Lately during family scripture study, it has been common for there to be sentiments expressed of not liking these people, or some things being weird, or things to require explanation. When this happened two weeks ago, I said that I had told them it would be like this, and suggested skipping parts or something, and Maria said "It's important."
That's exactly right. The Old Testament is hard, but it is important.
Since we started reading the scriptures together, we had been through the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants twice, and the New Testament, Pearl of Great Price, and Genesis once. (I thought that reading Genesis first would help the Pearl of Great Price make more sense.) The repeats were because we started to synchronize with the Sunday School schedule, which means that this year is the Old Testament.
I had many ideas to avoid it, like maybe we should re-read the things we had only read once first, which I did not suggest, or that we should focus on specific sections, which we did talk about, and yet everyone was for just reading it all.
I thought that they were not fully grasping how much that entails, and how annoying some of it can be, but they have a better grasp than that.
And, I am kind of the same way. Many times when I have been on my way through the Old Testament I have resolved to just skip the Song of Solomon, because there is no spiritual value in there, and then I read it anyway, because I feel guilty. I know the argument about it being an allegory of Christ's love for His people; but if it was intended as that I don't think there would be so much focus on breasts. It is non-spiritual writing from a source where we have spiritual writing, but I feel committed to the whole thing, and my family is like me in this way.
There are highs and lows. We have been having more discussion, because it is needed; but there are disputes about how to pronounce "shittim wood" (and very immature laughter; also any time there is an ass). We are currently synchronized with the Sunday School schedule, but we will not stay that way because this will probably take us three years.
There are sections that are not inspired writing. It is most obvious with the Song of Solomon, but that may not be the only spot.
There are places that are translated incorrectly. The Joseph Smith Translation helps with some of that, but there are also passages that can be interpreted in multiple different ways, where multiple interpretations can be valid (especially in Isaiah, there is a good example in https://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/01/the-bible-only-4263-languages-to-go?lang=eng).
There are times when the people do seem awful and the law does seem harsh, but that goes back to many things I have written about the work God has to do in getting us to where we need to be.
There are sections that you can see where it was necessary to write them down, but maybe not so necessary for us to read them, like the Israelite census we get in Numbers.
The Old Testament takes more work than any other book of scripture. It was only on my last time through that 1st and 2nd Chronicles came alive for me, and I remembered being amazed that I had read it other times, and not seen what it was. At the same time, I remember something from the Chronicles sticking with me on a previous time through that I used on a talk I gave when I was a new missionary (May 1993 as a matter of fact). I pulled out a grain back then, even if it was not a full harvest.
Leviticus is frustrating, when so much of it is outdated, but there are things that have helped. One was a chapter in a book that I could only skim because it was so boring. No, it was not a book of scripture. It was The Biophilia Hypothesis, and the tenth chapter was called "The Sacred Bee, the Filthy Pig, and the Bat Out of Hell: Animal Symbolism as Cognitive Biophilia" by Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence. (I believe it had been published previously, as the book was a collection of writings.) And even though I could not get into the book, skimming it made a point about how the connections drawn between different animals, and clean and unclean, was a way of putting an order on the animal world for the Israelites.
They were starting over after years in an idolatrous country, so there were laws that were separating them from those practices, and there were rites to help them remember their deliverance from bondage and to look forward to their eventual deliverance from sin, and there is rich symbolism, but it is pages and pages that often seem irrelevant.
Other articles have helped. There is one that I wish I could find again, about how while the Law of Moses seems harsh to us, it was something kinder for the time.
I don't love that we will be spending the next three years on this, when everything else we could do within a year, but it is better going slow. One thing I had to do last time was break up the Psalms, where I read one at a time before whatever else I was reading. While many of them are beautiful and inspired, a whole section of them is cloying.
We are doing 10 to 12 pages a week, and while that is slow, there is probably no single section of 10 to 12 pages that will be unbearable.
It does take unexpected turns. Last week as we were reading about the construction of the Tabernacle, and the Ark, I said we should watch Raiders of the Lost Ark so they could picture it. I thought I was joking, but we are watching it tonight after reading. Not especially spiritual, I guess, but really, they did a good job on the design and the priest costume, and then the face melting and death shows that proper authority is still required.
If while we are watching we are also stitching up angel dolls* for service, well, that's just how we roll.
*Angel dolls are dolls that the doctors at a local hospital use to explain surgeries and procedures to young patients. Our stake supplies the hospital, and Julie is in charge of it for our ward. I think they should call them "hospital buddies", because "angel dolls" sounds like they are not that optimistic about the prognosis, but I may just not like thinking about little kids getting sick.
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