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January 1, 1996
Subject: Judges of Israel
Teachers, separate the friends, as they are not listening. What a great privilege it is, to have the
prophet as our leader. Whenever the people reject the prophet, they reject the Lord.
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The powers of the Aaronic priesthood are: (1) the ministering of angels, (2) can teach the
gospel of repentance, (3) can baptize, (4) a priest can administer the sacrament. This priesthood
stayed among the people so that angels could come and visit them and they could live by faith and
repentance. Moses told the people to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. According to our calendar,
he led the people out of Egypt around April 6th. That was the beginning of their calendar after they
came out of Egypt. Even though they were living a lesser law, not the celestial law, it was still the
priesthood ruling over them. There are millions of people on this land today that don't even follow our
prophet at all.
After Joshua died at age 110, judges ruled Israel, for a time of four hundred years. When
people would repent, the Lord would raise up a judge with the spirit of God in that person. The
Israelites were usually obedient. The main lesson these words give you describe that the children of
Israel always turned away from the Lord. It describes how the people that remembered Joshua, that
lived in that day, were obedient. The children grew up obedient. Then there rose up a generation of
young people who never saw Joshua. All they heard were stories of Moses and Joshua. They started
saying, "Well, what's so bad about the gentiles? We like their ways." As they grew up, the boys said,
"What's so wrong with marrying the gentile girls? They look ok to us." The girls said, " We kind of
like how the gentiles are."
Within one generation after Joshua died, they turned to the ways of the gentiles. They got rid
of the scriptures and brought idols into their homes and it was the fashion, the neat thing to have a
house with idols in it. They worshiped the god idol called Baalim and another was a god called
Ashteroth. The Lord had commanded Moses and Joshua to drive out all the gentiles, leaving none of
them alive. After Joshua died, they didn't fully obey. Many tribes mixed with the gentiles until they
forgot the Lord and worshipped idols. The Israelites started to kill the prophets. The judges were not
always the prophets. The last of the judges was Samuel. He became the prophet.
There is the story of the king of the gentiles who was killed by a woman instead of a man.
This is what the woman Deborah meant when she said to Barach, "A woman will take your honor
instead of you, because you would not go up without a woman leading you." All of this was fulfilled
as the Lord said, through Deborah. A woman doesn't hold the priesthood, but this shows you how
uninspired the people of Israel were in that day. For forty years, Deborah judged the people. When
she died, how quickly the children turned to worship idols. A great number of the gentiles from the
land of Midian in the North came to fight the children of Israel, who came under bondage to the
Midians for seven years. When they repented again, the Lord started an effort to deliver them by the
hand of Gideon, a mighty man of valor.
It was those three hundred men who were in obedience to Gideon that the Lord chose. Our
prophet today is looking for five hundred men to fight the whole world. The Lord can fight our
battles. During the reign of Gideon, for forty years the people had peace. He had seventy sons. He had
many wives. He ruled to a very old age, yet after Gideon died, the people worshipped idols again.
They were very immoral, adulterous. That is why the Lord allowed other peoples to conquer His
people. Do you see the great lesson in these stories? When they obeyed the Lord and followed the
appointed leader, they were blessed. When they forgot Him and worshipped false gods, they were
cursed. Learn that lesson.
Today, the Lord rules over this people through President Jeffs, yet we’re under the bondage of
the gentiles here in America. Soon the Lord will overthrow our nation and the priesthood people will
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rule over this land because the priesthood people will be the only ones left. Believe that the lord will
fight our battles just like he did Gideon and the three hundred against huge armies. I remind you
again of the prophecies in our day. One of us who are faithful will chase a thousand of the enemy.
Two of us will chase ten thousand when they come against us. It will be because the angels of God
are helping us and the Lord will fight our battles. Believe these stories. It actually happened.