God's Covenant People

You know how sometimes you feel like you’re trying really hard to please someone even though that someone doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, and they seem totally oblivious to everything you’re trying to do for them? Today I feel like that’s what’s happening with me and Dad. He had another dream last night and the message he took away is basically that I’m a bad person who doesn’t love God. In his dream, there was a tree (that may or may not be the olive tree he talked about a few weeks ago, I don’t really get it) and it had some fruit. And Dad, Mom, Nephi, and Sam ate the fruit. But, shocker, Laman and I didn’t. Also, there were a bunch of people in a big building making fun of those who ate the fruit. So Dad spent quite awhile telling us that he was afraid we’d be cut off from God and that we needed to keep God's commandments.

What do the swirl's mean? Probably nothing.

What do I even do with that??? First, it’s just a dream. I have weird dreams about food too lately because we’re in the desert, and I’m hungry more often than I used to be. I’ve always been kind of wary of people who read too much into their dreams. Sometimes dreams are just dreams. In fact, most of the time, dreams are just dreams. I'm sure it's different for prophets, but for people like us, it's best to be cautious.

Second, I’ve done everything Dad has asked, just like Nephi has. I followed Dad out here, I went back and risked my life to get the plates, I went back again to get Ishmael’s family. And yeah, Nephi and I had disagreements that escalated; that’s kind of what brothers do. So for Dad to say, “Oh Nephi (who is apparently my favorite son now) ate the fruit, and Lemuel, you’re lame and didn’t eat the fruit in my trippy dream. That means Lemuel is going to hell, but good job Nephi, God loves you.” It’s like he’s completely unaware of everything I’ve done up to this point. This is a REAL sacrifice, and it’s not easy for me. Which leads into my third point about why this is not easy for me...

This isn’t easy for me because I doubt that we’re really obeying God's commands in this “adventure.” Here’s my problem with this whole thing: I actually believe what God has taught through his prophets. We are the Lord's people. His covenants with Abraham (a prophet) describe the blessings and protections we receive. Moses (a prophet) gave us the law—a law which we the Jews still keep, by the way. Our current political system can be traced back to Samuel (also a prophet). Here’s a list of very specific things from the prophets that Dad and the rest of the Jeremiah faction seem to ignore:

• God promised this of Canaan to Abraham’s seed (that’s us, not the Babylonians). This promise was restated to Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
• God promised Abraham that his seed will possess the gate of their enemies and those that hate them (in our day, that would be Babylon).
• Furthermore, He promised "I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land."
• Oh, and Israel will possess greater nations that are mightier than Israel themselves. No man will be able to stand before Israel. (quick note, while the nation of Israel has been destroyed, the true ruler of Israel as identified by Jacob is Judah. That same Judah that was protected from Assyria by God. The same Judah that has preserved the line of David.)

Finally, the Jeremiah faction likes to dwell on the perceived weaknesses of our leaders. They say these “sins” are leading to our destruction. I’m the first to admit, the leaders aren’t perfect. Of course they make mistakes. That’s why we observe the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. It cleanses all our sins before the Lord and allows us to regain our oneness with him.

I’m thinking I’ll take these concerns to Dad. He thinks I’m rebelling against God, but I worry the same about him. Maybe going through the scriptures and helping him better understand our status as the Lord's special, covenant people might clear up some things. Please let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any scriptures or teachings from our recent prophets that could help get Dad back on the right track.

Dreams Followed

Surprise! We’re not in Jerusalem anymore, and no, we aren’t doing the whole trading caravan thing either. Dad followed through on what he believed his dream told him, and so we all packed up and left Jerusalem three days ago. Now, we’re just camping next to a river near the Red Sea.

Obviously, I’m concerned. Dad’s visions contributed to him joining Jeremiah's followers in the first place, and those followers generally just hate on God's chosen leaders. I’m not sure why Jeremiah has such an ax to grind. It’s possible he was jealous of the fact that he’s not the High Priest. Some people don’t understand that in the Lord’s household, the office you occupy doesn’t matter. It only matters that you serve. Ambition for anything else can lead to apostasy. Anyway Dad’s visions sent him down this path of apostasy in the first place, so how does he expect us to trust his visions that led us out here?

But, since we’re here, pics!

Luckily, there’s a little greenery and shade here where we’ve set up camp.

Okay, but seriously, I’m really conflicted about everything right now. Abandoning my family doesn’t feel right, but when Dad is taking us down the wrong path, what do I do? Right now I’m thinking I stick with my family and try to be the voice of reason. Hopefully, I can convince Dad to see the light regarding this path he’s taken, and things can return to how they should be.

Oh, and it looks like I might need a new blog description for the top banner. "Learning the trade of my father" doesn't seem like the direction this blog will be going, unfortunately. Comment below if you have any better ideas for a description.

Desert Sun

So this is supposed to be a blog about the trade industry, but I gotta deviate a bit because I think the desert travel might’ve affected Dad’s mind. He was being kinda weird today when he got home from Ramoth-Gilead.

He’s always been a pretty religious guy, but lately he seems a little...off. You know those haters like Jeremiah and his followers who are always speaking evil of our leaders and the prophets? Well, I’ve noticed him listening to some of their sermons recently, and he’s been more critical of our leaders of late.

Anyway, he came home from his most recent work trip with a weird expression on his face, didn’t say anything to anyone, and just went to bed. Then after dinner I overheard him telling Mom something about “destruction of this people.” Does he thinks we, the Jews, are going to be destroyed? It’s pretty clear in the scriptures that we’re the Lord’s covenant people. I don’t know how he could come to that conclusion.

So maybe the first rule of caravanning is make sure you don’t get too much exposure to the sun… ;)