Scripture Study

I am currently at my grandmother's house in Provo. I've been trying to think of something to post all day, grabbing at little pieces of conversation, or thoughts that I have or ideas. But they mostly turned out to be negative or critical. In the last half-hour or so, a post idea sort of slapped me in the face, and I think you'll like it.

My grandmother has visited Jerusalem and Israel many times with her husband, my grandfather, and they were the directors of the BYU Jerusalem Center at one point. As such, she is friends with very many people from that land. We are visiting for the 4th of July, and she has 2 visitors from Jerusalem, one man who is named Yossi (I don't know if I spelled it right, but either way, it's pronounced Yo-see), and his wife, whose name I'm not sure I could pronounce, much less spell, phonetically or otherwise. They are both Jewish. Therefore, Yossi had a Bar Mitzvah when he was thirteen, and had to memorize a portion of the Torah (The first five books of Moses), and a portion of the teachings of one of the prophets. He chose Micah, and he has just, for the past half-hour, been teaching us about Micah and Isaiah.

Now, you members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I know you have studied your scriptures at least once or twice, and if you have continued to live the teachings of the church, you have continued to study. You have probably spent some time studying with others, learning their insights of the scriptures or teachings of the prophets. Currently on the table where my family is talking, there is a Hebrew copy of the Bible, 2 or 3 electronic copies of the scriptures as distributed by the church, and my copy of the scriptures. Does this seem strange to you? I can understand why. Churches seem to be habitually not accepting of other churches, and not just in the way they may act, but in the doctrines they may teach. Our church seems to be fairly accepting of other churches, at least, at its root; with our leaders. They do not adopt the doctrine of other churches, but they will conference with them. And I think that that is right. HOWEVER...

I personally do not read the Old Testament. Ever. Unless some manual directs me to a scripture there, and sometimes I will read Genesis; read the story of Adam and Eve. Other than that, it is something I do not read. It's a terrible attitude, but I think that my excuse is that "I have 3 other books to read (the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants)." Yossi has just shown us a piece of Micah: Chapter 6, verses 6-8. Our copy of the scriptures (which I still believe, and do not doubt, to be the most correct) reads:

6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

He said, as an aside, after verse 7, something to the effect of, "That is Abraham and Isaac." that blew me away. "The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul." It was cool to read that. And then he taught us that the crucial sentence in this set of scriptures is in verse 8: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" He taught us that the Lord does not WANT out burnt offerings, or our calves. He doesn't WANT our thousands of rams, our ten thousands of rivers of oil. He doesn't really need our sacrifices for Himself! He has everything! What we have already belongs to him (and I would submit that, he does want to know that we CAN give those things up, but he does not need the things themselves). BUT, that what he wants of us is to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with [our] God. It was an interesting thing to learn.

He also clarified something in Isaiah for us. He said that the phrase in Isaiah 9:12, "For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still," means that, though He is very angry, He still has the capacity to save Israel. And the context of the verse that he gave was interesting. But I didn't catch all of it, so I probably shouldn't say what I thought I heard, because I might be misquoting.

In any case, what I most want to share in this post is not these verses, and is not these insights, though I consider them valuable. It is this principle, which I believe to be true: My brother has said that there are people who are not members of the church, and who do not have, therefore, the fulness of the spirit, but who have, "maxed out on the light of Christ." I would submit that the stalwart members of Judaism know the Bible. They have studied it. We, as members of the church, know that every church has a portion of truth, at least, but that we have the fulness of the gospel. But honestly, I think that, even though we have the fulness of the gospel, and a great amount of scripture, I think it's safe to say that almost none of the members of the church understand all of it. This man who has taught us this evening understands the Bible to an extent I do not know that I have witnessed. And I am confident that there are others out there like him.

I do not know exactly what is right. And I do not know that we ought to associate, or that the Brethren would like us to associate, at least doctrinally, with other beliefs. But I think, perhaps, there are those out there who know more about many of our beliefs than we do. Because some of our beliefs are their beliefs, and they have studied and understand them. I admire this man for how he has studied, and what he knows about the words of the prophets of old. He knows the Bible. I admire his example. And I felt the spirit tonight, listening to Yossi.

Take that how you will. I felt that my time was well spent.