Tuesday November 13, 2007

Brandon Seegmiller

Awaking extremely well rested after sleeping ten hours, I readied for the first New Testament quiz, which was quite easy. We learned today that Matthew’s testimony focuses on Jesus’ ties with Jewish prophets, kings, and prophecy. Joseph’s Davidic lineage, the line that would have brought Jesus to the throne of Israel, is enumerated instead of Mary’s. This same Joseph receives the annunciation from Gabriel. Jesus, like Moses and others, fasted forty days and was promptly visited by the tempter.


Even the temptations themselves parallel earlier temptations of the greatest men of the Old Testament. I can imagine Lucifer reasoning that David had succumbed so easily to desires of the flesh. Perhaps Jesus will as well. “Turn this rock into bread to satisfy your physical hunger,” he said. That didn’t work; perhaps this future king of the Jews will suffer the haughty loftiness of Saul. If He knows how royal He is, surely He’ll want to prove it by throwing Himself off the temple at my goading. His own pride will lead Him to tempt the Lord’s ability to rescue and save and to His spiritual downfall. It’s an unoriginal temptation once you break it down, but it works on countless other humans—just not on the Savior—so the prince of darkness tries one last time. The final temptation had been brought subtly to King Solomon, the highest of the Israelite Kings, and it worked like a charm. The pursuance of material wealth and power lead this king to idol worship and devotion to the worldly church of the devil. Solomon, to the end of his life, never could release himself from this snare. Unfortunately, the King of Kings would have none of it and relied on divine power to command the infernal father of all lies to depart.


I loved learning about the downfall of the Persians and the rise of the western world. Bro. Huntington’s narrative illustrated the events at Marathon and Thermopiles in ways I’ve never experienced. I can see how it gave way to the Savior’s life and death. The Jews had to experience what they had under the Greeks in order to live as they were under the Romans. It fascinates me that under the Romans, the Jews were more obedient than they had been at almost any other time in their history, yet they were ripe and ready to furnish their own God as a sacrifice.


Until this day, we have missed every BYU devotional, but hearing about Pres. Monson’s planned address made us determined to watch it. As we were waiting for the connection and projection setup in the forum, we talked about what we expected to hear from the first counselor. Archie mentioned that in nine addresses he’d heard, Pres. Monson has mentioned the pining of Cardinal Woolsey in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, “If I had served my God with half the zeal I served my king.” We couldn’t help chuckling out loud when Pres. Monson gave that exact quote again but in a new context.


My personal expectations have changed day by day it seems. I thought that studying the scriptures on site in the context of culture and history would help me understand deeper the principles I’ve been taught all my life. I had no idea what that would entail. As deep as I thought my intentions were they were actually quite shallow. My personal conviction has been affected, true, but my ability to express that conviction has undergone far more change than my gospel knowledge has. I guess I’m trying to say that in the future others—family, neighbors, students—will benefit from my experience more than I will have. For me that will be the fulfillment of my expectations of my New Testament study in the Holy Land.