GOSPEL
DOCTRINE LESSON
Supplements for
LDS Sunday School Courses for the Book of Mormon
(Including
Information for
Preparing Gospel Doctrine Lessons in Hebrew)
by Daniel Rona
Lesson Number 34
"How Could You Have Forgotten Your God?" (Helaman 6-12)
The Children of Israel had a habit of being blessed and then forgetting God. The term "hardened" appears several times in the Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph. It is a result of pride or of being proud.
"Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
"Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God." (2 Kings 17:13-14)
"And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments," (Nehemiah 9:15-16)
"Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?" (1 Samuel 6:6)
"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren, because they had hardened their hearts again, even unto complaining against the Lord their God." (1 Nephi 16:22)
"And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving light unto them by night, and doing all things for them which were expedient for man to receive, they hardened their hearts and blinded their minds, and reviled against Moses and against the true and living God." (1 Nephi 17:30)
We are reminded in our own times of the debilitating use of the word "proud" or "pride." In 1989, President and Prophet, Ezra Taft Benson, clearly instructed the saints to discontinue the use of the word pride or proud. He said "Pride is ugly." A better way of expressing ourselves would be to follow Heavenly Father's example.
"And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)
It appears that people get lifted up in their pride. They even want to be or claim to be "above" others. The Zoramites built a tower, a Rameumptom.
"For they had a place built up in the center of their synagogue, a place for standing, which was high above the head; and the top thereof would only admit one person." (Alma 31:13)
Now the place was called by them Rameumptom, which, being interpreted, is the holy stand." (Alma 31:21)
The word Rama in Hebrew means high place. The Lord did instruct Temples to be built in high places. The synagogue has three meeting areas. The congregants sit in an outer area, then there is a raised or elevated area called the bimah in the center of the synagogue. That is where the Torah is read from. The Ark, where the Torah scrolls are kept is higher than the Bimah and always in the part of the hall closest to Jerusalem. That is a reminder to the congregants that the "word" comes from Zion.
The three areas are in a temple style. The Temple had an outer courtyard, inner courtyard and a Holy of Holies or as Latter-day Saints call it, Telestial, Terrestrial and Celestial. The styling of the synagogue probably represents the Temple where authority came from.
Another recognizable parallel is how this prophet Nephi, testified of his calling and authority. All true prophets did and still do testify of their authority. Additionally, a repeated manner of identifying the true prophet is a way of being named and authorized by God.
"Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God.
Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people." (Helaman 10:6-7)
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18-19)
God gives keys, signs, symbols and ritual procedures so that we may have physical as well as spiritual reminders of Him and His teachings for us.