Lesson 24: Get a Shower Curtain

The story of King David is probably one of the most tragic in scripture. David goes from being highly favored of the Lord to losing it all over a moment of weakness. He went from shepard to war hero almost over night after he defeated Goliath. He was spared from Saul's many attempts to kill him, from throwing spears to putting him in battle so the Philistines would kill him. All the while, David remained humble and obedient. Even when Saul stumbled into the cave where David was hiding, David merely cut off part of Saul's robe (and felt guilty about it afterwards). God even referred to David as "a man after his own heart" (1 Sam. 13:14). For those keeping track, that's a pretty big endorsement which isn't handed out lightly. In fact, aside from this reference to David, I can only find one other instance in the scriptures where the Lord refers to someone's heart (Doct. and Cov. 124:15 where the Lord loves Hyrum Smith "because of the integrity of his heart").

This week's lesson comes from 2 Samuel 11-12. This story, while tragic, has a few lessons we can apply in order to keep us from falling.

1. Do Your Duty
This whole sordid affair would never have happened if David had been where he was supposed to be. This was a time of war, and the kings were supposed to be in battle, "But David tarried still at Jerusalem" (2 Samuel 11:1). It doesn't say why he stayed behind, but it is clear that he wasn't where he needed to be.

President Heber J. Grant said: "There is but one path of safety to the Latter-day Saints, and that is the path of duty. It is ... the keeping of the commandments of God, the living the life of a Latter-day Saint." (“The President Speaks,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1936, 659.)

The army of Gideon, though only 300 in number against the vast hosts of the Midianites, "stood every man in his place" (Judges 7:21) and were victorious. If David had "stood ... in his place", he would never have been in the position to be tempted like this.

"Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved..." (Doct. and Cov. 87:8).

2. "...let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly..." (Doct. and Cov. 121:45)
Dave stays home, but the story still could've had a positive ending. He's out walking on the roof of his house and sees a woman washing herself (2 Samuel 11:2). If he walks away now, nothing happens and we still have a happy ending. But no, he wants to find out who she is. Why does he want to know that? What difference does it make what her name is?

He sends messengers, who should've just told her to buy a shower curtain or close the windows. Instead, they bring her back to David, dinner may or may not have been involved, "Hey babe, what's your tribe?" and boom, the doctor tells them they're in love.

A man with virtuous thoughts would have turned away on the roof and not watched. He wouldn't have pondered on it and tried to find out more about her. He wouldn't have invited her to the castle, and she wouldn't have ended up pregnant.

"...whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt 5:8).

David's physical actions were only the fulfillment of the actions he had already taken in his heart.

3. It Takes Two to Tango
Let's not forget here that it still takes two to end up with the 9-month flu. Sure, it might be hard to tell the king, "no thanks, I'm married" (you can almost hear Dave say, "that's okay, so am I"), but I find it hard to believe it would have happened without her consent. When do our standards really count? When it's easy, or when times get hard? Maybe if she had the courage to be true to her covenants it would've given David the strength he needed to be true to his.

Would it have been harder for Bathsheba to turn down Dave's advances, or for Esther to reveal her nationality when being a Jew meant certain death? Was it easy for Shad, Rack, and Benny (VeggieTales flashback) to face the fiery furnace rather than worship Nebuchadnezzar's idol (see Daniel 3)? It may seem a little harsh, but I'm not inclined to cut Bathsheba much slack here. Have I done dumb things? Most definitely. But I've also been given the strength I needed to keep from doing other dumb things and I have no doubt that at some point along the line, the Spirit was telling Dave that what he was doing was wrong. Unfortunately a prompting from the Spirit is much like the desire to exercise; if you ignore it long enough, it'll go away.

Peer pressure is a powerful force. I often wonder how my life would have been different without the influence of some truly great friends in high school. I suspect David wouldn't have been in this mess if Jonathan had still been alive to "[strengthen] his hand in God" (1 Samuel 23:16).

4. Trying to hide your mistake only leads to more (and bigger) mistakes
Even if David had admitted his fault, he would've been in an eternally better position than the result of his actions to follow. Instead, he calls Uriah home from the battle and tries to get him to spend some time at home. Faithful Uriah instead spends the night sleeping on the king's doorstep. The only solution David can see is to have Uriah killed in battle and quickly marry Bathsheba (although I'm sure people even back then could tell it hadn't been 9 months between wedding and baby). Sending someone into battle to have them killed is the same tactic Saul had used on David, unsuccessfully, years earlier.

As a result of David's plot "he hath fallen from his exaltation" (Doct. and Cov. 132:39). That's not a good thing. That's actually the opposite of good. His eternal inheritance was lost over a moment of indiscretion.

It would have been interesting to ask David as he stood on his roof watching Bathsheba if he thought what he was planning in his heart was worth the cost he'd end up paying.

Lesson 19: As Parents in Zion

I know, two posts for the same lesson. Weird huh. Especially after I can go two or three lessons without managing to post anything. I figure in the end it will all average out.

Chapter 2 of Judges seems to be a quick summary, not only of the end of Joshua's life, but also of things to come for the Israelites. We see a pattern start to develop, where the Lord provides a faithful judge who helps to free Israel from oppression, the people repent and are faithful again, the judge dies, and the people return to their old ways.

There was one line that really grabbed me and made me think of a talk Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave in April 2003 general conference. Judges 2:19 reads,

"And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way." (emphasis added)

It seems Israel has short-term memory problems. As soon as there is no longer anyone to remind them of what God has done for them, they turn and fall away again, "more than their fathers". I wish the record was more detailed, but the focus of the book of Judges seems to be the military activites as opposed to the spiritual matters. I would like to know what the parents taught their children during the faithful cycles.

One of the things Elder Holland said really jumped out at me:

"...no child in this Church should be left with uncertainty about his or her parents’ devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His Church, and the reality of living prophets and apostles...

"I think some parents may not understand that even when they feel secure in their own minds regarding matters of personal testimony, they can nevertheless make that faith too difficult for their children to detect."

I wonder what an Israelite "Family Home Evening" would've looked like. Did the parents teach their children why they believed? Why they offered sacrifices to God? Why the Passover was so important to them? Were the children left to draw their own conclusions as they watched their parents?

Then I wonder, "what about my children? What do they know? Again, from Elder Holland:

"Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face—and fall at the feet—of His Only Begotten Son?"

Children tend to take the direction of their parents and take it a few steps further, regardless of the which way their parents were facing. Where parents faithfully teach their children, we find a stronger generation (like Helaman's stripling warriors who absolutely had no doubt of their parents' conviction). Quoting from Elder Holland's talk again, where parents "flirt with skepticism or cynicism... children expand that flirtation into full-blown romance."

I feel chapter 2 of Judges stands as a caution to parents everywhere. We can't let our children just guess what they think we feel is important. We are accountable before God on how well we (not the primary teachers, not the young men/young women leaders) teach our children the doctrines of faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost (D&C 68: 25).

As I reflect on my own teaching moments with my children, I recognize many opportunities for improvement. As an example, earlier this week I decided to do my lesson preparation upstairs at the table rather than down in my "cave". My son asked me if I had a big talk to do or something because apparently that's the only time he's seen me with my scriptures out and writing notes down on paper. Improvement opportunity, knocking at the door.

Lesson 19: Just a Little Off the Top

The story of Samson used to be one of my favorites as a child, probably because he was really strong and was pretty close to being a super hero. As I got older though, I saw this story as a tragic example of someone who had enormous potential, but didn’t use it.

Israel had been in captivity under Philistine rule for forty years by this time because they had done “evil again in the sight of the Lord” (Judges 13:1). As the Lord often does, He sent a baby to deliver Israel. A barren couple was visited by an angel and told they would have a son who “shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5).

Samson’s mother was told her son was to be a Nazarite (Hebrew meaning ‘set aside’ or ‘consecrated’) from the womb. As such, he was to abstain from wine and strong drink (couldn’t even eat moist grapes), couldn’t cut his hair, and couldn’t come in contact with dead bodies (see Numbers 6:1-8 for more details).

You’d think someone with such potential and great blessings would be faithful and obedient. Angelic announcements seemed to be effective in the other cases (John the Baptist, Christ). You don’t hear about angels coming to tell mothers their child will grow up to be on welfare, or work on the fry line if he really applies himself. This sort of thing seems to be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Sadly, Samson never really seemed to grasp the nature of his calling.

The first record we have of Samson is when he asked his father to set him up with a certain Philistine woman for his wife (Judges 14:1-2). The scripture states “it was of the Lord” (Judges 14:3), but I think that was Samson’s way of trying to rationalize it to himself. He probably had a plan worked out in his mind, much like when King Saul rationalized keeping the flocks of the Amalekites because he intended to use them for a sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:20-22). After the Lord made it very clear how important it was not to marry outside the faith, I find it hard to believe this marriage to a Philistine would be sanctioned, especially when Samson’s specific call was to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

A lesson we can draw here is one many missionaries learn in the field: you can’t do the Lord’s work using Satan’s methods. You can’t convert someone through a “Bible bash”, and you can’t defeat the Philistines by marrying one. That would make for some very awkward moments at family reunions.

At the beginning of the week-long wedding feast, Samson challenged the men to solve his riddle before the seven days were up. After three days, they came to his wife and threatened her so she nagged him until he gave her the answer. Big surprise, she tells the men and Samson loses the bet and has to cough up thirty sheets and thirty outfits (if only someone could’ve seen that coming). He went out, killed thirty Philistines to pay off the wager.

For someone whose call it was to free Israel, Samson only seemed to go against the Philistines when it served his own selfish purposes:

• Killed thirty men to pay off his bet (Judges 14:19)
• Burned the Philistine fields because they gave his wife to his “best man” (Judges 15:4-5). Granted, that had to sting a little...
• Killed 1,000 men who came up against him (Judges 15:15)
• Carried away the gates of the city on his back so he could escape after sleeping with a harlot (Judges 16:3)
• Pulled down the Philistine temple, killing everyone inside so he could be “avenged of the Philistines for [his] two eyes” (Judges 16:28)

Losing his eyes was his own fault, really. He hooked up with Delilah (no mention whether or not they were actually married), who was offered 1100 pieces of silver to find out the source of his strength. She asked Samson, “Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee” (Judges 16:6). Who could resist an offer like that? ‘Tell me how to take your strength away so you can be taken captive.’

He gives her three false answers, and each time the Philistines are waiting to take him. The fact he really didn’t realize the source of his strength is evident when he tells her to cut off his hair. He really expected to be able to shake off his attackers as he had previously, but “he [knew] not that the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:20). He really expected to completely disobey the Lord and still receive His promises. Without his God-given strength, he was easily taken captive. The Philistines put out his eyes and forced him to work in the prison house.

The Philistines later offered sacrifices to their god, Dagon, and decided to bring out their trophy for some entertainment. Samson called upon God for one last act of strength, which he used to pull down the support pillars of their temple. “So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life” (Judges 16:30).

Just imagine how different the story could’ve been if he had stayed faithful, if he could’ve tempered his arrogance with humility, if he let “virtue garnish [his] thoughts unceasingly” (Doct. and Cov 121:45) rather than being led by his appetites. People in all the years since would’ve used him as an example of what could be done in the Lord’s strength, but instead he stands as an example of “don’t try this at home”.

Lesson 15: Complain Much??

Last week's lesson had the Israelites complaining they couldn't drink the water, there was no food, then there wasn't any water at all. Each time, the Lord miraculously provided for their needs.

This week, they complain because all they have to eat is manna.

"...Who shall give us flesh to eat?

"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:

"But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes" (Exodus 11:4-6).

Oh, the injustice of it all! You sure have it tough all right. Nothing but the miraculous daily manifestation of the Lord's loving providence. I guess we all have our burdens to bear.

The Lord tells Moses that he will provide meat for the people, so much that it will "come out at [their] nostrils, and it be loathsome unto [them]..." (Exodus 11:20). Sometimes I think the most fitting punishments the Lord gives us are the things we want, rather than the things we need.

Moses apparently falls into the same trap we sometimes do. How often do we expect the Lord to operate within our limited view and perspective? It's as if we are saying, "If I don't understand it, it must not be possible."

Moses reminds the Lord that there are 600,000 men in the camp (just in case He forgot...) and wonders how God can provide enough for everyone as promised. Will they kill all the flocks and herds for food? Will they need to go fishing?

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not" (Exodus 11:23).

The camp of Israel is soon covered in quails two cubits deep (about three feet) and extending a day's journey all around the camp. If you're keeping track at home, that's a lot of quail. Verse 32 says the smallest catch was ten homers (turns out, nothing to do with the Simpson's). I was a little rusty on my metric-to-homer conversion, so I had to look it up. That's roughly 65 US bushels, or 2.3 cubic meters. Imagine a container 1m long x 1m wide and 2.3 meters tall, filled with quails, and that was from the guy with the smallest catch. It's no wonder they were stricken with a plague while they were still chewing (see Exodus 11:33-34).

You'd think that would be enough to convince the people. Sadly, no. Moses, following the direction of the Lord, appoints one leader from each tribe to scout out the promised land. When they returned, they brought with them the fruits of the land, along with a very disturbing report of the strength of the inhabitants.

"We be not able to go up against the people," they cried, "for they are stronger than we" (Exodus 13:31) and we look like grasshoppers compared to them (verse 33). The people get so upset, they appoint a new leader who will lead them back to Egypt (see Exodus 14:4, Nehemiah 9:17).

There are (at least) two problems with that solution. First, how do you think the Egyptians will react? "Hey, we missed you guys, nice to have you back!" Highly unlikely after all the Egyptian first-born sons died and the army was drowned in the Red Sea. They probably won't be breaking out the milk and cookies for you.

Second, I don't recall the position of prophet being up for debate or public vote. Bad things happen when you try to go around the Lord's chosen prophet.

Wilford Woodruff once said, "... the very moment that men in this kingdom attempt to run ahead or cross the path of their leaders, ...they are in danger of being injured by the wolves ... I have never in my life known it to fail" (Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 5:83).

Israel just couldn't get it through their collective heads that God really was with them, despite all the signs and wonders. But then again, how do we react when things get tough? Do we put our faith in God and step forward, even if we don't know how He is going to "prepare a way for [us] that [we] may accomplish the thing which he commandeth [us]" (1 Nephi 3:7)? Or do we complain because things are too hard? So what if the inhabitants of the land are huge? The Lord's hand is not "waxed short". As Caleb and Joshua pleaded, "...the Lord is with us: fear them not" (Numbers 14:9).

Lesson 14: Water, Bread, and Short Memories

I know, this isn't much good after we've already had the lesson, but it has been a busy week. I missed last week all-together, so I figure this is better than nothing.

The lesson covered Exodus 15-20, 32-34, but we only got through chapters 15-18 in class. There are a couple of recurring themes in these chapters. One, the Israelites sure liked to murmur, a lot. Two, everything points to Christ as the Savior and Deliverer. The beauty of symbolism is that it will mean different things to different people. I'll just share a few things which stood out to me and let you draw your own conclusions.

Moses and the Israelites get to Marah, and the water is bitter, so the people start to murmur. Moses prays and was shown a tree which, when cast into the water, would make it sweet. Moses then put the children of Israel under a covenant to keep the Lord's commandments.

This brought to mind a couple of things. First, when we take the sacrament, we renew our covenant to keep the Lord's commandments. Second, without the effects of the atonement (can't help but think of the cross when the tree is mentioned), the Gospel would be bitter. We would be unable to return to our Father, so there would be no sweetness in the Gospel.

Israel travels further and murmurs about not having anything to eat. They cry out "Would to God we had died ... in Egypt, ... when we did eat bread to the full..." (Exodus 16:3). In other words, 'God can't provide for us as well as the Egyptians could.'

God provided Israel with manna, to "prove them, whether they will walk in [God's] law, or no" (Exodus 16:4).

It turns out that many of the Israelites couldn't handle the complex rules around the gathering of manna. Let's review:
-Don't store it overnight (Exodus 16:19). When they did, the manna was spoiled and had worms.
-Gather twice as much on day six because there won't be any on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:22). Sure enough, people are wandering around on the Sabbath, looking for manna.

I start to point my finger at the Israelites, wondering why they just couldn't grasp the little things. Why can't they go two minutes without complaining about something. Then I think about my own life and how often I don't seem to be able to handle the simple instructions:
-Daily prayer and scripture study. How many promises have we been given if we will spend a little time each day in prayer and study? Good grief, if this isn't one of the hardest habits to develop. I can read books for hours at a time, but can't seem to make a habit of reading the scriptures daily.
-You can't live today on yesterday's spiritual experiences. Without nourishment, yesterday's testimony gets weak and may spoil.

How can I make sure I don't fall into the murmur mire like the Israelites did? One of the best ways seems to be the scriptural admonition to "always remember":
-Christ (sacrament prayers, found in Doctrine & Covenants 20:77, 79)
-the greatness of God, His goodness and long-suffering towards us (Mosiah 4:11)
-the captivity of our fathers and their deliverance at God's hand. (Alma 29:12)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said that "those with the shortest memories have the longest lists of demands" (Neal A. Maxwell, "'Murmur Not'," Ensign, Nov 1989, 82). This was especially true with the Israelites. They were soon out of water again, and murmuring against Moses, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" (Exodus 17:7).

Something clicked for me while I was teaching the lesson this afternoon. These same people who complained to Moses would have risen in the morning, gone out of their tents and gathered their omer of manna. They would have to know that this stuff doesn't grow naturally in the desert. It hadn't been that long since the Lord first provided them with manna, maybe a couple of weeks? A month? They have food provided for them miraculously on a daily basis, and they start complaining as soon as they get thirsty.

Moses smote the rock with his staff as instructed by the Lord, and water came out. I thought of the Roman soldiers breaking the legs of the thieves on the cross, then piercing the side of Christ's (the Rock of Israel) lifeless body to make sure he was dead, and water came out.

It's so easy to look down on the Israelites, but I hope when things get tough my first instinct will be to look to God rather than murmur and complain. It's going to be a bit of an uphill climb, because sometimes I'm pretty quick to complain...

Lesson 12: Daydream Believer

This week's lesson deals with Genesis 40-45. When we last left our hero Joseph, he had been falsely accused by Potiphar's skanky wife and placed in jail. This week, he eventually gets out and saves Egypt and his family from a seven-year famine. Not very interesting when condensed down so far... I'll go over some of the things which stood out for me, and we'll see how much ground I can cover.

First, after Joseph has been in prison for an undisclosed amount of time (long enough to earn the trust of the prison keeper), Pharaoh's butler and baker wind up in prison. Here's one more reason why Joseph is a hero to me. He sees these two men and asks them, "Wherefore look ye so sadly today?" (Genesis 40:7)

I missed this for years, then it jumped out and bit me. Joseph is in prison, because his former boss's wife was a tramp. He got that job because his brothers sold him to some traveling Ishmaelites, who in turn sold him in Egypt. It seems like the bad luck just keeps coming for him, but he stops to inquire why these two men are having a bad day in prison. I don't know what prison life was like under Joseph's direction, but I wouldn't think it strange that two newcomers were a little depressed.

"I'm sorry you missed milk and cookie hour, but we have craft time just after lunch... "

How often do we get so caught up in our own problems that we don't notice there are people around us who are having a hard time too? There's a quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell which has become one of my personal favorites:

"When, for the moment, we ourselves are not being stretched on a particular cross, we ought to be at the foot of someone else’s—full of empathy and proffering spiritual refreshment" (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, April Gen Conf, 1990).

Instead of sitting down to commiserate over the discomforts of prison life, Joseph does what he can to lift their spirits. Turns out they had disturbing dreams, which Joseph interprets for them. Works out well for the butler, sadly not so much for the baker. Butler promises to put in a good word for Joseph, then forgets for two years.

Pharoah has a dream this time, and none of his wisemen or magicians can (or will) interpret it for him. I didn't catch on to this one either until I read a bit more on Egyptian culture...

Dream 1: seven fat cows are eating by the river, seven scrawny cows come up out of the river and eat the fat cows and are still scrawny as ever.

Dream 2: seven good ears of corn grow up on one stalk. Seven shriveled ears come up and eat the seven good ears.

This should've been a no-brainer to the wisemen. Cows were a symbol of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who represented agriculture and food. The [Nile] river represented fertility and life. The ears of wheat would also represent life and sustenance. So seven plentiful symbols of food are consumed by seven scrawny symbols of food... doesn't really take a genius here. The only guesswork left is to figure out they represent seven years. This would be like me not catching on to the fact Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and is really Luke's father.

Joseph not only interprets Pharaoh's dreams, but offers a suggestion on how to prepare for the upcoming famine. To the credit of Pharaoh, he recognizes Joseph as "a man in whom the Spirit of God is" (Genesis 41:38). Once again, Joseph is placed in the #2 slot. And, unlike his previous posts, he gets to keep it this time.

I bet Potiphar's wife was feeling a little nervous when she got the news Joseph was second only to Pharaoh. How easy it would've been for him to issue the order to have her put in prison, or worse. As we will see when the brothers come to buy food, Joseph possesses a very forgiving heart. But that's another story...

Lesson 11: Dream a Little Dream

"So, I keep having these dreams where everyone is bowing down to me."

"Oh! Oh! Can I be the president of your fan club?"

That's probably not how Joseph envisioned his brothers' reaction when he told them about his dreams, but he had to know that it wouldn't go over well. I've often wondered why Joseph even bothered telling his brothers about the dreams at all. They already harbored enough resentment over the whole coat issue (the Hebrew suggests it was a coat with long sleeves, similar to something worn by royalty).

One thing I've learned through my children is that they have a hyper-sensitive sense of what they perceive to be fairness. It must skip a generation, because I don't remember being that way. I just learned to deal with the fact that I was the only child who wasn't spoiled...

So when Jacob gives Joseph the fancy coat, that didn't go over very well with the other kids. In fact, they "could not speak peaceably unto [Joseph]" (Gen 37:4). That must've made for some incredibly awkward dinner table conversations...

"Nice coat Joseph, looks like a bathrobe. Did it come with slippers too?"

Then Jacob would threaten them with washing dishes or cleaning the kitchen if they didn't stop fighting (just speculating on that part, it's not actually in the scriptures).

So when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers as they were feeding the flocks (45 miles away), the brothers took advantage of the situation, and little Joe gets sold off to Egypt.

He ends up a servant to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, and is eventually put in charge of the whole house. Potiphar's wife was a little loose in the morals department and poor Joseph ends up in jail for sticking to his standards.

We sometimes get stuck in the idea that good things happen to good people and bad things come as punishment. That philosophy makes it very difficult to deal with the tough times that just happen as part of life. Joseph didn't get caught in the self-pity trap, he continued to gain favor and ended up as #2 on the prison's corporate ladder.

One thing we can learn from Joseph's example is his attitude towards trials. As Bishop H. Burke Peterson once said, “Whatever the source of the trial, if properly approached and handled, it will draw us closer to God” (H. Burke Peterson, BYU Devotional, 16 Feb 1996). And that seems to be exactly how Joseph handled his trials, and as a result, "the Lord was with Joseph" (Gen 39:21).

President George Q. Cannon taught:

"No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. ... We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments ("Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses, comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987¬92), 2:185; emphasis added)."

One of the challenges of this life is to see trials not as punishments, but as God's invitation for us to draw nearer to Him. And since we're going to have trials anyway, it seems to be pretty good company...