How were each of you called up here?
Selected by me, I know why each called up here for different reasons...
I have two brownies you can have the brownies today or more later... Allow them to choose...Why did you choose to wait?
Why did you choose to take now?
Is it hard to wait?
Did the vagueness of the promise at the end of waiting make it easier to eat now?
If there was no promise would you eat now?
What can we gather from this experiment?
Rank the following by the power they have, who has the most power top to bottom God, Man or Satan?
Why does man have more power?
How does Satan have more power?
Man�s Power D&C 10:5; Ephesians 6:10-13; Romans 8:35-39 Satans�s Power Moses 4:4; 2 Nephi 2:29; 28:22-23; Alma 34:35 Whether man�s power is greater than Satan�s depends on his willingness to bind himself to GodWhat does it mean Binding oneself to God?
D&C 130:20-21; 82:4-10; 54:3-6Why do you suppose that the Lord even gives covenants?
How does the Lord bind us to him?
CovenantsUr (modern day Tell al-Muqayyar), Abraham's "home town," is located in southern Iraq, 200-220 miles southeast of Baghdad, halfway to the Persian Gulf). The ruins of Ur were discovered and first excavated in 1854-55 by British consul J.E. Taylor. In Abraham's day, Ur was the wealthiest city in Mesopotamia, with a complex system of government and a well-developed system of commerce; trade routes joined Ur with other great towns to the north and the south. Writing was in common use (e.g., issuing of receipts, and making contracts). Schools trained people for religious, commercial, and governmental work. The curriculum included mathematics, language, geography, botany, and drawing. The city had streets, a drain system, two-story houses, a great temple tower (called a ziggurat), and various other evidences of a highly developed civilization.
Ur was sustained by a healthy agricultural system based on irrigation ditches from the river bank, stone ploughshares, and flint sickles. With this technology the Babylonians grew two crops each season.
In a typical house the street door opened into a small lobby, perhaps provided with a jar of water for those arriving to wash their feet. A doorway at one side led into a courtyard. There were other rooms around the sides of the courtyard, among them store-rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. In the kitchen there might be a well, a brick-built table, an oven, and grinding stones for making flour, as well as the pots and pans the last owners left behind. A long room at the center of one side could have been the reception room. In these houses there is usually a well-constructed staircase at one side of the courtyard. Arab houses built in recent times in the towns of Iraq follow almost the same plan.
Clay tablets left in the houses, some in small archive rooms, tell what the occupants of those houses were doing. Among them were merchants, local businessmen, priests and others in the service of the temple. Their records deal with the sale and purchase of houses and land, slaves and goods, with adoption, marriage and inheritance, and all the affairs of a busy city.
In a few houses there were many tablets of a much different nature. On round balls of clay, flattened to a bun shape, pupils had copied the teacher's handwriting in exercises to learn how to form the cuneiform signs. The teachers helped their pupils learn the old Sumerian language by using tables of verbs, and for arithmetic they had tables of square and cube roots and reciprocal numbers.
The Royal Tombs of Ur reflect the immense wealth of the city. Kings and queens drank from gold and silver beakers. For show, the kings wore daggers with golden blades, the queens exquisite jewelry of gold and colored stones.
What were the two reasons for Abraham getting out of town?
Abraham 1:5 My fathers having turned from their righteousness, and from the holy commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the worshiping of the gods of the heathen, utterly refused to hearken [ Hebrew "Shema" is translated here as hearken which means to "listen" and "obey". ] to my voice;
Abraham 1:1-4
1 In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence;
2 And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers [ What are the blessings of the Fathers? Priesthood and the blessings attendant to it], and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge [ Where do we learn that greater knowledge? The Temple], and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.
3 It was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, on the first man, who is Adam, or first father, through the fathers
unto me.
4 I sought for mine appointment unto the Priesthood according to the appointment of God unto the fathers concerning the seed.
What was the name of the Preisthood at this time?
In Abraham's time the Priesthood was officially the "Order after the son of God" (which was subsequently named the Melchizedek order so as to avoid profaning the name of God, cf. D&C 107:2-4) and appears to have had access to all keys. It is only with the Mosaic dispensation that keys start getting handed out piecemeal. so, if Abraham is obtaining his Priesthood from Melchizedeck (cf. D&C 84:14-15), and he is referring to it as the Patriarchal order, then the two titles were probably referring to the same thing. Only in a contemporary setting would the two titles be referring to two different sets of keys.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?
By leaving Ur, Abraham had to totally abandon all that was significant to him . Of course God rarely demands personal sacrifice without the compensation of even greater blessings. Abraham's move from Mesopotamia and his father's house probably meant losing his inheritance, but how much greater were the things which God promised! Abraham would, indeed, be leaving a land of large cities rich in material goods , but the LORD promised a new inheritance that would include another land. Even though Israel's possession of the land was threatened time and again, Israel never completely lost it. God's promise was sure and it was unconditional. Retaining the land did not depend on the might of Abraham or his descendants, but on the faithfulness of God who promised.
In the same way that we know God has not abandoned Abraham's physical descendants, so we can be assured that He will not abandon those who are Abraham's children "by faith." The promises He has made He will fulfill, because it is His character to do so.
Abraham left all this to become a dweller in tents, having no certain home, embarking upon a pilgrimage "in search of that city whose maker and builder was God" (Hebrews 11:10).
Why should we care about what promises were given to Abraham 1 few thousand years ago?
Because we become heirs to those blessings throught baptism and living righteously afterward.
What promises were included in the covenant God made with Abraham?
Here is the list:
1.A great nation was to come out of Abraham, namely, the nation of Israel (Genesis 12:2; 13:16; 15:5; 17:1-2, 7; 22:17b)
2.Abraham was promised a land -- specifically, the Land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1, 7; 13:14-15, 17; 15:17-21; 17:8). Later we learn that the privilege of Abraham's descendants, the Jewish people, for living in their land under God's blessing is conditioned upon their obedience
(see, for example, Deuteronomy 28-29). But whether the Jews are physically residing inside or outside of the land, or whether anyone else may control it by conquest or any other means, the land belongs to the Jewish people by divine right.
3.Abraham himself was to be greatly blessed (12:2b; 15:6; 22:15-17a)
4.Abraham's name would be great (12:2c)
5.Abraham will be a blessing to others (12:2d)
6.Those who bless will be blessed (12:3a)
7.The one who curses will be cursed (12:3b) -- again and again this principle is operative in the prophets as they pronounce judgment on the nations surrounding Israel for the treatment of
His chosen people.
8.In Abraham all the earth will ultimately be blessed, a promise of Gentile blessing (12:3c; 22:18)
9.Abraham would receive a son through his wife Sarah (15:1-4; 17:16-21)
10.His descendants would undergo the Egyptian bondage (15:13-14)
11.Other nations as well as Israel would come forth from Abraham (17:3-4, 6; the Arab states are some of these nations)
12.His name was to be changed from Abram to Abraham (17:5)
13.Sarai's name was to be changed to Sarah (17:15)
14.There was to be a token/sign of the covenant -- circumcision (17:9-14).
What are our responsibilities as heirs of these blessings?
Abraham 2:9,11
9 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations;
10 And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;
11 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.
Help all of God�s children receive the full blessings of the gospel.
Genesis 18:19
19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Obey God� commandments
What are some of the ways that we or you can discover the blessings and warnings in your patriarchial blessing?
POP QUIZWhat are the Three Grand Divisions of The Priesthood?
Aaronic Melchizedek Patriarical
Governing Unit Quorm Quorm Family
Commences through Ordained Ordained Marriage
What are the saving ordinances of the Gospel?
Baptism, Confirmation, Temple Marriage, Own Endowment, priesthood
What are the Non-saving ordinances of the gospel?
Blessings
Blessing of Sick, Patriarchial, Fathers, Baby
Cursing Blessing
Disfellowship, Washing of Feet, Excommunication
Ordinances of Consectration
Oil, Sacrament, Graves, Homes, Temples, Buildings
Which of those blessings require the Melchizedek priesthood?
Were there two high priests presiding at the time of Abraham?
Why is there not much said concerning Shem�s ministry?
Why don�t we know much about Melchizedek�s ancestry?
*********** END OF POP QUIZAre Shem and Melchizedek the same person?
Possible reason why they might be...
1) Shem was given as an inheritance the land of Salm..
2) Shem reigned in righteousness and the priesthood came through him, Melchizedek�s name means �King of righteousness�
3) Shem was the great high priest of his day. Abraham sought his blessings from the Great high priest Melchizedek
4) In the patriarchal order of the Priesthood Abraham stands next to Shem...but we know that he got the preiesthood from Melchizedek.
5) Jewish tradition identifies Shem as Melchizedek
6) In Joseph F. Smiths vision he names Shem amoung the great patriarchs, and doesn�t mention Melchizedek.
7) Times and Seasons Dec 15,1844 says Shem is Melchizedek.
WHAT PART DID OBEDIENCE PLAY IN THE COVENANT?
While enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant may be conditioned upon obedience, the fulfillment of the promises is not.Why does God choose Avraham Avinu?
Did he simply win a 'Divine lottery'?
Although one would expect that the Torah should provide the answer to such a fundamental question, it appears as though Sefer Breishit skirts the issue entirely. In contrast with Parshat Noach which immediately informs us WHY Noach is chosen - "for he was a righteous man..."(6:9), Parshat Lech L'cha never reveals the reason for God's choice of Avraham Avinu.
Page 71 The Land Promise Genesis 15:18; 17:8; Abraham 2:6 In Gensisi 12:7; 13:15; 17:8 the Lord promises Abraham that he will have the lane of Canaan or Palestine as an everlasting possession...Abraham never received as much as a foot as a possession so what did the Lord Mean?
Temporal Meaning
Time would come after the resurrection
Page 71 The Posterity Promise Genesis 17:4-6; Abraham 2:9; Abraham 3:14
Page 71 The Priesthood Promise Abraham 2:9-11; Abraham 1:18-19