MaeLyn's Musings

In Institute today, we continued the discussion on Isaiah. This week, I've spent a lot of time studying the assigned chapters (2 Nephi 15-24/Isaiah 5-14) During the last couple weeks, I've learned a few things that have helped me to put things together and make some sense of what I'm reading. Here are a few of those things: Historical background: See map to left. There are four major areas that we are concerned with here.  Southern Kingdom of Judah Capital: Jerusalem Major Tribe: Judah Leader: Ahaz, of the House of David Northern Kingdom of Israel Capital: Samaria Major Tribe: Ephraim Leader: Pekah, the son of Remaliah Syria Capital: Damascus People: Aramites Leader: Rezin Assyria Leader: Tiglath-Pileser III (called Pul in 2 Kings 15:19) I find it useful to note that Isaiah uses the names/capitals/tribes/leaders interchangeably, so the list above (which I've written in the margins of my scriptures as a reference) helps me figure out who is who. It is int...

Institute this morning was about Isaiah. Instead of lecturing, our teacher divided the class into groups, assigned us a chapter of Isaiah (as it was quoted by Jacob, in the book of 2 Nephi) as well as some photocopies of commentaries about those chapters, that we could use to help us decipher them. We were then given about 1/2 hour to read and study them, and then each group sent a volunteer to share with the rest of the class what we learned in our group. Specifically, we were looking for who each chapter was written for (i.e. the people of his day, the people of our day, righteous Israelites, less righteous Israelites, etc), what he was writing about (for example: Christ, the 2nd coming, love, etc.) and also what symbols he used and what they mean. We separated into our groups, read the chapter we were assigned, read the other materials we were given, discussed what it meant, wrote down what we discussed, and assigned someone to share with the class what we figured out. I thou...

What can the Book of Mormon teach us about dealing with other people? This has been my topic of study for the last week or so. Here is some of what I learned: Nephi had abusive brothers. They beat him with rods ( 1 Nephi 3:28-29 ). They were rebellious ( 1 Ne 7:7 ). They were disrespectful ( 1 Ne 18:9 ) and even threatened to kill Nephi ( 1 Ne 7:16 ; 2 Ne 5:2 ). How did Nephi deal with this?  He spoke to them, and tried to tell them what was right. (See 1 Ne 4:1-3 ; 7:8-15 ; and 18:10 ) He prayed for God's help. ( 1 Ne 7:17 ; 2 Ne 5:1 ) He did what he knew was right, in spite of his brothers. ( 1 Ne 4:4 ) He forgave his brothers. ( 1 Ne 7:21 ) He got help from other family members. ( 1 Ne 7:19 ; 18:17-19 ) Finally, Nephi distanced himself from his brothers. ( 2 Ne 5:6-7 ) What happened? After Nephi left his brothers, he and those who went with them were able to build a civilization and live happy lives. ( 2 Ne 5:27 ) ---------------------------------//-----------...