by John P. Pratt
13 Jul 2021, Decision (PH,E), Posterity (S)
©2021 by John P. Pratt. All rights reserved.
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1. Adam and Eve 2. Abraham and Isaac 3. Judah and Tamar 4. Ruth and Naomi 5. Joseph and Mary 6. David and Bathsheba 7. Teachings of Jesus 8. Conclusion Notes |
The hero in some modern high-action movies is forced to choose between saving the entire earth from some outside danger, such as a collision with an asteroid, and saving a family member. He chooses to save his daughter first, putting love for family above all, and then luckily is also able to save the world as second priority. Is that what you would do? Should the love of family be put above all?
The LDS Church has placed a huge priority on the family. The teaching is that the family is paramount and that marriage in the temple should be one of the principal goals of life.[1] It is true that marriage is one of the highest temple ordinances, with a truly eternal marriage being required to enter the highest level of the celestial kingdom (D&C 131:1-3). That sounds wonderful and Mormons are famous for their work in genealogy, attempting to seal families together for eternity. But is it possible that Mormons have placed such an extreme importance of the family, that LDS members might even put the family above obeying commandments of God? Do they put as much time into knowing God for themselves as they do temple work for their dead? What if one must choose between obeying God and family?
This article gives several examples throughout the Bible where a person needed to decide between God and some family member. In every case, the correct response was to choose God above all, even in spite of the wishes or acceptance of other family members.
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How could Adam choose to stay in the garden alone, when his wife would be driven out into the lone and dreary world, attempting to fend for herself? If he truly loved her, surely he should go with her! After all, Adam was also told to stay with her (Gen. 3:12) and to multiply and fill the earth with their posterity (Gen. 1:28). Surely, he should put her and keeping those commandments as a top priority! Right? Or not?
Adam was faced with the archetypal decision which is the topic of this article. He was faced with the decision of choosing between keeping God's commandment and staying with his wife.[2] He chose to stay with his wife above keeping the commandment of God, and hence, that choice led to the "Fall of Adam".
Note that there is no record in the Bible that God ever told Eve not to partake of the forbidden fruit. Adam received that commandment, given to him only, before she was physically created (Gen. 3:16-18), so apparently Adam told her to avoid eating that fruit. If so, then Eve only broke her husband's commandment, which may be the reason we do not speak of the "Fall of Eve".[3]
The Lord judged both Adam and Eve, and both received punishments for having broken commandments. There is no hint in the Bible that Adam did the right thing by choosing to break God's commandment. His transgression led to the fall of all mankind and the world we are now in. Of course, God knew what Eve would choose, and it would actually have foiled the Plan of Salvation if she had not done so, but that is not the point here. That speaks more of God's foreknowledge that it would all turn out as He wanted in the end.
Adam was faced with the decision of choosing between God's commandment and his wife's recommendation, and he chose poorly. Again, in the LDS Church it is often taught or implied that Adam made the right choice, because it led to the fulfillment of God's plan. But after all, God's plan is called the "Plan of Salvation", meaning it is designed for the "salvation" of mankind from the Fall of Adam. In other words, Adam's transgression led to there needing to exist a plan to save his posterity from being forever out of the presence of God and ending up subject to Satan (Mosiah 3:11, Helaman 14:16)!
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Why was Abraham commanded to do make such a huge sacrifice? Whatever the purpose was, one result was the teaching of the clear lesson that above all, it is important to obey God. The sacrifice was in similitude of how Heavenly Father would someday sacrifice his beloved Son, also His Only Begotten.
There is a little known story in the Bible about Tamar, whom Judah arranged to marry his firstborn son. Tamar is one of five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ recorded by Matthew: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and the Virgin Mary. Why were these women mentioned, whereas Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah are not? Each of them has a story wherein she stood up for what she believed to be right, even knowing it would bring criticism, rejection, and accusations of wrong doing. Whereas Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah were already known to be righteous matriarchs, perhaps Matthew wanted to commemorate these other women too. Consider Tamar.
Chapter 38 of Genesis is devoted to a very interesting account, often skipped over in Bible study classes. The 12 sons of Jacob (Israel) knew their fathers had gone to great lengths to marry within the chosen lineage of his ancestors. Some of these sons, however, failed to follow that example, and married some of the local Canaanites. One example is Judah, who had his three sons Er, Onan, and Shelah by the daughter of a Canaanite (Gen. 38:2-5).
When it came time for his son Er to marry, Judah might have repented of having married outside of the seed of Shem, because he chose for his son a descendant of Elam[4], the firstborn of Shem (Gen. 10:22), who founded the country of Persia (called "Elam" in the Old Testament). Thus, the stage was set for Judah to have royal descendants because the Messiah would be a descendant of Judah (Gen. 49:8,10).
But alas, Er acted wickedly, so the Lord killed him (Gen. 10:22). Thus, it fell to Onan, the next son, to father one son with Tamar for his deceased brother Er (Gen. 38:8), according to what would later be called the Levirite law (Deut. 25:5). But Onan refused to father a son for his brother, so the Lord killed him also (Gen. 38:9-10).
At this point, Judah sent Tamar back to live with her father, promising that she would be for his last son, Shelah, when he became of age. But Judah feared for the life of Shelah because Tamar appeared to be the kiss of death, so he never called for Tamar to return.
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When Tamar was about three months pregnant, word got out that she had been a harlot, so Judah demanded that she be burned to death for this sin. When she had the chance, she showed Judah his own staff and signet ring, which she had kept, proving that he himself was the father. He acknowledged that she was more righteous than he, and forgave her (Gen. 38:25-26). While it is almost universally understood that she broke a law of chasity, actually she was fulfilling her own version of the levirite law: if the brothers of her husband would not give her son for inheritance, then she would go to their next of kin, their father!
Tamar begat twins, Pharez and Zerah, through whom the kingly lineage would descend. The royal line was kept pure because of the courage of this woman, knowing that the penalty for her actions might be death. Thus, the Lord included this entire story of her valiant actions in one entire chapter of Genesis: she went against her family and customs and even appeared to be sinning in order to obey the law of God as best she could! Whether or not she knew it, she was providing a chosen lineage for Judah, from whom countless kings of nations would proceed!
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Ruth was a Moabite, being a descendant of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. The Moabites were looked down upon as being second class citizens, not having descended through the chosen lineage of Abraham himself, but from his brother Nahor. When there was a famine in Israel, a woman named Naomi left Israel with her family to live in Moab, where there was food. One of her sons married the local Moabite Ruth.
Then the famine became severe in Moab, resulting in the deaths of her husband and both of her sons. Both of Naomi's daughters-in-law survived. With no means of support, Naomi decided to return to Israel to live with relatives there. Her daughter-in-law Orpah chose to stay in Moab and live with her kin, and return to the worship of the gods of the Moabites, but Ruth had been truly converted to worship the God of Israel.
In the end, Ruth chose to continue worshiping the true God, leave all of her kindred in Moab, and go with Naomi to live in Israel. Ruth knew that she would be shunned in Israel, just for being a Moabite, and might not be able to remarry at all. Thus, we have another example of Ruth leaving her kindred to worship God, in spite of persecution.
The happy ending is that when in Israel, she got to marry Boaz, who was near kin to Naomi. Ruth was blessed to become the great-grandmother of the future King David. Thus, perhaps for her courage and tenacity, she is mentioned by name in Matthew's genealogy of the Savior. And, of course, there is an entire book in the Bible named for her!
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The Virgin Mary was betrothed to Joseph, which was a commitment as binding as marriage in the promising of oneself to keep sexually pure for each other until they were married.[5] Then the angel of God announced to Mary that she had been chosen to become the mother of the Son of God, meaning that the child would literally be His son. Although she knew that if she were to be obviously expecting a child before she and Joseph were lawfully married, it would not only be scandalous, but could also lead to her being executed for infidelity, she accepted the higher calling which came directly from God.
One can ask why it did not happen that the visit of the angel did not occur after her marriage, which would have saved her a lot of grief. While that may be true, it might also leave Joseph, and all future Bible readers, not knowing exactly who the father of the child was. As it was, Joseph knew the child was not his. For whatever reason, Mary was required to choose between the traditions of the day about betrothal and accepting the words of the angel. According to Luke's account, which he clearly received from Mary herself, she immediately and willingly accepted the assignment with the words, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38).
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The Biblical story is well known: King David coveted another man's wife and went to such an extreme to win her that he secretly had her husband killed to fulfill his personal desires. This account does not involve angels or any "higher laws" of God. It is simply another example of what is so prevalent today, when adultery is sometimes referred to in common parlance as an "indiscretion". One of the Ten Commandments is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exo. 20:14).
Thus, this is a clear cut example of choosing between keeping the commandment of God and one's desires for their own personal family.
What about Bathsheba? How much of the sin can be attributed to her? One clue that she was an innocent victim in being taken to wife by the king is that she is one of the five women listed in Matthew's genealogy of Christ (Mat. 1:6). All of those women appear to be noble and worthy of inclusion. Moreover, another evidence that she herself was approved is that she was chosen to become the mother of King Solomon.
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Here's a gospel quiz question: what is the context of the parable of the man who built the tower and did not count the cost? Do you remember that one? Jesus asked his followers:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. — Luke 14:28-30.
What is the point of those questions? What is the lesson being taught? What is the tower which we should not try to build unless we first count the cost, because otherwise it would be foolish to start?
(Think about it. . . . )
Okay, time's up! The context of that parable or analogy is that before one decides to become a follower of Jesus Christ, one should carefully count the cost, because otherwise it could be a costly mistake which would cause huge losses!
So what is the cost of becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ? The cost may include giving up family members, houses, farms, and worldly goods (Mat. 19:21). If someone gives up some or all of those things for Jesus, but then is unwilling to stay the course, it might have been a foolish choice. Here are His words, which precede those questions about building a tower:
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. — Luke 14:26-27.
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Consider thinking about it this way. There are two principal titles most used to refer to Jesus: "Savior" and "Lord". Most good people want the "Savior" to pay for their sins, save them from Satan, and from death being permanent. So they sign up to be a "Christian".[7] Then Jesus, as "Lord", says, "Follow me", so the new disciple begins to follow Him. Then the neophyte believer asks, "Where are we going?" Jesus replies, "We are going to be crucified." Suddenly the new believer realizes that he did not count the cost of becoming a disciple, and now he has lost his family, who have rejected him when he began to truly follow Jesus in actions, and not just in name only. Jesus was saying that it would have been wiser not to become totally committed to Christ without counting the cost first!
Again, notice that in this instance Jesus did not mention leaving material things, as he did other times, such as leaving a house (Mark 10:29-30), but he actually said that no one can be His disciple without putting Jesus ahead of his parents, wife, siblings or children! That is the cost of becoming a disciple of Jesus! What better scriptural evidence of the necessity to choose God above family!
There are several stories in the Bible which illustrate the importance of choosing to obey God above all else, including considerations of love for the family. All of these accounts support the teachings of Jesus that in order to be His disciple, one must put Him above parents, spouse, siblings and children. True disciples of Christ are given tests which require great sacrifices, in order to prove their faithfulness to God.