I Samuel 18-24: Christlike Friendship vs. Pride and Jealousy

I Samuel 16-17: Slaying your Goliaths

I Samuel 9-15: Saul: An Example of the Importance Obedience and Humility

Saul was a humble and obedient son who sought direction from a prophet of God when searching for his father's donkeys.

Samuel was instructed by God to anoint Saul as King of the Israelites - He was NOT given the priesthood but was appointed king over all the united tribes of Israel.



Initially Saul leads the armies in Israel in battle only after humbly seeking direction from Samuel. Saul was showed his obedience to God by seeking His will above the praise and fortunes of conquest.



By not waiting on Samuel and making the burnt offering himself, Saul showed he was more worried what the people thought of him than the Lord. He made a mockery of the ordinance of sacrifice. He may well have convinced himself he was "honoring God" but he did in his own way and for his own purposes -putting his will above God's. When we serve for the praise of others or for our own reward - while we may think we are honoring God - we maybe making a mockery of Him.  



Once Saul was called to repentance by Samuel he had the opportunity to abandon his pride and turn to God but instead he made excuses for himself and justified his behavior. Saul no longer served God but served himself and the power he had garnered from his victories in war. 



You can not do the right thing for the wrong reason and expect to be blessed. While Saul was unwilling to give up the throne, Samuel prophesied the Lord had rejected him as king.



I Samuel 3-8: Recognizing and Following the Spirit




Samuel didn't recognize the voice of the Lord at first because he hadn't been taught to "the ways of the Lord". However since he was living righteously and was humble, when Eli taught him that the voice he heard was the voice fo the Lord he believed him immeidately and obeyed the promptings. Likewise we must be learn to recognize the spirit inour lives and obey it's promptings. We must teach our children how to recognize the spirit. It is seldom a voice or a vision. It's much more like to be a simple thought or feeling that pierces our heart

  


 


Ever catch yourself thinking "if I could just have a dramatic vision like some of the prophets in the scriptures it would be so  much easier to believe"? Notice how those who are wicked never recognize the spirit - even when it's so obvious that it strikes them down (as it did with Laman and Lemuel). Alternately, those who are righteous recognize even the most subtle messages from the Lord. I think of the Nephites who heard the voice of God introducing his Son in 3 Nephi 11. Though they didn't understand at first, they heard the still small voice and it penetrated their hearts. We don't need Hollywood type manifestations of grandeur...just the warm love of He who created us.

  


We are repeatedly warned of kings and dictators in the scriptures. If they were to lead us in righteousness seeking God's will all would be fine. However, power corrupts and always leads eventually to wickedness. Until the Lord returns to the earth to lead a united kingdom in righteousness we should be leery of dictators.

  
 


The Israelites sought the honor of their fellow nations(the world) over honoring God. How often do we fall into the same trap. Being more concerned about being popular, being accepted, being successful, making money or seeking worldly pleasure over honoring God?

  

I Samuel 1-2: Lessons from the Sons of Eli

Today in Gospel Doctrine class our discussion centered around the sons of Eli and impact of their wicked actions on the children of Israel.

The sons of Eli had abused thier position within the temple and were disgacing the ordinance of sacrifice by taking more than their portion of meat, ignoring the  Lord's instructions on proceedure and seducing young women who visited the temple.

As a result of their very visible wickedness Israelites fell into trangsression. We discussed Corianton's wickedness in the Book of Mormom and how his wicked example caused the Zoramites to not believe the words of his father Alma. Like it or not we are all representatives of Christ. when our friends, neighbors, co-workers see our actions they judge the church, the priesthood and even the Savior. Fair or not, we are that light shining before men...our good works and our "not so good" works.

Honoring God means to put Him above our selves - to put off the "natural man" and obey Him. When we fail to put Him ahead of our own selfish desires we not only drive the spirit from our lives but, like the sons of Eli, we may cause others to transgress due to our wicked example. Imagine the imapct on a young deacon if he was to see his Bishop watching an R rated movie, shopping on the Sabath or flirting with another woman? Imagine that same deacon sitting around the dinner table listening to his parents complain about their callings or their priesthood leaders? How will that effect his testimony?

Eli confronted his sons and called them to repentance which is exactly what he should have done as their Father and Priesthood leader. However, when the boys refused to repent, Eli failed to remove them from their priesthood office. Imagine a presiding Bishop allowing a YM to unworthily sit at the Sacrament table and make a mockery of the ordinance? Eli was brought under greater condemnation for "condoning" their wickedness. We must love our children unconditionally. However, there must be consequences for their actions. We can not condone sin in the slightest - Abhor the sin but love the sinner!

The obvious take away from this lesson is to never let ourselves become roadblocks to someone else's spiritual progression. If we dutifully "take on the Armour of God" each day and make righteous decisions then our positive example will serve to bring souls to Christ and not scare them off.

There's a secondary message to the lesson however. unfortunately "Sons of Eli" will always exist in the church. Now matter how we try to insulate ourselves or our children we will come in contact with those who profess to be active in the church but set a poor example through their not so private weaknesses. We may witness their poor choices or bare the brunt of their harsh judgements whether intended or not. We MUST fortify our testimonies to the point that such hypocrisy does not effect us, not deter us, does not cause us doubt.

In D&C 1 the Savior expresses his pleasure with the church "collectively and not individually", acknowledging that this is a church of imperfect people. We should not be put off by those who make poor choices amongst us but rather love them, serve them, teach them and endure them :)

I am grateful for this church and specifically the people in my stake and ward. We are not a perfect people - we have our daily struggles -  but we love one another and we are all in this fight together!