If you want the music that is stuck in my head occasionally, you can listen to any of the Liken the Scriptures song (like this one, or my favorite one). The basic idea behind these movies is that you can takes stories from hundreds of years ago, and the teachings associated with them apply to us today. I'm going to try a version of that today.
We read through Numbers, chapter 16 from the Old Testament in my institute class recently. It struck me how much the dialog of 4000 years ago matches the dialog going on today.
I won't claim to understand everything in the Ordain Women (OW) movement, nor to be a master scriptorian or theologian, but here is the version of Numbers 16 that I would say I see happening today:
Chapter 16
1 Now [April Young Bennett, Debra Jenson, Kate Kelly, and Hannah Wheelwright of the Ordain Women movement] took men:
2 And they rose up before [President Monson], with certain of the children of [God], two hundred and fifty [bloggers and women] of renown:
3 And they gathered themselves together against [President Monson] and against [their priesthood leaders], and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the [women] are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the [women of the church]?
4 And when [President Monson] heard it, he fell upon his face:
5 And he spake unto [OW] and unto all [their] company, saying...
7 ... and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye [daughters of God in the OW movement].
8 And [President Monson] said unto [OW], Hear, I pray you, ye [leaders of the OW movement]:
9 Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath [given you the responsibility of motherhood, of governing beside your husbands and building a righteous home]?
10 And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy [sisters, the daughters of God] with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also?
11 For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is [your priesthood leader], that ye murmur against him?
I tried to change as little of this dialog as I could. You can double check the original text too. Like I said earlier, I was struck by how similar the case that Korah and his supporters was to the case that OW is making today.
As a quick summary of the rest of the story, Moses tells the leaders of the movement to stand in front of their tents, and the 250 others to come stand before the Lord. The leaders are swallowed up in the earth with their whole families, and the 250 others are consumed with fire from heaven.
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| Epic bible painting! |
I thought it was interesting that in the letter sent to the OW movement the church spokeswoman asked them to stand in specific areas: the "free speech zones adjacent to Temple Square". Now, I'm not predicting that the Lord is going to cause a localized earthquake to swallow these leaders up or send fire down from heaven to consume them, but I do feel like we've got a lot of parallels in the situations.
Maybe I'm going too far. Maybe I am trying too hard to see parallels as I "liken the scriptures", but I take strength from the end of chapter 16. The children of Israel complain that Moses was too harsh on those who were simply asking for the priesthood. God's response is to send a plague which kills 14,700 of the people. Got made it very clear that Moses wasn't being power hungry and denying the Levites the priesthood so that he could keep it all for himself. Moses had been chosen by God, and was acting in the organized way that God had defined. Maybe my interpretation is too far. But then again, if it isn't, I definitely know which side of the story I want to be on.
