Institute Notes 2-17-22
Genesis 18-23 Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven
How can I liken the scriptures to me?
Abraham and Sarah- The Lord cares about individuals
Abraham: hospital, faithfulness, patience, seeker, obedience, pattern of making God a priority in his life.
Sarah: beautiful, charitable, compassionate
Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People by E. Douglas Clark
One in marriage and home, strong character. Their hearts were right.
Abraham taught the gospel while they ate.
Sometimes we deny or justify. Instead we should absolutely believe and obey. God knew she had laughed. He knows the thoughts and intents of my heart.
Despite being circumcised that day. Cutting is a symbol of covenant-animal sacrifice, “It doesn’t cut it phrase”. I am asked to sacrifice a broken heart and contrite spirit. Broken could be interpreted as cut. I need to give up my own desires and instead let God give me a new heart.
Abraham went out to greet his guest and was so welcoming and hospitable, God is also aware of my comings and goings and I can be that way with others. Think of entering and leaving the temple. Entering and leaving this earth life. There is usually some anxiety involved.
Abraham bargained to save people in city. Abraham felt stewardship to protect the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. I should also strive to be a righteous steward over what the Lord has entrusted to me. Also, I need to allow others to do their job in the church. Let them be stewards over what God has entrusted to them. For example, Sister Wilson letting me choose the songs I want to teach and sing to the children.
Sarah and Abram having a child. “The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible”
Lot wasn’t all in. Faithfulness today gives faith for the future. He did what was expedient rather than morally accurate.
Report to the Lord the doings of each day.
True worship requires sacrifice. This makes sense since emulation is a form of worship.
Similar to Violet Kimball. Heber being tested.
Penelope’s son going to boarding school. 7 day hike, carrying canoes, taught him he was capable in a way she wouldn’t have been able to.
Story of man in car accident. If I would have died that night, would I have been able to tell the Lord, He was the priority of my life? Since then, His words, His scriptures became his top priority. He became his big rock to put in first. Put the Lord first and fast. Her invitation was to take unprecedented steps to live like Abraham.
Truman G. Madsen: Once I was in the valley known as Hebron, now beautifully fruitful and where tradition has it, there is a tomb to father Abraham. As I approached the place with Elder Hugh B. Brown, I asked, “What are the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” Elder Brown thought a moment and answered in one word, “Posterity.” Then I almost burst out, “Why, then was Abraham commanded to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity?” It was clear that this man, nearly ninety, had thought and prayed and wept over that question before. He finally said, “Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.”
You are aware that the record speaks of the incredible promise that Abraham after years of barrenness-which in some ways to the Israelites was the greatest curse of life-would sire a son who would in turn sire sons and become the father of nations. This came about after Abraham had left a culture where human sacrifice was performed. Abraham was then counseled, and if that is too weak a word, he was commanded to take this miracle son up to the mount.
We often identify with Abraham; we sometimes think less about what that meant to Sarah, the mother, and to Isaac, the son. If we can trust the Apocrypha, there are three details that the present narrative omits. First, Isaac was not a mere boy. He was a youth, a stripling youth on the verge of manhood. Second, Abraham did not keep from him, finally, the commandment or the source of the commandment. But having made the heavy journey, how heavy! He counseled with his son. Third, Isaac said in effect, “My father, if you alone had asked me to give my life for you, I would have been honored and would have given it. That both you and Jehovah ask only doubles my willingness.” It was at Isaac’s request that his arms were bound lest involuntarily, but spontaneously, he should resist the sinking of the knife. Only in the Book of Mormon, though many have assumed this, has a prophet said that this was in “similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).
As we later ascended the mount traditionally known as Mount Moriah-it is just inside the east wall of Jerusalem-we remembered a statement of Brother Ellis Rasmussen of BYU: one can believe that it was to that same mount that another Son ascended. And this time there was no ram in the thicket.
. But those who are Abraham’s descendants must also bear the responsibility of Abraham (See D&C 132:30-32).
We live in a time when everybody is willing to talk about rights, but it is rare to hear the words duty and responsibility. There never was a right, I submit, that did not have a corresponding duty. There never was a duty that did not also eventually entail a right.
We talk often as if the priesthood is solely a privilege. It is also a burden and many who have lived long in this Church know there are times, sometimes lengthy times, when the priesthood is much duty and very little right.
This leads to a statement allegedly made by the quotable J. Golden Kimball. Someone asked him how he accounted for the call of a certain brother to a certain position. He is supposed to have replied, “The Lord must have called him; no one else would have thought of him.”
