February 4, 2008

Today we focused on Saul. We started out class talking about things that the students do that they really get heat from their parents (or others) for. We made a big huge list...the students said that they generally feel pretty justified in what they do though. After making our list, we divided the class into groups and they decided in 2 minutes - the best excuse they'd ever heard or used (no fiction). I think my favorite had to be that someone had a hernia. Anyways, after this discussion, we began with chapter 9 of 1 Samuel and looked at Saul's calling as a prophet. The students looked to see everything they could find out about him - he was tall, and the goodliest person in all of Israel.
We stopped in our discussion of the reading, and discussed whether or not it would be acceptable if 20 deacons were deserted on an island for them to administer the sacrament. Most of our students said yes.
We went back to the story of Saul and saw him anointed, and then we saw what happened to him. Even though he had already been pretty good to start out with - he had a change of heart. He began to prophesy, and the Lord changed his heart. We discussed other people we knew of in the scriptures who had also had a change of heart... some brought up were Alma the younger, the Ammonites, and Saul of Tarshish also known as Paul. We discussed the Ammonites' willingness to sacrifice their lives to keep their covenants after their changes of heart. I had some questions on the board (introspective) about our own lives and whether we've had a change of heart.
Going back into the story, we read about Saul deciding to offer the burnt offering (even though he didn't have the proper authority), and the Lord's response. Saul lost his kingdom. But here, we also see Saul's first excuse. "I had to do it - I was forced to because the army was coming down to attack us and you (Samuel) weren't there." We found that Saul lost the kingdom from this point forward as a result of his disobedience.
Due to time - we skipped chapter 14, and continued in chapter 15. In v. 3 they are commanded (not just advised, but commanded) to destroy EVERYTHING. We see in later verses that they kept the best of some certain things.
Interestingly, Saul came back to Samuel and told him that he had kept the Lord's commandment.??! What?? Saul hadn't kept the commandment, but he made an excuse and justified his disobedience. He said that they had kept the best so that they could offer it to the Lord in sacrifice. We marked verse 22, and finished class discussing the importance of obedience. One of the sayings on the wall in our classroom is: "Obedience is the greatest test of life." It does not matter how much we sacrifice, if we aren't obedient - it really doesn't matter. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
We ended class on this note.
Tomorrow we will be going over 1 Samuel 16-17. It is one of my favorite lessons of the entire year - hope all can make it!
Our SM for this week is Isaiah 53:3-5