Comments on: In Our Ward: Lesson 9: “God Will Provide Himself a Lamb”

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:41:44 +0000

Love your moniker, dry brown —

I think that you could do what I did with the onion (adapted to your own style of course) with Lesson 11:

Layer 1 would be the simple narration of the stories, the bare surface facts.

Layer 2 would be finding parallels between these stories and modern life — while we generally don’t literally sell each other into slavery, for instance, we do stand in each other’s way and too often don’t promote each other’s welfare; we don’t usually literally commit incest and prostitution, but families can become warped when roles and expectations become twisted. As for circumcision: I’m reminded of the verses in the New Testament where early Christians thought converts had to become Jews before they could become Christians — are there behaviors or attitudes that long-time church members expect converts to adopt that aren’t really gospel essentials? I think there could be a lot of good discussion about modern parallels to these ancient bad behaviors. These ancient people are so human.

Layer 3: The first “shadow” I see is that Joseph and Jesus were both taken into Egypt (a place that can’t seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a place of refuge or a place of affliction). Their going to Egypt was in both cases due to the threat to their lives, and in each case Egypt became a place that saved their lives. There are probably other parallels that aren’t occurring to me so late at night, but I’ll bet I — and you — can spot some others — maybe even some others in the other unpleasant stories.

By: dry brown skin

dry brown skin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:11:47 +0000

Ardis,
This is nicely done, much better than the lesson I gave on this topic and I like your onion analogy. Any tips on how to apply it to lesson 11? It is full of stories for which I’m not sure I want to go any deeper than the dry brown skin. Lesson 11 contains rape, death by circumcision (sort of), prostitution, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, son and father’s concubine, God apparently killing two people, human trafficking, and seduction. In short it is the children of Israel behaving badly, except for Joseph. Ideas?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:41:44 +0000

Thanks for that, ellen. That’s the kind of teaching I’m really trying to do.

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:19:57 +0000

Thanks for this, Ardis. A lot of learning and contemplating has gone into the clear, direct, uncomplicated way that you communicate.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:43:00 +0000

/s/ The Ogre

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:22:56 +0000

Hee-haw! Hee-haw!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:14:08 +0000

Sometimes I feel like that, peter …

By: peter Fagg

peter Fagg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:07:51 +0000

I enjoyed this – notably the baptism example. Your onion analogy was used in a similar teaching moment by Shrek! “Ogres are like onions – they have layers” Although if I’m going to compare the two I think yours is more profound. Granted, he was trying to explain to a talking donkey…

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:53:28 +0000

Oh, this is great! We have passed this lesson already. We had ward conference that day and the stake presidency brought their own lessons. But I can see so many things I can borrow for future lessons.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:20:33 +0000

I really, really, really enjoyed reading through this lesson.

I read it yesterday but didn’t have time to comment. I wanted to say that I liked how you really used the onion and not just a mention of it. I was having an “a-ha!” moment in front of the computer. And, of course, I loved how you laid out the lesson in this post, so that even blog readers, many miles removed, could experience the effect of the lesson, too. My only question was how you handled applying the onion principle to the Abraham/Isaac story, but you’ve answered that, I think.

This was good stuff. A big, hearty thanks!