There are many stories in the Old Testament that provide wisdom to those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand. There are many stories, as well, that make one wonder how the Lord Jehovah could even tolerate the children of Israel with their murmuring and complaining. Regardless of how difficult they became they still represented the Lord’s chosen people. Most importantly they were the seed of Abraham and Jehovah had made a promise to Abraham that through his seed many great and marvelous things would come to pass. Many of those promises would materialize in our day, including the promise that through his seed the hearts of the children would be turned to the fathers for the work of redeeming the dead. (1 Nephi 15:18) “Wherefore, our father hath not spoken of our seed alone, but also of all the house of Israel, pointing to the covenant which should be fulfilled in the latter days; which covenant the Lord made to our father Abraham, saying: In thy seed shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed.”
Those of the seed of Abraham represented in the Old Testament, do provide an excellent cross section of the Lord’s chosen that are able to teach us today, many diverse lessons about life and our relationship to the Great Jehovah. Many of them were faithful, others were faithful when it was convenient and many were selfish, disobedient, idolatrous and easily led astray.
We can be quick to criticize them, but in reality we, as a whole, are not much different. If we were able to look at the Church today from the Lord’s vantage point, we may find that we mirror the children of Israel in Old Testament times. Even without wandering in a desert wilderness, we murmur and complain, we sometimes selfishly worship idols—cars, homes and things that we carve out with our hands and often forget our Lord. We are, too often, self centered and ungrateful. If it were not for our having access to the Old Testament, to know of Israel’s experience’s and all their weakness, we, probably, would never really understand the Lord’s eternal mercy, His capacity to love us, His patience and long suffering. We only know because of them, regardless of how intolerable we may become, He will at last forgive us. Repentance and a change of heart is the key to regaining His good grace, almost without exception.
The Lord always satisfied their every need. As soon as they complained to Moses, he would go to the Lord and the Lord would bless them with water, manna, quail or protection from an enemy. It seems that they were no sooner blessed with the desired need and they had something else to complain about. In reality it may have been years between those events. We, too, murmur and complain and in an ungrateful way wish our circumstances were better or different.
The Jehovah of the Old Testament was born into the world as Jesus Christ, and He brought the greater law that they had rejected. We, too, are the seed of Abraham but we have more light and therefore a greater responsibility to be faithful and obedient. Those in Old Testament times were not blessed with an Old Testament and the myriad scriptures that we have to learn by. May the Lord bless us to use the greater light that we have been given to be humble, full of gratitude and faithful—as the seed of Abraham.