. And you're like, uh how about how about fourteen? Oh, sixteen. Fifteen? Done.

Okay, so you lowball, he highballs, and you usually compromise and meet somewhere in the middle. Well Abraham understands how haggling works. Evidently God doesn't. Because what's interesting here, you have if you count them up, there's six rounds in this in this bartering session. And each time Abraham will keep lowering things, and each time God doesn't counter-offer, he just capitulates.

He's like, Okay, that's fine. Is that really? Oh, how about this? And so he goes from what about fifty righteous? If I can find fifty righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, will you spare in fact will you spare the whole city? And God's like, sure, you find fifty, I'll forgive everybody, or at least prolong my judgment and justice.

Okay, um well if you do it for fifty, would you do it for forty five? I mean'cause it's going from fifty to forty five, that's only a ten percent off sale. I mean this is nothing, right? So how about that? Oh sure, forty five's fine with me. Okay, how about forty?

Do I hear 40? Going once, going twice. Okay, no, that's good. 40's fine. Oh, okay, how about thirty? Now he's making bigger chunks. Thirty? Sure. Twenty? Sure. Ten? Fine. Wow, you really you don't really don't know how to do this, do you, Lord?

No, he does. But I think he's saying something to Abraham and something to us about his willingness to be persuaded to be more merciful than we even imagine. I think God is saying Yes, my tender mercies, my hand is still stretched out with kindness, with forgiveness. Yes, there has to be some measure of justice. Maybe that's why Abraham stopped at ten. Even he had this sense of justice that

Yeah, there's gotta be some some reason to turn the other cheek. There's gotta be some reason to be forgiving here, merciful. But man, God is way more merciful than I ever imagined. He is. I assure you of that. We'll see that repeated over and over and over, not just in the nice New Testament, but in the seemingly angry Old Testament. Oh God's mercy. Ten? Fine. In fact it's interesting. If you dig down into the the rounds uh of this of this haggling.

Abraham learns amazing things about God. We do too. Because in one of the in the first round, again, his original question is, wait, are you going to treat the righteous like the wicked and just destroy them all? And in fact, he goes down that path. He really starts arguing on their behalf. Better word, he advocates for them. Which is fitting since Christ is our advocate with the Father. Oh, you want to advocate too? Awesome.

That's good. That says something about you, Abraham, and your desire for mercy for other people. So yes, please advocate. And this is what he says. It's fascinating. Verse 24 and 25. Peradventure. That means you know what if? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city. Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

That be far from thee to do after this manner. It's like that's not like you, God, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? It's interesting that in pursuit of God's mercy, he makes an appeal to God's justice. That's what he's pointing to to start. Won't I do justice and judgment? Abraham, you're gonna need to understand that. Oh, I do. I just

In fact, oh gulp uh I have the guts to do this. Will you be just? Really just? Because it wouldn't be just to treat the righteous like the wicked. We need to keep them separate, right? And if if it's the wicked, they're the ones that deserve condemnation. If it's the righteous, they're the ones that deserve some kind of reward. So shouldn't we distinguish them? I mean remember, creation was all about distinguishing, right? Let's separate light and darkness. Let's separate sea and land.

Here let's separate righteous and wicked. But what's amazing about this, though, is what Abraham's asking for goes beyond that. And what the Lord offers goes beyond that. Because the Lord's response in twenty-six, he says, Sure, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare all the place for their sakes. Just like you asked. which is mercy, not just justice. Justice's first step would be distinguish them so that you don't end up treating the righteous as if they were wicked.

But this step, this leap forward, is into mercy's realm because now it's a matter of, in fact, I will treat the wicked like the righteous. Justice would just be to divide, separate, and treat them according to their dessert. Injustice would be treating the righteous like the wicked. Real mercy would be treating the wicked like the righteous.

And I'm willing to go there. Wait, the way Jesus teaches it in the Sermon on the Mount, that God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Rain's not a bad thing there. In the Middle East rain is a very, very good thing. And it falls. It it sprinkles widely. to the point that God's mercy will will bless the wicked right alongside the righteous. It's incredible. Now again, there's more rounds of of haggling here, and in in two later rounds,

Abraham says, Don't please don't be angry. And I laugh at that because God's like, have I seemed angry at all? I I keep giving in every time you ask for something. I'm I'm not angry. But that helps explain something that that Abraham does say, and this is really powerful. Verse 27. He says, Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. And in verse thirty one, a later round, he again says it, behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord.

It's almost like he's he's doing a double take and like he's beside himself, like looking in the mirror, like, Am I really doing this? Yeah, I'm really doing this. I can't believe I'm really doing this. There's this like, who do I think I am? I'm dust and ashes, and I'm speaking to the Almighty, asking him to come in my direction a little. What am I thinking? But remember when we talked about the dust and divinity divide?

And we talked about that contrary of the infinite and the intimate on God's part. We see these coming together in this bartering beautifully. Who do I think I am? I'm just dust. Yes. But you're also divine. And I know who God is. He is the infinite. Yes. But I'm also the intimate. I am willing to come down to your level. And I love, like I said before, what I'm trying to teach you, Abraham.

It's just how merciful I'm willing to be. I just want you to plead for me to be what I really am because it helps you become what you really ought to be. As we advocate for one another, we recognize that even they deserve mercy. And God is more than willing to give it. I think so often we're the stick in the mud. We're the ones that are demanding retribution. and we're not quite as careful in distributing it.

as God would be. We don't always come down to see both sides of every story. We sometimes jump to conclusions. When even omniscience refuses to do that, we can be more careful. One last thought here though, before we move on. Again, why stop at ten? I mean Abraham, you're on a roll. You might get this for free. Okay? You might get it down to zero. Now, like I said, on the one hand, it might simply be a sense of justice on his part.

There might be a pragmatic side to this as well. It might be a matter of I mean God's justice will not sleep forever, nor should it. But I wonder if there's just enough to Does it justify God's patience? Because if there's enough leaven, it will leaven the lump. If there's a if there's a righteous remnant They can make a difference. So just be more patient, please, and give us time to change our culture. Give us time to meet the neighbors and begin to persuade them into paths of righteousness.

And maybe with ten that would be enough to do it. We'll see also in chapter nineteen, Maybe ten was a specific number on Abraham's mind. Please spare the ones I have in mind. Well, the chapter ends. The Lord went his way as soon as he'd left communion with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place. It's like, good, we agreed. Yes. Well put your, you know, give me your hand. Let's cut the covenant and uh I'll go my way, you go yours.

Well, like I said, God's way was Sodom and Gomorrah. And so we turn the page to chapter nineteen and we see what happens there. Verse 1. And there came two angels to Sodom at Evan. Now wait, wait, wait two? I thought there were three. Uh did one get lost along the way? What happened? Well, here Joseph Smith helps us out with the JST, one of the more minor corrections. He says, No, no, there were three. They they stuck together. Oh, okay, sorry. There came three angels to Sodom at even.

And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Now notice Lot's location, because it keeps seeming to change. One of the first places we see him when he finally when he and Abraham split, right, at Abraham's offering, like, hey, you take whatever side you want. I'll take you cut the cookie and you can even pick the bigger half if you choose, and he does.

And he goes down to this well-watered plain where Sodom and Gomorrah happen to be. But he's not in it. He's, you know, in danger of being of it. So let's stay back here. And he pitches his tent towards Sodom. We saw that last week. Well, in a matter of a chapter or two, he's dwelling in Sodom. And then soon he's taken captive when Sodom is conquered by that enemy coalition. Well, then he's freed by Abraham and his commando raid, and he ends up going right back to Sodom.

And by now, he's at the gate? Sitting there? Now this might be uh nothing. It might just be it's a place to sit, right? Abraham at his tent flap and then uh lot at the gate of Sodom. Then again, city gates are symbolic of judgment. So this might actually be our foreshadowing that judgment is about to be passed on Sodom. But at the gate often the city elders and leaders would sit to be able to pass judgment. Now this is the bench of the Supreme Court. This is the gate of the city.

What do we allow in and what do we keep out? There's judgment calls, right, that we're making constantly. Well, we're going to see more of that in chapter 19. So a good way to begin it. But it also to me says something about lost. Best case scenario, he has risen in the estimation of his peers. And even though they don't want to live by his standards, they're glad that he does.

It's this interesting irony. Perhaps you have felt it yourself, where you get you're respected and even admired by people because of the way you live. But don't make me live that way. I certainly don't. Uh there's a fascinating story in the Book of Mormon when Ammon has converted Lim uh Limoni and his people and these others come in and they're like everyone, you know, is passed out and they're like ah

It must be that same God that always helps out the Nephites. Amazing admission. How do they always beat us in battle when we always outnumber them? They must have God on their side. I don't know. I'm not going to do anything to get them on my side. I don't want to live like a Nephi. But same kind of idea. That could be what's happening with Lot. Wow, you're the type of person we want to help pass judgment and justice here.

That's the best case scenario. Worst case scenario would be just one more step in the wrong direction for him, from pitching the tent to dwelling in, to to coming back to to rising within the ranks. Do you make compromises with culture to do that? That that you shouldn't have. I mean lot is good enough to be preserved. We'll see that. But I do worry about him.

Because, as we've seen before, in that in the world but not of the world, contrary that we're trying to prove, every step we take deeper in is a step toward potentially becoming of. Yeah, in my study of of religious history, it's interesting to watch denominations divide and sometimes move along the spectrum of this worldly or otherworldly. How different do we want to be from?

Or how much do we want to be like everyone to make a difference with them? You understand what I'm getting at? Every step I go deeper into the world. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm infiltrating the enemy compound, right? I'm crossing enemy lines. Okay, good. And the deeper you get, the more difference you could make. But then again, the more difference they might make in you. So be careful.

Uh it's a gamble, believe me. And I I just wonder, I don't know for sure, which side of that of that spectrum is lot coming in on. Is this good news or bad? Either way, as he's sitting there in the gate and he sees these holy men come, End of verse one and end of verse two, Lot seeing them rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

Sounds a little like Abraham, right? Lot still recognizes righteousness. He still honors true messengers. So verse two, he says to them, Behold now my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house. And tarry all night, wash your feet. You shall rise up early and go on your ways.

Man, that sounds like Abraham, doesn't it? Oh, you're probably not here for me, but the rules of hospitality would require that you come and let me take care of you for a night. I take a pit stop, okay, a refueling break. But they say, nay, we will abide in the street all night. Now, Lot knows something that he assumes they don't know.

Yeah, I'm not sure if that's the best, the wisest course of action. You're strangers here in Sodom, which means you probably don't know that the streets at night are no place to stay. So what does he do in verse three? He I love this phrase. He pressed upon them greatly. And they turned in unto him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. Now think about this in terms of our effort to do.

to persuade people to come into the kingdom of God. First of all, do we recognize what they're up against? Or do we just like, oh, you want to spend the night in the street? That's fine. I mean, I don't want to like force my standards on you. We're not forcing standards. We're trying to be hospitable in a very inhospitable world. Do we have any idea, the blessing we have, safe in the sanctuary of standards?

This is within the confines of covenant that we saw last week. This is under Zion's roof. This is inside the ark. Okay? You understand all these amazing analogies? Do you know what's happening outside? There is a flood of evil. And those always bl bring floods of consequence, whether it was water two weeks ago or whether it is fire today or in the distant future.

You've got to come in. Now I'm not saying that we we drag people kicking and screaming into the church. No. But if we understand What happens in the streets of Sodom if we understand just how dark the night can get? Then believe me, if they only knew where the light was, they'd come running. If they only knew where safety could be found. That's what section 45 says. The rest of the world will be in such wickedness and violence and turmoil, the only safe place will be Zion, and in her stake.

And people will come. Are we? My only question is: are we helping? Are we facilitating? Are we pressing upon them greatly? Or are we okay when it's like, ah no, I'm I'm I'm I'm good out here. Okay. That's fine. It's not fine. At least it's not fine to do our absolute best. And in fact, what what helps them? Well, a feast might help.

And so not not just Abraham's bread and water. Let's go let's go milk and butter and and a tender good calf. In Lot's case, oh more than just my roof, how about a feast, huh? Maybe that's how we keep getting youth to come to youth activities, right? There's always treats at the end. Well, there's far more important than the physical feast is the spiritual one that we have laid out, feast of fat things, as Isaiah says, right?

Do you have any idea what we're eating in here? Oh, it is it is living water. It is bread of life. It is fruit of the tree. Sweet above all that is sweet. So come in. Now when he bakes unleavened bread, I do wonder too if there's just some for na foreshadowing, some foreboding that our little leavened wasn't enough to to leaven the lump. We weren't able to raise the righteousness of this city. Oh, this bread is is

Nourishing, but it is unleavened. And sadly, we couldn't make the difference in Sodom that perhaps we intended to do. Well, come in. And they did. Verse four before they lay down So they've barely cleared the table now, ready to lie down for the night. The men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.

We're going to talk about a scary situation. And again, if we're using Sodom and Gomorrah as our metaphor for the wicked world, have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt compassed round? Just like wondering, is there no safe space left? Are there is there no here's my little ring of righteousness, but outside I'm feeling hemmed in by from every angle. And am I uh can I maintain safety here? You parents that are worried about your children, do you sometimes feel compassed round?

By evil influences. G does it affect both the old and the young? Does it seem to come from every quarter? Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. Well, am I still safe within my sanctuary of standards? I hope so. Now verse 5, it gets it gets goes from scary to nightmarish.

They called unto Lot, and they said unto him, Where are the men which came into thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them. And by now we should know that word no. It's that Yada Hebrew word. It's that intimate knowledge. that in the right way describes that experiential connection with God to this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

On the worst case scenario, well, somewhere in the middle is the kind of intimate knowledge between an Abra and Abraham and Sarah. There's that pleasure that she was referring to. There is, and again, in her case, it is the joy, the true meaningful joy of family relationship. Uh to that that's the the pleasure post paradise. That's the Eden East of Eden in our relationships, in our families. This situation is a far cry from that. Here these wicked men of Sodom

Seeking the righteous men within. Bring them out so we can know them. This is intimate knowledge. This is This is sexual assault that is being threatened. Now, this is what I was referring to at the beginning of today's lesson when I mentioned that there are things that we'd probably prefer to dance around that instead we need to really wrestle with. And this is one of them. Uh Sodom has become synonymous with homosexuality. And that's a really tricky subject in today's environment.

And especially for those of us, myself included, who have family members and friends and beloved students within the LGBTQ community. And I want to be as sensitive as I possibly can to their feelings. And the righteous desires of their hearts. And so I pray for the Holy Ghost to help us navigate this. This next conversation, okay, before we get back to the specifics of what's about to happen in Sodom and Gomorrah. Now first let me talk about Sodom itself as a symbol.

And in this case, Sodom becomes a a a sister city or even a sister civilization to other places that become synonymous with wickedness also. There's a whole array of symbols for our wicked world. This one is Sodom. The more famous one is is uh Babylon, right? So often you'll see, especially in the Doctrine and Covenants, is flee Babylon. In the book of Revelation, it's all about uh getting out of Babylon.

Babylon becomes the ultimate symbol for the wicked world. But there's others. Section one of the Doctrine and Covenants talks about Idomia. Or the world. So he's being clear here. When I talk about Idumia, I mean the world. Okay? Uh and Idumea is just Edom, that's Esau instead of Jacob. We'll see that next week, okay? Now another one would be Egypt. Egypt, a a place of bondage, of servitude, and it will take God's almighty wonders to free us, to bring us back to our promised land. Oh, that's

That all sounds very symbolic. We'll see that when we get to Exodus. So whether it's Babylon or Idumea or Egypt or Sodom, we're talking about the wicked world. Now Sodom is an amazing metaphor for this because of partly because of its geographic location. It's like the lowest civilization on earth because the Jordan River Valley is below sea level. Now think about that. This is civilization at its absolute lowest.

Has it gotten to a point where we're hitting rock bottom as far as our standards or lack thereof is concerned? Now it's on the shores of the Dead Sea. Hm. It's about as close to death, spiritual death, as you can get. That tells me something. What makes the Dead Sea dead, by the way? Well you have all this fresh water flowing in. There's the Jordan River. We see all that it's receiving. We and no wonder it's a well-watered plane, right? That that no wonder Lot was tempted to go that direction.

No wonder he described it as the garden of the Lord. I mean this is this is Eden 2.0. Well, it's a counterfeit Eden, though. It receives all these blessings. It just never passes them on. Because the Dead Sea is dead because the fresh water just evaporates, leaving all this sediment. I mean you you thought the Great Salt Lake was salty. That's nothing compared to the Dead Sea.

When I went there, I mean we we swam in it, or better yet, we swam on it. Because your body doesn't even sink. I felt like a hovercraft swimming on top of the water. It was the weirdest feeling. But man, you get a splash of that water in your eye and it's like ah instant blindness, which we'll see later in this chapter, the blindness of Sodom. I mean to that kind of salt content, it is intense.

and we'll see a pillar of salt emerge later on in this chapter also. There's so many amazing things about this story. So take all of its symbolism and why it fits so well as a metaphor for wickedness. But also take it. its result, its consequences, its destruction, and it becomes a symbol ever after for the consequences of sin. So for example, in the book of Deuteronomy, we're not too far ahead yet, but already it's being looked back on as careful, you don't want to end up like Sodom.

It says in Deuteronomy thirty two, For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah, their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. I mean we sing about He hath trampled out the vintage where the grapes of Wrath are stored. Well, the grapes of Wrath, or here, the grapes of Gaul That's the vintage of Sodom and Gomorrah. So be careful about drinking whatever it is that they're putting in your cup.

In Isaiah he says, Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. Now Sodom and Gomorrah are long since gone by Isaiah's day. But you see what he's doing? I'm talking to you rulers of Israel and Judah. But I might as well be talking to the rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah, because you're living like they did, which should tell you about what's about to come. How about this one from Jeremiah?

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing. They commit adultery, they walk in lies, they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. See what Jeremiah's doing?

Not only is he warning his people about you're just like Sodom and Gomorrah, and you're going to end up like Sodom and Gomorrah, and they did, to Babylon in their day. Okay, all these sisters sister civilizations coming together as one. But in describing his day, he just tipped us off to what's going on in Sodom also. Notice his list. Adultery, so there we see sexual sin. Walking in lies, there's dishonesty. Strengthening the hands of evildoers. That's an interesting thing.

uh talk about lack of justice and judgment. Instead of calling you to repentance, no, I'll I'll applaud you in what you're doing. I mean who am I to to speak up or speak out against you? You think that's right? Then that's totally fine. I I'll I'm all for you. You do you And and no judgment for me. No wonder, he says, none doth return from his wickedness. Nobody thinks what they're doing is wicked. This is such

Moral relativism. Uh we'll see more of that later on in this in this story. That and okay so again, no wonder there's no one repenting because there's no one calling them to repent. Now, there's another example. We'll see this one in the book of Jude, so New Testament. They're still referring back to Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh.

And again that's what's become synonymous with Sodom. Fornication, so again, sexual sin, but specifically he calls it strange flesh, something bodily, something carnal. That's out of the ordinary. It's strange. There's some some something unnatural about this type of of carnal appetite. Now, here again, I want to be incredibly sensitive and as specific as I can be. So please bear with me as I struggle for the right language here.

To put it in perspective first though, one last example of someone looking back to Sodom. to help his people understand what they're doing, but also to help us understand what these people were doing. This is my the most important one of all. Okay? This is Ezekiel 16, 49 and 50. He says, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. So yes, these are sister s cities and sister symbols. And he begins to list what was wrong with Sodom that's also wrong with his people that are now in Babylon.

Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Then in fifty, and they were haughty, there's pridefulness, and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away as I saw good. Now fifty is more where we see the sexual sin. Where we see the immorality, this abomination. But do not lose sight of verse 49, where we see

Pride and notice fullness of bread, not strengthening the hands of the poor and the needy. You understand what's going on here? Again, if this is the the garden of God, if this is the well watered field, if this is a place where you can get rich quick. Again, No wonder that the that uh conglomeration of Mesopotamian kings is exacting tribute from them, right? No wonder the king of Sodom is willing to give all kinds of

threads and shoelatchets and all kinds of things beyond it to to Father Abraham. It's oh we can always make more money. It's a piece of cake. But but they're they're hogging it all to themselves. They're letting the Jordan flow in and they're not letting anything flow out. And so they're not taking there's no Middle Eastern hospitality here. There is only there's and not because they can't afford to give. It's fullness of bread.

Then why not share it with poor and needy? Well, because of my pride. I earned it. They probably earned what they don't have. An abundance of idleness, that would just take more work. You barely had to work for what you got. What what are you complaining about? Remember last or two years ago in the Book of Mormon we saw how often idleness and idolatry go together? We talked about idleness I DLE leading to idleness IDOL, which stands to reason since

Those gods don't ask anything of me. They can't give me anything, but they don't take anything either. I that's a g a good deal. As opposed to this god of Israel, I gotta go pay tithes to the king of Salem? What do you nah? The God of the true God that makes demands upon our discipleship. Real worship includes real work. Oh, as opposed to an idol that allows me to remain idle all the days of my life. Now, what I want to do r here is, well, for lack of a better phrase, convict us all.

Because I worry sometimes that From one angle, it's easy to use Sodom and Gomorrah and n and as a symbol, or maybe even worse, as a club, to beat someone else into shame or submission. Instead of realizing that just like all water flows downhill and tries to find its way to the lowest possible point, namely Sodom, In our worst moments, we all descend in that direction.

And for some of us it might not be sexual sin. It might not be something so specific as homosexual behavior. And we'll talk about that more clearly in a moment. But what about the other side of it? You might not feel a twinge of guilt when you read Ezekiel 16, 50, but maybe we ought to when we read Ezekiel 16, 49. When we see the the immorality of Sodom, maybe we pat ourselves on the back and think, oh, I'm not guilty of that. But when we see the inhumanity of Sodom,

Maybe we're being called to repent. In fact, let me put these two things side by side in one of my favorite visual aids, a chart. On the one hand we have the sexual sin side of Sodom. On the other hand, we have the neglect of the poor and needy side of Sodom. So we see immorality versus inhumanity I told you from the last chapter, I need to see the cry and the sin for myself. So I'm going to go down to Sodom. Is it as bad as they say? Sin is on that first column. Cry is on that second.

And yeah, we might not be guilty of those specific sins of Sodom, but are we causing other people to utter similar cries out of our neglect? In the first column we see sins of commission, where the second column it's sins of omission. Specifically in the first column, it sins against law, but in the second it sins against love.

Yes, the first column needs to work on the law of chastity, but the second column needs to work on the law of charity. In fact, it's interesting that within our political climate From the right side of the aisle, there's such concern, outrage, moral outrage over the first column. the the immorality of Sodom. But on the left, there is justifiable moral outrage.

For those that are guilty of the human the inhumanity of Sodom. What I'm trying to do here is prove a set of contraries, if you haven't guessed yet. And it's interesting that even in the context of of LGBT issues, Elder Oakes gave a talk once called Law and Love. Can you hear the contraries being proven? He gave another talk called Truth and Tolerance. Can you hear the contraries being proven? And especially on LGBT issues. One side is constantly teaching law.

But are they equally emphasizing love on their part? That same group is always hitting hard on truth. This is how you're supposed to be living. But are they flexing their own muscles to be equally tolerant? I'll just put it this way. I hope we all feel a twinge of guilt. Or maybe better said, a call to to come up out of the valley of the Dead Sea. And be better. Be better within ourselves or be better towards other people. To lift our standards and lift our sight.

And to, well, to put it bluntly, if you are chastising others, As they are striving to live the law of chastity, you better be trying just as hard to live the law of charity. It is unfair on one group's side to just assume that our side should be easy when we realize just how hard the other side might be. And if we are willing to ask a a difficult sacrifice to live the law of chastity, when in many cases it would re it would mean celibacy.

and not none of the the Eden, east of Eden that Sarah was referring to, not in this life. Then Are we flexing our muscles just as hard? To be kind and to be compassionate, to be understanding and forgiving? Are we living the law of charity at equal cost? Is what I'm asking. I hope that we are. I'll also say, by the way, that by the time Ezekiel sixteen ends, that all important chapter that shows both sides of Sodom. It does hold out hope for repentance, and that would involve both sides as well.

In Ezekiel sixteen sixty he says, Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. That covenant was meant for the Israelites of his day facing Babylon. It's true of us in our day facing the wicked world. It was true of the people in Abraham and Lot's day as they were facing the wickedness of Sodom. And for the people of Sodom

You can change. You can be forgiven. You can become more chaste and more charitable. You can become more Christ-like. God will remember his covenant, I assure you.

Now, like I said, before we get back into the specifics of the story, can I say one last thing about homosexuality? And like I said, as sensitively as I possibly can, because I can see in my mind faces of people I love that are in the LGBT community and and it's unfair to them And it's unfair to the church. What the world is doing to try to paint us all with a broad brush. Okay? Let me try to be uh specific here.

When I was at Divinity School, it really hit me. Uh I was a very liberal divinity school, and all kinds of broad spectrum on the conservative to liberal denominational divides and so on. And I remember discussing texts like this. And with a a wide spectrum of people. And it's interesting that on one extreme, the the woo the concern of Sodom has nothing to do with homosexuality. It only has to do with sexual assault.

It only has to do with non-consensual relationships or kind of master-servant relationships. And that can condemn heterosexual intimacy just as much as homosexual intimacy. if it's non-consensual, if it is master slave. And that can even be accusatory within marriage. Since, as a wise old bishop of mine once said to all of us repeatedly, lust is not lost in marriage. So we got we all have to be careful with that side of Sodom, okay?

On the opposite extreme were those that that said, no, it's just anything along those lines. The the sin is homosexuality. And so that that God is condemning that the entire thing. And again, it was interesting to see this wrestling over scriptural interpretation is, you know, what is God being condemned? And what is Sodom being condemned for? And like I said, one extreme was has nothing to do with homosexuality. The other extreme, it only has to do with homosexuality.

And what amazes me about the restored gospel, as is so often the case, it does such an incredible job of trying to prove contrary. Let me explain what I mean. Two stories to illustrate it. The first came in the aftermath of the 2015 policy from the church about the children of same-sex couples. uh no blessing or baptism automatically. Yeah, you're gonna need to talk to the bishop and see and explain, yes, I understand the life I'm living and the life

That my child is covenanting to keep. I know there's some friction there. We're willing to live with it. Uh chances are my son or my daughter our son or our daughter won't have the same challenge with chastity that that we do. Statistically speaking, it's more likely that they will find that easier to live. And I love everything about the gospel. And wish I lived all the gospel commandments, but this one I can't find myself keeping. And I'll deal with that.

But we want to bless our our our baby, we want to baptize our child, we want someone to. Now, if you remember by the way, quick pause. Later President Nelson gave a talk at BYU and said every single time a bishop asked for that kind of exception, it was granted. Every time Now that should problematize the narrative from going so simple that, oh, the church is homophobic. No. In fact, in my years of studying anti-religious rhetoric, I called them the three S's.

Sensational, superficial, and selective. And boy, in the aftermath of the 2015 policy was were things sensationalized. Even though it was a very superficial approach to what was going on and very selective in the kinds of things that you're looking for. It was textbook three S's. And speaking of anti religious rhetoric.

At that time period, a a meme appeared, an infographic, call it what you will. There was something I kept seeing go viral online. And as one who studies this kind of stuff, I think I would have been fascinated by it, even if I wasn't a member of the church. It's amazing. To this day, it's still one of my favorite pieces of what I could consider anti-Mormon material because of its rhetorical approach.

Uh those of you that are viewing this on YouTube, I'll I'll show you a picture of it, but I'll try to describe it for you that are listening in on audio. It's it's fascinating. Biggest print, it just said priorities. You're getting them wrong. So that's the that's the shock and awe what you're what's supposed to draw the eye. It's like, oh, who's who's missing who's getting the in the priorities wrong?

And then above that was a a copy of the church's policy, straight out of the church handbook of instructions from church discipline, that chapter. Uh and then the the the document was kind of doctored with highlights and and circles to draw the eye towards certain things.

Now this is where a rhetorical study of this is fascinating, because my my thought was, ooh, what are they trying to get me to think or feel? And how are they getting me to do it? Since that's what rhetoric is, the art of persuasion. Well, let me describe this page. At the top, the heading reads, When a Disciplinary Council May Be Necessary. And then lower down, another heading, When a Disciplinary Council is mandatory.

And on this doctor's document, it circles may be and circles mandatory. So it's trying to get us to differentiate. Times where, yeah, maybe you need to be disciplined, and other times, yeah, you you have to be disciplined here. Remember priorities, you're getting them wrong. So it's trying to d draw some kind of distinction between degrees

of of severity, okay? This one, uh no big deal. Or uh maybe. M maybe, maybe not. This one, whoa, this is so serious. You have to have a disciplinary council. What we today call membership councils, okay? Now there's something else here in this doctored document. Underneath the maybe, maybe not. It lists things like attempted murder, forcible rape, sexual abuse, spouse abuse, or deliberate abandonment of family responsibility.

And those are all highlighted, okay, trying to draw our eye to those things. Whereas in the part under what a disciplinary council is mandatory, there's only one thing highlighted, and it's they are in a same-gender marriage. And that's as far as the highlighting goes. So again, rhetorically, what are they trying to persuade me to think or feel?

They're drawing the eye to this thought, to this shallow thought, that, oh, Latter-day Saints, those Mormons, they think that same gender marriage is worse than forcible rape or attempted murder? Are you kidding me? Come on. And it worked. Because there were peop all kinds of people. I mean honestly in the aftermath of that policy

Whether or not they even saw this meme. Uh I had line out my office door with young adults wondering what's going on. And I I mean my email and and my s cell phone and my Facebook all blew up with people like, oh, what's going on here? But especially with things like that, like, whoa, does the church is the church really this homophobic? Is the church really this anti-gay?

And I'm like, no, come on, let's prove the contrary, shall we? First, let's not get sensationalized into some kind of emotional reaction. Let's calm down and approach this logically and calmly. Superficial? No, let's go a little deeper here. And selective? No. Let's try to understand both sides of the issue. So let's get past the three S's and think.

And as I looked at that meme, I realized, oh wait, okay, thank you for drawing my eye to certain things. I'm just curious why you picked those things and not other things. Especially this thing. Because underneath your list of maybe, maybe not. Yes, you drew the eye to forcible rape or attempted murder, but

Homosexual behavior is listed there on the things that are maybe serious enough to require a disciplinary counsel, but maybe not. And those can just be repented of with the help of a bishop without having to to take it up a knock. Now and I'm thinking, wait a minute. Homosexual behavior is the one thing on the list that is most relevant to this conversation. Why wouldn't you draw my eye to that one? Why would you not want me to notice?

The only thing about homosexuality you want me to notice is further down when it's same-sex marriage. Ooh, but even that you're playing with because there's something else you didn't emphasize, you didn't highlight. On the first one, underneath the broad heading of Maybe, maybe not, that list that you have is under the subtitle of Serious Transgression.

But when it talks about same-gender marriage down below, it's not listed under serious transgressions. It's not listed under transgression at all. It's listed under a broader title called apostasy. And don't take apostasy as some evil kind of moral outrage, because notice what else is on the list of apostasy? Same gender marriage comes down at like number four.

Number one was repeatedly acting in clear, open, and deliberate public opposition to the church and its leaders. Number two was persisting in teaching as church doctrine information that's not church doctrine after they've been corrected by their bishop or higher authority. Number three was continuing to follow the teachings of apostate sects.

such as those that advocate plural marriage after being corrected by their bishop or a higher authority. Then number four, they're in a same gender marriage, and number five, formally join another church or advocate its teaching. Which again is not some sign of moral dereliction. It's simply you don't believe what the church teaches. And you don't have to. Again, we're not dragging you into the house.

We're pressing upon people greatly through missionary work because we see safety here and security and truth here, but we're not dragging anybody in, okay? Or or holding people in against their will. People leave the church for whatever reason, all the time. Now and some of them join other churches, okay. I guess technically yes, we refer to that as apostasy. It's this public disavowal

or repeated teaching of others. And again, you're totally welcome to live or believe whatever you want, teach whatever you want. Just realize it is a different doctrine than what has been revealed in scripture and living prophets. You're y again, you want to have a different plan of salvation? Be our guest. But don't call it the restored gospel. Don't call it the plan of salvation because it isn't. It's different.

And so a disciplinary council is required so that a bishop can sit down or a state presidency can sit down with the individual to to determine what's your plan here. You can do whatever you want. But don't call it the restored gospel. Uh if you choose to join another church, do are do you want to sever your your official membership here? We need to know. And we'll we'll go whichever direction you choose.

Uh d uh were you aware that this was was not true doctrine? Do you intend to continue to try to publicly teach it? Because to to safeguard orthodoxy, we need to at least let people know that you're not coming. That this is not from within, that this is from without. And again, people are welcome. This is the eleventh article of faith. You can worship how where or what you may. We honor that privilege in you. I hope you'll honor that privilege in us. Okay?

There's a difference here. Don't let the word apostasy bring all of kind of negative baggage here. But either way, the people who made this meme weren't wanting to you to neck notice that at all anyway. They were just saying, hey, let's prioritize behaviors or approaches to behaviors. And if you Latter-day Saints think all of this is sinful, why do you think same-sex marriage is worse than rape?

And it's like, no, no, no, we're we're not saying that at all. We're saying this is an an instance of an ideological difference. that deserves a conversation with priesthood leaders to see where you want to what do you want to do and where do you want to go with this. Even the idea of requiring a disciplinary council, I heard all kinds of people complaining and saying, oh they're just, they're just excommunicating the whole LGBTQ community. And I'm like, what? No, no, no, no, calm down.

A a disciplinary counsel is required. A specific outcome is not. In fact, a disciplinary council, I've been in a lot of them. They require so much thought and so much prayer and so much individual attention. We don't do disciplinary councils in mass. It's individual. So if we're painting with broad strokes, the only thing we're requiring broadly

is refusing to uh to treat situations broadly. You understand what I mean by that? It it's the only thing we're doing in mass is making sure that nobody gets treated in the mass. Come in individually and let's talk. And like I said, President uh Nelson explained, anyone who came in and did that and said we were not apostates

We don't we do believe in the gospel. We do believe in the plan. We'll teach that same plan to our children and it'll be easier for them to live than us. Yes, we want them to be baptized. We want to help them keep those covenants, even though we're not fully keeping them ourselves. We love our child. We love the church. We trust God loves us. and will trust in mercy and justice and I don't know what's gonna happen the rest of my life. Okay, I do have friends in that situation. Now to understand

What's happening here then? And what this meme is doing. We have to see what the church said there, what those opponents to it were trying to draw attention to. Do you notice the word homosexuality isn't there anywhere? Nor should it be, because this is a page on church discipline, and homosexuality doesn't require discipline at all, because there's you haven't done anything wrong.

Whereas homosexual behavior, that is on the list. It's a sin, but depending on the circumstance, it might require formal discipline. It might not. Just like those other things on that list. It might have just been a momentary lapse of judgment, a sin of passion, of loss of control, and then coming to one's senses, I can't believe I did that. I'm so sorry. And a bishop can work out repentance with that individual one on one without a formal disciplinary council.

Other times well maybe this is needed. Yeah, you understand the difference here? So there's a difference between homosexuality, not on the list anywhere, between homosexual behavior, and there's a spectrum there of intent. I mean how often does A heterosexual couple slip into heterosexual behavior that is outside the the law of God and that a bishop or state president would have to decide will this require disciplinary counsel or not.

There's repentance there as well, uh, just like it would be in a heterosexu in a homosexual situation, okay? And then there's same sex marriage, which isn't uh categorized under serious transgression, it's simply an ideological difference, okay? And again, when the ch the policy was was changed in twenty nineteen,

It we don't even call that apostasy. Again, it's it's cho choice and perspective and so on. It's not gonna require disciplinary counsel. If we were granting exceptions to the rule every time they asked anyway, then we'll just allow it to take place on a local level. Okay?

uh sa again, so much sensational and superficial and selective even in 2019 as people were up in arms, like, okay, the church see, the church saw the error of its ways and Oh no, I think that they were acting in reaction to the overreaction of the first one.

This is a fine line we're trying to draw. When you're balancing contraries, when you're walking a tightrope, there's going to be constant course correction. Okay? If you've ever walked and your arms are constantly doing this, that is you're just trying to stay balanced. especially as people are overreacting in one direction or the other, then yeah, there's gonna be constant course correction. I'm not I will not be surprised if more and more keeps coming.

as we're trying to find the celestial center of the straight and narrow path, staying within the confines of covenant, right, Abraham? Well, second story then, and I'll be brief here, because I don't want to belabor this point too much, but I hope it has been helpful. I really hope it has, for people on both sides. The second story came from an experience I had at the University of Utah, which has its own unique uh minefield of being a secular university at uh next to church headquarters.

Uh everybody has an opinion there, it seems, strong ones. Anyway, I was invited by a professor to come to speak at the College of Social Work to their uh graduate students about LDS views on traditional marriage. And I said, sure, I'd be happy to. And I must have seemed a little too eager because the professor confused that with naivete. He said to me, um, y you will be in the minority, just so you know. And I smiled again and said, Ah, I I've figured and I'm used to that. Yeah, it's okay.

And so I went and and it was interesting. There was an i a diverse uh audience of Grad student. some members, some converts, some uh students of mine, some uh non Latter day Saints, some ex Latter day Saints that were angry ex Latter day Saints. And here I was in white shirt and tie, like screaming, I'm a Latter day Saint Uh let's talk about traditional merit.

And I tried to explain as carefully as I could the need to avoid the extremes and the broad brushes of just it's an all or nothing. Have you ever had I said have you ever had a a survey That asked a question, are you pro or con? And you were somewhere in the middle'cause it was a more complicated subject than just yay or nay. And how frustrating it is when the survey won't let you go on to the next one until you say yes or no?

or pro or con. And there's no box for you to explain yourself. It's like mm, I need a box so I can explain. So it's like is the church pro or con as far as uh the LGBT community? And it's like, uh can we be more specific? What do you mean by that? So again, I was trying to complicate things because it's been oversimplified, okay? I wasn't trying to overcomplicate it. I was trying to get it to the complexity that it deserved. Okay?

So I was trying to say we can't make it so simplistic that it's all or nothing, and we're just gonna treat homosexuality in general. Again, this is back to me at Divinity School. Is Genesis nineteen anti-gay? Because of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? Or is it just anti nonconsensual relationships? Okay? Where are we? Is all homosexuality condemned or is all homosexuality condoned? And we would say neither.

We're looking to balance justice and mercy, law and love, truth and tolerance somewhere in the middle. And they were that was starting to make sense to them, and I said, here's as simple as I can make it. And even based on that anti Mormon meme, there's three different categories we need to wrestle with. The first is homosexuality. as a a part of the mortal condition for some of God's children. The second area would be homosexual behavior.

And the third would be same gender marriage. Okay? Let's keep those separate, just like they're separate on that page that that document that was doctored, okay? I think the church honestly did a better job with this than even public affairs realized, okay? Because there wasn't a whole lot of explanation. It's just here it is. But as I wrestled with this and and saw it, it's like, whoa, this is incredible. This is really uh nuanced. This is really careful.

And so three different groups. Now if it look here's another chart for you, okay? So you have homosexuality, homosexual behavior, and same-sex marriage. The first one, like I said, is a m a part of the mortal condition. The second one is an act or a decision. The third is a lifestyle or a statement that this is how society should be. Now, another column in the chart. The first one is biological or psychological.

Something in the mind or the body that that leads us in that direction. And then science is still figuring out all of that. The second, homosexual behavior, is now a behavioral issue. And the third, same-sex marriage, is an ideological idea. It's how we what we think is right versus wrong or just how we should structure society. So what what we're dealing with are the differences between the biological and psychological, the behavioral or the ideological.

And when a Latter-day Saint comes onto the scene, we have to treat those three areas differently. It's not an all condemn or an all-condone. And like we saw on that document. Homosexuality doesn't show up anywhere because it's a document on discipline and homosexuality requires no church discipline. It's not a sin. And therefore there should be no shame, there should be no stigma. There should be love and kindness and openness and acceptance and support.

That this is part of your mortal condition. Well this is part of mine. And here we are are all are experiencing our mortal conditions with things that make us Oh, that make us good at some things and struggle with other things and it's all part of the mix. Here we are. The second level, homosexual behavior, sin does exist there, but so does repentance. and change and and chastity, it's in that way it's no different than heterosexual behavior. There are bounds that God has set.

And those bounds typically have to do, as we see in the Abrahamic covenant, with creation. That the underlying purpose behind that pleasure, to borrow Sarah's word, is to rejoice in what Eden was supposed to do from the beginning, which was to create eternal covenant couples that can participate with God in the creation ongoing posterity. There are some very different premises that definitely lead to different conclusions on what marriage is for.

Is it meant primarily for the self-satisfaction of the couple? Or is it meant primarily for the for the rising generation and the stability and the complementarity of both a mother and a father for children. Okay? There's a different premise there. And so again, that leads us to the third level, the ideological. of what is what is the ideal way to structure society in hopes of passing down stability and and structure and strength to the next generation.

And again, the complementarity of traditional marriage. It's one of the ultimate contraries that needs to be proven, male and female, to see Well, th the the divine feminine alongside the divine masculine. I remember reading from an LDS feminist. Fascinating uh insight. She is a convert to the church and she said, I didn't join the church despite my feminism. I joined the church because of my feminism. I've never seen a theology

more empowering to women than the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean a heavenly mother, think about that, okay? D uh eternal gender as eternal and part of our our i eternal identity and purpose.

This is mind blowing stuff. And so as a feminist, I f I feel empowered by true doctrine. Well, her concern about the thought of of eternal hetero uh homosexual union was the thought wait a minute, are you t are you do you mean by that that one gender can exist in eternal completeness without even needing the other gender? Because as a feminist that she found that offensive.

Uh the same would work in the opposite direction as far as females not needing males. In some ways what God is saying in the garden, again, dividing things and then bringing them back into union, separating out male and female, and then asking them to become one. Even in their oppositionality, their complementarity, we're proving contraries, or in this way proving complements.

You have to find your other half in order to realize that you are not self-sufficient. In fact, your whole gender cannot be self-sufficient. for creation to proceed, for the plan to proceed, you have to find someone different from you. With all of the difficulties that that entails, and the compromise, and the two becoming one through God and There's a there's a reason for all of this doctrine, okay? Anyway, explaining to this group of uh social workers in training.

We have nothing negative to say, or should have nothing negative to say in that first instance. We need to be far more kind and loving and welcoming and supportive. Group two, we still need to be kind and welcoming and loving and supportive in order to help them know that they can repent. Honestly, to me, it's that second level where we have a huge

We make a difference. I'll put it that way. The way we treat people in Group Two, homosexual behavior, will largely determine, this is my opinion here, but will largely determine whether they go back to Group One or on to Group Three. Will they see I feel so loved and supported as a gay Latter day Saint striving to live the law of chastity, that when I slip I know I can change and repent.

And I want to because I know the the plan of salvation. I know the law of chastity. I don't know exact exactly how my life is gonna go and how the next life is going to work, but I do know the promises that if we're faithful in this life then no blessing will be withheld us.

I'm not gonna make God get any more specific than that because he hasn't been. Okay? We'll talk more about this when we get to Isaiah fifty uh fifty six, because it's one of the best verses ever on this topic for eunuchs in Israel. Okay, God has a plan for you, I promise, and it's better than you can imagine. So come, if you slip into group two like any of us slip into group two on any kind of sinful behavior, okay, sexual or non-sexual, come back to group one.

And be the flawed human being that we all are. But know that we're in this together and we're all trying and we're all. Praying for the grace of God to make us more than we are. He's given us all weakness so that we can be humble, and if we are humble, his grace is sufficient to make all of our weak things become strong. Yours, mine, all of us.

If we treated Group Two better that way, I think they'd come to be Group One. It's been that way in my life with mistakes that I've made and just I know I can change. As opposed to first of all, treating Group One horribly. So there's no desire for anyone in group two to come back that way. And then giving people in group two no hope. Then of course they're going to go to group three.

where I'm accepted and my behavior is is not problematic at all. And so I I don't have to bring my behavior up into line to my beliefs. I can bring my beliefs down into line with my behaviors. It's fine. There's no distance between my experience and my ideology anymore. And so instead of trying to reframe my experience to come into line with what I know to be true, and knowing that God will make all things right,

No, I'll just change my ideology and say no, it's totally normal. And then my experience fits that mold perfectly. But now I'm outside the plan of salvation. Yes, repentance is still available there, but the opportunity probably won't be taken because it's no longer sensed as anything that needs changing to begin with. Yeah, I I really pray this is making sense. And I pray that this is not being insensitive. Uh I I don't want to hurt feelings on either side. Believe me.

In fact, right after that that policy was announced in 2015, I sleep through everything. But that night at like 1 a.m. I woke up in the middle of the night and just my heart hurt. for a friend of mine that's in the LGBT community and striving valiantly to live the the the law of chastity and the full gospel of Jesus Christ and succeeding. He's amazing. But I texted him in the middle of the night and just said, Are you okay?

And he texted me right back. He must not have been sleeping much that night either. And just said, Yeah, actually I really feel the love of God. That he knows what I'm trying to do. And I'm gonna keep trying to do it. That same week, that Sunday, my wife sat down next to a sister in our ward, also LGBTQ, and put her arm around her and just said, Are you doing okay?

And again, she said, I have felt so wrapped up in the love of God this week. It's been amazing. As I've gone to the temple and just, God, you know who I am. You know who I'm trying to be like. We're still okay, right? And just this overwhelming of course you're okay. You are striking the balance between law and love as well as anyone can. I hope your fellow members are doing likewise.

I hope that they see how valiantly you're trying to live the law of chastity. I hope they are trying equally valiantly. To live the law of chast of charity. Okay. Uh again, I I we we need to move on from here. I I we've probably spent a lot of time on this, but I You who are struggling with this deserve that time. Let me just put it that way. You with loved ones that are struggling with this, from whichever angle

I testify of God's kindness and his mercy and his grace. I testify of the truthfulness of the church. In its approach to these things. as they are trying desperately to balance both sides, to find the Goldilocks zone, which in this case is in extremely narrow, with very steep slopes on the sides of either on either side. Because it has to do with with very important commandments. It has to do with divinity itself and the plan of salvation. What is Godhood?

What's the purpose of life and purpose of procreation? Purpose of those anyway, I I'll leave you with the Holy Ghost from this point and pray that I've at least planted enough seeds or given you enough of a diagram. For you in the spirit to to walk your way through it. At the end of that conversation at the College of Social Work, I was very grateful that. Even the ex Latter day Saints felt more understood.

And one sweet older woman member of the church came up to me afterwards and said, It's been really hard to be part of this program. I love it. I wanna help people. I wanna be a social worker, but it's tricky to do it in Utah. as a Latter day Saint at the University of Utah and j trying to navigate it and be Be true to my beliefs, but also to be open to the experiences and beliefs of everyone else. That she's walking a fine line and doing it beautifully.

But as she as we left she just said thank you so much. I've never heard it explained. like that. I've never seen it laid out in the different categories in our approach to each and it this nuanced view of it's not an all or nothing. It's not a condemn or a c or a condone as some kind of blanket statement. Thank you. And I just said, Well, I'll pass the thanks up, since that's where it really belongs. I I do pray that this is something helpful for for anyone who needs it.

Well, can we go back to Genesis nineteen now? Okay. In verse six. Lot has been out again facing the house is encompassed about, right? Coming from every angle. Well, verse six, Lot went out at the door unto them. He stood up to evil influences. There's courage. He shut the door after him. So he's still trying to protect what is within. He's keeping them those outside influences from becoming inside influences.

He said, I pray you, brethren, notice the word, he recognizes their shared humanity, and he says to them, Do not so wickedly. In other words, he is He's passing judgment. Maybe that's why he'd been sitting at the gate earlier, right? He's encouraging righteousness here. And then he says something shocking. According to the King James Version, at least, he says, Behold now I have two daughters which have not known man.

Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as it is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing, for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. I mean, come on, hospitality demands that I care for them. But I've got some daughters that you could sexually assault. Now, this is horrifying if it's accurate. Thankfully, it isn't.

I said earlier that Joseph Smith's translation made a minor correction to the beginning. Like, no, there were all three still here, not just two. Well, that was a minor correction. Here is a major correction. Because according to the King James, it was, don't touch the men, you can have my daughters. According to the Joseph Smith translation, no. Lot says, Don't touch the men, don't touch my daughters, don't do this wickedness.

This is not right in any way. This, you can't do this. And he stands up to them. It's a moment of incredible courage, not a horrific moment of capitulation. Okay? So thank you, Joseph, for restoring my faith in Lot. and in some ways restoring my faith in God, since Lot was considered righteous enough to spare. Okay? So be be careful with that.

Now that's a more general view, but be specific in terms of what Lot says and what the people, what the men of Sodom say in response. And again, the JST helps us with this. There are some fascinating insights here. Let's look at a few of them. In verse 9, for example. They say stand back. This is the King James Version still.

And they said again, this one fellow came into sojourn, and he will needs be a judge? It's like forget that, now will we deal worse with thee than with them? And they pressed sore upon the man even Lot and came near to break the door. Uh the okay, he closed it behind him. That that's not even gonna be enough. And if you go in to hide, believe me, we will break the door down to come after you. Whoa. Again, you see this.

We're we're at a battle line here. The the door of his home. What influences must I keep out? What will I let in? And and they're getting to a point of we're gonna come in no matter how hard you try to keep us out. And sadly, we live in a day that even our doors can't protect us. Because people will come in through the internet lines. And sadly, we don't even need cables for those anymore. Not sadly. I'm grateful for Wi-Fi, okay? But boy is it scary because I don't have a door I can shut.

The the dividing lines have been so blurred in our day, we have to be incredibly vigilant. Well they're trying to break the door down. What am I going to do here? But also notice what they said. This one fellow There's only one of them. We can stand up to that. Have you ever felt like it's such a tiny minority? We can't stand up or or make a difference. We can't say a thing. I'm only one.

They also said, he came in to sojourn. In other words, he's not even one of us. He's kind of he's this nomad, kinda come and go. It's just a matter of time, and I'm sure he'll leave. And do we sometimes struggle with that too? Do we feel opposition saying you're in the minority? When actually we're in the majority, it's just side uh sadly it's a silent majority.

that is being cowed into submission by a very vocal minority on some of these social issues. Well, it's just one. It's just a sojourner. In other words, this isn't permanent. your position here isn't permanent, or perhaps this standard isn't permanent. Things change. And on these particular issues, at least in the the modern West, I don't know if we've seen a change so fast, to make traditional marriage into a sojourner

And one that's no longer welcome in society? That's it's amazing how fast that has happened. And and then that third part, and you're gonna be a judge of us when your time has passed? Even though that time lasted for thousands of years. No, you can't judge us. This was the problem with Laman and Lemuel, remember? That they accused Lehi of being judgmental against the people of Jerusalem. They accused little brother Nephi of wanting to

To judge them? How how dare you think you can teach us or judge us or lead us in any way? It's so interesting how often you are accused of being judgmental. Even when you simply are holding to a different standard. Oh no, no, no. It's judgmental. It's I used to struggle with that sometimes when people would say, Ah yeah, I'm out of the church. I remember with one friend, we were close enough I could I could be honest here and go, wait, wait, wait.

Isn't that judging all Latter day Sain I mean, have you felt me judging you? It's like, Well no, but everyone else does. I'm like, Yeah, isn't that kind of a judgmental statement about being judgmental? Careful. But here that's what they're saying. Again, that's so that phrase so well describes what we're up against. Believe me, you're not only one. The standards you are holding to are not sojourners in the land. They're not a passing fancy.

It's not that we're passing well, it is that we're passing judgment, but I pray that it's righteous judgment. Again, speaking of JST, when j when the King James says judge not that ye be not judged, Some take that so far to say, see, we shouldn't judge others. Just live and let live, and you do you, and that's fine, and that's the day we live in, but that's moral relativism.

The JST of judge not that ye be not judged is much more clear and careful. Judge not unrighteously, but judge righteous judgment. We are always making decisions and that's judgment calls, okay? And then the idea of breaking down the door, yes, those It's intimidating to stand up for what's right. Again, that's why I think that professor was like, You seem a little too happy, a little too clueless. Do you have any idea what you're up against? Like, yeah, I do. But what you gonna do?

You gotta go teach truth. And drew it as sensitively as possible. Elder Maxwell once said, as only Elder Maxwell could. that the gradual normalization of aberration is the most subtle form of intimidation. Oh that's a lot of Asians. Did you catch it though? Do you feel intimidated by the fact that aberration has now become normalized? The normalizate the gradual normalization of aberration.

And say, no, now that those exceptions that we could treat exceptionally and help and and lift and and serve and welcome, no, has now been welcomed to the point we've o we didn't just correct, we've overcorrected. It used to be all law and no love, but instead of coming and trying to balance it in the Goldilocks zone, it's now become all love and no law, to the point that law is completely unwelcome, and in fact it's become unlawful.

Uh used to be all truth and no tolerance, but instead of coming to balance them, it's now all tolerance and no truth. And so it's all just relative. And now do we are we made to feel judgmental when that's not what we're trying to be? Are we made to seem unloving? When it's a a higher form of love To try to lift people to greater happiness and peace and rest for them within the sanctuary of standards. Within the confines of covenant.

Well, a couple other things here. In the JST of Genesis 19, 11, there's this interesting phrase. The men of Sodom as they're ready to pound the door down, it says, you know, send them out, send out the men and send out your daughters, we'll take everybody. And it says, And we will do with them as seemeth us good. Now this was after the wickedness of Sodom. Did you catch the phrases? We're gonna do what seems good to us. That's definition of moral relativism.

That's the definition of of of you do you. And if it seems good to you, then it's probably good. This is what they the sociologists call the social construction of reality. Or even the social construction of morality. It is it's only what we collectively decide it is, which is a denial of God, a denial of ultimate truth A denial of independent morality.

And instead it's simply social construction and situational ethics. I mean, as they said, it this is after the met the wickedness of Sodom. This is just how it is here, okay? This is our norm. So quit fighting against it. Another phrase here, again from the JST. Lot says for to them, God will not justify his servant in this thing. Wherefore let me plead with my brethren this once only, that unto these men ye do nothing, that they may have peace in my house.

Now, two phrases there to wrestle with. When Lot says God will not justify his servant in this thing, he's not talking about them. He's not saying he won't justify you in that. Uh, he's talking about himself. I'm God's servant, and he won't justify me in this thing. What thing? In not letting you know that this is wrong, in not standing up for truth. If I simply wash my hands of any kind of responsibility here and do nothing to rock the boat, God will not justify his servant in this thing.

Do you understand how much courage it takes on the part of prophets and apostles to stand up to popular opinion? and teach truth unapologetically? That takes guts. But God cannot justify his servants for doing for not doing that. It's amazing what what they're willing to do. What Jesus said about John the Baptist, and John the Baptist spoke truth to power. He called out Herod uh for for sins of immorality and he paid for it with his life.

But what does Jesus say about John the Baptist? He says, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Is that what you were expecting? Some think about that, a reed shaken with the wind. When the wind blows among the cattails, those reeds all bend in the direction that the wind is blowing. I've never seen an obstinate reed stand up to the wind and say, No, I will not not cow to your to your directions.

I see politicians doing it all the time. I've sometimes joked that there are a lot of wet fingers in Washington, DC, but none in Salt Lake City. Wet finger in terms of licking it to hold it up to see which way the winds of popular opinion happen to be blowing today. Well, I've gotta support my constituents, right? I I've gotta vote whatever they want. I've got I'm there's the subtle intimidation.

Especially from a vocal minority. Whereas John the Baptist, no wet finger there. I'll all st I I know what's right and I have to stand up for it. And the same is said can be said of our prophets and apostles today. They are they're not reeds bending in the wind. They're standing up for truth. And God justifies them in that, even if popular opinion won't. In fact the opposite is true. God couldn't justify them.

If they did it if they did otherwise. By the way, we're his servants too. It can't just be we we again so careful. We have to walk a a tight rope on this. But we do need to honor agency on the one hand, but stand for truth and righteousness on the other. The other phrase is, well let me plead with my brother in this once only.

to don't do anything wrong here. And that's a concern of mine. I I really respect Lot for that first line. He won't justify me in doing nothing. But that second part, well j just once, I've got to stand up to you. Yeah, we might have to keep standing up. And on this one, when it's a matter of I'm going to try to get in your way this one time, in this one instance, I've got to let you know how wrong it is.

Because if we only stand up to specific instances, then it might seem like we're talking about preferences instead of principles. It might seem like we're making just trying to make exceptions, but we accept your general rules. Mm. Now this is extremely hard to do in a pluralistic society, especially at this time period where well Elder Back Elder Packer used to say this.

At least the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah seemed to be localized in those places. They are now generalized, and there's nowhere to go. to escape Sodom and Gomorrah anymore. Okay? Again, it's not just the door that we can close. It's not that simple anymore. Elder Packer and others have said it's no longer the great and spacious building over there across from across the river.

And here we are safe behind our iron rod. No, now thanks to technology, we're all growing up in within the Great and Spacious Building. We're raising our children within the Great and Spacious Building. Who what are we going to do to to establish some kind of sanctuary even here? Well, we get a hint of that in verse 10 and 11. In verse ten, the men, and the JST here, the angels of God, which were holy men, they put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

Ah, remember that earlier Lot was pressing upon them greatly to bring them in? Well now it's their turn. Not just pressing upon him greatly, but literally reaching out and grabbing him and bringing him in. This time this is justified, okay? He wasn't forcing them in, but he they really are saving him. That's interesting too, that sometimes the people we save end up saving us.

And the standards we were inviting people into will save us all. So come back in, Lot. Let us help you. And then they shut the door. There's all this always this sense of keeping the door closed and not just open opening yourself to these outside influences. Well then verse 11, and this is that blindness I mentioned when it comes to getting some salt in your some salt in your eyes.

Verse eleven They smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. That's one of my favorite phrases in this whole chapter. Can you imagine some way? To just pray, God, please smite them with blindness. Help them not see how to reach us. If anything, open their eyes to see the consequences of their decisions, but close their eyes when it means when it comes to them looking for a way to to enter my home.

Don't let them find a way in. In fact, let's make it so hard for them that they just get tired and give up. 'Cause that's what happened with these men of Sodom. They w they wearied themselves in finding the door. Can you picture all these newly blinded people that are just reaching and searching, trying to find a way in? That visual image is is haunting, but it describes so well what the world all around us. But if we can hold tight, if we can stick to our standards,

Will it get to a point where they just give up? Because they're tired of our obstinence. They realize they're not giving in. Remember, Satan is good at persistence, but not so good at endurance. Resist the devil, and he will flee from thee, the scripture says. Just let them get tired before we do. That's the problem. I think we tire before they do. But the old saying, All it takes for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

So we have to do something, and we have to persist in doing it until they get tired instead of us.

Now, verse 12, we're back with Lot and his and his family, and his these holy men. We're within the sanctuary of standard. And the holy men say this to Lot. Hast thou here any besides? Son-in-law, thy sons, thy daughters, whatsoever thou hast in the city? Bring them out of this place. So he's basically saying, uh, it's time to go. Okay. This is we've come down, we've seen, we've seen the s we've heard the cry.

And it's it's there's no there's no avoiding the destruction. The flood of fire is coming to consume this flood of sin. But we want to save you. And anyone that you that will come with you. So let's get out of here. Now notice the list. On the one hand at the end he says whatsoever thou hast And other translations mention, Whosoever thou hast. There's this sense Well remember that phrase back when Abraham is leaving Ur of the Chaldees, and he says he brought the souls that they had won?

He's doing missionary work, right? He's leaven leavening the lump and it's working. He brings them out of wickedness toward a promised land. So Lot, have you been successful at that? Have you been doing it? Won any souls lately? Bring him. And beyond that, especially family members. Sons, daughters, sons-in-law, whoever you got, bring'em out. Now, this is where to me it's fascinating. I don't know if he was ever successful with any missionary work. Based on what we see here, it seems like a no.

But think of the numbers here. You have lot and you have lots wife. We know there were two daughters. uh th that had never known man. But also he mentioned sons in law. Now in those days if you were uh betrothed, if you were uh engaged, then you could call them husband-wife already. It had marriage hadn't been consummated yet, it wasn't official, but the betrothal was official, so we're gonna call you sons-in-law already, even though you're just a fiance, okay?

But if you got Lot and his wife, two daughters and two sons in law, we're up to six now. He mentions here sons. Now depending on the translation, this could either be a question or a statement. It's like, hey, you got anybody? Do you got any sons? You got any daughters? You got any sons-in-law? Find them and bring them. Other translations, it's a statement. Get your sons, get your daughters, get your sons-in-law, do this.

Now, if their sons plural, then there's at least two, or up to eight, and assuming they're married. Then there's two daughters in law, and what are we at now? Even if no other converts came, we're at ten. Now again, there's some speculation there on sons and s and daughters in law, but it does make me wonder about Abraham, last chapter, stopping at ten. Can I at least save my family and their family, even extended family?

I I'm really worried about ten specific people in Sodom. Can we spare them? And what's amazing is even when God says, Yeah, if there's ten, I'll spare everybody. In this version, it's like, if there's ten, I'll at least spare them. And even again, God's willingness to be bartered down, anybody who's righteous, if there's not enough for that leaven to leaven the lump, I'll at least won't destroy the leaven with the lump.

I will draw them out and preserve them. Anyone who will listen to me, there's the mercy of God and the justice of God coming together. Well, we're gonna see that it wasn't ten. In verse sixteen, While he lingered, makes me wonder, what's holding you back? Every verb we've seen so far has been fast and hastened and quick and run, but now he's lingering Is he worried about loved ones? Is he thinking about what he stands to lose? I don't know all the reasons, but he's lingering. And as he does,

the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought the him forth, and set him without the city. It's like this is no way no no time to linger. You were kind to press upon us greatly. We were wise to yank you into the house. And during this time of lingering, I'm sorry I have to be a little bit more forceful with you, but I'm going to put my hands in yours and pull you out.

Pull you out of the danger that you're in. Come. And while we still have to honor a agency, here's another set of contraries to prove. We need to make it as clear as we possibly can. The consequences of sin, what people are up against, how much they mean to us, to the point that we w we want to hold them by the hand, stay connected to them as loved ones. and bring them in a better direction.

Now verse seventeen, he's very clear. It came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee. Neither stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed. Now that one phrase, if you know the story, there's some foreshadowing. Don't look back. Only look forward. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But then the other one, don't stay in the plane. Escape to the mountain.

Surely don't stay in the valley, okay? That telestial level. But don't even don't even just ascend to a terrestrial level of plains. Go all the way to the celestial level of mountaintop. Ascend the hill of the Lord. Climb the mountain of the Lord. We're talking temple here again. Well, verse eighteen and nineteen.

Lot said unto them, O not so, my lord, behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. Thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life. And I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die. Now, the end of that verse honestly makes no sense to me. I don't understand why Lot is worried about ascending to the mountain. Now, maybe, actually, maybe it's not supposed to make sense.

Because when I think of people like, no, I can't go to the temple, or I I can't live at that level, that that doesn't really make sense to me either. It's like, no, you totally can. We're here to help. That's the place of safety. And God isn't trying to keep you out of the temple because of temple recommends. He's trying to bring you into the temple. And living those standards is what is what the temple's for. It's there to help you get there. Okay? So again, a lot

What do you mean some evil's gonna take you and you're gonna die? No, you're gonna die if you stay right here. So climb. But that other part is so beautiful, I have found grace and you've magnified your mercy. In fact, I even wonder about that language. Sometimes, depending on how we feel about ourselves, and maybe this is Lot's problem. No, I've been in in Sodom for way too long. I don't deserve to go to the mountaintop.

I I didn't stand up to evil like I should have. I didn't leaven the lump. I failed you. We could have turned that whole city around. I didn't. So I can't. I No, I can't go to the mountain. But then when it says I found grace, that word found almost suggests like it was hard to to see. I had to search for it. No, it isn't. It's everywhere. So what did God do to help?

Lot find it, he magnified his mercy. I just love the interplay of those two phrases. If you're having a hard time finding God's grace, Pray for his mercy to be magnified in your eyes to the point that you just can't miss it. He wants you on the mountaintop. His mercy has made that ascent possible. I promise you can find his grace. It's it's larger than life. He's magnified it. So come.

Well Lot still concerned with that brings up a different possibility. Verse twenty. Behold now this city is near to flee unto. It's like okay, I'll leave wickedness. Maybe this is Uh a bad uh statement on Lot's part. I'll leave it, but do I have to leave it that far? We'll see that later in the story of Exodus and Pharaoh. Like you could okay, the slaves can leap, but don't go very far. I w I want you to come back when I when I want.

I can leave Sodom a little, and then it's not that far to come back and visit on the weekends, maybe. This little this city is near to flee unto. And then he says, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape thither, and my soul shall live. And I think that littleness is significant because it's repeated in 22 when the name of the place is called Zoar, which means little. So it's, can I just go to that little spot?

I wonder perhaps if it's well, this is little. The the sinfulness over here isn't as great as that one. So can I kind of wean myself off of wickedness and be a little less? exposed to iniquity. Ah that's that is only That's that's only a partial solution, and usually it's not a permanent one.

No, we gotta get all the way to the mountain. And eventually Lot does. We'll see that. That's good news in a in a in a moment. But this idea of little, maybe he's thinking, again, little sin. Maybe he's thinking, well, it's small enough that that even us few could make a difference. Give me another chance on a on a smaller scale. Maybe it's small enough that

will know each other. Pe the peop people in small towns tend to know each other and tend to take care of each other. So that neglect of the poor, maybe it's less likely in a small town. Now, on the other hand, small towns they seem to know each other's business all the time. But maybe that's not entirely bad because we do help to keep each other accountable, and that was something that wasn't happening in Sodom. It's almost like Zoar can I try again?

Well, again in God's kindness. Okay, I know I haven't really figured out this whole bartering thing, but sure. If you'd rather stay in Zoar, I'll let you. Maybe if nothing else, just to let you see that this isn't really where you want to stay. It's not a permanent solution. So he goes to Zoar, stays for a time,

But then leaves, and ends up ascending the mountain. But then verse twenty three. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar, Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of heaven, and he overthrew those cities, and that which grew upon the ground. This is a flood of fire, just like there had been a flood of water, mass destruction, consequences for sin. And then the tragic moment, verse twenty six, but his wife looked back.

from behind him. And she became a pillar of salt. Now two things there, the looking back and the pillar of salt. What was wrong with looking back? Well, Elder Holland has pointed out that, well, looking back is usually the first step towards going back. And sometimes when we're trying to to change our behaviors or come out of wicked circumstances, with a certain law a sense of longing we look back. And maybe end up going. And that would lead to our ultimate destruction.

In fact, but this is part of the salt thing. Some of you even wonder, is that literal? Uh just boom, she's like crystallized like some kind of one of Medusa's statues. Or is it simply No, if you look back and end up going back and returning to Sodom and Gomorrah, when it is destroyed. by fire and brimstone from above, and then ended up swallowed up in the waters of the Dead Sea. There's the ruins. Ah, salt. Hm. So rather than some literal statue

Could it simply be she r ended up returning to Sodom and Gomorrah and being consumed in its destruction? And she now stands as a a a pillar. She stands as an example, a monument to lowered standards, a monument to one's failure to fully repent, to slide back into sin with no intention of permanently leaving it. Well you do end up as just remains in the Dead Sea. There's death personified. There's a pillar to the salt of sin.

Now that's one possibility. The other is simply looking back because one is either unwilling or unable to look forward. t to to long for the ease of of that Eden. Instead of the work of the world. To look back because it's a downhill slide, it's the path of least resistance, instead of looking forward and all the upward ascent that will be expected of me.

It's interesting, just like Sodom is so often remembered later in Scripture, at several points Lot's wife is too, most famously from Jesus himself. the the sh the second shortest verse in all of Scripture. First shortest is Jesus wept. The second shortest is three words. Remember Lot's wife. But what's the context of that call?

This is Luke chapter 17. Jesus says first, as it was in the days of Noah, and then he describes what they're doing before destruction. And then he says, oh, now how about example number two? Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot.

They're still kind of going through their emotions, living their lives, not realizing that there are consequences to their decisions. He says, as in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, and mostly for themselves. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven. It destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. No wonder there's so many parallels.

In that day he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away. He that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. And then that all important phrase Remember Lot's wife. Don't go back to get what you missed. Leave it. In some ways, it's too late now to make a difference. I'll come back to that in just a second.

Others have had said similar things. Luke, again from Jesus, no man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I mean if you ever tried to walk a straight line by looking over your shoulder, yeah, it it can't really be done. You have to look forward. You have to keep your eyes fixed on the goal and pursue it. And that was a problem for Lot's wife as well.

How about this one from DNC 133? Over and over it talks about fleeing spiritual Babylon, but then it adds this. Let him not look back, lest sudden destruction shall come upon him. Now I do want to say one more thing about looking back, but I'm gonna save it till we talk about Lot's daughters at the end of this chapter,'cause it's a really weird story, but I think it ties in with what just happened to their mother.

Now verse twenty seven and twenty eight, Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and behold and lo the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And this was not the refiner's fire. This was the destroyer's flame.

twenty nine it came to pass that when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. So God's kindness to Lot was actually kindness to Abraham. I remembered him. The people that matter to him. The fact that Abraham's willing to arm 318 servants and go rescue Lot from From that kind of destruction? Well, I'll rescue Lot from this kind of destruction. out of kindness to you.

Verse thirty, Lot went up out of Zoar. See, it doesn't last long. Okay, you do you realize these half measures at repentance are insufficient? Okay, fine. So he left Zoar. He dwelt in the mountain. Ah, he's finally making it. his two daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zoar. Yep, it's too close.

So he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters, and yes, better to be in a cave in the mountain than in a mansion down in Sodom. But this is where things get a little weird, okay? There's a turn for the worse. We'll see it in thirty one to thirty three, and then repeat it later.

The firstborn, daughter, said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose. But as you'll see throughout the rest of this chapter, she's now pregnant.

Through her own father, Unbeknownst to him. And then the younger sister does the same thing. And then she's expecting. Now the JST says, and they dwelt or dealt wickedly. So thanks, Joseph. If it wasn't obvious enough, they did something wrong here. That was not what they were supposed to do. In fact, like I said last time, often There's a female equivalent to the male heroes we see in scripture, the daughters of Onida versus Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for example.

There also seems sometimes to be female equivalents of the male villains in Scripture. And in some ways these daughters of Lot are the female equivalent of Ham with Noah,'cause there's some kind of immoral indiscretion on Ham's part, like we saw in the aftermath of the flood. And here's a very obvious moral indiscretion on the part of Lot's daughter. Uh I'm not gonna get into the specifics of all of that. I mean the way it's described here, it's just either they each give birth to a son.

And by the end of the chapter it says, oh, and that son is Ammon, and the other son is Moab, and that's where the Ammonites come from, and that's where the Moabites come from. Now some scholars have looked at that and said, I think this whole thing's made up, and some later Israelite is just poking fun at his neighbors, saying, Oh, well, do you know your origin story? I mean ours comes through the covenant. Yours was some weird kind of

Well, incestuous relationship and that's that's where you Ammonites come from. That's where you Moabites come from. Well, maybe. Then again, is God trying to teach us something more important for each of us? That has something to do with looking back versus looking forward. That's why I love this isn't the same story as their mother. And on the heels of Mother Eve.

And on Mother Sarah. And you see, with even Sarah there's a willingness to look forward, even in joy and in laughter. And I'm not gonna look back at all my years of pain. I'm gonna look forward at my years of pleasure, my years of joy. Or Eve, I'm not going to look back at what I lost in Eden. I'm going to look forward at what I'm going to gain spiritually, even in this fallen world. Now in Lot's wife's case, it's looking back at what I'm leaving behind in Sodom.

In the daughter's case, how are they looking backwards instead of forwards? Well, think about what they said. Dad is old, yeah, that's a problem. He's the only man left on earth. That's what you get with that phrase. There is not a man in the earth to come in unto us. I mean as far as they know

You know, they see the smoke rise from Sodom and Gomorrah. That was their whole world growing up, right? And here they are in some cave in the mountains, and as far as they know, it was a universal flood of fire, like there had been a universal flood of water. So as far as they are they're concerned, there are three people left on Earth, and that's it. There's no hope for us. So we're going to do something wrong.

To try to give ourselves some kind of future, we have to take matters into our own hands. When in reality, no, it just it was those wicked cities. There's lots of better options out there. You have a future. Trust me on that. Trust that you have one and live into it. Don't look back at all this lost world down below. And to me, often when I've taught women in the scriptures courses, I'll talk about Eve and Lot's wife and Lot's daughters all in the same time to wrestle with those differences.

and the problems that we bring upon ourselves when we assume we have no future. We'll make major mistakes in the present if we don't think we have any future. So my friends, don't look back. Please look forward and look forward with faith, knowing that there are there is hope for you. There are answers to your questions. There is There's healing ahead. There's a an Isaac to come along. In fact, he's just two chapters away. Hold out for that.

But so ends chapter nineteen. Now chapter twenty I hope we can do fairly quickly. Okay? Good luck, right? But chapter twenty in some ways is just a repeat of what we saw at the end of chapter twelve. So maybe we can do it fairly fast.

You see, in chapter twelve, Abraham and Sarah were going down into Egypt, and it was that conversation like, uh oh, they're going to kill me to in order to take you into the harem. Well, I guess the Philistines aren't much more moral or better than the Egyptians were,'cause now as they're wandering through Philistine territory, there's a king named Abimelech.

And he's the Philistine equivalent to Pharaoh in Egypt, and it happens all over again. And so again Abraham turns to Sarah, will you please say that you're my sister instead of my wife, and then I'll survive as Abimelech takes you into the royal harem. Now, knowing what we do about the first trip, that it was God's idea, not Abraham's.

And knowing what we know about Abraham's character, that he's willing to put his life on the line to help his punk nephew, let alone his beloved wife, I have to assume that this was God's command again. Which again makes this a second round of air of an Abrahamic test, which was equally, perhaps even more so, a Sarah test. Like we talked about last week, Abraham, will you sacrifice your wife? Will you lay her on the altar?

Trusting that somehow I'll bless you despite that fact. And again, other half. Sarah, we're going to test you from your angle also. Will you w lay your virtue on the altar? Trusting that God can still preserve it somehow. I know you already passed this test. But some tests are worth repeating. Maybe it's time to maybe the circumstances have changed.

Maybe you're in a different stage of life and you need to remind yourself of just how faithful you once were and you can be just as faithful again. So here's the repeat test. And again they pass it. In fact, there's a great statement from Nealie Maxwell, so many great statements from him, about repeated tests. In fact, the whole idea makes me think about that word reprove. Remember DNC 121? Reproving be times with sharpness?

Reproof means to chasten or to chastise. And that's not what's happening here. But just separate it out, say it a little slower, and reprove becomes reproved. Ah, to prove again, to test or try again, to give someone a second chance to say, I'm still here, I'm still covenant people.

The way Elder Maxwell says it, given the tremendous importance of these virtues now and in the world to come, Should we be surprised if to hasten the process, the Lord gives us individually the relevant and necessary clinical experiences? We do not usually seek these, however, yet they seem to come, don't they? Even when we do not remember having signed up for a particular course.

And then this part, closer to what Sarah's going through again, Elder Maxwell says, sometimes we find ourselves enrolled again in the same course. Apparently we were only auditing before. Perhaps this time it can be for credit. Well, Sarah was not auditing the the course on personal sacrifice and faith in God in Egypt. But she has found herself re-enrolled in it. And again, she comes away with straight A's.

because she exercises faith in God, willingly sacrifices, lays her virtue on the altar. Abraham lays his wife upon the lion couch, or in this case the king's bed. And once again the hand is stayed. So are we starting to see some preview of what we're going to see in chapter 22 with Isaac? Offer the sacrifice, I can spare you actually having to go through with it. He doesn't always. We'll see that we saw it with the daughters of Oneida, right? But he can

And hi we have to trust his wisdom and judgment on all of this. But I do love the exchange that then comes with Abimelech and Abraham. Because just like in the Pharaoh story, it's like, What were you thinking? I could have done something really horribly wrong. I'm sure glad that God didn't let me do it. And Abimelech says the exact same thing basically. Dude, what are you thinking? I could have I almost well Okay. So God I didn't commit adultery. I thought you guys were expert okay, never mind.

But the hand is stayed in both instances, the conversation it actually Abraham is blessed in both instances. Pharaoh enriches him for S for Sarah's sake the first time, and Abimelech will enrich Abraham for Sarah's sake now.

But notice some of the conversation. It's amazing. Verse three, God comes to Abimelech in a dream by night and said, Behold, thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. Now, verse four, Abimelech had not come near her, again, hand was stayed, and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

Now that come to think of it, that was Abraham's almost exact question about Sodom and Gomorrah. Wait a minute, if they're righteous, you're not going to destroy them as if they were wicked, right? And so here's Abimelech wondering the same thing. Then verse five in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. It's one of my favorite statements. And it comes from a Philistine king. I didn't know.

I I I'm just I acted on what they said. I th that was the information they gave me. And so I know I was about to do something horribly wrong, but I would have been sitting in ignorance. and and not just ignorance, in innocence and in integrity. I love that he puts it that way. And notice the two body parts he lists, integrity of the heart and innocency of the hand. The psalmist will talk about that clean hands and a pure heart.

It's not just that my actions were were innocent, my motives and intentions were pure. That's clean hands and pure heart. Integrity of the heart, innocency of the hands. Then verse six, God says to him in the dream, Yea, I know thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart. So yeah, I see your heart. For I also withheld thee from sinning against me.

Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. So I was I understand the righteous intent, so am I actually going to help you preserve the righteous action? That's a beautiful thought, too. If my heart's in the right place, God will help my hands to stay in the right place. That's a beautiful promise. And then as he says, I suffered thee not to touch her. So I deserve the credit. This wasn't just your fortitude. Okay, don't take all the credit for your righteousness.

But what's amazing about this is A Abimelech is having a conversation with the God of Israel, the God of Abraham and Sarah, okay, Jehovah. And so he's coming to know Abraham's God. Sarah is God, and therefore coming to know something about Abraham and Sarah also, just like we saw back in Egypt. So verse seven. Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet.

And he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. And if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that art thine. Now it would have been one thing for Abraham to try to make that statement himself directly. Oh don't yes, this is my wife, but don't touch her, because I'm a mighty prophet of the mighty God. And if you do anything to her, then you'll be destroyed. Now, if I'm a prideful Philistine king, I'd be like

Well let's prove that. I'll I'll I'll risk it. Yeah, I'm gonna suffer some kind of consequence for sin. Well let me kill you, and then it's no longer adultery. Fine, then I can do whatever I want. Now it's amazing that by doing it this way, just like we saw with Egypt, Abimelech is learning these things for himself and establishing a direct relationship with the God of Israel.

So verse 8, therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, told all these things in their ears, and the men were sore afraid. So now Abraham and Sarah aren't just under divine protection, they're under the protection of the king, and all of his subjects now know who Abraham is. Hmm, this is helping with some missionary work, most likely, right?

Now, verse 9, and again this conversation continues, and I love some of the things that come up here. Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? Now he could have stopped with that and like, dude, what's your problem? You could you really put us into a a potential world of hurt. But then notice the next line. And what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

Now he goes on in ten. Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou that thou hast done this thing? And I absolutely I love Abimelech for this. Uh I know he's outside of Israel, I know he's a Philistine king, and that's usually associated with wickedness, but man, integrity, innocence, and self y introspection? Notice what he said, what have I offended thee?

What did I do to you, Abraham? We just met. What did I do to you that you would put me in harm's way with with right and wrong and the potential of losing my integrity? What what sawest thou? That would make you act this way. Now, in a way, Abimelech is giving Abraham a huge benefit of the doubt. Did I do something wrong? Because you mistreated me. So I'm assuming you thought that I had mistreated you? And what did you see here that gave you that impression?

I love that. This is a Lord is it I experience from the Old Testament. From a non-Israelite, uh not house of Israel. It it's amazing to me. What could I have possibly done to make you respond in this way? What did you expect or see that's wrong? Do I have a blind spot? Again, I I'm trying to live by integrity and innocency

Help me see where I'm where I'm falling short. Help me see where my people are falling short. It's amazing. There's a great story in church history where a woman that kno knew Joseph Smith is offended by someone. She's been falsely accused. And if there anybody knows what it's like to be falsely accused, it's Joseph Smith.

So she goes to him and is like, I want redress. I want you to f defend my my honor and take it out on that that false accuser. And Joseph said, Okay, well, you know In my experience of false accusation, I usually think as hard as I can about the situation that the two of us were in and search my own actions, my own words, my own behaviors as carefully as I can

Wondering if I might have done something to make them act that way or make them feel that way about me. And you know what, dear sister? Almost every time I do it, I realize, oh, maybe it was that. And by going through that mental exercise, in fact by going through the pain of accusation, it helped me see something that was in my blind spot.

I actually end up appreciating the accusation rather than being offended by it, because it's helping me become more Christ-like. You might want to give it a shot. And she did and was very grateful for the experience. That same Lord is it I attitude is what's driving Abimelech. And then Abraham's response, verse eleven, Well, because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

Surely the fear of God isn't here. I now maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong. We'll see lots of problems with Philistines later on, okay? And surely the fear of God, at least the God of Israel, wasn't there. So I did worry about my own life. But I also wonder if this is a negative example on Abraham's part of Abraham, you didn't come down to see first. If sins and cries were all that people were making them out to be, you jumped to a conclusion.

And assume these people wouldn't be righteous and they're willing to be. Once they come to know the truth. There's more innocency and integrity here than you realize. So so don't assume things. Just because people are different, just because people are outside of of your covenant, they may be trying to live whatever covenants they That they believe are right.

And then in verse twelve he does defend his his alleged dishonesty. He says, yet indeed she is my sister, okay? I mean I wasn't totally false with you. She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. So again, like we said earlier, as long as we're related, brother and sister fits. Okay? It's my next door neighbor that lives. A few streets away, right?

Well, like I said, uh all is ends amicably. In fact it ends with a great outpouring on Abimelech's part. Here, let me enrich you. Let me show that there's no hard feelings, uh and just go out of my way I don't owe you anything. I didn't do anything to your wife. But just to make sure that we're in the clear, I'm going to go above and beyond the call of justice and actually be generous here.

So in the next few verses he gives great wealth to Abraham and says, You can live wherever you want within within my kingdom. Then sixteen, he turns to Sarah. Now this would have been an awkward conversation. So sorry, I Almost committed adultery. So sorry, I just assumed that I could take you into my to my home. I I love again that he has the guts to face her, and not just Abraham. He says to her, you know, recognizing her own

reality, her own identity, her own individuality, her own divine worth. He says, Behold, I have given thy brother I I'm sure he had a little smirk on his face when he said it, your quote unquote brother A thousand pieces of silver. Behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes. It's like he's he's going to protect you. He's your veil. Unto all that are with thee and with all other And thus she was reproved.

Now, reproved? We talked about reproved. Is he chastening her? Is he chastising her? I think that's a bad translation, because I looked at all the other translations, and there's some better ones. One version says, you are completely vindicated. Another says, before all men you are cleared. Another, it is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you.

I want you to know I want everyone else to know that you're clean. Uh, that you weren't giving away your virtue, that you were holding on to it. And what is that virtue worth? Oh. How about a thousand pieces of silver? not as an exchange. I'll give you that in exchange for your virtue. No, I'll give you that as proof of your virtue. that you hold as of great worth. Beautiful what's happening here. Then seventeen and eighteen.

Abraham prayed unto God, his God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, and they bare children, for the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's wife. Oh, so there we get to see the specific consequence. Uh interesting. None of the women in the household of Abimelech could have children.

I don't know how long this is lasting. I d I don't understand the the complete circumstances. But it's amazing to think, wait, you mess with somebody else's family, then you reap what you sow. Yeah, you want increase In the wrong way, then you will end up with decrease. And that's exactly what happens here. You go after something the wrong way, and that very thing will be the obstacle for you getting what you intended to receive.

Interesting law of the harvest here. Well, then twenty one. Speaking of a family that can't have children.

God blesses Abimelech, you can now have seed. And Sarah, since you passed your test, you can now have seed too. So verse one and two, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said. The Lord said did unto Sarah as he had spoken, for Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Do you catch the repeated phrases? As he had said, as he had spoken, just as he'd spoken to Abraham and to Sarah. God is as good as his word.

He is the word of God after all. Verse 3, then Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. This is my little lap. This is my son of joy. And every time we call to him, Honey, we can laugh together. We can th our tragedy has finally turned into comedy. And this will have a happy ending.

Now verse four, Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. So just as God will do everything he said, Abraham's going to do everything he said, and this token of the covenant is being passed down. Verse five, Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him, which makes Sarah ninety, which makes this thirty eight years since we saw that first promise back in the book of Abraham of

Seed like the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea. Are we willing to wait that long? Decade after decade of tragedy before the comic relief finally arrives. I hope we're that patient. Abraham and Sarah were. And then Sarah, who earlier was afraid of her laughter is now rejoicing in her joy. She's laughing about her laughter. She says in six, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. She's made me Isaac

So everyone can Isaac too, because if I can Isaac, anyone can Isaac, believe me. If I can yitzak, there's the word in Hebrew, then go out and yitzak to your heart's content. There is Eden east of Eve. Believe me. So laugh along. There is something beautiful there too about do we rejoice in the joy of other people? Are we as excited about their excitement as they are? Do we rejoice in their joy? I hope so. Then verse 7.

She said, no doubt still with a grin on her face, Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck? For I have borne him a son in his old age? Man, not just to be able to give birth, but to then we to feed, to nurse this child. That's the miracle that we see in the Book of Mormon on their eight years of wilderness journey and with no fire to cook their food on.

And and it was so shocking to to the men in the family that, whoa, the women are still able to give birth and nurse our children? Wow. Uh that's miraculous. And Sarah is feeling that same miracle. We will see it repeated in the New Testament by the end of our lesson. Then verse eight, the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. I do love the thought of feasting on that day.

When a child can sim start to move from milk to meat himself. Oh this is a feast for everyone. For my wife, I remember those days of weaning not as a day of feasting or rejoicing. For her it was really sad. She loved to nurse her newborn. Uh she learned this from Anne Madsen, who used to uh nurse herself as she was nursing her infants. She would feed her children while she was feeding herself on scripture. Babe in one arm.

standard works in the other, uh, feeding the soul as she nourished the body. And my wife was really struck by that as a young mother, and and did likewise, and rejoiced in the chance to To feed her children. She's been doing it ever since in more spiritual ways. In fact when we were first when when all our babies were newborns, that was that was the the way we divided and conquered.

Yeah, if they cried in the middle of the night and woke up, if if they were hungry, my wife would take care of it for obvious reasons. If they were messy, then that was my job. And my wife and I agreed, it's like it just seems fitting, you know. Uh you get the food in, I get the food out. Here we are on opposite ends of digestion. Okay, but we're we're each playing our part. Well, what w I I understand why it was hard for her to stop nursing.

Stopping changing diapers was a that was a day of feasting for me, believe me. But there is something about being willing to feast and celebrate your children's growing independence. Even though that's going to lead to some challenges and problems on their part, okay? Uh as they go grow from milk to meat, there'll be some there'll be some chunks that they choke on, okay? There will be some hard things that they have to endure.

But it is cause for rejoicing that they are growing and moving forward. If for this cause a man and a woman shall leave their father and mother and cleave unto each other, It's all about growing independence from parents, to become more independent ourselves, to launch out onto the unknown, like Abraham and Sarah did when they left Ur of the Chaldees. And how this little weaned Isaac, he's growing up. And as hard as that is, that's a good thing. It's worth celebrating.

Verse nine then other people weren't quite celebrating over it. Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which he had borne unto Abraham, mocking.

Now, mocking is a lot like laughter, just in a different key. And sure enough, in the Hebrew, it uses the same word. So now Ishmael is Isaacing himself, but in a negative way. We're seeing all of these, I don't know, poetic justice or these interesting kind of uh turns of phrase where Sarah was laughing in a good way, Ishmael is laughing in the in a in the wrong way.

And again, just like it happened with their mothers, this is pride from below that's probably gonna spawn pride from above. It tends to do that. So here's Ishmael. Uh mid to late teenager by now. I mean if he's thirteen to fourteen uh when he's circumcised and then a year later his uh Isaac is born. And again, Isaac is his half brother. But if I'm not gonna be my brother's keeper, I'm certainly not gonna be my half-brother's keeper.

He's now old enough to kind of fend for himself a little bit. Old enough at least for me to mock him, and it's probably gonna hurt his feelings a bit. That's good. You've got to wait a little bit for that. Uh and so here's this pride from below, because evidently dad seems really excited about him. Now what he doesn't remember that dad was equally excited about you. And amazingly in an instant.

All those years, a decade and a half plus, has been forgotten out of fear that I've been displaced. Oh, older siblings always seem to have that when younger siblings come along. I guess this is normal, but you'd think he was old enough to handle it. Nope. So he's mocking. This is pride from below. Kicking upward. Well, like I said, Pride from Below usually spawns pride from above, and sure enough, it's Sarah that ends up kicking back.

Verse ten, Wherefore she, Sarah, said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Oh, I wonder for Sarah if because this hurts Abraham. He's as connected to both boys. But I I get it, Sarah. This is an old hurt that's coming back to haunt you.

Sometimes we're not completely past what we thought we got over, and sometimes there's still some old trauma to be worked through. This is one of the trigger moments and if a lifetime of feeling less than, got triggered when Hagar first conceived And then I felt it again when she gave birth, and now I'm feeling it again when I give birth, and and when my son is being mocked by her son, and I can't do this. I just can't do this.

So she talks to Abraham. Now Abraham, verse eleven, the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son. This is my son. This isn't just some handmaid's kid. He belongs to me. He's a child of covenant too. I love him. Verse 12, though, God says to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight, because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman, in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice.

For in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now we're going to see very shortly that God does provide for Ishmael and for Hagar. Does he does have a plan for that side of the family too? But he does allow this separation to take place and two great nations will come as a result of it. This is Judaism versus Islam. Because just as Judaism is putting the preference on Isaac, Islam puts the preference on Ishmael.

That it's Ishmael is the s child of promise. In fact that it's Ishmael in the next chapter that's going to be sacrificed. Okay. But in this case, no, they are sent away. Verse thirteen also of the son of the boundwoman will I make a nation because he is thy seed. So again, I'm keeping my eye on him, don't worry, and all will be well there.

But I don't want any confusion here as far as the covenant is concerned and the birthright, and it's going to be through Isaac, because it's through Sarah. Now, I'll probably repeat this in a couple weeks when we meet Rachel and Leah. Because here's the irony. Jacob has all kinds of sons, but the birthright goes through Joseph because Joseph is Rachel's son, not Leah's or Bilha's or Zilpah's.

And in a similar way in this generation, the covenant is through Isaac because he's Sarah's son, not Hagar. Now, i if it was all about Abraham, Ishmael's just as good. And if it's all about Jacob, then Reuben or Simeon or Asher or Gad or Nephthali or anybody else is just as good. Which lets you know maybe it's not just about Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. I know we always talk about them as the patriarchs, but maybe we need to give a little more attention to the matriarchs, honestly.

Because the way it's set out here is Although we always refer to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, It seems more accurate to refer to him as the god of Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel, that it was the mother's lion that mattered even more than the father's. At least the fathers alone. Hm, there's something to be said for complementarity there. There's something to be said for covenant marriage there. Oh, you daughters?

of Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel. I pray you never feel like second class citizens. That he is not just the God of your fathers, he's the God of your mothers. And perhaps that's an even more accurate way to define it. I feel that deep. But back to our story. Verse fourteen. Abraham rose up early in the morning, he took bread and a bottle of water, there's his hospitality kicking in as always, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away, and she departed.

and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. Now, unfortunately, a little bread and water isn't going to last long. In fact, it only lasted one verse. So in verse fifteen, the water was spent in the bottle. So what is does this poor woman she's now kind of becomes the personification of a widow or a single mother? What am I going to do? Well, sadly, she cast the child under one of the shrubs. She saw no solution, there was no hope, there was no future for him or for her.

And perhaps in her devastation it's just I can't watch this. So at least I will give him a measure of shade to die in. I'll stand here and die in the sun. This is an earlier example of the widow of Zarephath. that I'm about to die and my son, and so I'm just gonna make one last cake for us to share. And we'll eat it and die. Well here we've drunk and eaten and now we're ready to die.

Verse sixteen she went and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot, for she said, Let me not see the death of the child, and she sat over against him and lift up her voice and wept. Hagar is a good soul. As human as the rest of us. As human as Sarah. Yes, pride from below, but there was pride from above. And here she is, a mother. with a mother's heart, and I have nothing to give, but I can't stay and just watch this. And so a bow shot away.

Remember when Joseph Smith as a young boy was having his leg operation? And he begged his mom, Leave me. He had no idea if he'd survive it, but he wanted his mother to, emotionally, at least to whatever degree she would be able to. Mom, please leave. Talk about a sensitive son at from a young age. I'll just stay here with my father. I guess he's tough enough by way of emotion that he can just hold me down and suffer with me, but Mom

I don't want to break your tender heart. So so leave. According to some accounts, she went like three hundred yards into the forest. There's a bowshot for you. And even from there she could hear the screams of her son. and at one point came rushing. Three hundred yards is a long way to sprint, but rushing back to the cabin and burst open the door and to see this horror as her son sees her and see and says, Mom, leave. Go

So this is a mother trying to save her son and a son trying to save her mother. And I would imagine similar emotions are taking place with Hagar and Ishmael. Then in verse 17, God comes through. He magnifies his mercies, making them obvious enough for us to find his grace. God heard the voice of the lad. Now he's old enough. This isn't a baby under the shrub. This is a young boy. And God hears his voice. Is he crying or is he praying? I can't tell.

Uh but God hears his voice. Doesn't even mention Hagar's voice, mentions his voice. Have we have we taught them well enough to know they can pray for themselves? And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, so now the conversation goes that way, there's this triangle here, and said unto her, What ailth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. So verse eighteen, here's the magnification of mercy.

Arise, lift up the lad, hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation. Hold him in thine hand, I'm holding him in mine. And nineteen God opened her eyes. And she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. Oh yes, I'm sure she was incredibly thirsty herself, but Mother Heart let him drink first. In some ways you think it's a shrub out in the middle of the desert.

And shrubs have to have something to survive on, so I wonder if there's some water source nearby. Yeah, closer than you realize. You just need the eyes to see. And this place of such devastation A place of death is actually a place of life in disguise. Once you have the eyes to see it, the place you were going to bury your son, basically. Is the Pla is the place you'll bring him back to life? That's another preview of coming attractions, Abraham and Isaac. Beautiful story.

Well, verse twenty. God was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. Oh, a bowshot away. Maybe he took that seriously too. Oh, the blessings of God are always within a bowshot. And I want to learn to see the magnified mercy of God so that within wherever I aim, I can find the help that I need.

Well, then the camera shifts back away from Hagar and Ishmael to Abraham and Sarah. And Abimelech, he's still around. 22. Abimelech and his chief captain tell Abraham, God is with thee in all that thou doest. They recognize there's a difference. They attribute it to God. They've come to know him through their dealings with Abraham and Sarah. So twenty three, they make a covenant with Abraham as well.

If God's willing to covenant with you, what's keeping us? They say, Now therefore swear unto me here by God, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son, but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me. and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And that sounds good to Abraham, twenty four. He says, I will swear.

It's like we've treated you well. You've treated us well. Can we continue this? Can we pass down peace instead of passing down war? That would change the Middle East. In fact, it would change the world. But it didn't last forever here. In fact it didn't last long because just like there was conflict earlier between Abraham's servants and Lot's servants, well now again, repeat, reproof.

There's conflict between uh Abraham's servants and Abimelech's servants. They're fighting over a well of water, because this is the Middle East and water is more valuable than gold. Verse twenty five, Abraham reproved, another translation says complained, or lodged to complaint, or reasoned with. He reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. So like I said, repeat of what we saw earlier.

twenty six Abimelech said, I wot not who had done this thing, so I don't know what happened, neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it but today. So hey Abraham, I'm sorry, this is the first I've heard of it. We made a covenant together, and my integrity and innocency, you know me. I wasn't gonna break it behind your back. I've I've learned how God feels about you, and I don't want to go behind his back either. So I this is the first I've heard, I promise.

And Abraham's okay, I understand, I trust you on that. Verse twenty seven, Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them unto Abimelech, and both of them made a covenant. So this is Abraham's turn of I okay, you didn't do anything wrong, neither did I. But I'll go above and beyond and rather than just seek justice, I'll offer generosity, and here are all these Flocks and herds as well. Beyond that, even, verse 28 and 29, Abraham set seven ew lambs of the flock by themselves.

handed them over. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, Well what mean these seven you lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And Abraham explains in thirty, these seven new lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me that I have digged this well. So this one really is mine, and I'm willing to prove it, not by taking you to court, but by by paying you something I don't even owe.

I want to make sure I'm making this right in everyone's eyes. I want to be above board, above reproach or reproof. I mean, you did that with Sarah giving her a thousand pieces of silver. Can I at least give you all of this wealth and in addition seven? There's that number symbolizing completeness and totality and wholeness. These you lambs, gifts that we'll keep on giving.

Oh there's some symbolism here. And recognizing that, verse thirty-one, he called that place Beersheba, which means the well of the oath, or the well of seven, because there they swear both of them. Beautiful story there of covenants made that need now to become covenants kept.

Well, speaking of covenants kept, God kept his covenant. I have blessed you with Isaac. Will you keep yours, Abraham, namely doing anything and everything I ask of you? Will you submit your will? In this case, will you submit your son? Will you submit your joy And all claim you have to it, and lay it upon an altar of sacrifice, to be consumed back into the tragedy of tears.

We're going back to this challenge, what kind of a story is this? Is it a tragedy or a comedy? Well, we have it we take a tragic turn. But we'll still end up laughing. Yeah, I promise you'll end up with an Isaac to laugh over. So twenty two, verse one, one of the most important chapters in all of Scripture.

It came to pass after these things, after all these examples of testing and trying and proving, that God did tempt Abraham, yet again, and that word tempt, bad translation, it means to test or to try or to prove. And he says to him, Abraham, and Abraham said, Behold, here I am, or to rephrase it, behold, here am I. as the Lord said, when God asked for a volunteer in pre mortality, So many parallels we'll see. Verse two, God says, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest.

And get thee into the mount the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. That's it. Pretty sparse statement. but loaded with meaning as well as packed with pain. meaning thy son

But then he says thine only son? Wait a minute, I you know I have Ishmael, you that was a miracle child too. I know, but as far as the covenant is concerned, you only have one. And honestly, as far as I'm concerned, God As far as the covenant is concerned for me, I only had one son also, at least one only begotten Son of God in the flesh. So already we're starting to sense this story is more than just Abraham and Isaac.

It's your only son, only begotten. It's the Son whom thou lovest, O my beloved son. Those are two phrases we do hear from God about Christ. only begotten and beloved, take him to a mountain, ascend the hill of the Lord where sacrifices are to be made. Your whole life has been spent building altars. Well come to mine. I have built an altar there. Come to this mountain and offer your son as a burnt offering. Now there's no explanation given.

and no explanation asked for, which is amazing to me. I'd be wondering why. There's only obedience. And in fact there's only immediate obedience. In verse two he'd been told to take now thy son, and in verse three he does exactly that. Abraham rose up early in the morning. I imagine this is more than just immediate obedience. It was probably a sleepless night.

You ever had those sleepless nights where you're just praying for the dawn, or you just wake up early'cause I'm not sleeping anyway? He rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claved the wood for the burnt offering.

So he went fully intending to go through with it. He's kappacked it all everything that's necessary. And he rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him. Now there's no mention here of him saying anything to Sarah. And I really wonder if If he kept this secret from her. I don't know. I don't know. Uh it would I don't know if Sarah could have handled it, honestly. Based on S everything she'd been through. And I can't blame her for that.

I've often wondered people have often asked me about plural marriage in the Joseph Smith period, and especially they're concerned about times where Joseph didn't tell Emma about certain things. Now, the again, plural marriage is a huge controversial topic, so if you need it, go back and listen to that eternal lesson. You thought these ones were long? That was a really long lesson back in DNC one hundred thirty two. That ideally we follow the law of Sarah.

And Sarah should know, and Sarah should approve, and Sarah should participate in the Sometime Emma Emma did in her high moments. Sometimes Emma didn't in her mid moments. Sometimes Emma refused to in her low moments. We all have we're up and down between celestial, terrestrial, and telestial all the time, right? And so sometimes Abra uh excuse me, Joseph knew he had to act. and at God's command. And here

Abraham knows he has to act. And like I said, I don't know if he told Sarah or just tried to protect her and shield her from it. Eventually she'll have to know. And I'll have to tell her. But we can't do it today. He goes. And in verse 4, on the third day, there's some more symbolism. Abraham lifted up his eyes. I wonder if he had been hanging his head the entire trip. And he saw the place afar off.

Not too late to turn around, Abraham. Maybe that's what he's thinking. Verse 5, Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. Now I looked up the come again because in the English it doesn't you can't tell if that's a plural or a singular verb. Is he saying, We are gonna go and I will come again?

But in a f other languages, many of them, you can tell just from the verb alone, without any pronoun needed. Are we talking plural, singular, male, female? How is this work? In the Hebrew this is still a plural verb. Hm. That's an interesting one. So we will go and we will come again. And what will be we do in between, we will worship. Do we consider our sacrifices as acts of worship?

We should realize that they are. I mean if worship is recognizing God for who he is, what better way to worship than to offer him our all? Then in six Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. Can you picture Jesus burying his own cross? The wood upon his back? Abraham took the fire in his hand, and a knife.

And they went both of them together. One of the things you'll notice in the Old Testament is some stories are told so sparsely, so quickly, it's like boom, that happened that was fast. Whereas this one is so deliberate, so painfully slow, so detailed to force us to kind of go f from phrase to phrase to phrase. Can you picture Abraham slowly just willing himself to put one foot in front of the other.

As he ascends this hill with the weight of the world upon his shoulders. And remember, this is Abraham representing the Father, and Isaac representing the Son. Now that son, in verse seven, Isaac speaks to Abraham his father, and he says, My father And he said, Here am I, my son. I'm as w ready to respond to you, my son, as I am to my father, God. And Isaac says, Well behold the fire and the wood. I mean you've put everything in order, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

So this is confusing to him. It's like, dad, you you're detail oriented and you have prepared every needful thing. How could you forget the most important part? Well, little does he know. But I think we're guilty of that sometimes of paying attention to all these peripheral details and not focusing on the Lamb of God that ties it all together.

Right? Joseph Smith's famous statement. What do we believe? We believe in Jesus. We believe in crucifixion and resurrection. We believe in atonement. Everything else is just an appendage. But you want to talk about an occupational hazard of having the most amazing appendages on earth, it's being a Latter-day Saint and losing focus on Christ. I I hope we can hear Isaac asking us at the end of any talk or any lesson, any activity.

Wow, you taught amazing things, or we had a lot of fun. And look at all the the wood and the knife and all these things, but where was the lamb in all of this? You taught me a lot of great peripheral principles. Teach me Jesus. Help me find him. Where is this lamb? Verse 8, Abraham responds, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.

Now the English can be confusing'cause it sounds almost too good to be true. He's going to provide himself as a lamb, and that is true. That is exactly what happens with the atonement and crucifixion of Jesus. But the original the the real way it's said is simply that God Himself will provide the Lamb. And that's exactly what the Father does. Whom shall I send? Oh, him whom I love. And I will send him to die for all of you others whom I love as well.

Verse nine they came to the place which God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there. I will build my own altar upon your altar, this mountain of the Lord. And he laid the wood in order. And bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. Again, think this through as slowly as you can, because I'm sure that's what's happening with Abraham.

Now here again realize what's going on in Abraham's mind and heart, and what's going on in Isaac's, because now he realizes, wait a minute, I'm the sacrifice. I'm the lamb that God has provided? Now we don't exactly know how old he is, but according to some traditions he's definitely old enough I mean if he can carry all the wood up. Is he old enough to fight back or is he at least old enough to flee? I mean fight or flight is gonna kick in big time once he realizes wait a minute, this is

What are you doing, Dad? What is God asking of us? Of me? I said before that God will test this family from every angle. Abraham, I'm gonna test you about your wife as well as about your son. Sarah, I'm gonna test you about your own virtue. Isaac, I'm gonna test you about your own life and how much you trust your earthly father or your heavenly father. Are you willing to lay down your life? As a willing sacrifice? 'Cause it can't be done against your will. It's not being done against Abraham.

What will you do? Another level of this painful irony is the empathy that Abraham would undoubtedly have felt for his son. Because what did we first learn about Abraham? Back in Abraham chapter one? My dad tried to sacrifice me too. And I know exactly the fear and panic that is gripping your heart as you are bound down upon this altar.

Mine was to false gods, yours is to true. I I know it's easy for me to say that. I hope you believe and understand that, son. I had faith that God would liberate me. I have no such expectation. that he'll liberate you because he's the one that's asking me to do this. I mean, honestly, we will see later that there was no expectation on Abraham's part of a stayed hand. I mean he got the state hand with Sarah twice.

Sarah got the state hand twice with Pharaoh and Abimelech. There's no expectation on Abraham's and therefore and like I even said in Abraham One, there was no expectation of deliverance on his part then. He just watched the daughters of Oneida be slain. For doing the same thing that I'm doing, and I'm probably gonna be slain just like they were. There's no difference for God to treat us differently, or no reason to. Son, we're going through with this. Are you ready? I pray that I am.

So in verse ten, Abraham stretched forth his hand. Slowly, painfully, no doubt. He took the knife to slay his son. A very deliberate narrative. And then verse eleven, if we're going to speed up the film, the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. I wonder about the twice. Is he there to get his full attention? It's like, no, no, no, stop, stop. Abraham, Abraham. And Abraham said, Here am I. As I always am.

The angel continues in twelve, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know. And I know intimately, I know viscerally, I know experientially. Better yet, you do too. Omniscience coming down to see? giving us an opportunity to prove ourselves. You've proven yourself. I know thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, ny thine only son, from me. I mean, you want to talk about proof?

What God is asking here is brutal. And God knows it. Abraham knows it. Joseph Smith knows it. In fact, so often in Joseph Smith's lifetime when things were hard, he references Abraham. In Liberty Jail, as the saints are being exterminated and driven out of the state of Missouri, he even says, I pray there is a ram in the thicket for all of us. Hmm, who's he thinking of?

He's the one that says we have to go hard through h through hard things. If we ever hope to find an equal weight in the balance with Abraham. Oh, Joseph was fixed on The Abrahamic covenant, and therefore knew he'd have to exercise Abrahamic faith in the face of Abrahamic sacrifices. Uh John Taylor remembered two such statements from the prophet that are mind-blowing and really do help put in perspective what Abraham is going through here.

President Taylor, I heard the prophet Joseph say in speaking to the twelve on one occasion. you will have all kinds of trials to pass through, and it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God. And said he, God will feel after you. He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings. And if you cannot stand it, you will not be fit for an inheritance in the celestial kingdom of God. Wrench your very heart strings? Think about that phrase.

How do I twist and turn until I have turned your heart to me? Uh elsewhere, President Taylor said, Joseph said that if God had known any other way whereby he could have touched Abraham's feelings more acutely and more keenly, he would have done so. Well that's a brutal statement too. He couldn't think of anything harder, so that's what he went with? Well, some of you might be nodding your heads, knowing exactly what Joseph meant.

Because you have been tried and tested and poked in the very exact spot where it hurts. Later Brigham Young once said that the gospel is such that It will draw out your most hidden weaknesses. It's a searching spotlight. And just like he magnifies his mercy, so you can see his grace. He also magnifies our challenges so that we can see our weaknesses, even those that are in our blind spot. That's like what Abimelech was asking for. Well Abraham didn't ask for it, but God's showing it to him.

Are you willing to go even there? I mean again, speaking of plural marriage, Joseph describes that as the ultimate Abrahamic test. And if it's the hardest thing God will ask of us to do. It's going to wrench our very heart strings, and if God could come up with something different, he would have. But that's what's going to get to us. to whatever degree you resonate with that. My heart goes out to you. And so does God's.

Part of the condescension of Christ was not just to see our suffering, but to join us in it. So when he says, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you, he means it. When he says sparing you actually would have spared me, there's some truth to that too. I just see, I know the value of the trial, and so I'll join you in it. Joseph Smith taught so much about sacrifice, in fact in the and turned to Abraham so frequently during his own sacrifices and trials.

in the Lectures on Faith, masterpiece of of theology, he talks about three things you have to have to have real faith in God. Number one, you gotta know that he is. Well duh. Number two, you gotta know what he's really like. This is not some mean or capricious deity asking you to give up what matters most. No, this is an all-knowing and all-powerful and all-loving father that is trying to make you into someone more like him. Third level, he said, of real faith, third requirement.

It's on you now. That those first two are about God. But for you to exercise faith in God and realize that his miracles are relying to a certain degree upon your faith? Faith without works is dead, well his works will die without your faith. Then the third requirement is you have to know that you are living in such a way that you can call on the powers of heaven, that you can literally exercise your faith.

Not because you deserve the blessings, we never fully deserve them, but we're living in such a way that God can bless us out of justice and not solely out of mercy. That comes from a statement from President Hinckley. Live so that you can rely on God's blessings out of justice, not just out of mercy. That's a that's a tall order, but that's what God asked.

Well, am I living well enough? How do I even know? How do I n that was another question Joseph wr wrestles with in the lectures. So if I have to be living in the right way to have faith in God, how do I know I'm living in the right way? Joseph's answer was fascinating. There's not some kind of scale you're supposed to reach or do this and no, he says, tell me about your sacrifice.

Here's where that very famous statement comes from. That any religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things I mean the gut punching, heart-wrenching kind. Any religion that doesn't require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation. I mean unpack that that statement and it's amazing. To obtain life and salvation, what does it require? It requires faith.

But how do you produce faith? Faith comes by power. Faith is a power, but it comes by power. And what has power to produce that kind of powerful faith? Sacrifice, death. Because it's a gut check. It it's telling you to put your money where your mouth is, or or to put something on the altar. What are you willing to risk? 'Cause wow that that puts your that quantifies your faith in a powerful way.

What's your virtue worth, Sarah? Well, to you it's worth everything. To me, I'll hear it. I'll give you a thousand pieces of silver to prove it. Abraham, what's your faith worth? What's the covenant worth? What's your relationship with me worth? Is it worth all you have? Because I bet I could sum that whole thing up. by asking for your son.

There's something about sacrifice that just proves ourselves. It proves it to us. Like, wow, I was willing I mean it's ja it's what, February now? Uh If you're watching this in in order, which means tithing settlement was just a little while ago, it's interesting to see your tithing report and realize, whoa, it's more than I thought. Yeah that's a good feeling. It's a good gut check because it forces you to realize, whoa, I do place high value on my covenant.

I can actually quantify it here. And that's just the tithing side, let alone the offering side, or let alone the service side, or let alone the sacrifice side. But all of that together, it does provide proof for me. I really do value that. I maybe I have more faith than I realize. Maybe I really can have call upon God for the blessings He's willing to offer me. All three elements of all requirements are are in place.

It's amazing. There's another angle here from God's perspective. And it comes from a verse in Romans chapter 8 that I absolutely love. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Now, what he's saying there, trying to defend the doctrine of grace, do you have any idea, you Roman saints, how invested in your salvation God is?

Think about it. Because if you've sinned and you're struggling with your perfectionism, or it's like, I just don't know if I'm going to be good enough, or will he really forgive me or really help me through my trials, folks. What greater evidence can he give you? What more proof can he provide? Because if he wasn't will if he was willing to offer his own son, then what would he not offer?

If he wouldn't withhold Jesus, then there's no way God would withhold forgiveness or mercy or generosity or grace. The atonement and crucifixion of Jesus Christ are exhibit A. And there should be no need for exhibit B, C, D, E, although he gives us the whole alphabet. for what God is willing to do to bring us home. How can I prove it any better? And Abraham

There's no greater proof than you could possibly give me that you wouldn't withhold a thing. You wouldn't withhold anything because today you wouldn't withhold everything. the one son you love more than anything else on. Beautiful, beautiful sacrifice. One other thing that really amazes me about this whole episode, this experience.

And this comes from a JST that I skipped last week. In Genesis 17, where Abraham is wrestling with the call to circumcise, okay, the token of the covenant, there's something else about the covenant that the Lord wants to make clear. So JST of Genesis seventeen four through seven. God talked with Abraham, saying, My people have gone astray from my precepts.

They have not kept mine ordinances which I gave unto their fathers. So here's some evidence of apostasy in Abraham's day. He gets more specific. They have not observed mine anointing, so maybe there's some priesthood problems there. And the burial or baptism wherewith I commanded them. That harkens back to those original ordinances from post-Eden that Adam himself participated in. Now people are like, I don't know, is this really what we're supposed to do? Then the ultimate one.

But have turned from the commandment and taken unto themselves the washing of children and the blood of sprinkling. Now, are we thinking about baptism alone here? Sprinkling versus immersion? But there's something about blood. The blood of sprinkling? What's that all about? Well, verse 7 clarifies. Still only the JST. And have said that the blood of the righteous Abel was shed for sins, and have not known wherein they are accountable before me. Now that's mind-blowing.

For whatever reason, the people in Abraham's day were were losing sight of the truth. They're changing ordinances, they're tweaking priesthood, they're they don't get it. And the most important thing to get is something they're losing the their hold on, and that's the atonement of Jesus Christ. Remember Adam and Eve. Why are we offering sacrifice? Well this is in similitude of the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God.

That's what Cain did wrong. There's no faith in a future blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God if you're not doing a blood sacrifice of the first thing of your flock. But then Cain rises up and slays Abel, and for some reason, over the passage of time. Stories about bloodshed start to get associated more with Abel than with Abel's offer. And then at some point par people start thinking, well maybe that's how we're forgiven of our sin. Maybe atonement is Abel's blood.

And God's saying to Abraham, that's not how it is. that we're seeing this in the JST because it's like, where is this coming out from from Genesis? We do get a hint in the book of Hebrews, because in Hebrews 1224 it speaks of the blood of sprinkling. There's that same phrase. that speaketh better things than that of able. But talk about a vague verse. It's like okay, something about blood and sprinkling and able. Okay.

Well it's not like Joseph was reading Hebrews twelve and said, Ooh, I bet I could sneak in some little addition to Genesis seventeen, and it'll solve the whole mystery. No, he's just reading the English Bible and he gets to Genesis 17 and it's like something's missing here. What's going on in Abraham's day? Oh, loss of authority or loss of uh apostasy and l l lack of understand they're totally misunderstanding the atonement. That's serious.

It's with that in mind that It it's changed the way I perceive Genesis twenty two. Because of that JST of Genesis 17, I really do wonder if beyond the Abrahamic test, This is also an Abrahamic lesson, or I should say, a divine lesson, with Abraham as the object lesson. I do wonder if part of this and w this I I want to talk more with experts out there who know their ancient history and gear geo geography and archaeology.

Because Mount Moriah is where Jerusalem is. That's the do under the dome of the rock for Father Abraham, right? The holy mount in Jerusalem. And Melchizedek is the king of Salem, AKA Jerusalem. I if he's a king, wouldn't there be a kingdom? Would wouldn't there be people? I really wonder was anyone else around? whether to vis visually see it take place, or at least hear about it when

Abraham goes up and comes back down and Isaac was bound and were their servants? Did they see what was going on? Why there's so much about this as deliberate and painstaking and slow as it is, I still wish there were more detail. And the biggest thing I wish I knew was Is anybody watching or hearing or learning from this ordeal?

Because here's the thing. If the people of Abraham's day had lost an understanding of the atonement, then they've lost it all. It's the most important thing there is. Everything else is an appendage. So I picture God saying to Abraham, In light of that misunderstanding, will you help them understand? Now you're not going to want to be the object in this object lesson. Most of the time, if God asks for volunteers, you don't want to be his visual aid.

But in this instance, Abraham, people have to know that what the atonement was all about was not a brother rising up against a brother. This was not Cain against Abel. This was not Lucifer trying to take down Christ. This was a father offering his only begotten and greatly beloved Son. That's what the atonement is. It's about my love for my children and my love for my only begotten.

That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. This is not brother against brother. This is father sou s suffering and sacrificing son. So Abraham, will you do that for me? Will you do that for them? Will you personify, will you exemplify, will you embody me? And will Isaac embody my son? to show the world how much I love them, that there's nothing I wouldn't give, nothing I would ever hold back for you.

This is not some kind of payment of price. This isn't some kind of retribution. This is redemption. And it comes at a cost. This is a God who weeps. And a God who offers. So I can be a God who redeems. Teach them that, Abraham. And he's been teaching that to us through Scripture ever since. I mean even the people of the Book of Mormon understood it, and they're still BC saints. They still don't have New Testament Christianity to clarify it. They're still Old Testament Israelites.

But what does Jacob say? For for this intent have we written these things, a very Christian Old Testament scripture known as the Book of Mormon, that they may know that we knew of Christ. We had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming.

And not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us Behold, they believed in Christ, they worshiped the Father in His name, and also we worship the Father in His name, and for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to Him.

And for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness, even as it was accounted unto Abraham in the wilderness, to be obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac, and then crystal clear. which is a similitude of God and his only begotten Son. We got it. Don't look back on us and look down on us as if we misunderstood what the atonement was all about. We got it. And Abraham helped us get it. At incredible personal cost.

Well, lesson learned, hopefully. Lesson taught, definitely. We get back to verse 13. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. Christ would be offered in the stead of every son and every daughter of God. He was the ram caught in the thicket, there trapped by his crown of thorns.

No mere lamb of God, though he was that too, but a ram of God. Horns often signify authority. And there was no more regal ram than Jesus himself. But God himself offering Exactly what the Father and the Son did in Gethsemane and on Calvary. It's what they've been doing ever since. Verse fourteen then Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jira, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

Jehovah Jireh means the Lord will see, the Lord will provide. I came down to see sins and cries. Well now I came down to see. Sacrifice and faith and oh boy was it visible. You magnified it to the point that anyone could find it there. Verse fifteen then the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, That in blessing I will bless thee.

In multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Oh, there's the renewal of the covenant. If many are called and fewer chosen, well maybe the first time God gave it he was calling Abraham, and now he's fully choosing Abraham, because Abraham fully chose him. In some ways It's fitting that the covenant would come through Isaac and that Isaac would be the only covenant child of Abraham. Because that means all of Abraham's covenant posterity came through Isaac alone.

Just like all of us can only come back to God through Jesus Christ alone, it also means that all of that covenant posterity is included, inherent in Isaac. So that by offering Isaac, I'm offering everything. I'm putting not just my son on the altar, I'm putting the whole Abrahamic covenant on the altar. God, you're asking me to do that. You're you're risking your word. How are you gonna c okay. I trust you.

And he goes through with it. There's something powerful about this on the heels of that experience being reminded of seed like the stars and the sands, because it's all within Isaac. So, so powerful. And then nineteen Abraham returned unto his young men. They rose up, they went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

And whether he said anything to Sarah or not, I don't know. Okay, even after the fact. How was your trip? Better than I imagined. Oh great. See anything new? Yeah, things I'd never seen before. Oh, tell me about it. Oh, maybe maybe some day. Again, I have no idea. No idea. But the rest of this chapter then just walks you through some related relatives, the genealogy of Nahor, Abraham's brother, and it's there mostly because you're eventually going to get to Nahor's granddaughter.

An incredible woman will meet next week whose name is Rebecca. So we're somewhere connected in the covenant, still part of the family.

Then turn the page from twenty two to twenty three and we see our conclusion with Sarah and her passing. Verse 1 and 2, she dies. She's 127, and Abraham mourns and misses her. Beautiful, she got to spend 37 years with Isaac. Oh, there's a happy ending. There's years of in fact it's so interesting it would be that close. If it was thirty eight years of waiting from promise to fulfilment, and then s thirty seven

Of just rejoicing in it, of yitzaking day in and day out. Oh yeah, ends in it's a comedy, all right. There's a happy ending. There's lots and lots of comic relief. But now that she's gone and Abraham has left Without her half of the Without his half, which was her, his response into, Sarah died in Kiryath Arbah, the same as Hebron in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Now in the face of that locked

That suffering, that sorrow, he then turns to the people that are around him. Non-Israelites, there's no such thing as an Israelite yet, outside of that the confines of covenant, but he's living among them, right?

Funny, well I guess we could say they're living o among him, since all the land north, south east, west, was promised him. But he's a good neighbor. And you're here, I th that's okay. I was willing to share with Lot, I'll share with you. In fact I'll I'll let you think you're just sharing with me. But he asks them, I could use a place to bury my wife. Some kind of burial sepulchre that is worthy of who she was and is and will forever be. A place to remember her.

Do you know of anyone that I can buy land from for a sepulchre? Verse three and four he stood up from before his dead and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And they respond, Hear us, my lord, thou art a mighty prince among us. In other words, you're no stranger, you're no sojourner. You're you're better than all of us. You're a mighty prince.

So in the choice of our sepulchres, bury thy dead. None of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. So take your pick, my friend. Anything you want, sky's the limit. We honor you, and we know you honor your wife. Then verse 9, he asks to speak with Ephron the Hittite. There's a cave in Machbelah that He just thinks would be perfect to bury his wife in. And he offers to buy it for as much money as it is worth. He doesn't set the price. He lets them

So whatever you think it's worth, that's what I want. Now that's dangerous. When you let people know the specific thing that you want and you'll take it at all costs, and then say, Why don't you set the price? It's like, Oh, well, I can set the price whatever I want, since that's the one thing he wants more than anything. Now, verse eleven Ephraim the Hipp the Hittite says, well take it for free.

Uh again, mighty mighty prince, uh I meant what I said. Take pick of the litter, whatever you want. You just have it for free. And Abraham's response is really interesting. Verse thirteen, he refuses to take it free. says nope you own it you deserve something for it i will pay you for it okay whenever i watch my father in law and my brothers in law go to a restaurant it's hilarious to watch

uh them fight over it's it's tug of war. It's not hot potato like no you pay you pay. No, it's it's serious tug of war. I pay. No I'm gonna pay. No I'm gonna pay. One time I actually saw my brother in law. We were heading toward the restaurant and he called the restaurant in advance and he said, Okay, there's gonna be a man that comes in. He's gonna be look he's gonna be this what he looks like.

He's going to come straight to you and give you his credit card before any of us even step in to make an order. Take it from him to make him think that he's going to pay for it, okay? But when I get there, this is what I look like, this is my name, I'm going to give you my credit card, and you have to agree to let me pay for it. I mean it's hilarious. It they plan so far in advance. I'm surprised that my brothers in law don't like I'm gonna bu I'll buy the restaurant first.

before I let you pay for your meal. I mean they're that generous uh and that and that giving. It's awesome. I I married into an incredible family. But here you have Abraham and Ephron basically doing the same thing. Like, nope, it's yours, free. Like, nope, I'm I'm it's if it's mine, great, but I'm going to pay for it. And Abraham ultimately wins.

Now what's interesting in verse 15, Ephraim finally says, Okay, well, if you if you must know, I would value that land at four hundred shekels of silver. Four hundred shekels. I've read all kinds of articles online about people trying to say exactly how much this was. And it's hard to tell uh different kinds of shekel weights and how much it's worth and what's the the rate of silver and time period anyway.

It's a lot. Let's just leave it at that. Let's be vague uh and just realize that it's a lot. A lot of people really push and say it was totally unfair. Ephron totally took advantage of Abraham and said, Oh, well, in that case And and just jacked up the price until it was exorbitant. We don't know for sure, but we do know this is an expensive transaction, but we also know that Abraham was totally fine with it.

In verse sixteen he weighs out the price without any hesitation, without haggling, which is interesting. I'm willing to haggle God down. But I'm not gonna haggle this Hittite. No, I my wife's worth everything to me. I wasn't haggling God on Moriah with my son. I'm certainly not gonna haggle with you here in Hebron. Whatever you ask, my wife is worth it. And here's the four hundred shekels of silver in some ways. What's one last financial sacrifice?

When my whole life has been defined by sacrifice from beginning to end, I'm okay with that.

In fact, later writers would look back at Abraham and Sarah, and this is now our chance to look back at Abraham and Sarah too, as our lesson closes. They are the ultimate examples of the Sacrificial love, sacrificial service, sacrificial selflessness. It's always sacrifice is the common denominator. But remember the lectures on faith, sacrifice is just evidence of faith. So in some ways. Think less about Abrahamic sacrifices and more about Abrahamic faith.

And see Abraham and Sarah as such paragons of that. attribute of that principle. In fact that's how the book of Hebrews deals In Hebrews eleven, as it walks you through the I call it the hall of fame for faith in the Old Testament. And and you get to meet all these incredible people that lived by faith in the Old Testament, faith in the promises of God, faith in the coming Messiah, and they gave up all kinds of things as evidence, as proof of it.

Well, who better than Abraham and Sarah? And they get more time and attention. They get a whole room for them. Others get like a bust here or a painting there. They get a whole wing for Abraham and Sarah. And as we're walking through our Hall of Fame of faith, notice what they say at the Abraham and Sarah display. Hebrews 11 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. He went out, not knowing whither he went.

That's what we studied last week. The fact that Abraham was willing to leave what he knew to go to something he didn't know. Well, there's the hero's quest. There's the step toward adventure. That's us growing up. And stepping into the unknown. By the way, he mentioned Abraham, but wherever you mention Abraham, you gotta mention Sarah right along with him. And so Sarah also left home.

Sarah also went not knowing whither she went. And unlike Abraham, who at least knew that God had told him to, Sarah is following without having had a personal witness that it came from God. Speaking of which sounds like another Sarah or in this case another Saraya? Lehi, you're the one that got the revelation. I didn't. But I'll follow. This actually is a lot like Lamoni's wife also, when Amon's like, okay, he's

under the the grip of God, he's under the spell of the spirit. He's being changed and redeemed. But he'll come back. Do you believe that? And she says, Well, I only have your word. But yeah, that's a good that's enough for me. I believe. And and Ammon is floored. Wow, there's faith. There is faith. And so as much as we see Abraham's bust there as faith

To go forward with revelation. Next to his bust is Sarah's bust, and we should see wow faith to move forward not with personal revelation, but trust in someone else's. Amazing. Keep going. Hebrews eleven nine. By faith he, Abraham, sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, that's tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

And yes, though he mentioned he, we need to put she right alongside him. Especially if it talks about, wow, can you believe Abraham went out and lived in a tent? Well, if anything, it's more amazing that Sarah was willing to.

Because if anybody had to deal with tent life, it was Sarah more than Abraham. Abraham, you're out in your flocks and your herds and farming and all these kinds of things, but I'm the one stuck in this tent all day, and yes, I know how to make cakes. You didn't have to explain that to me. It's amazing Sarah's sacrifice, every bit uh on par with Abraham. Well, keep going. Now we get Sarah herself. Verse 11 and 12 of Hebrews 11. Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed.

Remember, faith produces power. Her faith produced the strength to conceive seed. At her age, after the manner of women, And she was delivered of a child when she was past age. So conception would have been hard. Delivery would have been hard. Like we saw, nursing would have been hard at her age.

But she had faith she could do it. This wasn't just a faith and a one time promise, but imagine nine months worth of faith, especially of any of you who have gone through the pain of miscarriage. Imagine a woman whose who knew her conception was a More than a one in a million, an impossibility. Imagine the faith she exercised every day for nine months. The faith she exercised on the day of deliverance, on the day she the days she exercised faith of nursing.

Until the child was weaned. She's incredible, one of my true heroes. But it goes on. How did she have so much faith? Here's the answer. Because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.

You see what she's saying there? Even more than the faith in the what, Sarah had faith in the who. Me have a child at my age? You got it. That's a good one. I'm laughing. I know, and you will. Trust me? Do you? Do you believe in me? Even if you don't believe in in that promise. Because if you believe in the promiser, then how can you doubt the promise? I love that hers was centered on God. Not just on some Isaac. God said, and I trust him, I believe in him, he is able.

So then keep going, verse 17 through 19. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. So now we're back to Genesis twenty two. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it is said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now this the way he sets this up here is really, really important. He that had received the promises

Offered the very personification of the promise. You see what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get us to wrestle with? It's more than just he's offering his son, it's he's offering his promise. That says something about Abraham and something about God, where it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, God, you do realize that this is the covenant child. And if you have me slay him, then there goes the covenant.

Uh sands of the seashore started have to start with at least one grain, and he's the only grain I've got. So I don't y I mean this is mere mortality speaking to omniscience, but just in case this is a blind spot. You can't multi you can multiply infinity by zero and it still ends up zero. The zero will trump the infinity, just FYI. Okay? Now if as long as there's one, then infinity times one will be infinity.

So if you're promise me infinity, you have to hold on to the one. This is what I'm getting at. This is not just me trying to hold on to my son. This is me trying to help you hold on to your promise, which cannot happen if I slay my If I slay your promise. Understand what we're saying here? I mean this this I love the way it's set up here in Hebrews. But then the way it's described, it's now Abraham's turn to trust in the Who, just like Sarah did.

So he says, accounting that God, there's the ultimate who was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. Now that is mind blowing. You understand what he just said? Abraham, like I said earlier, was fully intending to sacrifice his son. He wasn't like assuming that there's an angel waiting in the wings to come and stay the hand. It's not like, okay, I'm about to do it, God. One

Uh a little more nervously. Uh two and a half? No. I know he I know this is what God is asking me to do and I'm gonna do it. Then how on earth will God keep his promise? I can only think of one possible way. Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. That's what was on Abraham's mind. I fully intend to slay my son because I have full faith that God will then raise him again. That's amazing. He wasn't waiting for an angel. He was resting on the resurrection. Wow.

He's gonna raise my son. He's gonna give me the power to do it. Now, where on earth would you come up with that kind of idea? Let alone that kind of faith. But what he That doesn't happen. God doesn't raise the dead. He didn't raise Abel. He hasn't raised anybody. What w how can you possibly even think that? Well, the writer of Hebrews gave us the hint. He would raise him up even from the dead, that last phrase. From whence also he received him in a figure.

Oh wait, what? And then that's it. And the tour guide brings us on to the next uh display, uh the next wing in the Faith Hall of Fame. Like well wait, what did you just You received it in a figure. What does that mean? Well, again it speaks volumes, but we have to go back to Romans to unlock this one. And in Romans chapter four we get the the the key that unlocks that that clue. The clue was, I know God will raise him from the dead. He already has. Well what what do you mean?

Isaac, his whole existence is an example of life emerging out of death. We've been through it before. God proved that. And now he's just going to prove it again. I know he can bring death from life. Comedy out of tragedy, because that's what an Isaac is. When did God show me that first? Romans four nineteen. And being not weak in faith, so we're back to the faith focus, he, Abraham, considered not his own body now dead.

when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. Did you catch it? From whence he received him in a figure? Oh yeah, I've life from death, my body was dead. No, a hundred year old man gonna give birth. Uh and my wi and if you think that's possible, which maybe it is, but my wife, a ninety year old womb is as much a a tomb as anything. That was death too.

And yet she conceived And from a dead body, mine, and from a dead womb, Sarah's, life came. Joy came, rejoicing came, laughter came. Life came out of death. And if God could do it then, why can't He do it now? Why can't he bring life out of my dying dream? Why can't he bring light out of my darkness? Why can't he bring hope out of my despair? He's done it so many times.

We have proved him in days that are past. In fact, the verses that surround that incredible key in Romans 4, right before it, it says that Abraham and Sarah against hope believed in hope. Such a great phrase. I know I have no reason to hope here, but I'm holding on to it. Against hope, I believe in hope. Against the odds, I know God will beat the odds. It's only my manner that has ceased, his manner hasn't. Or how about the verse right after verse nineteen?

that they staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but were strong in faith. That idea of staggering, like somebody tells you like staggering back, like Whoa what per seriously? They didn't stagger because of unbelief. They laughed out of pure faith. I know God can do this. That's not a staggering promise. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Or how about verse 21? Being fully persuaded that what he had promised, God, he was able also to perform.

This is a story about God, far more than this is a story about Abraham and Sarah. Because he's the still the the figure in this story that associates with us. He promised and he is able to perform. My dear friends, I hope that you know that's true. I hope you have had enough experiences in your past to help you look forward with faith to a glorious future. Whatever you're going through right now, I pray. That your Isaac.

I pray you'll laugh and let the world laugh with you. I promise God is ready to rejoice right alongside you. He was here for your tears of sorrow. He will be here for your tears of joy. I testify of Of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the God of Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel. I pray that we can have faith in him, knowing that anything he's promised you, and it's everything that he's promised you, he is able to perform.