"Guardians of the Covenant"

I'm pleased to give you another blog post centered around my study of the Old Testament. :) (I really enjoy doing blog posts! ) 

Something that really stood out to me this week was: Numbers 1:50-53

When learning about the Levites being appointed to watch over the tabernacle this week in Numbers chapter 1, and having read more information regarding this in the Old Testament student manual, a few thoughts came to me about what this could teach me or how I could apply it. 

Immediately, I thought of the spiritual necessity for us to safeguard our covenants and our standards. The tabernacle was to them what our temples are to us: a holy sanctuary. Like our temples today, the tabernacle was a physical representation of their covenants and the need to be covenant-keepers. The mere fact that the Lord instructed the Levites to camp around the tabernacle should clearly portray the significance of covenants and sacred responsibilities to us. And then, I thought about this scenario: What if one of the Levites decided to move his tent away from the piece of ground he'd been appointed to watch over, leaving a gap open? Surely that would be dangerous; especially because there was hostility towards the Israelites and their beliefs from outside sources. I then thought of Satan, and how he tries to find those weak points, those 'gaps' which we may leave open if we're not so serious about keeping watch over our covenants.

This week's lesson for 'Come, Follow Me' includes a warning from Nephi in 2 Nephi chapter 28. Nephi warns us of Satan's subtle deceptions. Satan often gives us a false sense of security; allowing us to think "all is well in Zion" and we don't have to be so dedicated to the spot of ground we're watching over. He makes us believe that the stupid, temporal things we spend our time on are okay and it's not going to really matter how we live our lives or spend our time here on earth, which is untrue. And the more we give in to the temptation of having a relaxed attitude towards our covenant-keeping, the more power we give him and the more gaps we allow him to enter. 

My instructor recently coined the phrase: 'Guardians of the Covenant(s)", and I love that term. Now, more than ever, we need to be vigilant and hold our ground, especially if we want to come out of this spiritual war alive.

Now, more than ever, we need to be the guardians of our covenants. 

- Madison Erasmus :)