Proverbs 31, the Bride of Christ, and the Covenant Path

Word of Wisdom, Heavenly Parents, Temple Covenants, Theosis, and Exaltation

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Proverbs 31 is often reduced to a checklist for an impossibly productive wife. Yet Proverbs 31:10–31 is first a carefully crafted Hebrew poem: an alphabetic acrostic that praises the eshet hayil, the “woman of strength,” whose fear of the Lord becomes visible in wise stewardship, economic agency, disciplined labor, faithful speech, household care, and mercy toward the poor. Read in the canonical context of Proverbs, she is not merely a passive model of private virtue. She is wisdom embodied.

This study develops a deliberately typological and temple-shaped reading of the poem. The eshet hayil becomes an icon of the Bride of Christ—the covenant community whose life is ordered by reverence, fidelity, holiness, and fruitful service. Doctrine and Covenants 89 adds an embodied discipline of appetite and spiritual receptivity; the covenants of the temple endowment give that discipleship a sacred grammar of obedience, sacrifice, the gospel of Jesus Christ, chastity, and consecration; and Revelation presents the faithful Church as a Bride made ready for the Lamb. Patristic theosis and Latter-day Saint exaltation converge in proclaiming transformation through participation in divine life, while retaining important theological distinctions. Proverbs 31 thus portrays the ordinary shape of extraordinary holiness: a people transformed by Christ until their works praise them at the gates.

A further Restoration layer emerges from the doctrine of Heavenly Parents and the feminine personification of Wisdom. Proverbs calls Wisdom a Tree of Life; 1 Nephi places a radiant tree beside the vision of a virgin mother and her divine Son; and Latter-day Saint scholars have compared these images with ancient Asherah and tree-goddess traditions. The biblical record clearly reports that Josiah removed an Asherah object from the temple, but the claim that this act erased an authentic revelation of Heavenly Mother remains a debated reconstruction. This study therefore treats the Wisdom-Tree-Mother constellation as a disciplined theological resonance, not as a substitute for revelation or proof that Lady Wisdom, Asherah, Mary, Shekhinah, and Heavenly Mother are one figure. Revelation 12 extends this pattern through a solar-clothed, star-crowned Woman who gives birth under threat from the dragon, receives divine nourishment in the wilderness, and survives as the mother of a commandment-keeping people. The Joseph Smith Translation identifies her as the Church of God and her child as the kingdom of God and Christ; the wider Israel-Zion-Mary-Bride symbolism therefore enriches divine-motherhood theology without making the Woman a direct portrait of Heavenly Mother.

How is the Lord inviting you to become a person of covenant strength? Choose one sphere—appetite, speech, money, work, fidelity, preparation, or care for the poor—and write one concrete act of consecration you will practice this week. Share the study with someone who has learned to hear Proverbs 31 as pressure rather than praise, and invite them to rediscover the woman of strength as a witness of grace-shaped wisdom.

Anchor Verse

“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” — Proverbs 31:30 (KJV)

What if Proverbs 31 is not a measuring stick but a mirror?

For generations, Proverbs 31 has been handed to women as a formidable list of domestic expectations: rise before dawn, manage a household, conduct business, produce clothing, care for the poor, speak flawlessly, and somehow never appear weary. Read that way, the poem can become less like good news and more like an inspired performance review. Women may feel judged by it, while men may assume that it addresses someone else. Both reactions miss the literary force of the text. Proverbs does not end with a spreadsheet of feminine productivity. It ends with poetry—a public song of praise celebrating what wisdom looks like when reverence for God takes flesh in the world.

The opening expression, eshet hayil, is commonly rendered “virtuous woman,” “capable wife,” “excellent wife,” or “woman of valor.” The Hebrew noun hayil carries a wide field of meaning that includes strength, capacity, wealth, competence, and valor. The woman is not praised because she is ornamental, silent, or fragile. She is strong. She evaluates a field and buys it. She plants a vineyard, trades profitably, supervises a complex household economy, speaks wisdom, prepares for adversity, and opens her hands to the poor. Her strength is neither self-display nor domination. It is power disciplined by covenant loyalty.

The poem gathers wisdom into a living covenant portrait

Proverbs begins by personifying Wisdom as a woman who calls in public places, invites the simple to learn, offers life, and warns against paths that end in death (Prov. 1:20–33; 8:1–36; 9:1–6). The book then concludes with a flesh-and-blood portrait of a woman whose decisions make wisdom visible. The literary movement is striking: Wisdom’s voice in Proverbs 1–9 becomes wisdom’s work in Proverbs 31. The fear of the Lord announced as the beginning of knowledge in Proverbs 1:7 reappears near the conclusion in Proverbs 31:30. What begins as instruction becomes character; what begins as a path becomes a practiced life.

That canonical pattern creates a responsible bridge to the New Testament’s image of the Church as the Bride of Christ. The historical woman praised in Proverbs 31 should not be erased, nor should every feature be converted into a hidden allegory. Yet Christian typology recognizes recurring covenant patterns that reach fulfillment in Jesus Christ and His people. The faithful, fruitful, mercy-giving, wisely ordered woman can therefore become an icon of the ecclesial Bride—a community that trusts her covenant Lord, clothes herself in righteous deeds, cares for the vulnerable, and prepares for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Eph. 5:25–27; Rev. 19:7–9).

For Latter-day Saints, Proverbs' feminine Wisdom also opens a question that much of Christian theology leaves underdeveloped: if exaltation means becoming like our Heavenly Parents, how might the Bible's feminine images of life, wisdom, birth, nurture, glory, and covenant presence witness to divine motherhood? That question is legitimate, but it requires disciplined distinctions. Grammatical femininity is not automatically a divine woman, a sacred tree is not automatically Heavenly Mother, and the recovery of an ancient goddess cult would not by itself establish revealed truth.

From admired virtue to temple-shaped discipleship

The central question is therefore not, “How can one woman accomplish everything in this poem?” The deeper question is, “How does the covenant people become the kind of Bride whose whole life praises the Lord?” A Restoration reading brings the Word of Wisdom and temple covenants into this conversation. Doctrine and Covenants 89 orders embodied appetite toward wisdom and revelation. The temple endowment calls disciples to obedience, sacrifice, the gospel of Jesus Christ, chastity, and consecration. Proverbs 31 shows those commitments becoming ordinary practice—in work, speech, sexuality, economics, mercy, preparation, and worship.

The added layer follows four levels of evidence. Official Restoration teaching establishes Heavenly Parents. The biblical text establishes Lady Wisdom, the Tree of Life, and Josiah's removal of the Asherah. Archaeology and comparative religion illuminate ancient tree and mother symbolism. Finally, Latter-day Saint temple theology asks what these patterns may mean. Keeping those levels distinct allows faith to become deeper without asking historical evidence to carry more than it can bear. Revelation 12 supplies an especially important control because the Joseph Smith Translation explicitly identifies the Woman with the Church and the child with God's kingdom. Any Heavenly Mother resonance must therefore remain analogical and theological rather than replace that revealed ecclesial meaning.

This reading must be stated carefully. Proverbs 31:10–31 is not known to have served as a prescribed ceremony in Solomon’s temple, and Doctrine and Covenants 89 is not the secret historical key to the poem. The phrase “temple-liturgical” in this study names a canonical and theological reading, not an unsupported claim about ancient ritual origins. The poem is temple-shaped because it portrays an ordered covenant life moving from reverence to holiness, from stewardship to consecration, and from faithful labor to praise at the gates. It is liturgical because it is a song of praise that forms the worshipping community’s imagination—and because it is still sung in many Jewish homes at the beginning of Shabbat, a custom commonly traced to early modern Jewish mysticism rather than the biblical temple period.

Every Season Under Heaven: Ecclesiastes, Temple Covenants, and the Journey to Immortality

Ecclesiastes is not Scripture’s surrender to meaninglessness. It is the wisdom of mortality—the testimony of a world east of Eden, where work exhausts, injustice wounds, pleasure fades, and death exposes the limits of every human attempt at permanence. Yet Qoheleth’s repeated word hebel is better pictured as vapor than as absolute nihilism: life “under the sun” is fleeting, elusive, and impossible to master. Through the poem of appointed times in Ecclesiastes 3, the book teaches disciples to receive mortal seasons as gifts they cannot control but can faithfully inhabit. Read within the full canon and through a Restoration lens, Ecclesiastes traces a temple-shaped movement from Edenic belonging, through mortal descent and covenant formation, toward judgment, resurrection, immortality, and life in Christ. Its final summons— “Fear God and keep his commandments”—does not solve every riddle. It teaches us how to live faithfully within them.

Some seasons arrive with invitations; others arrive with diagnoses, funerals, layoffs, broken trust, unanswered prayers, or the slow realization that the future will not look like the life we planned. We gladly quote, “A time to weep, and a time to laugh,” but the beauty of Ecclesiastes 3 can make us forget how severe the poem really is. It includes birth and death, planting and uprooting, healing and killing, embracing and separation, war and peace. Qoheleth is not decorating a calendar. He is naming the mortal world in which change is relentless and control is largely an illusion.

Ecclesiastes meets us precisely there. Its burden is not that nothing matters, but that nothing mortal can be made permanent by human grasping. Achievement cannot arrest death. Wealth cannot guarantee enjoyment. Wisdom cannot control outcomes. Even righteousness does not make mortality predictable. The Hebrew word hebel, traditionally rendered “vanity,” literally evokes breath or vapor: visible for a moment, real but ungraspable, present and already passing. Qoheleth dismantles the fantasy that we can secure eternal identity with temporary things.

That dismantling can become sacred preparation. When the false foundations collapse, the disciple can receive identity as covenant gift rather than personal construction. Ecclesiastes moves from Edenic echoes to dust, from dust to reverence, and from reverence toward divine judgment. Christian Scripture then answers Qoheleth’s deepest ache in the resurrected Christ, who entered the mortal descent, passed through death, and ascended in immortal glory. Restoration scripture widens that canonical horizon by locating earthly life between premortal belonging and resurrected continuation. Every season becomes neither random fate nor automatic blessing, but a mortal sphere in which agency, grace, covenant loyalty, and holy desire form a people capable of dwelling with God.

Ecclesiastes Is the Wisdom of Mortality

The 2026 Come, Follow Me manual places Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in productive tension. Proverbs often teaches that divine wisdom produces flourishing; Ecclesiastes replies that lived experience is not always so tidy. Qoheleth can devote himself to wisdom and still discover grief and “vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:17–18). The manual therefore asks whether meaning is possible when life appears “vain, temporary, and uncertain,” and it answers by joining Ecclesiastes 12:13 to Proverbs 3:5: fear God, keep His commandments, and trust the Lord. Life with Christ is better, though mortality is not thereby made painless or predictable.

That distinction prevents two opposite misreadings. Ecclesiastes is neither a manifesto of atheistic despair nor a sentimental promise that every event will become pleasant if we wait long enough. It is wisdom spoken from within creaturely limits. The title identifies its speaker as Qoheleth, a term related to assembly and conventionally translated Teacher or Preacher. His royal Solomonic persona tests wisdom, pleasure, projects, wealth, reputation, and labor. Each experiment exposes the same boundary: human beings cannot produce lasting “gain” from beneath the sun because time, contingency, and death eventually take everything from their hands.

The phrase “under the sun” is therefore a crucial boundary marker. It names life as experienced from within the closed horizon of mortality. From that vantage point, generations come and go, the sun rises and sets, rivers run endlessly, memory disappears, and human striving circles back upon itself (Ecclesiastes 1:3–11). The world resembles Eden and yet is no longer Eden. Gardens can be planted, fruit enjoyed, marriage cherished, wisdom pursued, and work accomplished; nevertheless, thorns remain, sweat accompanies bread, domination distorts relationships, and everybody returns to dust. Ecclesiastes is the wisdom of Genesis 3 experienced from the inside.

He Shall Direct Thy Paths: Proverbs & Ecclesiastes

Proverbs 1-4; 15-16; 22; 31; Ecclesiastes 1-3; 11-12

The Temple Journey from Chaos to Communion

Proverbs teaches us how to walk wisely; Ecclesiastes asks whether wisdom is enough when life remains temporary, unfair, and beyond our control. Together, these books move the covenant disciple from moral formation to eternal perspective, from confidence in human calculation to reverent dependence upon God. Their unity is not a simplistic promise that righteous people will never suffer. It is the deeper testimony that life becomes rightly ordered when the Lord, rather than the isolated self, becomes its center.

This concluding study in the W.I.S.D.O.M. arc follows the appointed Come, Follow Me reading for September 7-13, 2026: Proverbs 1-4; 15-16; 22; 31 and Ecclesiastes 1-3; 11-12. Through Hebrew exegesis, Christ-centered exposition, Latter-day Saint scripture, and respected Jewish and Christian scholarship, we will trace a devotional temple movement from the two paths of wisdom and folly to the final summons to fear God, keep His commandments, and prepare for judgment. The destination is not intellectual mastery but communion: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart ... and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Introduction - When the Road Ahead Disappears

Most of us want God to give us a map. We want the next turn identified, the dangerous roads marked, and the destination guaranteed before we take the first step. Proverbs 3 offers something more demanding and more intimate. It does not promise that we will see the entire road. It promises that when we trust the Lord with the whole heart, refuse to make our own understanding the final authority, and know Him in all our ways, He will make the path straight before us.

That promise matters because discipleship is rarely lived on roads we fully understand. We make decisions with incomplete information. We pray through grief that has not resolved. We obey while consequences remain uncertain. We try to speak gently in a culture trained to reward outrage. We labor faithfully while Ecclesiastes reminds us that achievement, pleasure, wealth, reputation, and even human wisdom cannot defeat mortality. The human problem is not merely that we need better information. The deeper problem is that we are tempted to trust our own perspective as though it were complete.

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes meet us inside that tension. Proverbs says that creation possesses a moral grain: humility, diligence, fidelity, generosity, disciplined speech, and reverence ordinarily lead toward life. Ecclesiastes then refuses to let those observations harden into a mechanical formula. The wise still die. The righteous do not always receive immediate reward. Time overtakes every achievement. Much of life remains hevel - vaporous, fleeting, difficult to grasp. Biblical wisdom therefore matures when it moves beyond technique and becomes covenant trust.

This is why the final installment of our W.I.S.D.O.M. journey must end where the biblical books themselves end: not in admiration of the wise person, but in reverence before God. We have learned to Walk, Invite, Seek, Discern, Observe, and Meet. Each movement has carried us through the recurring wisdom pattern of descent and ascent: from Edenic estrangement into mortal confusion, from lament into remembrance, from self-reliance into surrender, and from the limits of human sight into the presence of the God who sees the whole way.

The 2026 Come, Follow Me manual wisely places Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in conversation. Proverbs teach that life is ordered by divine wisdom; Ecclesiastes asks what faithful life looks like when that order cannot be easily seen. Their combined witness is neither naive optimism nor cynical despair. It is covenant realism: life is temporary and often perplexing, yet it is lived before God, received as His gift, and made eternally significant through trust, obedience, repentance, and Jesus Christ.

Anchor Scripture - Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

The movement of these verses is deliberate. Trust replaces self-sufficiency. The whole heart replaces divided allegiance. Knowing God in every way replaces the habit of confining Him to explicitly religious moments. The promise is not that God will endorse every route we prefer; it is that He will straighten the road of a life yielded to Him.

Let Everything That Hath Breath Praise the Lord: When Lament Becomes Hallelujah

Psalms 87–150 and the Covenant Ascent into Praise, Presence, Mercy, and Divine Faithfulness

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The closing movement of the Psalms rises like a liturgical crescendo, but it does not reach hallelujah by pretending that suffering never happened. It carries affliction, exile, mortality, repentance, unanswered questions, and covenant longing into the presence of God. There, pain is neither minimized nor given the final word. Psalms 87–150 teach that biblical praise is more than religious enthusiasm. Praise is covenant memory: the deliberate act of remembering who God is, what He has done, and why His faithfulness remains trustworthy when life feels unsteady.

This Christ-centered Come, Follow Me study focuses on the 2026 reading assignment—Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; and 146–150—while placing those texts within the wider closing movement beginning with Zion in Psalm 87. Together, these psalms reveal the Lord as Creator, covenant Keeper, healer, righteous King, and refuge of the afflicted. They point Christian readers toward Jesus Christ as the enthroned Lord, eternal High Priest, rejected Cornerstone, and compassionate Savior. The Psalter finally summons every instrument, every nation, and “every thing that hath breath” to praise the Lord—not because mortality is painless, but because mercy endures, God reigns, and the road home remains open.

Reading the Closing Psalms as a Covenant Journey

The traditional Jewish name for the Psalter is Tehillim, “Praises.” That title may initially seem surprising because the book contains grief, protest, confession, fear, anger, royal celebration, wisdom instruction, and even prayers that make modern readers uncomfortable. Yet the name tells us where the whole collection is headed. The Psalms do not say that every moment feels praiseworthy. They teach the covenant people how to bring every moment—including the most painful one—before the God who is worthy of praise. The 2026 Come, Follow Me lesson similarly emphasizes that praise can take the form of singing, praying, bearing testimony, and deepening our commitment to follow the Lord.

Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann famously describes a recurring movement in the Psalms from orientation, through disorientation, into a new orientation. That pattern is not a mechanical formula, and not every psalm moves through all three stages. It is nevertheless a helpful pastoral lens. Faith begins with received assurances about God and the world; suffering then destabilizes what once seemed secure; grace finally creates a renewed confession that has passed through pain rather than bypassed it. The resulting praise is deeper because it is no longer naïve. It has learned that lament can be faithful speech and that worship can survive the night.

The final two books of the Psalter, Psalms 90–106 and 107–150, also answer the crisis left by the apparent collapse of Davidic kingship in Psalm 89. Human thrones fail, generations pass, and Israel experiences exile, but the Lord remains King. Torah still gives light. Zion still represents divine presence and covenant hope. The final five psalms then gather the entire creation into praise. Canonical scholars such as Gerald H. Wilson and the authors of The Book of Psalms have therefore encouraged readers to attend not only to each psalm individually but also to the theological meaning created by the Psalter’s final arrangement. The destination of this prayer book matters: after every lament has been heard, the last canonical word is hallelujah.

A Note on the Reading Range

The official August 31–September 6, 2026, Come, Follow Me assignment includes Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; and 146–150. This study briefly uses Psalms 87–93 as a bridge from Zion to divine kingship and then concentrates on the assigned passages. That wider frame preserves the larger canonical ascent without confusing the supplemental material with the official reading list.

"I Will Declare What He Hath Done for My Soul" | COME FOLLOW ME - OLD TESTAMENT 2026 | Psalms 49-86

The Temple Pattern of Descent, Ascent, and Exaltation in Israel's Hymnal of Redemption

"Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." - Psalm 66:16 KJV

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This study reads the selected Psalms 49-86 as a canonical and theological journey through mortality, sin, lament, repentance, remembrance, redemption, and public witness. These poems do not form a single authored liturgy; they cross the boundary between Books II and III of the Psalter and include wisdom instruction, penitential prayer, individual and communal lament, historical recital, royal hope, and testimony. Read together, however, they trace a temple-shaped movement from estrangement toward the presence of God. Psalm 49 exposes the inability of wealth or human power to ransom life from death; Psalm 51 turns confession into a prayer for divine re-creation; Psalms 63, 69, and 77 give faithful language to abandonment and distress; Psalms 66, 71, and 78 transform remembered deliverance into covenant testimony; and Psalms 72, 85, and 86 direct personal restoration toward righteous kingship and Zion. The Book of Mormon intensifies this pattern in Alma 36, Alma 26, Alma 34, and Alma 42, where anguish gives way to joy through Jesus Christ and redeemed experience becomes missionary proclamation. The central claim is that biblical ascent does not deny descent. The worshipper rises by bringing mortality, guilt, fear, and unanswered questions into covenant relationship with the God who alone can redeem, cleanse, heal, and receive the soul. Psalm 66:16 therefore becomes more than a memorable line: it is the vocation of a redeemed people.

Scripture and method note. Biblical quotations follow the King James Version unless otherwise noted. This article distinguishes the psalms' ancient literary setting, their Christian canonical fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and their Latter-day Saint resonance. "Exaltation" is used first for being lifted into divine presence, covenant joy, and praise; restored doctrine gives that movement its fuller horizon in eternal life with God.

The Psalms as the Soul's Ascent Back to Eden

The soul does not merely want relief from pain. At its deepest level, it longs for the presence of God - for the wholeness, communion, and holy order represented by Eden. That longing is one reason the Psalms remain indispensable. They do not speak only from the summit of faith. They also pray from the pit, the wilderness, the sickbed, the battlefield, the guilty conscience, and the long night when God seems silent. The Psalter gives covenant people permission to bring the whole truth of mortal life into worship.

Calling the Psalms Israel's "temple hymnal" captures something essential, but it also requires care. Many psalms are rooted in sanctuary worship, sacrifice, procession, royal ceremony, pilgrimage, and public praise. Others may have begun in personal or communal crisis before being gathered for liturgical use. Sigmund Mowinckel emphasized the Psalms' setting in Israel's worship, while Claus Westermann stressed the dynamic relationship between lament and praise. James Luther Mays therefore describes the Psalms as both scripture and liturgy: ancient prayers that became the prayerbook of later communities (Mowinckel; Westermann; Mays).

The temple lens becomes especially fruitful when joined to the pattern of descent, ascent, and exaltation. The biblical sanctuary represents ordered creation and the divine dwelling among humanity; temple worship moves symbolically toward holiness and presence (Levenson 275-98). In the Psalms, that movement is often existential rather than architectural. The worshipper descends into fear, sin, mortality, exile, or confusion; ascends through remembrance, repentance, sacrifice, trust, and covenant appeal; and is lifted into renewed joy, praise, divine fellowship, and testimony. Walter Brueggemann's well-known categories of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation offer a closely related account of the spiritual world of the Psalter (Brueggemann).

This pattern does not mean that every psalm begins in Eden, passes through a fixed ritual sequence, and ends in triumph. Hebrew poetry resists mechanical outlines. Its parallel lines deepen, contrast, intensify, and sometimes destabilize one another. Yet across Psalms 49-86, a recurring theological grammar becomes visible: false securities fail, the soul cries out, God's mighty acts are remembered, mercy opens a path, and the redeemed worshipper declares what God has done. The result is a spiritual autobiography of redemption, not because all the psalms were written by one person, but because generations of worshippers can find their own descent and ascent within Israel's inspired songs.

"The Lord Is My Shepherd": Psalm 23, Temple Descent-Ascent, and the Plan of Salvation

A Come, Follow Me Study for August 17-23, 2026: Psalms 1-2; 8; 19-33; 40; 46

"For thou art with me." - Psalm 23:4

Most of us first learned Psalm 23 as a psalm of comfort. We hear it at funerals, repeat it in hospital rooms, and reach for it when grief has stripped life down to its most difficult questions. That use is neither accidental nor misplaced. Yet Psalm 23 does more than assure us that God will remain near when we die. It poetically traces an entire journey: the Lord provides, restores, guides, accompanies, protects, welcomes, anoints, and finally brings the worshipper into His house.

That movement makes Psalm 23 especially meaningful for Latter-day Saints. Its imagery can be read as a temple-shaped journey from ordered life into mortal darkness and then upward into covenant fellowship and the presence of God. Read within the immediate sequence of Psalms 22-24, the pattern becomes even more striking: lament and suffering in Psalm 22, the Shepherd's presence in Psalm 23, and ascent to the holy hill with the King of glory in Psalm 24. Nancy deClaissé-Walford's intertextual study similarly argues that these three neighboring psalms form a powerful statement of trust when read together (deClaissé-Walford 139-52).

This interpretation requires one careful qualification. Psalm 23 is not demonstrably a word-for-word transcript of an ancient Israelite temple ceremony, and the full Latter-day Saint plan of salvation should not be projected backward into every Hebrew phrase as though the psalmist were writing a systematic doctrinal manual. Psalm 23 is commonly classified as a psalm of trust or confidence, while a pilgrimage setting that culminates at the temple remains a respected scholarly proposal rather than an uncontested conclusion (Smith 61-66; Tappy 255-80). The temple and plan-of-salvation reading offered here is therefore a disciplined canonical and theological synthesis: it begins with what the Hebrew poem says, follows the intertextual patterns the Psalter supplies, reads the psalm through Jesus Christ, and then asks how Restoration scripture enlarges its hope.

What Come, Follow Me Actually Assigns for August 17-23

The official 2026 reading is often abbreviated as "Psalms 1-46," but the assigned passages are selections rather than every chapter in that range: Psalms 1-2; 8; 19-33; 40; and 46. The manual invites readers to notice the Psalms' vivid images of the Savior, including the green pastures, still waters, rod, staff, and overflowing cup of Psalm 23. It then connects Psalm 24's "hill of the Lord" with the temple and with preparation to enter the presence of God (Come, Follow Me).

The broader three-week schedule is also selective. August 24-30 covers Psalms 49-51; 61-66; 69-72; 77-78; and 85-86, while August 31-September 6 covers Psalms 102-103; 110; 116-119; 127-128; 135-139; and 146-150. Keeping the actual readings clear strengthens the study because it allows Psalm 23 to function as the focal text for this week without forcing an artificial structure onto every psalm from 1 through 46.

"Yet Will I Trust in Him": Job, the Redeemer, and the Temple Pattern of Descent and Ascent

How suffering, covenant faithfulness, divine perspective, and restoration reveal the plan of salvation

What do we do when life falls apart—not because we have walked away from God, but while we are doing our best to remain faithful to Him? What do we say when prayer does not immediately change the diagnosis, restore the relationship, return what was lost, or explain why a righteous person has been permitted to suffer? Those questions are not signs of spiritual failure. They are among the deepest questions of mortality, and the book of Job refuses to answer them with a slogan.

Job is not a story about a man who never struggled. He grieved, protested, questioned, and pleaded for God to answer him. He described himself as stripped of glory, surrounded by darkness, abandoned by loved ones, and unable to find the God he still longed to meet. Yet his anguish never became indifference. Job kept turning toward God, even when he could not understand God. His questions and his faith occupied the same ash heap.

That is the spiritual tension at the heart of the 2026 Come, Follow Me lesson on Job. The manual emphasizes that faith in Job is questioned and tested without being completely abandoned. Not every question receives an explanation, but questions can coexist with faith. Job therefore becomes more than a case study in the problem of evil. He becomes a witness of what covenant trust looks like when familiar answers no longer seem adequate.

Read as a whole, Job is a temple-shaped wisdom drama of descent, covenant testing, divine encounter, intercession, and restoration. Its movement carries Job from abundance into ashes, from ashes into argument, from argument toward a living Redeemer, and from limited mortal understanding into the presence of God. The book does not merely ask, “Why do righteous people suffer?” It presses us toward a more searching question: How does a covenant disciple remain faithful until God reveals a larger perspective through the living Redeemer?

How Should We Read the Book of Job?

The first step in responsible expository teaching is to respect the kind of literature we are reading. Job begins with a prose prologue in chapters 1–2, moves into an extended poetic body in chapters 3–41, and returns to prose in the concluding portion of chapter 42. Within the poetic core are Job’s lament, three cycles of debate with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Job’s extended defense, the speeches of Elihu, and the Lord’s response from the whirlwind. This carefully arranged structure is one reason Job should not be read as if it were a modern courtroom transcript.

The Religious Studies Center essay “Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job?” acknowledges both the possible historical foundation of Job and the book’s evident literary shaping. Modern scholarship commonly classifies Job as wisdom literature, but that label does not exhaust the book. Will Kynes notes that Job can also be read through the lenses of lament, drama, controversy dialogue, lawsuit, exemplary sufferer narrative, epic, prophecy, and apocalyptic literature. Carol A. Newsom describes the book as a contest of moral imaginations because Job and his interlocutors do not simply exchange information; they present competing visions of God, justice, suffering, and human righteousness.

This literary awareness also helps us understand the heavenly scene in Job 1–2. The Come, Follow Me manual explains that these chapters poetically emphasize Satan’s role as adversary or accuser and should not be treated as a literal transcript of a conversation between God and Satan. The scene reveals the theological issue driving the drama: Is Job’s devotion genuine, or is it merely the price he pays for prosperity and protection? The question is not only whether Job will survive suffering. The question is whether worship can remain worship when the expected rewards disappear.

Catherine Petrany sharpens this literary observation by attending to the Hebrew expression ha-satan, “the adversary” or “the accuser.” The definite article makes the expression function like a title rather than a personal name. Within Job’s ancient heavenly-court scene, this figure roams, investigates, and prosecutes a case; he is not yet portrayed with every feature that later Jewish and Christian texts associate with the Devil. That historical distinction explains the role this character plays in Job without requiring Latter-day Saint readers to discard restored teachings about Satan’s premortal rebellion. The disciplined approach is to let Job’s prologue define the accuser’s narrative function, then let the wider canon supply additional doctrine without forcing all later details back into two poetic chapters.

To call Job a wisdom drama, or even to recognize mythic and liturgical dimensions in it, is not to call it false. In biblical studies, mythic can describe a narrative’s use of cosmic imagery, creation symbolism, heavenly councils, chaos creatures, and archetypal conflict. Liturgical can describe patterns of mourning, petition, divine encounter, sacrifice, and restored communion. Those categories help us see how Job’s personal anguish is placed within a cosmic frame without requiring us to deny that the story may preserve the memory of a real righteous sufferer.

From the Ash Heap to the Holy Mountain: Hebrew Poetry and Wisdom Literature through the Temple Pattern of Descent and Ascent

A Come, Follow Me introduction to Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes do not offer one flat explanation of faithful life. They give us an inspired conversation. Job protests any theology that reduces suffering to a predictable equation. The Psalms teach covenant Israel to pray through joy, guilt, abandonment, fear, gratitude, and praise. Proverbs forms moral perception by training the disciple to fear the Lord and choose wisdom over folly. Ecclesiastes exposes the vapor-like instability of mortal achievement and the limits of human control. Read together, these books move repeatedly from order into disorientation and from disorientation toward a renewed, humbler communion with God.

This study proposes the temple pattern of descent and ascent as a theological and devotional framework for that movement. Descent names mortality, estrangement, lament, disorder, and the collapse of false certainty. Ascent names purification, covenant formation, divine instruction, unveiled perspective, and renewed presence. The framework is grounded most directly in the temple setting of many Psalms—especially Psalm 24—but it should not be mistaken for a claim that Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes were all composed as a single temple ritual. Instead, it is a canonical, Christ-centered reading that brings the wisdom books into conversation with Israel’s worship, the plan of salvation, and the Latter-day Saint journey back into God’s presence. The W.I.S.D.O.M. arc developed below provides the series structure: Walk, Invite, Seek, Discern, Observe, and Meet.

Esther and the Pattern of Covenant Deliverance

Preserving God’s Covenant People Through Hidden Providence

By Jessica Shipp (@ChristPearls), with companion devotional and editorial contributions by Timothy R. Berman

Editor's Note: Jessica Shipp contributed the primary article, biblical character study, and chapter-by-chapter summary. Timothy R. Berman contributed the E.S.T.H.E.R. acrostic, devotional applications, additional reflections, and editorial presentation for Faith & Reason.

About Jessica Shipp

Jessica Shipp is the founder and creator of Christ Pearls, a Latter-day Saint gospel study ministry grounded in the conviction that spiritual beauty is often formed through pressure, pain, difficult questions, and refining discipleship. Through her guiding message, “From Pressure to Pearl, Through Christ,” Jessica provides study-based gospel insights, doctrine-rich explanations, and inspired reflections for disciples seeking greater depth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Her work particularly explores the doctrines and scriptural questions that challenge, stretch, and prepare believers for faithful discipleship and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Follow her ministry on YouTube and social media at @ChristPearls.

The Book of Esther occupies a unique place in Scripture. Unlike every other biblical book, God’s name never appears explicitly in its pages. Yet His presence is everywhere. Rather than revealing Himself through miracles or prophetic declarations, the Lord works quietly through ordinary people, ordinary decisions, and seemingly ordinary events. The story invites us to look beyond coincidence and recognize the unseen hand of providence guiding history according to His covenant purposes.

The historical setting is equally significant. More than a century after the Babylonian exile, many Jews had returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, but countless others remained scattered throughout the Persian Empire. Living among the nations, they preserved their covenant identity while existing within a foreign culture. At precisely this moment, Haman obtains a royal decree ordering the destruction of every Jew in the empire:

“To destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day…” (Esther 3:13)

This is far more than a political crisis. The covenant people themselves stand under a sentence of death. Once again, God’s promises appear to hang by a thread. Yet this pattern is familiar throughout Scripture. Pharaoh sought to destroy Israel’s sons. Athaliah attempted to eradicate the royal seed of David. Herod sought the life of the infant Messiah. Time and again, when God’s covenant purposes seem threatened, He raises faithful men and women whose courage preserves His people until His greater purposes unfold. Esther belongs to that pattern.

“I Am Doing a Great Work”: Stay on the Wall and Finish What God Called You to Do

“I Am Doing a Great Work”

Stay on the Wall and Finish What God Called You to Do
Come, Follow Me—July 27–August 2 | Ezra 1; 3–7; Nehemiah 2; 4–6; 8

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There are some distractions that do not look dangerous because they look quite reasonable. 

They arrive as invitations, conversations, controversies, urgent notifications, unexpected opportunities, and demands for our immediate attention. They ask us to take a moment and step away from what God may have placed before us - not necessarily forever, just long enough for us to lose our concentration and focus. 

This was the very strategy used against Nehemiah. 

Nehemiah’s enemies did not begin by openly commanding him to abandon the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Instead, they repeatedly invited him to leave the work and meet them in the plain of Ono. Such a proposal sounded quite diplomatic; however, Nehemiah recognized the deception beneath. He was able to discern and understood that not every invitation deserved an answer. Nor every controversy deserved his attention and presence. 

His response has become one of the most significant and clearest declarations of spiritual focus in scripture: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down” (Nehemiah 6:3). Nehemiah was not boasting about his personal importance. What he did is declare the significance of the assignment - or calling - God had entrusted to him. More to the point, Nehemiah took seriously the stewardship of what God called him to accomplish. 

The wall was more than stone and timber. Jerusalem’s restoration represented covenant renewal, spiritual protection, communal identity, temple worship, and the fulfillment of God’s promises. 

This week’s Come Follow Me Study for the Old Testament is about more than rebuilding a temple or repairing a city wall. It is regarding how we are open and willing to recognize the work God has placed before each of us, resisting whatever pulls us away from it, and trusting that the Lord will strengthen our hands as we remain faithful and obedient to His will, purpose, and plans. 

When You Don’t Know What to Do, Keep Your Eyes on God | 2 Chronicles 14–20; 26; 30

Come, Follow Me — July 20–26, 2026: “Our Eyes Are Upon Thee”

What do you do when the opposition is greater than your strength, the pressure is greater than your wisdom, and you honestly do not know what to do next?

This week’s Come, Follow Me study takes us into the lives of kings, prophets, reformers, worshippers, and ordinary families who faced that very question. Their stories reveal that peace does not come from pretending the battle is small. It comes from knowing where to turn when the battle is bigger than you.

Through the accounts of Asa, Micaiah, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles invites us to examine where we place our trust, how we respond to correction, and whether our eyes remain fixed upon the Lord when fear, success, pride, or division threaten to pull them away. Each of these figures faced formidable challenges—be it external armies, internal strife, or the temptations of power—and their responses provide valuable lessons for our own lives.

Asa, for instance, shows how reliance on God in times of trouble can lead to unexpected victories, while Micaiah reminds us of the importance of courage in standing for truth, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Jehoshaphat’s alliance-building and pursuit of divine guidance highlight the significance of seeking God's will in decision-making, especially when circumstances seem dire. Uzziah's rise to power illustrates the fine line between humility in success and the dangers of pride, reminding us that acknowledgment of our dependence on God is crucial. Lastly, Hezekiah's prayer in times of crisis demonstrates that sincere reliance on divine help can yield miraculous outcomes.

This week's study encourages us to reflect deeply on our own lives. When confronted with overwhelming pressure, do we allow our fears to overshadow our faith? Are we quick to seek advice from sources that may not align with our beliefs? Or do we, like these biblical figures, turn our attention steadfastly to God, trusting that He will guide us through our fiercest battles? Through these narratives, we learn that true peace comes from steadfast faith and a commitment to seek God's wisdom relentlessly, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles may appear.

Book of Mormon Contradictions? Paul Gee and Timothy Berman Discuss Mosiah 18

Tonight, Faith & Reason hosts a focused livestream discussion between Paul Gee and Timothy R. Berman examining one of the central arguments raised against the Book of Mormon: the claim that Mosiah 18 contains biblical and historical contradictions.

The discussion will stream live directly on this page.

Watch the Livestream

Date: July 14, 2026
Time: 4:30 PM Pacific / 5:30 PM Mountain
Participants: Paul Gee and Timothy R. Berman
Topic: Baptism and the Church in Mosiah 18

The livestream video is embedded below. The broadcast will begin automatically when the event goes live.

He Trusted in the Lord: When Faith Is Challenged and Reform Becomes Necessary | Come Follow Me 2 Kings 16–25

Let's face the reality and truth: Our faith is going to be tested time and time again. Much of the time, there are going to be those seasons where our faith is not tested through seasons of silence. Instead, they are going to be tested through seasons where there are clamor and noise.

The Assyrian voice outside the wall is quite loud. The threat is very public. The accusation is calculated. And the enemy does not merely attack Jerusalem's defenses; the enemy attacks Jerusalem's confidence in God. I want to say this again: The enemy does not merely attack Jerusalem's defenses because the enemy attacks Jerusalem's confidence in God. This becomes a powerful tension in 2 Kings 16-25. For good reason, because the issue is not only whether Judah is capable of surviving Assyria or Babylon. The deeper question is whether God's people will trust the Lord when worldly power looks more practical than covenant faithfulness.

This week's Come Follow Me lesson, "He Trusted in the Lord God of Israel," places us in some of the darkest years of Israel and Judah's history. The Northern Kingdom is conquered and scattered by Assyria. Whereas the Southern Kingdom struggles with idolatry, compromise, fear, reform, and eventual destruction. Yet in the middle of spiritual rebellion and decline, two kings stand out: Kink Hezekiah, who trusted the Lord when Jerusalem was threatened, and King Josiah who seemed to turn to scripture and renew covenants when the Book of the Law was rediscovered. The latter resulting in what scholars refer to as the Deuteronomist Reform or the Josiah Reformation. Bridging first temple Judaism with the movement toward what will become the Second Temple era of Jewish history.

The contrast here is quite sobering as Ahaz looked to Assyria for security and compromised the First Temple - or Solomon's Temple. While Hezekiah seemed to turn to look unto the Lord and went to the temple in prayer. Josiah heard the scriptures, humbled himself, and led a reform that reshaped Jewish history and religious worship. Zedekiah rebelled and Babylon rose up - bringing destruction upon Jerusalem. It's destruction of the city and temple a fulfillment of prophecy the Jew's of First Temple Jerusalem refused to accept.

These chapters teach that trust is not something built upon sentimental optimism. Trust is built on covenantal loyalty while under pressure and enduring the refiner's fire.

Afflicted, Yet Highly Favored | Finding God’s Goodness in a Broken World — 1 Nephi 1

What does it truly mean to be highly favored of God?

Many of us carry an underlying assumption that if we are faithful, life should become easier. We expect obedience to produce comfort, clarity, answered prayers, and protection from suffering. Yet Jesus never promised a life without hardship. He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” but then added, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Nephi begins his record with this same tension. He had “seen many afflictions,” and yet he described himself as “highly favored of the Lord” (1 Nephi 1:1).

How can both be true?

Perhaps God’s favor is not proven by the hardships He prevents, but by His presence within the hardships we endure. Joseph was falsely accused and imprisoned, yet even there “the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy” (Genesis 39:20–21). Divine favor does not always mean receiving the life we hoped to have. Sometimes it means discovering the life God is forming within us through His goodness, grace, and sustaining presence.

Nephi does not deny or minimize his afflictions. Instead, he interprets them through his “great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God” (1 Nephi 1:1).

That distinction matters.

Affliction was part of Nephi’s story, but it was not the final meaning of his story. As Paul later taught, tribulation can produce patience, experience, and hope because the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:3–5).

First Nephi chapter 1 begins with affliction and divine favor, but it ends with faith and divine deliverance. Between those two declarations, Jerusalem receives a prophetic warning (1 Nephi 1:4). Lehi prays “with all his heart” on behalf of his people (1 Nephi 1:5). Heaven opens, revelation comes, and Lehi is called to testify of the Messiah and “the redemption of the world” (1 Nephi 1:19).

The people reject his message, mock him, and seek his life. Yet rejection does not have the final word. Nephi concludes by declaring that “the tender mercies of the Lord” are over those who exercise faith, making them mighty “unto the power of deliverance” (1 Nephi 1:20). Even God’s warnings reveal His mercy. The Lord declares that He takes no pleasure in destruction but desires that the wicked turn from their ways and live (Ezekiel 33:11). God warns because He loves. He confronts because He desires repentance, healing, and restoration.

God’s warnings are expressions of His mercy, and those who respond in faith will discover His power to deliver.

Today, we will walk through 1 Nephi chapter 1 and examine how Nephi interpreted his afflictions through God’s goodness and tender mercies.

We will see Lehi respond to a broken world with intercessory prayer rather than condemnation. We will examine how revelation led him to proclaim Jesus Christ and redemption. And we will discover why the rejection of God’s message could not overcome His power to preserve and deliver the faithful.

As we study, we must also ask ourselves: How are we interpreting our own afflictions? Are we measuring God’s goodness only by the circumstances we want Him to change? Could the correction or warning we are resisting actually be an expression of His mercy? Scripture does not promise that the righteous will avoid affliction. It declares, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19).

God’s favor is not measured by the absence of hardship. It is revealed through His faithful presence, His goodness made known, and His sustaining mercy through every affliction. We may experience many afflictions and still be highly favored of the Lord. The hardship is real—but so are His tender mercies. And because His mercy is real, affliction does not have the final word.

There Is a Prophet in Israel: When You Feel Surrounded, God Is Still Working | Come Follow Me 2 Kings 2–7

There were moments in my own life when the challenges seemed larger than the promise. The overall pressure felt immediate. Fear seemed quite rational. The surrounding issues seemed visible, measurable, and impossible to ignore. This is where Elisha's servant saw when he woke and found the city surrounded by horses and chariots. The servant's question was not dramatic, it is quite human: "Alas, my master! How shall we do?"

Elisha did not deny the reality of the danger. He did not pretend the army was not there. He simply saw more than the servant saw. His answer is one of the great faith-building declarations of scripture: "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." Elisha, then, prayed that the Lord will open the young man's eyes, and suddenly the mountain was filled with heavenly help. The issue had not changed, the servant's vision had.

This is the very heart of this week's Come Follow Me lesson in 2 Kings 2-7. The title of the lesson is, "There is a Prophet in Israel," and it walks us through the ministry of Elisha, the successor of Elijah. These chapters are filled with miracles: water healed, oil multiplied, a child raised, poisoned food purified, bread multiplied, Naaman cleansed, an ax head recovered, armies restrained, and prophetic words fulfilled. Yet the deeper message is not merely how miracles happened, nor how long ago they happened, because the deeper message is that the Lord still works through covenant faith, prophetic authority, humble obedience, and spiritual eyes that learn to see beyond fear and doubt.

The official Come Follow Me material notes that although Elisha's record does not preserve much of his direct teaching, his miracles testify of Christ's life-giving, nourishing, and healing power. These miracles point us to the Savior who raises, feeds, cleanses, restores, and opens up eyes. They invite us to ask the same prayer Elisha offered: Lord, open our eyes, that we may see.

Rehoboam's Pride, Elijah's Fire & the Voice You're Missing | 1 Kings 12-13; 17–22 CFM

Choose This Day: Finding Christ in the Divided Kingdoms of Our Lives

Quite frankly, I am grateful for the many people who have come into my life and spoken to me directly, compassionately, and with genuine understanding. They showed patience and grace without sitting in judgment over me. They met me in difficult and messy moments, listened to what I was carrying, and helped me confront unhealthy attitudes and behaviors without condemning me.

Yet, if I am completely honest, I have also carried resentment, bitterness, self-hatred, and anger toward people whom I believed had betrayed, ignored, or abandoned me.

Every one of us is shaped—lifted, wounded, strengthened, or misled—by the voices we choose to follow.

Families may rise or fall because of those voices. Communities may flourish or fracture because of them. Our faith may deepen or drift depending on whose counsel we trust and whose influence we permit to guide our decisions.

Much of the pain we carry may be traced to someone who used influence selfishly—or to someone who possessed the ability to help but refused to use it.

The opposite is also true.

Some of the deepest healing we experience comes through Christlike leaders, mentors, friends, and disciples who choose to show up, serve, and sacrifice. They meet us in places where others might pass by. They take time to understand, comfort, encourage, and help us move forward without excusing destructive behavior or enabling us to remain stuck.

That tension between selfish influence and Christlike service stands at the heart of this week’s Come, Follow Me study for June 29–July 5: “If the Lord Be God, Follow Him,” covering 1 Kings 12–13 and 17–22.

What the Divinity of Jesus Christ Means to You

Why Jesus Alone Could Accomplish the Infinite and Eternal Atonement

What manner of man commands the wind and sea—and they obey Him? He who speaks to the chaotic elements and they submit to His will, revealing His divine authority over nature itself. His voice echoes through the storm, bringing peace where there was turmoil, demonstrating an unparalleled mastery that transcends human understanding.

What manner of man possesses the power to lay down His life and take it up again? He who, with the authority inherent to His being, presents the ultimate sacrifice, fully aware of the weight of such a decision. In laying down His life, He unveils the profound mystery of love and redemption. The same strength that allows Him to give Himself away also empowers Him to conquer death, rising triumphantly to provide hope and eternal life to humanity.

What manner of man suffers more than mortal humanity can endure, yet remains until the work of redemption is complete? He bears the weight of all humanity’s sins, feeling the depths of anguish and despair, yet persevering through the agony to fulfill His purpose. His empathy is boundless, experiencing sorrow in ways that only a divine nature could comprehend. In His endurance, He illustrates the profound depth of grace, revealing that true strength is often displayed in vulnerability and unwavering commitment to a higher calling, despite the unbearable cost.

This man is a testament to the coexistence of power and humility, a divine figure whose actions reshape the narrative of humanity's relationship with the Creator. His life and legacy stand as an eternal beacon of hope, a call to embrace the extraordinary potential within each of us to rise above our circumstances and to foster love, compassion, and redemption in a world so often in need of these gifts.

These questions stand at the center of Doctrine Lesson 6, “What the Divinity of Jesus Christ Means to You,” from the 1974–75 Melchizedek Priesthood study guide When Thou Art Converted, Strengthen Thy Brethren. The lesson’s purpose was not merely to establish that Jesus was extraordinary. It invited priesthood holders to understand why Jesus Christ alone possessed power to accomplish the infinite and eternal Atonement—and why every one of us remains completely dependent upon Him.

Nearly five decades later, that central purpose remains unchanged. Some of the language used in the original lesson, however, has generated theological questions and apologetic controversy. In particular, statements by James E. Talmage and Bruce R. McConkie about Christ’s literal divine sonship have been interpreted by critics as teaching that God the Father physically descended and engaged in sexual intercourse with Mary.

A responsible modern treatment must do more than dismiss that criticism. It must distinguish among what scripture reveals, what individual Church leaders have proposed or speculated, and what the Church currently teaches as established doctrine.

It is best we do not allow controversy over the manner of Christ’s conception to distract us from the greater truth: Jesus Christ did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

The Battle Is the Lord’s: Facing Your Goliath with Faith in Jesus Christ

Come Follow Me | June 15-21 | “The battle is the Lord’s.” —1 Samuel 17:47

There are seasons in life when the challenge standing before us seems larger than our faith, stronger than our resolve, and better equipped than anything we possess. We may know the language of faith, remember the promises of scripture, and sincerely believe that God is with us, yet the giant still appears to dominate the valley. It calls attention to our weakness, rehearses our failures, magnifies our fears, and confidently predicts our defeat.

For one person, that giant may be addiction or the relentless temptation to return to an old way of living. For another, it may be grief, rejection, loneliness, financial uncertainty, family conflict, shame, resentment, or the lingering consequences of decisions that cannot be undone. Some giants appear suddenly, while others have occupied the valley for years, issuing the same challenge every morning and evening until fear begins to feel like the natural condition of life.

The Come, Follow Me lesson for June 15–21, covering 1 Samuel 17–18; 24–26 and 2 Samuel 5–7, invites us to look again at David’s story and hear his declaration that “the battle is the Lord’s.” That declaration does not mean our participation is unnecessary, nor does it promise that discipleship will protect us from every difficulty. David still walked into the valley, selected the stones, prepared his sling, and confronted the enemy. What he refused to do was accept the assumption that the outcome depended entirely upon his own size, strength, resources, or experience.

David understood that he was participating in a battle whose final authority belonged to God.

That same truth can transform the way we approach our spiritual battles today. We do not have to pretend that our giants are small. We do not have to deny the pain, complexity, or danger of what stands before us. Faith does not require us to minimize reality; it teaches us to see reality within the greater reality of God’s power, covenant faithfulness, and redemptive purposes.

Book of Mormon Contradictions? A Latter-day Saint Responds to Paul Gee on "Baptism" and "Church" in Mosiah 18

We are going to look at a very specific claim: that the Book of Mormon story of baptism in Mosiah is just Joseph Smith copying Acts 2 - and that baptism for the remission of sins could not have existed before Jesus Christ, therefore the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible. If this is true, Latter-day Saint scripture definitely collapses. If it is not, then this criticism is built on a very sandy foundation. Let's actually examine to see if such a claim has any credibility and validity to truth or if it is a false claim.

Now, I am not asking you to take my own word for it. I am asking that we open up the scriptures, open up our hearts and minds because we are going to walk through Paul Gee's argument, steelman it, and then test it against scripture, history, and essential logic. By doing this, we can critically assess the merits of his claims and their implications for the understanding of both the Book of Mormon and biblical texts.

This is not an attack on Paul. In fact, he reached out and asked me to read it as it will supposedly prove that the Book of Mormon is false. And I will quote him fairly, present his argument in its strongest form, and will show how I believe it fails - scripturally, historically, and logically. By carefully dissecting the specifics of his argument, we can delve deeper into the theological and historical context of baptism and its significance within both texts.

Understanding that baptism as a practice existed in various forms before Christ and that the concept of a remission of sins is not exclusively tied to any one scripture, we must analyze whether the Old Testament precedents and the teachings of Christ later broaden our comprehension of baptism. This exploration will hopefully shed new light on claims made against the Book of Mormon, fostering a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the narrative within its pages.

As we navigate through this intricate discussion, I invite all readers to remain open-minded and reflect critically on the scriptures, drawing personal insights even as we engage with challenging interpretations. A sincere examination can lead us to a deeper faith and understanding of these profound spiritual texts.

Does the LDS Faith Have 3 Kinds of God?

Are there three Gods within the LDS Faith, or is Matt Slick of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry making three specific category errors? He appears to contend that Latter-day Saint theology contains three types of gods. Yet, his conclusion seems to depend entirely on misunderstandings, inaccuracies in reading LDS sources, and the imposition of post-Nicene metaphysics onto texts that do not utilize them.

When we scrutinize Slick's assertions, it becomes apparent that they stem from misrepresentations of key doctrinal points. The Latter-day Saint understanding of God emphasizes a singular divine nature, with a clear distinction between God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, who are unified in purpose but distinct in being. This understanding challenges Slick’s insistence on a concept of multiple gods existing in separate categories, which does not align with LDS beliefs as how we interpret our scriptures and teachings.

By examining the categories he uses and applying a proper lens through which to analyze LDS doctrine, one may ultimately see that Slick's arguments significantly falter. His framework seems to force the doctrine into a misunderstanding of the term 'God,' failing to account for the context and nuances within Latter-day Saint theology.

His claims not only misrepresent what Latter-day Saints uphold but also create contradictions within his argumentation regarding what he purports they teach. This is not merely a disagreement over religious interpretation; it represents a profound mischaracterization that undermines genuine discourse.

Today, I wish to respond to this critique with clarity, doctrinal precision, and integrity, standing firm in the belief that the truth of Latter-day Saint doctrine deserves to be presented honestly. It is vital that we engage with those who misunderstand or misrepresent our beliefs with a spirit of boldness and respect—exhorting and convincing the gainsayer (Titus 1:9) through proper correction and thoughtful rebuke (2 Timothy 3:16). By addressing these misunderstandings directly, we can foster a more accurate understanding of Latter-day Saint teachings and encourage meaningful dialogue that respects differences while seeking common ground.