Joshua 24:1-4

Our class jumped to Joshua after we did some Deuteronomy, so I am picking up there. So I don't know, maybe I am one of the only ones who didn't really understand why Joshua took the tribes to Shechem. There is some significance to this, it isn't just for kicks and giggles. Shechem is where Abraham built his altar to the Lord. So this is essentially Joshua is taking the people back to the temple, after so many years in the wilderness. The more wicked generation that wouldn't accept the Gospel died off, and the people are now ready to accept the covenants of the temple.  An interesting side note here is the word for wilderness. It means the place of the word, meaning the word of G-d. This is where the children of Israel was learning, they were preparing, their hearts were being turned to the Lord and they in this verse are now ready to accept it. Also at the end of vs 1 its talking about them standing before the face of G-d. Which typically in an Old Testament setting, this means that they are in a temple like setting. Which goes along perfectly with them going to Shechem. So much in just one verse! Amazing!
Verse two is a little jumbled in translation. As they are going to Schechem Joshua is recounting the history to the people. In this verse he is saying that G-d spoke to their fathers as they dwelt on the others side of the river and that they worshiped other gods. This is doing two things, its saying that the hearts of their fathers were not ready, that is why they were in the wilderness. And its also building up some context as to where their fathers were, this will help for the next few verses.
In verse 3 the location comes into play. The children of Israel cross over the river. I asked myself, what does the river represent? Is it representative of Christ?  Go back to the context of a covenant being a cut that I talked about in Deuteronomy. A river is a cut in the land. This is symbolic of the people going through the cut before they were to enter into the higher covenants of the temple. Its also symbolic of baptism as they had to go down into the river to cross it. It is the action that is saying they are willing to change and to live up to higher covenants. So then I started thinking a little more on this whole idea of the symbolism of rivers. It lead me to 1 Nephi 8:13. In the vision a river also separates the tree of life from the world. The fruit of the tree is the knowledge of God and essentially it's also the knowledge gained in the temple. The covenant has to be cut, it has to be crossed, we have to make that effort to get to it. Then I started thinking about what personal rivers do we have in our lives? How does the effort of going to the temple effect or help us as we go through those rivers? And what do we gain as we go through them? Just something to think on.
A great thing happened and my art class was actually talking about Egyptian art the day that we did these verses and I went to both classes and was just kind of like WHAT?!?! That is so cool! So let me share this with you.

This is called one of the Egyptian Books of the Dead. It is a somewhat unrelated thing but I think it ties in. I'm sorry its so small, maybe you can Google it and see it up close a little better. This is like a great little Egyptian comic strip. It is read top to bottom and left to right. The strip across the top is a man who has recently died sitting at an altar before the gods who are holding what is called an ankh. The ankh is symbolic of eternal life. Now this whole thing is going to be much more interesting for those who have gone through the temple, if you haven't it is still pretty interesting though.  The first little picture where the man is dressed in white and led by the jackal headed god, Anubis. Anubis leads the man to the second picture, where he weighs the man's heart against the feather of truth. The results of this will determine if that strange crocodile, hippo, lion beast there will get to eat your heart and you are done. You don't progress past that. The bird headed god next to the scale is Thoth. Thoth is a scribe, he writes down the results of the judgement that is happening. If allowed to progress past that a third god presents the man before a curtain that the Egyptians referred to as a veil. Behind this veil are two figures. The one that is seated is the god who rules over all the other gods. The woman standing behind him is his wife. If front of these two gods there is a lotus blossom, which symbolizes eternal life as well. It is tied into a river that is under the first god which representative of the Nile. Bringing back the river that has to be crossed, the covenant that needs to be cut. (See I can tie this in. ha ha) Now look on top of the lotus blossom, there are four small figures that are representative of the four steps that the man just went through in order to get to the final two gods. The bird on the top of that section is representative of bringing the results of what has happened and showing them to the gods as the man is standing before the curtain. And if these results are that he was a good man and has been judged as such, he is then able to enter into the final block where he will remain throughout the afterlife. Very interesting no?

Deuteronomy 5:7-15

Well hello there. Getting back to our Hebrew translating. I have been a little slow with this since we have midterms gong on right now but I will try to get better at making regular posts. So looking over it, there isn't much different in the next few verses of the English translation. Hey, those translators did pretty great in my opinion, the things I am learning aren't complaints against their translating abilities. So if we could I'm going to jump ahead a little to vs. 10. The word used in the KJV here is mercy. But the Hebrew word חסד means any attribute of the Lord. It means mercy, kindness, loyalty, everything benevolent, gentleness, meekness, well you get the idea. So its saying that He is showing all of these things to us as we guard and protect, and love His commandments.
Verse 11 talks about taking the name of the Lord in vain. We discussed this a little bit in class. there is a great talk by Elder Oaks about the sacrament. Here's a link for it http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1985/04/taking-upon-us-the-name-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng&query=sacrament+(name%3a%22Dallin+H.+Oaks%22) . It talks about how when we take the sacrament we aren't then, nor did we at baptism take the name of the Lord upon ourselves. The prayer itself says that we "will" take His name upon ourselves. This means its a future event. An event that comes later as we go through the temple. (Keep in mind again this is the Latter Day Saint view.)
On that note when we enter into any covenant with the Lord we are moving to a higher grace in the Gospel and we are not only blessed with something but we are obligated to seek something. With this first step of baptism we are taught that we receive the Holy Ghost, right? Well we still have to work for that, entering into the covenant of baptism is just the first step of this. We need to seek it, we need to seek the revelation that we are given. And yes, we need to seek the baptism by fire. This is the learning that we get through the Holy Ghost and does come through our trials. That's how we learn and grow. Its how we progress. If we aren't actively seeking after what we have the right to, dependent upon what covenants we have entered into, then we are living far below our privileges. we can do so much more with the Holy Ghost in our lives. (I will get off my soapbox and back to our Hebrew now though. But when you get some time to think about this, please do, there is so much more out there that we can attain if we will live up to what we are.)
So what does it mean to take His name upon ourselves anyways? The word used for take, actually means to lift off of or to carry. It is the same word used to describe that Christ took away our sins. He carries them, He lifted them off of us. What this verse is saying is don't carry His name without results. That isn't typically what we think of when we hear we aren't supposed to take His name in vain. Its not talking about cussing. Its saying don't take upon you the name of the Lord and then live an empty life, a life that is not worthy of His name. Verse 11 says, He won't forgive this sin. Wow. That sounds like reason enough to get off the couch and get out there and further the work doesn't it?
The next few verses are talking about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Something that stood out to me on the Sabbath discussion we had were the things we should contemplate on the Sabbath. remember the creation, remember the parting of the Red Sea, the deliverance from Egypt, remember the Resurrection. All three of these is an example of deliverance and each one is a miracle in and of itself. The Sabbath is meant for this reflection. As we reflect on these things we can see the miracles in our own lives a little more and we see just what the saving power of the Atonement can mean in our lives.