Land of our inheritance -- Part 1

Reading the Bible cover to cover during 2022, I have just finished the five Books of Moses or the Torah as the Jews would say. Torah means instruction and it is a fitting name. Reading these books also makes it very clear that the instructions are given in a covenant setting. The language often resembles other Near Eastern treaties that have survived to this day. Covenants were an integral part of society. On this blog we have identified and discussed several covenant terms. "Land of our/his/her/their inheritance" is another one of those. The Hebrew words, yeresh and yereshah mean to inherit/possess and possession, respectively. It is very likely that the name, Jershon in the Book of Alma is derived from this root, with the suffix -on denoting a place name according to Ricks and Tvedtnes. I will get back to that.

The first use of this Hebrew word in the Bible is in Genesis 15 where the Abrahamic covenant is established. Interestingly, the word yeresh (inherit/possess) is used both about his promised heir (as in "son") and the land that he is granted as inheritance for his posterity, two "yeresh" aspects of the same covenant. Later, the terms is used very frequently during the Exodus and upon entering into the promised land. This is the fulfillment of the promise given to their father, Abraham. The land promised as their inheritance by covenant is not just any land. It is:

• A land "flowing with milk and honey". This was language that would invoke the image of a prosperous land. (See e.g. Exodus 20:6, Leviticus 20:24, Deuteronomy 26:9)
• A land of rest. The Hebrew word, nuach, that we have written about on this blog extensively, is often used to describe the promised land. (See e.g. Numbers 10:33, Deuteronomy 3:20, Deuteronomy 28:64-65, Joshua 1:13)
• A land where they have to sanctify themselves to enter into and that they are obliged to keep undefiled. Most of Deuteronomy is Moses' sermon to the Israelites with covenant conditions and instructions before they enter into the promised land. The expression "purge the evil from your midst/Israel" is used 10 times in that sermon (e.g. in Deuteronomy 13:5, 17:7, 19:19)

I will not go into the details of each bullet point, but make a note on the second before focusing on the third. One of the scriptures listed in the second bullet point differs a bit from the others that describe the promised land as a place of rest for Israel. Deuteronomy 28:64-65 contrasts that with the unrest that Israel will experience when they break the covenant and are scattered among other nations. By the way, Lord Wilmore just posted about another prophecy of the scattering of Israel in Deuteronomy. 

64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind (Deuteronomy 28)

You can only find rest when worshiping Yahweh in the promised land, and not by worshiping idols among other nations. The phrasing is a bit different in English, but in Hebrew the bold part "rest for the sole of your foot" is exactly the same as in Genesis 8:9 where Noah sent out the dove. The wording is so specific that I wonder if this parallel is intentional. Perhaps the intention would be to compare the worship of idols in foreign lands with the chaos that water represents that gives no rest as long as it covers the earth. Separating water from land is the creation motif that we find in Exodus as they set out on the journey to the promised land crossing the red sea and again in Joshua when they cross the river Jordan to enter into the promised land of rest.

Regarding the third bullet point, when reading about the tabernacle in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, I notice what can almost be characterized as an obsession with creating and preserving sacred space. The same seems to be the case for the promised land in Deuteronomy with the repeated admonition to purge the evil from their midst, and make absolutely sure to not defile the promised land by breaking the commandments. The promised land acts as a giant tabernacle of sorts, a pure, undefiled place of rest, where God dwells, even though God cannot find complete rest there until the temple is built. The need to purge the land from evil leads to drastic measures. This was meant to show the Israelites that 

this is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life (Deuteronomy 32:47, NRSV translation)

As a result, the imagery and language may seem a bit over the top to the modern Westerner, like this passage in Deuteronomy 13, explaining what to do if the people of a city start worshiping idols:

15 you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it— even putting its livestock to the sword. 16 All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt. 17 Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so that the LORD may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors (Deuteronomy 13, NRSV translation)

I still find it very interesting, though. The defiled city in the promised land shall be burnt as a burnt offering to the Lord, as would usually be done in the tabernacle. Like the priests in the tabernacle, who literally could not touch anything unclean (like a corpse), the people in the promised land should not let anything devoted to destruction stick to their hand. Here is another scripture drawing parallels between the promised land and the tabernacle.

33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.

34 Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. (Numbers 35)

This is getting too long for one post, so I will get to the Book of Mormon and more about the Hebrew yeresh in the next part. But to briefly summarize this part, the land of inheritance has a covenant connotation in the scriptures. It is a land of (covenant) promise and must be kept pure and undefiled, reserved for a nation who is holy as God is.

Laman and Lemuel as faithful Deuteronomists

In my last post, I introduced the concept of a mantic worldview (one which embraces a heavenly order and revelation from God through spiritual communication and prophets) and a sophic worldview (an intellectual, materialist worldview that denies the existence of heavenly things).

This contrast shows up throughout human history, including in the Book of Mormon. This post will be the first in a cluster of posts on this topic and how it shows up in many ways throughout the history of the Nephites.

Today we'll look at Laman and Lemuel.  The modern reader might be tempted to envision Nephi's older brothers as lazy, heathen, fickle, or just plain wicked. Why did they choose to follow their father yet criticize him every step of the way?  Why did they constantly try to kill their younger brother Nephi?

A new paper by Val Larsen suggests a different motivation for Laman and Lemuel's actions. He suggests they were faithful adherents to the reformed religion of Josiah which dominated Jerusalem at the time of Lehi. He suggests that viewing the brothers through this lens best explains their seemingly inconsistent and often aggressive actions towards Nephi and Lehi.

An overview of Josiah's reforms

To get a better sense of the impact Josiah's reforms had on the culture of the day, Larsen offers some details about the step Josiah took to consolidate religious practice (and consequently political power):

1. Eliminating the concept of a council of Gods ("Elohim ... Asherah ... [and] seventy sons who ruled the nations of the earth, the son Yahweh being the God of Israel" who resided both in the temple and in heaven) in favor of monotheistic worship of Yahweh.
2. Removing symbols of Asherah (including the tree/menorah) from the temple and the Mount of Olives.
3. Denying the corporeal nature of God in favor of an imperceptible, intangible God.
4. Emphasizing  strict adherence to the Law of Moses.
5. Declaring the written law to be complete and unchangeable.
6. Outlawing all forms of prophecy. ("Prophecy could be accepted as prophecy only after it was no longer prophecy, i.e., only after unfolding events had proved it to be true (Deuteronomy 13:1–3; 18:21–22).
7. Requiring the people to kill anyone who came to them as a prophet.
8. Banning all forms of sacrifice and ritual worship outside of the Jerusalem temple.

History repeats itself

As I look at this list, I see similar trends occurring after the time of Christ.  It's as if each period of restoration is inevitable followed by a drift from the mantic to the sophic. We can even see evidence of it in the church today, despite the urgings from our leaders to seek personal revelation and come to know God directly, worship Him more diligently in our homes, etc.

Lehi as a mantic restorer

What I also see is a good explanation for Lehi's concern for his people at the very beginning of the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 1:5). Lehi would have descended from the Northern Kingdom tradition, which (according to this paper) embraced prophetic dreams, the ministry of angels, imagery of the Tree of Life, and the Bronze Serpent tradition. Each of Josiah's reforms would have struck at the heart of this Northern Kingdom tradition.

Of course what follows in 1 Nephi 1 is a heavy endorsement of the mantic worldview: Lehi is blessed with a vision of "he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God" (1 Nephi 1:8).  Later, he sees Jesus Christ descending and given a prophetic charge to minister to the people and cry repentance.  When that fails (the people try to kill him), he is commanded to flee the city with his family.

Laman and Lemuel

This leads us to Laman and Lemuel, who as Deuteronomist sophists would have simultaneously been required to obey him (Deuteronomy 5:16) and kill him (Deuteronomy 13:1-10;18:20)!

Here are a few additional points of evidence cited by Larsen in favor of his view of Laman and Lemuel as Deuteronomists:

• They first rebel after their father builds an alter outside of Jerusalem.
• They complain their father is a visionary man.
• Nephi describes his brothers as "like the Jews at Jerusalem, who sought to take away the life of my father” (1 Nephi 2:13).
• They ignore the sign of the angel after beating their younger brothers.
• They later rebel as they leave Jerusalem the final time, after Nephi rebukes them sharply, in accordance with Deuteronomy 13:5.
• They refuse to come to the Tree of Life in Lehi's dream.
• Nephi persuades them to help build the ship by invoking the example of Moses.

Conclusion

This is a fascinating idea, and I find it pretty compelling. It is very interesting to me how neatly this story found in the opening of the Book of Mormon fits a historical context only recently pieced together by scholars.

Sadly, the battle between these two ideologies does not end when the family crosses the ocean.  We see evidence of these same struggles happening repeatedly through Nephite history, as we'll discuss in future posts.

Cleave

After reading the admonition to Emma Smith in D&C 25:13 to cleave unto the covenants that she had made, I decided to study how this term, 'cleave', is used in the scriptures. 

It first appears in Genesis 2:24

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The English term in this verse will of course depend on the translation. The Hebrew root is דָּבַק (dabaq), meaning to cling to, cleave or keep close. This same word is frequently used to describe the relationship between the Lord and his covenant people.

Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. (Deuteronomy 13:4)

This is one of many admonitions to cleave to the Lord in the Old Testament, especially in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. The cleaving also goes both ways. The relationship between the Lord and his covenant people is sometimes using the marriage imagery. Just like the man shall cleave unto his wife, the Lord cleaves unto his bride, Israel, and asks her for the same in return. Let's have a look at some interesting uses of this word in the Book of Mormon.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts. (Jacob 6:5)

The term is usually found in a covenant setting in the Book of Mormon too. In Jacob 6, Jacob is commenting on the parable of Zenos and the fate of the House of Israel. The Master of the Vineyard is extending his arm of mercy towards the House of Israel and we should cleave unto him like a branch to a tree.

Another use of the terms shows up in Moroni 7. Lord Wilmore and I have both previously written about "every good thing" in this chapter and connected it to covenants, the atonement and ministering of angels. (See for instance here and here). Repeatedly, Mormon asks us to "lay hold upon every good thing". But in verse 28 he shifts the phrasing a little bit

For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens.

There is a lot to unpack here so I think I will save my comments on this for a later post.

3 Nephi 10:9-10 is another interesting one:

And it came to pass that thus did the three days pass away. And it was in the morning, and the darkness dispersed from off the face of the land, and the earth did cease to tremble, and the rocks did cease to rend, and the dreadful groanings did cease, and all the tumultuous noises did pass away. And the earth did cleave together again, that it stood. 

And the mourning, and the weeping, and the wailing of the people who were spared alive did cease; and their mourning was turned into joy, and their lamentations into the praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord Jesus Christ, their Redeemer.

I removed the verse numbering and split it up a bit differently on purpose. Keep in mind that the original Book of Mormon text did not have verses. The first paragraph describes a transition of the earth. Darkness, trembling, rending, groanings and tumultuous noises cease. It culminates in the earth cleaving together again.

The second paragraph describes a transition of the people. Weeping, wailing, mourning and lamentation turns into joy, praise and thanksgiving. There is a resonance between the earth and the people. Lord Wilmore has previously posted about another aspect of this resonance in conjunction with the destruction before Christ's visit to the Nephites. 

The transition happens when the earth cleaves together. Mormon uses the same word (at least the English translation does) that is typically used to describe a bond between people or between man and God in a covenant relation. I know I have quoted this paper many times before, but it is also highly relevant in this context.

The Bible is full of words that describe the creation as a web of life, the role of human beings in guarding and preserving it, and why things went wrong...These bonds of creation formed the great covenant - the word means binding together - and as long as the bonds of the covenant remained in place, people could live in peace and prosperity. The bonds were called the covenant of peace, or the covenant of life and peace (Numbers 25.12; Malachi 2.5). ...The Servants of the LORD had to maintain the covenant of peace. When it was threatened or damaged, they had to do whatever was necessary to restore it. And here we come to the word that forms the title of this talk; righteousness, tsedaqah. Righteousness describes both the action needed to restore the broken covenant, and also the result of that action. Righteous people had been restored to their intended place in the creation, and they then had to work to restore other parts of the covenant system. Righteousness meant the activity of making righteous, protecting and maintaining the covenant.

The events in 3 Nephi 8-10, make much sense with this backdrop. Prior to these chapters, there is much wickedness. The earth responds with huge natural disasters and is certainly not at rest. The wicked are destroyed and the earth eventually restored to a peaceful state, cleaving together. As a parallel event, the people who remain turn from a state of unrest and sorrow to joy. After Mormon has described these parallel events, he goes on to say:

And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved (3 Nephi 10:12)

Just like the earth cleaved together, righteous people will cleave to their God and maintain the bonds of creation. This was the way to restore the harmony and prepare for his coming to the Nephites in the next chapter. Similarly, we need to be righteous and cleave to our covenants and our God to prepare for His second coming.