Week 9 Choice 3

Choice 3: Judges 9-12. “The Children of Israel Did Evil Again in the Sight of the Lord”

a.     Read Judges 9–12 and the Points to Ponder section in the institute student manual (p. 257). Make a list of the leaders and judges in these chapters. Describe in writing how devoted each one was to the Lord. Why do you think it was difficult for men and women to remain faithful during the period of the judges? How does it compare to the difficulty of remaining faithful today?  Schechem, Abimelech, Jotham, Jerubbaal, Gaal, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elan, Abdon.  

It was so difficult to remain faithful because their leaders were so wicked and wishy washy in their principles that it was easy for the Israelites to follow a bad example that was found in horrific leaders during the time of the judges.  It gets hard today, luckily we have a prophet but there are a lot of leaders in the world today that lead contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

b.     Write a short essay comparing the reign of the judges in the Old Testament to the history of the Nephites prior to the coming of Christ (see 3 Nephi 1–10). Explain why you think these reoccurring patterns have been preserved for us in the scriptures. Use the institute student manual introduction (p. 251) and the commentary for Judges 2:14–23, “What Was the Cyclical Pattern of Israel’s Relationship with the Lord during the Period of Judges?” (p. 253) to help you formulate your answer.  

It was a simple issue of forgetting.  The pattern that is evident in both the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament is pride creeps in among the people and they forget Jehovah and follow their own hearts and their own gods.  As they do the Lord allows them to fall into the hands of their enemies in order to humble them.  When they are humbled they come back to the Lord and he raises a judge to protect them militarily. Soon after the cycle repeats itself illustrating how quick we are to forget the Lord in all that we do.  I think that this has been written down for us so many times in the scriptures because it's very applicable not only to the world we live in but also the individual as well.  How many times do we need to be humbled in order for us to be brought back to the Lord and away from other gods in our lives?