followHIM - Proverbs & Ecclesiastes • Part 2: Dr. Lincoln Blumell

Episode Date: August 27, 2022

Dr. Lincoln Blumell continues to examine wisdom, the light of Christ, and how knowledge has been given to various men and women throughout the ages.Please rate and review the podcast!Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the follow HIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers, SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-h

Welcome to Part 2 of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes with Dr. Lincoln Blumell. Again, kind of focusing on relying on the Lord. Verse 26, Lord shall be thy confidence. Well, that could actually, the word is trust. Kind of going back to the Lord is thy trust. And so kind of hearkening back to what we saw in 3. And really keep your foot from being taken. As you get into 4, what you're getting here, it says don't just just know wisdom but really love what wisdom is and so you really seek it and then when you get into you know

four verses you know 10 to 19 it's really like well there's there's two paths there's the path of the wicked there's the path of the just and saying stay on the path of the just or the righteous i can't think of scriptures this idea of two paths, one Nephi, or you think of the Sermon on the Mount, choose the right path and stay on that one. Because it's very easy to divert from. So it gives you counsel on how not to divert from that path. Perfect. I think what we're talking about here can be illustrated in so many lives, that Latter-day Saints and non-Latter-day Saints go through something horrifically difficult, but continue to trust in the Lord. They stay on the path that both of you talked about.

This is a story from President Monson, April 2009. The talk was called Be of Good Cheer. He talks about a woman who went through World War II, March of 1946, less than a year after the end of the war. Then Elder Ezra Taft Benson visits Germany, and he meets a woman who bears this testimony. President Monson tells her story. She and her husband lived an idyllic life in East Prussia. Then had come the war. Her beloved young husband was killed. She's driven from her home. The journey was over a thousand miles on foot. As the days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the temperatures dropped below freezing. She stumbled over frozen ground.

Her smallest child, a baby in her arms, her three other children struggled behind her, the oldest just seven years old, pulling a tiny wooden wagon. Then the snows came, and one by one, the unthinkable happened. The tiny forms of her children, all four of them, go cold and still. It says her despair was all-consuming. In this moment of overwhelming sorrow and complete bewilderment, she felt her heart would literally break. In despair, she contemplated how she might end her own life. And then as these thoughts assailed her, something within her said, get down on your knees and pray. She ignored the prompting until she could resist it no longer. She knelt and prayed more fervently than she had in her entire And then this is the prayer. overwhelming gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of thy son, Jesus Christ. I cannot express

adequately my love for him. I know that because he suffered and died, I shall live again with my family, that because he broke the chains of death, I shall see my children again and will have joy and will have the joy of raising them, though I do not at this moment wish to live. Let me say that again because it's so good. Though I do not at this moment wish to live, I will do so, that we may be reunited as a family and return together to thee. It says when she finally reaches a city in Germany where she can stay, she was literally in the advanced stages of starvation. And yet she stands in a church meeting and bears a glorious testimony. That is the epitome of what we've talked about here. Trust in the Lord with

all thine heart, get on the covenant path and stay there. Hank, we were as a family the other night watching a church produced video more recent called the recent, called The Refiner's Fire, about a woman, I believe her name was Kim Martin, who lost her whole family. Just super inspired by it, but also just thinking, wow, that power of trusting. We kind of watch a story like that or hear a story like that and think, boy, I hope I have that in me. I hope I have that in me. I like that, John. That kind of trust. I don't know for sure.

This ties in well with 4 verse 25, where it talks about this path of the righteous. And you get to 25, it says, let thine eyes look right on. But I think a better rendering translation should be, let your eyes look forward. And let thine eyelids look straight before thee. So, focus ahead, look forward. Whether you think of the tree of life, the Book of Mormon, keeping your focus, not everything that's going on, the building, everything else, focused on the tree, right?

The iron rod. I think of this idea of keeping your eyes forward. I think of Peter when he's walking on the water for a time with the Savior in Matthew 14. He diverts his glance, start looking at the waves and everything that's going on, and then starts to sink. You go this path and look forward. Don't look to the side, keep moving forward. Love it. There's this, verse 18 reminds me of one of my favorite verses in all of scripture. The path of the just that you just said, Lincoln, is as the shining light that

shineth more and more until the perfect day. Doesn't that remind you of section 50, verse 24? That which is of God is light, and he that receiveth light and continueth in God. That sounds the same as that idea of the stay on the path. And continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. It's one of those that I thought, wow, I thought that would probably be footnoted there because they're so close, but it isn't. But that's one of my favorite verses. I have probably like you, Hank, and you, Lincoln, like a hundred favorite verses. No, this one's my favorite.

Today. Today, that one's my favorite. It's my favorite. That idea of light growing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day in Proverbs. And you think of the perfect day here, the Hebrew is like the full day, or when all the light's out noon, when it's totally bright, and then the light is overwhelming. You can see everything. This is one of those come follow me lessons that you really need to sit down, you and your scriptures and a pen and really just find what speaks to you. Lincoln, what do you want to focus on next? answer or response turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. And so kind of the disposition one ought to have, right? Be thoughtful in how you speak. The wise do this. Be gentle. Lincoln, President Hinckley liked this same verse. This is a talk called

Cornerstones of a Happy Home. And one of the cornerstones he gives is the soft answer. He said, the writer of Proverbs long ago declared a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up to anger. I hear so many complaints from men and women that they cannot communicate with one another. Perhaps I am naive, but I do not understand this. Communication is essentially a matter of conversation. They must have communicated when they were courting. Can they not continue to speak together after marriage? Can they not discuss with one another in open and frank and candid and happy way their interests, their problems, their challenges, and their desires? He goes on.

He says, there is need for much discipline in marriage, not of one's companion, but of oneself. Husbands, wives, remember, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. He quotes another proverb there. Cultivate the art of the soft answer. Isn't that just a great phrase? Cultivate the art of the soft answer. It will bless your homes. It will bless your lives. It will bless your companionships. It will bless your children. I think as a father, probably the times in my life where I've felt the worst about my parenting is when I didn't have a soft answer. I wasn't gentle, as you said, Lincoln.

You kind of correlate 1 and 18. And this is also picked up again in James, where he talks about, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. But again, the Greek word, there's actually anger. Slow to anger, but swift in hearing. I sometimes hear, well, we have two ears, so should listen twice as much as we speak with one mouth. I won't even share with you guys the embarrassing way my mouth has gotten me into trouble over the years. Not listening, but speaking, or maybe thinking after I speak. You ever gotten those out of order, spoken, and then thought about it? And when you should probably think about it, then speak.

Oh, that's funny. People sometimes say, oh, don't worry about that person. They don't have a filter. And maybe it's just a break, not a filter, but just something that slows us down before we answer so quickly. But I've just always loved verse 17, better is a dinner of herbs where love is, and this kind of is a contention type of thing, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. And so, stalled ox must be the steak and potatoes of that day, right?

Compared with the salad. So, it's better to have a salad with someone you love than a than a nice steak with someone you ate or someone who ate you yeah these are some of those that as a kid we enjoyed and laughed at even i'd have a salad with you john so did the ancients just keep a like a quote book i mean did they say my grandma used say, and then they wrote it down? Because some of these, they don't seem to fit together. They're just a quote after a quote after a quote. You kind of wonder, you have this book of proverbial wisdom.

When we get into 16 and really into 22, 16, what you're going to find is they may be more arranged around here. Kind of what they call tradition is the Royal section of the Proverbs that has to do more with like court values and settings. Like we'll get here in a few verses and it will talk in 10, 15 about Kings. You will have some thematic units, but yeah, some of the organizing principles, not always discernible.

Yeah. I was going to say, it does feel that way that sometimes you're just getting a quote after a quote after quote, they're wonderful, but you're like, what's going to happen next? There's not much of a storyline when it comes to Proverbs. This is more, you could search it and find the thought for the day. Well, I guess we're in a 16, better is wisdom than gold, which we've seen.

Some of these kind of repeat acquisition back in three. I do think 18 is a good warning. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. And just a warning. This would be a time to go read President Benson's talk on pride. I remember as a missionary, I read that frequently. I probably should read it more as I'm getting older. There's a funny story of President Hinckley with a man who thought himself was a pretty good speaker. I think of this one often because it happens to me. He thought he was a pretty good speaker and he went

up and he just kind of fumbled his way through his talk and he sat down all sad and disappointed in himself. I don't know if this is true or not. If it's not true, it should be. Apparently, President Hinckley said to him, if you'd gone up the way you came down, you would have come down the way you went up. So, if you would have gone up humble, you would have come down happy. You went up thinking you were great, and you came down thinking you weren't so great. That's a proverb of President Hinckley. We're getting to the point now where kind of in a way, we can see some repeating. So, for 20, trusting in the Lord, that person is happy. 25, there's some roads again, the roads of life, the road of death.

32, slow to anger. We just talked about that a moment ago. I do like 31, a hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness. Or gray hair. Is that what that hoary is, a gray head? Yeah, gray hair. And so you're older. Ideally, you should have obtained wisdom. A gray head is a crown of glory. How many of our listeners need to mark that one? Proverbs 16, 31. The hoary head, the gray head is a crown

of glory. John, do you have any gray? Yeah, my temples. I think that's what they call them, right? I liked 1717. A friend loveth at all times. I've had friends like that who have been there for me in dark times, who have come through for me. I could start naming them, but I'd forget some. Man, a friend loveth at all times. It's a great one. I got to go back to 1632. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And then the parallelism, he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. And it's kind of that, are you in control? Kind of a self, what would you call it?

A self-discipline thing? Self-control, self-discipline. Yeah. Yeah. It's better than someone who can take a city, but you've got control of your own spirit. That is good stuff. Lincoln, you've mentioned a couple of times here that you want to get to Proverbs 22. Let's jump in there.

What do you want us to see? A few things in here. I think the first verse, obviously, really important. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. This idea of having a name or your reputation. Your reputation is valuable. Having incredibly valuable. And here it's kind of contrasting between what the wise do and what the fools do here in the first 16 verses.

So the wise, well, they have a good reputation. They have a good name. The wise will have a good reputation. They'll care about that. It matters to them. Four, by humility and fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. It comes through, right? Putting the Lord first, your priorities.

Seek ye first the kingdom of his God. And all these things shall be added to you. The Lord says, focus on your priorities. Seek ye first. That's Jacob 2, isn't it? I was thinking of the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah. Matthew 6, then.

Yeah, you have it over in the Book of Mormon also. But you start with that, right? Your priorities. In this case, the number one priority is fear of the Lord. It all starts with there.

You have reverence and now you move from there. And we've talked about six already, you know, training up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he will not depart from it, right?

I think probability's here. Wise words, right? To work with your children, to love them, to educate them. And I think here you'd. Wise words, right? To work with your children, to love them, to educate them. And I think here you'd say chastise them when need be. No. Correct them.

If you love them, you chastise them. Yes. Yeah. Lincoln, I don't think the author wants us to judge other parents with chapter 22, verse 6. Train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not depart from it. So I look at John and one of his children, let's say, isn't following the gospel path. I don't think the writer of Proverbs wants me to look at others and say, well, they must have not have done it well, right, as a parent.

No, no. I think it's probabilities. You do this and probability will, hopefully, you'll have a good outcome. And of course, in scripture, right, Lehi. I can imagine Lehi was a very good parent. He had taught his children. And Nephi says, I had goodly parents. They taught me. Didn't resonate with some of his children. Never gave up. At the end of his life, he was still, well, I would say something like wisdom in the Book of Mormon, right? Second Nephi, he sits down and counsels them at the end, gives them wisdom on what they should do. And so, I think you never give up and you're trying. So, you're just trying to teach them. I like that. And we I think you never give up and you're trying. So you're just trying to teach them.

I like that. And we can think of plenty of parents who we'd have to put in the failure category if we started saying that the behavior of their children is the way to gauge their success. Samuel, we've seen this year. Jacob, Israel, we've seen this year. You mentioned Lehi. There'd be Alma. Alma the Elder would be in that group. Alma the Younger would be in that group. And then that whole rising generation. Yeah. Yeah. Mosiah, King Mosiah. on it, but I think it was President Harold B. Lee that someone said to him, hey, the Joneses are having trouble with their children. And President Lee said, yeah, and Heavenly Father's having trouble with some of his. So we're all in trouble. That's a great story, John. But I do think, Lincoln, you're right. Training up a child in the way he or she should go is better than not training up a child in the way.

And I like what Lincoln said. It's a probability. This is wise counsel. In fact, I have a tree outside that needs to be staked. And I told my son, if we don't get that tree staked right now, it's going to start growing how the wind blows it over. And I think I'm going to turn it into a lesson now from Proverbs 22, 6. I'm going to go out and say, let's train this tree in the way it should go while it's... Would you say, Lincoln, it's because right now it's malleable,

but if I let that tree grow... If it stiffens and hardens, then it's much more difficult. Much more easy to work with wet cement, right, than dry. Interesting you bring that up because when I think about humility, talk a lot about humility, I think of the word meek, meekness, because one of the meanings of meekness is fashionable. And what it means by fashionable meaning you can actually fashion it. You can mold it. That's a sense of meekness. It can be molded still. If you're meek, you can be molded. You can be worked with. You don't break. I like that. We just don't want any parent listening to go, oh, I should have done better. If we could even apply a lesson we've already learned from Lincoln today, which is look forward, trust in the Lord. He's their savior. If you have a child you feel like is off the path, trust that the Lord is mighty to save and let him direct your path in what you should do. Go to the Lord, ask him,

what do I do with this child? Yeah, Lincoln brought up Lehi and Soraya. And I just love that the Book of Mormon starts out with a family that has problems. It's not perfect. They struggle and there's ups and downs and they're in the wilderness and they're having more children. And Lehi has to sit down with Jacob and say, you've never seen Jerusalem. You've seen the rudeness of your brothers, and it gives them a perfect chance to explain opposition in all things. And I think it was President Boyd K. Packer who gave this talk back in 92 about, he called it our moral environment. And he said that judging parents by how their children turned out would only be just if we lived in a perfectly moral environment. And that is not now

possible. He became a moral environmentalist in that talk. It was a really helpful, hopeful talk. And also, Hank, as we brought up, section 46, we'll be judged according, suiting his mercies, what does the Lord say? Suiting his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men. That one gives me hope too. Book of Mormon starts out with a family with all sorts of ups and downs, and the Lord's going to suit his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men. So hold on to those for some hope.

Yeah. And remember, the Lord is mighty to save. This wouldn't say trust in the Lord if you couldn't trust in him. You can trust him. There's nothing your child can do that falls outside where the Lord says, oh, I did not see that coming. The Lord, the great Jehovah, what did Joseph Smith say, contemplated it all and has made ample provision for the redemption of all people. Lincoln, let's keep going in 22. What else do you want to see?

We've covered a lot. There's one that's kind of funny. 13, the slothful man or the lazy right man saith, there is a lion without I shall be slain in the streets. It's kind of like, you know, you give these absurd excuses for not doing something. That's what they do, right? The dog ate my homework. This is what the ancient dog ate my homework. I can't go and do something because there

might be a lion out there. It might kill me. There's a lion out there. I might die. I am going to use that. I thought, I got to throw this in here. I got to lighten the mood a little bit. And that is funny. I'm going to use that the next time I get asked. Sarah will say, hey, take that trash out. And I'll say, whoa, whoa, whoa, there is a lion out there. There could be a lion out there. I am not taking the garbage. I will be slain in the streets. Are you crazy? So this is the lazy man coming up with a reason why he can't work. I'd never seen that one before.

I love it. I thought it'd be kind of a comical one to throw out, but you know, what's interesting, you get into 17 and you actually get a shift now in the Proverbs. So it says, bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise. I think it's saying there's really an authorial shift now. We're gonna hear from the wise people. And what's interesting is if you go down and you go to verse 20, look what it has here. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge? Now, just a note on this. It says excellent things, but a better reading that's been reconstructed now from the Hebrew is not excellent things,

but in fact, something to the extent of, have I not written to thee 30 things? It's sheloshim. In fact, in the Greek and the Latin, it talks about being threefold. And so the Greek and Latin translations are already getting to this. It seems to be widely recognized now for the last century of who are these wise. When you start going through this, there's a number of parallels here and some really quite close to, I said before, there's this Egyptian wisdom text by a man called Amenemope. Amenemope. Yeah, Amenemope. Lived as best we can tell during the Ramseed period, sometime, you know, about 1300 to, you know, 1100. And there was a papyrus found, but had in 30 chapters, the wise sayings of Amenemope to his son, wisdom literature.

And when you start reading that, you'll see that it seems to be that as they redact this, they bring in that wisdom and they include this here. It's 30 sayings. And this goes in through chapter 24. For example, right, you go to 22, rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. And in chapter two of Amenemope, it says, beware of robbing the poor and oppressing the afflicted. There's other parallels that people can find that I think there's too much there to be a coincidence for it not to be, right, a relationship there. Some people might be troubled. Oh, my goodness, why is Proverbs relying on some Egyptian wisdom?

I guess I would say, well, the Egyptians can be wise, you know, by all means. And I kind of look at this as, for me, here's what would be a response for some of this material is section 88.1.18. And look what it says here. I'll just pick up kind of part of the verse. Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom. Right? Wisdom. Yea, seek out of the best books words of wisdom.

Seek learning even by study and also by faith. And so as I see this, I think they are picking up on some Egyptian wisdom. You know, you already have Solomon, right? Interaction, right? Early on Israel with Egypt. And so I think it's interesting kind of picking up on, hey, there's other wisdom out there. There's the quote unquote best books in the ancient world. Well, as Israelites, we can draw on and use some of that.

Now you adapt a little bit to this. If we think about wisdom, yeah, there's good books out there. What can we use that we can go and will help us be wise? The Lord actually gives us commandment. And so that's how I kind of look at this interesting section where I think it's pretty clear. There's talk about some, here's some Egyptian wisdom now that we're going to draw upon. We can adapt it. And there's a lot of good benefit from it.

I like that a lot. I love this Lincoln. It reminds me of a statement from the first presidency way back in February of 1978. For anybody who's a little bit nervous that the book of Proverbs is borrowing from this Egyptian sage, Amenemope, listen to this. Quote, the great religious leaders of the world, such as Muhammad, Confucius, and the reformers, as well as philosophers, including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God's light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.

And then this statement, I'm not reading the whole thing, but this piece reads like an article of faith. We believe that God has given and will give to all people sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation. So I think this is right in line with what you're talking about here, Lincoln. Yeah, I think there's some wisdom of the age that could be useful. The Israelites can come and use. And so, they're consulting some of the best books of their own day. I think this is fantastic, Lincoln, that you've made that connection with Proverbs 22. We still have a few more chapters to go, Lincoln. What do you want to cover? We got 31, I guess. So, that's the one in Come Follow Me, the last chapter. Yeah, we better do that. Yes, well, 31.

It's a really fascinating chapter. So 30 and 31, interesting chapters, because here it's clear there are two individuals that we don't know much about. You have the words of Agur in 30, but we're going to look at 31. Here it's the words of King Lemuel. And this is kind of fascinating. You know, who is Lemuel? Some have thought, well, maybe this is kind of the name in Hebrew means like to or for God. So maybe it's some kind of cipher for Solomon.

I don't think that's probably the case. And it talks about here, it says the prophecy that his mother taught him. And again, in verse one, we have this word for prophecy. It's this word here that's being used and it's masa and so some try to say it was a prophecy really more like an oracle or pronouncement so some will say well this is the words king lemuel the pronouncement right this mother taught him so she taught something wise or another way it is read is of king lemuel and then you have a prophecy, but it's Masa as a place. So, it'd be the words of King Lemuel of Masa. And Masa, if you go back into Genesis 25, 14, or 1 Chronicles 1, 30, this is

a descendant of Ishmael. And so, it's this territory kind of in Arabia. And so, some have wondered, is this a king? Some said, well, maybe it's a king in Arabia in the 8th, 7th century BC, which is also kind of interesting. And again, if that is the best reading here on this, it's fascinating, by the way, just as a footnote here, the word Lemuel only appears in the Old Testament twice, verse one, verse four. And so, if you have a king in Arabia in the 8th or 7th century BC, and then we have a Lemuel popping up right in the Book of Mormon, I kind of find that fascinating with Lehi and kind of an onomastic reference there. But the timing is right. So, if that is the case, but again, no one's really knows for sure who this Lemuel is. I would probably say most kind of are leaning toward, well, it's probably a king

somewhere in Arabia, but again, has wise counsel, right? There's best books, has some good things his mother taught him. And so, his mother's now teaching him, okay, when you're a king, this is what you ought to do and not do. And when you get down to verse two, right? It's what my son, what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows. The Hebrew there is ma or what, but I think the force of it is better like, you know, no, my son, no son of my womb, like N-O, no son of my vows saying, no, don't do these things. Oh, okay. And then she gives strength about what not to do. And he says, well, as a king, well, here's what I don't want you to do.

Well, first of all, don't give all your strength to women. We can think here, right? Well, Solomon, for example, as wise as he was, you read back in 1 Kings 11, concubines and women were his downfall. So his mom said, okay, don't do this. Son, I think another good advice, don't give yourself over to drink. I think we can think of a lot of examples of royalty or kings getting too much involved in drink. I think of Book of Mormon, right? King Noah, Messiah 11. This is what he does.

He's saying, no, avoid this. It'll be a real temptation for you in this position, but do not do this. Don't do this. Don't get involved, right? Spend your energy on all these things or on drink. Just say some rather interesting advice, though, here about, well, drink. Well, give it to the poor so they can forget their problems but you don't touch it

because you need to judge. Which is kind of, you know, okay, there's some wisdom, right? 2,700 years old. Eight, nine, again, you're given power and judge righteously,

especially over the poor and needy. And so some really sage counsel from his mother. Plead the cause of the poor and needy. And this is their responsibility as a king to go and do this. And so you have this council to start here, and then you get into 10. And this is

where we have this talk on the ideal woman. I think it's kind of, you know, the wisdom, but it's actually a woman here. What is the real woman like, the ideal woman? So if you look at 10, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? And it says virtuous here. What's interesting here, if you go to the word underlying this, a better rendering here, I would say, is strong or capable. Who can find a strong or capable woman? If I were to get the word virtue, well, the King James translators are here influenced by latin right vertus which means you know virtue it actually means strong in the original meaning

right going from latin and so it's saying who can find a strong or capable woman in fact even a meaning here a sense of a woman who's like a soldier this is what it is and it will start now telling you what this woman is as it goes through the ideal woman ends then with, well, she fears the Lord. As we saw back in 1.7, but there's something even more interesting here in this section, beginning in 10 down to 31. What you have here, if you look at the Hebrew, is you have an acrostic. And what an acrostic is in Hebrew, it's where each verse begins with a letter of the alphabet and it goes in succession for all 22 letters, starting with Aleph and then ending at the end with Tav. That's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the last, Aleph. Yeah, Lincoln, just point these out.

So, chapter 10 starts with the letter. So, verse 10, it begins with you know the first letter of the hebrew alphabet which is and then verse aleph right think of like like alpha yeah like alpha in greek and then each successive verse through the end starts with the next letter and there's 22 total 22 total and so it goes through and so you have acrostics and psalms for example where they'll do this and typically it's trying to say this thing encompasses it all. Right. If you think back, you get New Testament. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Alpha, the first in the Greek. Omega is the last Greek letter.

So it's saying kind of this woman is everything. This is it all. Interesting. We talk about, right, Alpha males. Well, here is our Aleph female, but she's even more than an Aleph female. She's an Aleph female. And so it's kind of putting this emphasis on here that this pattern that you don't see in the English, it's not mentioned here, but it's not accidental. This is going on. Yeah. And so it's really saying this is the utmost.

She encompasses it all. I love this. This is one of those places where there's things that are hidden in plain sight that you do not see if it's in English, but if you saw it in Hebrew and you knew the Hebrew alphabet, you would see that. So, it's like A is for her altruisticness, B is for her benevolence, C is for her charity, D is for her delightfulness. And you don't know that because we're not reading it in Hebrew, but it lets you know there's more here than just, let's think of a random bunch of traits. It was something that was really worked on. That's awesome. Oh, yeah.

I mentioned earlier, there's really not many JSTs in Proverbs. But it's interesting in like this, and the JST is not here, but the one JST that actually is the most meaningful in all of Proverbs is back in Proverbs 18.22, which reads, Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. And the JST actually says, here it changes, it says, Whoso findeth a good wife hath obtained favor of the Lord. It actually changes this. And I think here, we get to this, and I say, here is the ideal wife. Idealized, right? Woman, what you're looking for. And of course, she will have, you know, the fear of the Lord and wisdom, but here are all the things she does in her household. And so really saying, yeah, her price is far above rubies.

I want you to say that phrase again. And it's an acrostic poem, A-C-R-O-S-T-I-C. Yep. Acrostic. And what you have here in this acrostic, stikos in Greek is a line, and acro is kind of the top or beginning of a line. So each beginning of a verse starts with a successive letter, and it goes all the way through the alphabet. And so it's saying there's something important going here, but it's kind of imputing this.

Yeah, I think that everything, this woman encapsulates everything, all the letters of the alphabet. She's the all in all. Was this still going to King Lemuel? Or did this start a new section that wasn't part of what his mother had given him? Well, this seems here, right? The words of King Lemuel, it just kind of goes on.

It seems that he's the same question. Who can find this woman? Who can find this capable woman? Well, this is what she's like. This is great. You'll quickly see, right? What does she do? Well, she is industrious.

Her lights never go out. Of course, this is idealized. Verse 18. She layeth her hands to the spindle and the distaff. So spinning yarn, doing this. And that's interesting because you often find ancient epitaphs. When they have depictions of women, they'll often be holding a spindle and a distaff. Because this is kind of what they'll say for a woman who's very respectful.

If you're really trained in this, well, then you're really the ideal woman who can manage your oikos, or in Greek, your household well. And she stretches her hands to the poor. She gives to the needy. 21, 22. She clothes her family in clothes, right? They're scarlet and purple. These are actually royal colors. And her husband's the elders' quorum president in verse 23.

There we go. And her husband's the one at the gate sitting there talking. She has strength and says honor or splendor. And when she speaks, what does she have? Well, there it is. She has wisdom, 26. She has that. And so I think in the book of Proverbs, it talks about young man, young man, young man. Well, women are here, but it's very clear. No, wisdom is for the woman as it is for the man. It can be acquired by both. That's fantastic.

John, what were you going to add? I also think if you're not careful, you might read this as a woman and say, oh my goodness, I can't possibly live up to this. And that's not what we want to happen either. It's just a wonderful list of desirable traits. None of us are going to live up to the list, but these are some great ideals. They just happen to be in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. This is President Uchtdorf in a talk in praise of those who save. He says, and now just one word to those of our single brethren who follow the

deception that they first have to find the perfect woman before they can enter into serious courting or marriage. My beloved brethren, may I remind you, if there were a perfect woman, do you really think she would be that interested in you? In God's plan of happiness, we are not so much looking for someone perfect, but for a person with whom throughout a lifetime, we can join efforts to create a loving, lasting, and more perfect relationship. That is the goal. So John, that was just a funny reminder of what President Uchtdorf said. And now we get to go to the book of Ecclesiastes. And I have always wondered what that means because we talk about ecclesiastical

leaders and things like that. What does the word mean before we jump into it? It says Ecclesiastes or the preacher in the Old Testament. That's a good question. And when you get this word Ecclesiastes, what we're getting here is we're getting the title of the Greek translation of the Hebrew work, where they take this word in Hebrew, kohelet, which is pronounced preacher, and the Greek comes along and say, well, this is an ecclesiastes, which is basically one who assembles. Now, if you think about ecclesia, our church, well, in Greek, the word ecclesia can mean church, but even before Christians start calling things churches,

an ecclesia is just an assembly. And so what an ecclesiastes is, is somebody who assembles things. And so it seems to be here. It's one who is assembling material together, right? We talk about Proverbs kind of assembled together. And now this also is a symbol together because not unlike Proverbs,

this work is not linear in a number of ways. It kind of ebbs and flows and topics are kind of treated one sense, then stopped and then picked up again a few chapters later. And so this is where you're getting this word Ecclesiastes from somebody who convenes an assembly or in this case is assembling material. So we'll stick with preacher, but something like an assembler. Okay. The one who goes and brings all this work together and not unlike Proverbs, there'll be some aphorisms, but there are some more sustained, certainly sections here, right? Multiverse, but it'll approach wisdom and a life a little bit

differently. Whereas Proverbs is about probabilities of, well, if you do this, good will happen. This will say, well, you may do what's best and there are no guarantees, or they're not nearly as many guarantees, or the probability actually is not quite as high. So, life is more complex than you think. Yes. It's interesting about this text because we know the rabbis were debating its canonicity. Is this really scripture? Because I kind of read it and said, you know, does this really fit in scripture? And it's already in there, but because the way it reads, yeah, some traditionally had wondered that very thing. Today, it's actually read in Judaism.

They'll read it during the Feast of Tabernacles. What's the overall message of the book, Lincoln? The phrase that will appear most, as you see, verse two, vanity of vanities. In some other translations, the word here in Hebrew is this word hevel, which means breath. And so it's literally like kind of like breath of breaths. But what you're getting at, I would say, is something like it's ephemeral. If I were going to say, you know, what is the overarching motif of this book? What happens? And there's this phrase under the sun, i.e. ephemeral if i were going to say you know what is the overarching motif of this book what happens and there's this phrase under the sun i.e immortality and under the sun appears about 30

times is it's ephemeral it will not last i think the author is aware of this and says you know he did all these things and they won't last and so what i would take looking at this book in a positive light especially in light of the epilogue, is keep your trust in the Lord. He is not. He's not. He's permanent. He's not fleeting, but this life is ephemeral. You'll notice a number of times, for example, in 114, the vexation of spirit.

You know, this is how the KGV rendering is done. Others render this as, this word spirit, right, in Hebrew is ruach, which can also be wind or breath or air. And so a lot of times it's actually rendered as everything is vanity, and they'll say this is like basically chasing the wind. You're not going to get it. It's transitory. So the book starts out with fleeting, fleeting, everything is fleeting. Why even try? Things are ephemeral.

Therefore, we'll talk about in chapter two, enjoy those things you can while here. Because you do not know how the end may come. And in some ways, it will say God's purposes are inscrutable, meaning we can't ultimately figure out why some things happen, why they don't. So enjoy your time while you're here. But I wouldn't take this to the form of like hedonism. We'll just, you know, eat, drink and be merry. Tomorrow we die, right? You get in the Book of Mormon.

Enjoy your time here because you do not know what tomorrow holds. It will be short. And I think with the epilogue, it frames it then. Well, ultimately it's trust in God. Even if things don't work out in here, keep your trust in God. Tie that back to Proverbs. So it's chapter one. Basically, life goes by day after day goes by.

What prophet hath a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun? It's all fleeting. I think human beings have felt this before. Why am I on this planet? So what's next, Lincoln? After chapter one, his life is fleeting. I think in 3 to 11, it's kind of, they're just around the sunset. The sea never gets full.

The rivers pour into that. And so I think it's pointing out that sometimes it's hard to discern. We kind of like a linear goal-oriented thing, right? Going back again to Deuteronomy 11. You'll be blessed if you do this. You'll be cursed if you do this. I think it's saying that you sometimes look at things and it's not altogether clear why it is the way it is. And from our perspective, we may not be able to see any pattern in it. As you go down to 11,

you know, I think it's interesting. There is no remembrance of former things. Neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. What you do is fleeting. Everyone forgets. It's forgotten. And that's why I like, you know, we talk about, you know, remember things or keep records. So he's noticing that once someone dies, they're forgotten. They are eventually forgotten. It's emptiness. It's vanity or futility. And so picking up on that, and then you get an autobiographical section from early 12 to 18.

I, the preacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem. Now, it's interesting. He doesn't actually call himself Solomon. He says in the past tense, I was the king. And so, it kind of wonders, tradition does put this to Solomon, but who he says, look, I went and I sought after wisdom in all kinds of ways. He goes, he seeks after wisdom when he was the king. And he talked about, well, it was like a vexing spirit. It was like chasing after wind. I could never grasp it. And you get down to 17.

He said, I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness. Here, I think we might say even revelry might be a good translation here. And folly, I perceive that this is also a vexation, or like chasing wind. For much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. Which I think is, again, an interesting concept. It's going to take some work to get wisdom, but also you're going to get grief in this process. The wisdom is hard-earned, but just think of this mortality. Right?

Think about God says, yeah, go to earth, have this mortal experience. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to get a lot of lot of wisdom but yeah it's going to be a lot of grief it's going to be hard we're going to get joy you'll get a lot of joy but it's going to be a hard process i think he's he's saying this no way in life you'll grow but it's hard more wisdom isn't all just a wonderful thing it'll come with pain and suffering and at a cost. So wisdom, is he saying that wisdom comes with grief in that in grief, I became wise? Yeah. As I think about this whiz kind of grief or sorrow, think of Moses 5.11, right? With Eve, where it says, you know, Eve, his wife heard all these things and was glad saying,

were it not for our transgression, we never should have had seed and there should have known good and evil and the joy of our redemption, eternal life, which God giveth unto all the obedient. Yeah, I think acquisition comes at a cost. It's similar to Hebrews 5. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. So, grief and wisdom come together. I don't like that. So, I like your 2 Nephi 2 reference, Lincoln, because there's opposition in all things, but it's part of the learning process. And so, we have the Adam fell that men might be, men are that they might have joy, and we love that verse. But there's also Moses 6, 48 days where it says, and he said unto them, because that Adam fell, we are.

And by his fall came misery. And he said unto them, because that Adam fell, we are. And by his fall came death. And we are made partakers of misery and woe. So it's some days there's joy days and there's misery and woe days. And that's the learning. That's the laboratory of opposition in all things, right? Much wisdom comes with much grief.

I can see why there's a bit of a pessimistic attitude here. Yes. To really have wisdom and know, you experience both. That's a really good point to bring up. We have a life of total ease and comfort. It sounds appealing, but we might not learn much. It wouldn't stretch our souls very much. what he meant was then you suffer their joys. I mean, you experience their joys with them, but you can also experience their sadness when they're sad. And every parent knows that. My family were watching a video the other night, a church video called One on One. It was about this brother named Troy Russell who lost his son, really unfortunate accident. And how he was just pleading with the Lord one night to take away all of this pain. And he got this just really profound answer. The Lord kind of said, I could take away the pain,

but I'd also have to take away the nine years you enjoyed with your son. Or you can have the nine years you had with your son, but you'll also have the pain. And he made the comment, this brother, that he would prefer to keep that all, which was just kind of amazing to watch. Really one of those really super sobering things, but how wonderful to have an eternal perspective of the whole thing. And I guess that's kind of what we're talking about today in these books as well. Yeah, Ecclesiastes 1, for in much wisdom is much grief. Oh, I can't tell you I like that, Lincoln.

I can't tell you that I think that's a great way to go. That's my favorite verse. Oh, man. Yeah. Lincoln, this has been a fantastic day going through these two books. I think our listeners would be interested in your journey of education, Oxford graduate, right?

All these different degrees and being a faithful Latter-day Saint. What's that journey been like for you? It's had ups and downs. I think it's staying on the path and looking forward, trusting in the Lord. For me, I kind of tie in a little Ecclesiastes, kind of, you know, having joy with what, where you're at. You know, I kind of look at the last two chapters of kind of like seizing the day, carpe diem, right? Living in the day, finding joy in that. I think for me is how I've done this and what's most meaningful,

especially in light of what we've talked about, certainly in Ecclesiastes with things that are ephemeral. A really defining event in my life took place as a young man when I was a senior in high school, played a lot of sports, played baseball, played on a rep team up in Canada and made it to the tournament that was basically the national championship tournament. In our first game, I was a center fielder. We were playing in about the second inning. There was a rain delay.

There was some rain. We all ran back into the dugout. Rain ended, right? Ran back onto the field. And I was warming up with the left fielder throwing a baseball. And out of the blue, there was just a large crack. And I was blown back. And I was kind of on my back.

And I was like, what just happened? And I looked over. And the person I was playing catch with, who's a good friend of mine, had been struck by lightning. He was actually killed instantaneously when he was hit by lightning. And I remember seeing total pandemonium break out at the field, right? I saw this poor young man, you know, his dad came out on the field, was totally distraught. People trying to help, waiting for an ambulance to come, you know, minutes seemed like hours. And in the aftermath, that whole event, right, you're a senior in high school.

You do kind of feel immortal, right? You feel like, well, life's never going to end. And coming back to Ecclesiastes, life is transitory. That's the one thing I think I learned at a young age where I thought, well, I'm kind of immortal. No, life will have an end. And it may be sooner than you think. And in some really bizarre circumstances. And coming out of that whole

circumstance, what comforted me the most of anything, if the one thing I held on to that helped me the most was the gospel. It's permanent. It's not temporary. It's going to be there in really, really tough times. And so, that was a really defining moment in my life. And of course, after that event, it was like, well, what's the most important thing I do? Well, I need to go serve a mission. Because I saw how that helped me and how friends on the team who didn't have a belief system really, really struggled. And I struggled too.

You can't go through it and not struggle somewhat. But for me, it made me think of how important the gospel was and the permanence of that. So that's kind of was a defining moment in my life where I'm like, we don't know when the end's coming, but let me make the most of what I have while I'm here. In that moment, it's kind of your sorrows, your struggles, you really come to know God. And so for me, while some may be challenged with things they read or hear,

for me, that hasn't had the same effect on me where I have questions, but my testimony has only grown. And yes, as it continues to grow, yes, I can have questions. I try to answer them, but just have really an abiding faith in the gospel. This is permanent. It's something I can really rely on. I can trust in the Lord. I really, really can, no matter what comes, you know, I can get through it. And so for me, that's kind of defined my life. It helped me with what I've done and really my scholarship. And as I try to be a disciple of Christ. And so when challenges come, I'm like, no, I'm going to stand fast and remain

firm. And in fact, let me just, if we have time, I'll share with you another brief story. Last couple of years, I really, I think everybody did, right? The last few years with COVID, had some really tough times and personally, right? The last few years with COVID, I had some really tough times. And personally, right, some real big challenges. And I remember, again, just knowing the Lord was there for me. I took my daughters out. We were going back to the Olympic Peninsula last July and driving out and just kind of going through a hard time. Again, valleys in life, there's hills, there's peaks.

Tough time. I just pulled over the car at this rest stop in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. Didn't have to use the restroom. I said, you know, girls, I need to take a break. I was kind of feeling overwhelmed. I said, girls, let's go get some, you know, candy, you know, at the vending machines. I'm just going to go and sit down over, you know, you know, there's picnic tables there, things like that. I remember walking to the picnic tables being like, God, I need some help. I really, really need some help. And I remember just kind of saying, I really need your help. And I remember walking to the picnic table and just being like, God, I need some help. I really, really need some help. And I remember just kind of saying, I really need your help.

And I remember getting there and sitting down at the picnic table, and lo and behold, in the middle of nowhere, somebody left a copy of the Book of Mormon. Some missionaries left it there. And I said, okay, God, I got the message. And I'm like, this can't be a coincidence. In the middle of nowhere, I just stopped and went out, and lo and behold, there's a Book of Mormon. Well, of course I took it. I have it. And I really treasure that. And so, for me, just knowing that even in really hard things, you can trust in God. So, going back, you can really trust,

keep the commandments. You don't know where your journey is going to go at times. I look forward. Yet, you move forward with faith. I've had this experience where I know God's there watching and helping me. And from that really trumps anything else. Excellent. Wow. Both of those experiences, those are, man, thank you so much, Dr. Blumel Lincoln. This has been a wonderful day studying these two books with you. John, I've said it before, but I don't know how we got this job. It's a good job.

I know. It's just a great, those last stories, some things are permanent, some are transitory. And to have that book there, here's your answer. That's beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you. We want to thank Dr. Lincoln Blumell for being with us today. We want to thank all of you for joining us.

We want to thank our executive producers, Steve and Shannon Sorenson, and our sponsors, David and Verla Sorenson. And we hope all of you will join us next week. We'll be back with another episode of Follow Him.