The Old Testament

Introduce Myself and the Family

• I am here on assignment as a member of the Stake High Council.
• This is also the Ward my family and I attend, so actually a bit more nervous than usual.
• I am David, born in Leesburg, VA.
• Met my wife, Rachael, in Middle School. Married for almost 25 years.
• Moved into the Massaponax Ward from Alabama over 9 years ago. Although we have lived in 3 different homes here, this the is the longest Ward we’ve lived in as a married couple.
• We have 5 boys ranging in age from 22 to 9.
• We have one daughter who is almost 4.

My Introduction to the Old Testament

My first serious study of the Old Testament happened on my mission. I served in the Florida Tallahassee mission, which covered the Florida panhandle and about the lower fourth of Alabama, including Mobile. Anyone familiar with the Florida panhandle knows that is the furthest south you can go and still be in “The South”. Further south into the Florida peninsula, and they would say you are back in “Yankee territory.” I say this just to say, I served squarely inside the Bible Belt.

I quickly found that people we would start discussions with would very often reference the Bible. I had read the Book of Mormon and felt very comfortable with sharing its message. But I realized early into my mission I was not nearly as prepared when it came to the Bible. A very common phrase people would say was “In the Bible, God says….” I felt when people said this, especially if not quoting from one of the Gospels, that this wasn’t quite accurate. I knew that the Old Testament included history, the Law of Moses, prophecies of prophets, and things like Psalms and Proverbs. But I was not confident enough about any of the context to really have an intelligent reply to whenever somebody said, “In the Bible, God says….”

It only took a few weeks and I determined that I needed to read the Bible from cover to cover. And not just read it, but know who wrote it, and understand the history and context. This was a time before the World Wide Web and things like Wikipedia. I couldn’t just Google for a timeline of the Old Testament. My personal library consisted of the Standard Works, the 6 approved books on my mission that were called the “Missionary Reference Library”, and Sunday School manuals I could get out of the Ward libraries. So as I read, I created things of my own. I created things like timelines and a vast descendancy chart. I wanted to see how people fit in with each other. I wanted context.

Since I can find much better versions of anything I want online now I have since discarded most of my charts. I have saved one for its sentimental value. Here it is, it shows the lifespans of people from Adam to Moses. I also marked major events: the City of Enoch being taken up, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the Israelites leaving Egypt.

I remember being fascinated to learn that Shem, the son of of Noah and one of only 8 survivors on the ark, out-lived Abraham. In fact, according to the Biblical chronology, Shem didn’t die until Jacob was already 59 years old.

I believe that helps build some context around the first several verses of Abraham, chapter 1. Staring in verse 2…

2 And, finding there was greater ^ahappiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of ^brighteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great ^cknowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many ^dnations, a prince of peace, and ^edesiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a ^fHigh Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.

3 It was ^aconferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the ^bfirstborn, or the first man, who is ^cAdam, or first father, through the fathers unto me.

4 I sought for mine ^aappointment unto the Priesthood according to the appointment of God unto the ^bfathers concerning the seed.

• The blessings of the temple.  The Abrahamic Covenant.
• Some insight who the “fathers” are who Abraham may be referring to.
• Jacob and Shem lived at the same time. Shem and Methuselah lived at the same time. Methuselah and Adam lived at the same time.

What is the Old Testament?

Some of what I learned about the Old Testament is obvious. It is a collection of distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. A quick breakdown:

• The 5 Books of Moses, the Torah, or the Pentateuch. This covers from the creation to the death of Moses. The Talmud, and tradition, hold that these books were written by Moses, with the exception of the last 8 verses that were written by Joshua. According to other Jewish traditions, the Torah was re-compiled by Ezra during the Second Temple period. Modern scholarship is in a bit of disarray about the authorship. It has been long held there are 4 chief sources, but the nature of those sources as authors or compilers/editors/abridgers is hotly debated. Either way, the oldest documented sources come from between the 7th to 5th centuries BC. And the oldest Torah found in its current form comes from the Persian period, which does lend itself to the tradition of Ezra being its final editor.
• The next section of books, from Joshua through Nehemiah, contain the history of the children of Israel entering the land of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity. Some traditions believe Jeremiah and his aide Baruch compiled most of this, with a few subsequent authors and revisions for another couple of centuries.  Some of the authors are vaguely refereed to as simply “the chroniclers”.
• Then we have what are considered the Poetic Books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. Although many believe the book of Job to be some kind of allegory, we know through modern day revelation, with God’s reference to Job to Joseph Smith while suffering in Liberty Jail, that Job and his story must be true and real.
• Then we have the books of the prophets. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are called by some the Latter or Major prophets, and the others are called the Minor prophets.
• The last group of books are called the Five Megillot, or the Five Scrolls. These include the books of Esther and Ruth. These books have the most recent authorship, and may have been handed down mainly as part of the oral tradition, until at last added to the Jewish canon and written down.

I believe a basic understanding of what the Old Testament consists of, some idea of who the authors are, how it was combined together, and by who are important to understand what it says and what it is teaching us.

For example, knowing that in the Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 1, the author describes himself as the “son of David, king in Jerusalem”, and the frequent use of the phrase “under the sun” and the word “vanity” (which here is used to mean transitory or fleeting), that this book has a very mortal and worldly perspective. And so, when in chapter 1, verse 15, it says “That which is crooked cannot be made straight”, that is a man speaking. You cannot preface that verse with “In the Bible, God says….”

An Old Testament Story With Modern Application

I want to share with you what I think is one of the hidden gems of the Old Testament. And one that I believe has application to us in our day.

The 16th king of Judah was described in 2 Kings, chapter 23, verse 25 with these words:

And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

This king’s name was Josiah. In our Sunday School lessons he often gets lumped together with Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Amon for comparison and contrast. But I think there is so much to learn by focusing on just the reign of Josiah.

His great-grandfather was Hezekiah, a righteous king. His grandfather was Manasseh, and he was extremely wicked. Not only polluting his own life, but polluting the temple and the ordinances performed there. Josiah’s father was Amon, and the scriptures comparing Amon to Manasseh say “but Amon trespassed more and more.” Eventually Amon’s own servants conspired against him and assassinated him in his own house.

At 8 years old Josiah was anointed as king. The scriptures say from the 8th year of his reign, at age 16, he “began to seek after the God of David”. And at age 20 he began to purge Judah of idolatrous worship. At around 26 he ordered a restoration of the temple. And for me, this is where things get interesting.

While Hilkiah, the High Priest, was clearing the treasure room of the Temple he discovered a scroll described in 2 Kings as “the book of the Law”, and in 2 Chronicles as “the book of the Law of the LORD given by Moses”. The phrase “sefer ha-torah” in 2 Kings 22:8 is identical to the phrase used in Joshua 1:8 and 8:34 to describe the sacred writings that Joshua had received from Moses. By the way, this is where many point to that it was during Josiah’s reign, by the hand of Jeremiah, that the ancient scriptures began to be found, gathered, and more formally written down.

Hilkiah made Josiah aware of what they found, and Hilkiah’s scribe, Shaphan, read it aloud to King Josiah. Upon hearing the scroll read aloud King Josiah rent his clothes, lamenting the fate of his people, because the consequences for not following the LORD were made clear.

Now even more interesting, there were a few prophets that were contemporaries of Josiah. Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and also the prophetess Huldah. Out of all of these, Josiah sends Hilkiah and his servants to ask the prophetess Huldah about the accuracy of the prophecies.

There are only a handful of verses that speak about Huldah, but from them we can learn a bit about her. Her reply to Josiah’s servants began, “Tell ye the man that sent you to me”. We can infer that she saw Josiah as just another man. But for certain, she had authority to speak plainly to the king, and she had authority to attest that the scroll was indeed scripture. Other Rabbinic traditions about her include that she was related to Jeremiah, that she was a teacher, and that while Jeremiah mainly ministered to men, Huldah mainly ministered to women. It is also said the Josiah preferred asking Huldah for the will of the Lord because she was kinder to him.  Of the Rabbinic traditions, there is nothing to verify them, but we do know she was and is held in very high regard.

Her reply to Josiah was that the people of Judah were too far gone and their destruction was certain and imminent. BUT, because of Josiah’s faithfulness, that he would die in peace and the curses of the prophecy would be fulfilled after his death.  He died around 610 or 609 BC.  And as you know, the accounts of the Book of Mormon begin in 600 BC.

So, can we take any lessons from this? I think so. We live in a time where many of the calamities foretold in prophecies are happening right now. But we also have assurances that we can have peace in this life among the tumult.

But the real lesson is what Josiah does next. Even though he knows his people are a lost cause, he re-doubles his efforts. He calls together the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and has the scroll read to them. He extorts them to exclusively worship Jehovah. He re-institutes the Passover and returns the Ark of the Covenant to the temple. He carries his reforms to cities of the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and Naphtali; all areas outside the kingdom of Judah. He sends Jeremiah abroad as well. And the question is why? If his people’s demise is certain, then why bother?

I think the answer is because, although a nation might be lost, individuals are not. The worth of a soul is great in the sight of the Lord. So, even though we may sometimes lose hope in the world around us; our family, our friends, and even strangers we meet along the way, are worth reaching out to. Worth helping. Worth sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with.  Josiah taught us that we can follow the Lord, even if the world, and even if our own people don’t.  We can still be a voice and a force for good.

A side lesson.  Sometimes people describe the “God of the Old Testament” as vengeful, mean, or angry.  As you really read the Old Testament I think you find the opposite.  Even though it was the end of the road for the people of Judah shortly after Josiah, just think of the number of times the Lord warned them.   From Joshua to Josiah, the number of invitations to repent is uncountable.  Think of all the prophets he sent.  How many testimonies were given.  How incredibly long he endured their unrighteousness.   I sincerely hope the Lord is as patient with me when it comes to my own disobedience.  And then think of the mercy in sending Lehi and his family away.  And the mercy in the return from Babylonian captivity.  To me, it seems the “God of the Old Testament” is constantly giving us another chance and preparing a way for us to return.  Or in the case of Lehi, preparing a way for us to escape.

It is my testimony that the Old Testament is the word of God. And if we read it with open minds and hearts then the lessons we can learn from it are innumerable. As you seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost as you study and ponder its words you will find it is a witness of Jesus Christ.

I say these things…

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