Amos; Obidiah

HAPPY THANKSGIVING--No class next week

DECEMBER 1 READING--Jonah; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah

OUTWARD MINDSET

“We start by asking questions to help ourselves see others as people, looking at their hearts. If we address behavior through the encouragement of behavior changes, we tend to treat people like objects, problems to be moved out of the way, corrected until they get it right.

Truly seeing a person is something that is taught in our church, especially within the context around our ministering efforts. The ability to see a person as a child of God allows us to look past their shortcomings and love them as the Savior would. When people fail to meet our expectations, however, it can be easy to see them as a problem that is blocking us from meeting our own objectives. The book describes it as seeing someone ‘like an object’.”

“When to a leader a person becomes an object, or a problem to be solved, the leader will invariably do things to treat them like an object. This can be seen in instances where individuals get a calling, but are complaining about one thing or another, are not as responsible as we would like, or seem to be ruffling some peoples’ feathers in the ward. Instead of considering the needs, objectives, and challenges of the individual by establishing a relationship, listening, and spending time with the individual, some leaders turn their focus on finding a solution that involves releasing a person from their calling, or getting them to 'have a talk’ with the bishop where some correction is given.

President Monson said it best, ‘Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved’. When our focus is on seeing the individual, we figure out ways to understand them better and have more of a relationship of trust, thereby helping us better adapt to the needs of the individual and the needs of the calling. This requires us to not only ask questions to get to know them, but when a potential conflict surfaces, or even just a simple difference in preference, we approach it with a focus on putting ourselves in their situation. We begin to ask questions, repeating back our understanding, seeking to understand until we feel like we have come alongside them and are walking with them. It has been my experience that people are more willing to listen to your advice when you have spent some time trying to understand where they are coming from.”

“A quote from the book summarizes this:

‘To be outward does not mean that people should adopt this or that prescribed behavior. Rather, it means that when people see the needs, challenges, desires, and humanity of others, the most effective ways to adjust their efforts occur to them in the moment. ... They naturally adjust what they do in response to the needs they see around them. With an outward mindset, adjusting one’s efforts naturally flows from seeing others in a new way.’”

Cory Shirts, The Outward Mindset—Seeing Beyond Ourselves, https://leadingsaints.org/the-outward- mindset-seeing-beyond-ourselves/

Hosea 1-6; 10-14; Joel

NEXT WEEK'S READING - AMOS & OBADIAH

INTERPRETATIONS

“Verse 23: In the last verses of this chapter, the names of Hosea and Gomer’s 

children are important. For example, verse 19 ends with a reference to mercy or compassion, 

the name of their daughter (Ruhamah, 1:6). As we saw, verse 22 ends with the mention of their 

first son, Jezreel, and if we remember the meaning of the first son’s name, verse 23 begins 

with a mention of him. Then this verse mentions their daughter, Ruhamah, and finally, 

it mentions their second son, Ammi. So if we recognize the connection of the names to 

the meanings of the names, verse 23 mentions each child in order of birth and could be 

translated like this:

Then I will sow her (Jezreel) unto me in the earth and I will have mercy on 

She-Who-Did-Not-ReceiveMercy (Lo-Ruhamah); and I will say to 

He-Who-Is-Not-My-People (Lo-Ammi), Thou art my people; and they shall say, 

Thou art my God.”

Dr. James Faulconer

The Old Testament Made Harder

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=mi

“Those prophets often used literary devices to reach their readers (metaphor, simile, chiasmus, and especially typology). Hosea uses a powerful type to make his point. But his is more than a metaphor. It is a real event that serves as a type or shadow of the Lord’s relation to Israel: Hosea is called to marry an adulterous wife, and then, though she has been unfaithful and even had children by other men, he is commanded to buy her back and to love her. The point of this shocking type is that Israel (like an unfaithful wife) has gone whoring after other lovers (pagan gods), and the Lord, the husband who has entered into a covenant with her, will buy her back and love her and bring her to repentance. Some argue that Hosea did not actually marry the woman he talks about, that she is only a literary device. As with Jonah, it doesn’t matter for our purposes. Since the book of Hosea treats her as real, these notes do too.”

Dr. James Faulconer 

The Old Testament Made Harder

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=mi

Some LDS scholars reject the literal union of Hosea to a wife of whoredoms because it “would be imputing to God a command inconsistent with His holy character.” Brent L. Top cautions against such reasoning, stating, “Rejecting the literal nature of this or any other scriptural episode that we find disturbing, illogical, or at odds with our own finite view of God and his dealings with man opens a Pandora’s box of issues surrounding the historicity of the scriptures” (“The Marriage of Hosea and Gomer: A Symbolic Testament of Messianic Love and Mercy,” in A Witness of Jesus Christ: The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Old Testament, ed. Richard D. Draper [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 227).

Dr. Aaron Schade

"The Imagery of Hosea's Family and the Restoration of Israel"

https://rsc.byu.edu/gospel-jesus-christ-old-testament/imagery-hoseas-family-restoration-israel#_edn37

COVENANTAL LOVE - HESED 

"Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed (חֶסֶד)."

President Russell M. Nelson

"The Everlasting Covenant"

March 31, 2022

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/10/04-the-everlasting-covenant?lang=eng

TO KNOW GOD

“Quite obviously since the Israelites have not appropriated these qualities and reproduced them in their lives, it demonstrates that they have no real commitment to God. Nor do they truly know him in a living, experiential knowledge of him. As [Terrence] Fretheim points out, “To know God is to be in a right relationship with him, with characteristics of love, trust, respect, and open communication.” Indeed, a firm reverential trust in God constitutes the basic foundation and fountain of true knowledge. Israel had been schooled in the knowledge of God and his standards as well as his goodness, but alas, they demonstrated no trace of them in their lives. Had they truly known him, it would have been reflected in their appropriation of God’s covenant standards for their lives. Therefore, they must face the consequences of their own actions.” 

Robert Alter

Hosea: An Exegetical Commentary

https://bible.org/seriespage/2-perspectives-unfaithful-israel-hosea-41-19

“The strength of your horizontal relationships is a sign of the strength of your vertical relationship.”

Dr. Kristian Heal

Maxwell Institute Abide Podcast

https://mi.byu.edu/abide-hosea-and-joel/

“Astonishingly, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!” 

Neal A. Maxwell, “Meek and Lowly” BYU Speeches, 1986

PROPHETS AND PROPHETESSES

Elder George Q. Cannon wrote: “The spirit of the Church of God is that manifested by Moses. … The genius of the kingdom with which we are associated is to disseminate knowledge through all the ranks of the people, and to make every man a prophet and every woman a prophetess, that they may understand the plans and purposes of God. For this purpose the gospel has been sent to us, and the humblest may obtain its spirit and testimony” (Journal of Discourses, 12:46).

President Heber C. Kimball stressed the reality that this gift is found in more than the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve: “There is not a man or woman in this congregation,” he explained, “if they live their religion and have the Holy Ghost upon them, but what are prophets, every one of them. . . . I wish to God you, brethren and sisters, were all prophets and prophetesses; you may be, if you live your religion; you cannot help yourselves” (Journal of Discourses, 5:88).

“Prophets will be the last safe voices on earth.”

Sheri Dew, “Prophets Can See Around Corners,” BYU Hawaii, November 1, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuMlNeinGsc

Daniel

NEXT WEEK READING

Hosea 1-6, 10-14; Joel

 UNDERSTANDING THE VISIONS OF DANIEL

“[There is] perpetual relevance [here]. Any disciple of any age can see the internal conflict of right and wrong, light and darkness; the lamb verses the beast and know the we are caught in an eternal struggle and have eternal choices to make.”

Jared Halverson, Unshaken Podcast #193

BUT IF NOT . . .

“Centuries ago, Daniel and his young associates were suddenly thrust from security into the world—a world foreign and intimidating. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to bow down and worship a golden image set up by the king, a furious Nebuchadnezzar told them that if they would not worship as commanded, they would immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. ‘And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?’

The three young men quickly and confidently responded, ‘If it be so [if you cast us into the furnace], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand.’ They demonstrated that they fully understood what faith is. They continued, ‘But if not, ... we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.’ That is a statement of true faith.

They knew that they could trust God—even if things didn’t turn out the way they hoped. They knew that faith is more than mental assent, more than an acknowledgment that God lives. Faith is total trust in Him. Faith is believing that although we do not understand all things, He does. Faith is knowing that although our power is limited, His is not. Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him.”

Dennis E. Simmons, “But If Not,” General Conference April 2004

TEACHINGS OF DANIEL

Sir Isaac Newton said this of Daniel: “Daniel was in the greatest credit amongst the Jews, till the reign of the Roman Emperor. And to reject his prophecies, is to reject the Christian religion. For this religion is founded upon his prophecy concerning the Messiah.”

“The book of Daniel proves two things: God provides and God saves. He not only takes care of his people in their present affliction, but is bringing an everlasting kingdom of peace, which was only prophesied in Daniel’s day, but finds its fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah.”

Levi Bakerink, https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/web-exclusive-articles/the-mod-the-messianic- prophecies-in-the-book-of-daniel/

PROMISES FROM OUR PROPHET

“My dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns ‘with power and great glory,’ He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.

Nonetheless, we are presently living in what surely is a most complicated time in the history of the world. The complexities and challenges leave many people feeling overwhelmed and exhausted...

The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power. Thus, covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God.”

President Russell M. Nelson, Overcome the World and Find Rest, October Conference 2022