Now, the Old Testament is better understood if we can examine it in it's cultural, Oh, boy. economic, and ideological. Here we go again. If we can grasp the concept of ancient Israel and the covenant that they made and the tribulations that they went through … What on earth is he talking about? Beats me.
Grown-ups sure make things complicated. [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) My life is a gift; my life has a plan. My life has a purpose; in heaven it began. My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth and seek for God's light to direct me from birth. Heavenly Father's plan is like being not good and don't obey Satan, what he says. Obey what the Heavenly Father says. He made a plan that He wanted us to come down to earth. We were both up there. Heavenly Father sent us to earth because we had to be somewhere. If you come down on this earth and you live righteously that you will go back to heaven again. To learn the gospel and choose if we wanted to be good or bad. He wants us to get back up to heaven. Well, I don't really know if it's up, but He wants us to get to heaven to be with Him again. That's why He found Jesus to be His helper.
Why do you think we need a body? So we could live on earth, because if we were a spirit then we couldn't walk because we'd have no bones. We'd just wobble to the ground. It's one of the rules. To hang around and go shopping. If we're going to be like Him we need a body.
What did Heavenly Father create? He made the trees and the waters. Our bodies and our spirit. And he makes skunks and spiders and bugs. He said, "Let there be grass and land and water," and boom, there it was. How did Adam and Eve fulfill God's plan?
They had a beautiful garden, and then when they were walking through the garden the devil came along. They both ate a fruit that they weren't supposed to eat. But it was part of Heavenly Father's plan. Something awful happened because they didn't have any clothes on. They got to get out. Them didn't have cars. If Adam and Eve hadn't eaten the fruit, we wouldn't be down here on the earth. (SINGING) Noah was a prophet called to preach the word, tried to cry repentance, but nobody heard. They were busy sinning-- Noah preached in vain. They wished they had listened when they saw the rain. Heavenly Father tried to warm the people by telling them that they shouldn't do that. And then He told Noah to tell them. There was too many bad guys on the earth, and so He just decided to make a flood. So there was raining two month-- no, I mean three, four months, forty months and forty nights. It was stinky like a farm. All the wicked people got killed in the flood. He went up to heaven.
They just stayed there so God could teach them a little more. Well, I'm still not sure it's up, but … They went up to Heavenly Father so they could be taught the truth. And so whenever you see a rainbow, that's God's promise saying that He'll never flood the earth again. What do we learn from that story? Heavenly Father loves all of His children, not just certain ones. If you have wicked people on the land, move for sure.
The children of Israel are Heavenly Father's people. He wanted them to follow Him instead of the other way. But the Pharaoh had the power on earth so he made them be slaves. What's his name? What's his name? Moses went to the king and he asked them if he could let all the people go. And he wouldn't, so He sent a bunch of bad stuff. The king said, "I can't take it anymore. I don't have any food or water or anything. Just go get your--you can have your Israelites." The sea opened up, whoosh. The guy who owned them, the Egyptians I guess you could call them, they went after them. But when they were on the other side, Heavenly Father closed the sea and they drowned.
Why did Heavenly Father bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? They could obey Heavenly Father a lot better. So they could be righteous and worship the Heavenly Father instead of like idols.
The Israelites were taken captive in Babylon and there was a boy named Daniel. He got thrown into the lions' den. The lions thought that Daniel was going to be their lunch. He prayed a lot. So God sent some angels to shut the lion's mouth. They could not chew or nothing. How did this help further God's plan? When the king found out that he's still alive the next morning, he knew that Daniel's God was really, really true. Once there was a man named Jonah, and God wanted him to teach His teachings. He ran away. And he was in the boat and-- he got swallowed by a whale. The fish was this big. It was dark and smelly and icky. Gooey. It was hairy. He was praying and praying until night and morning and the afternoon. Heavenly Father made the whale throw him up after three days and three nights. And he went to Nineveh and preached the gospel. They were good people after that. How did Jonah help fulfill God's plan? Heavenly Father sent Jonah to live on earth so it wouldn't be destroyed.
What can we learn about Heavenly Father's plan from all these stories? God is more powerful than anyone else. Good makes you happy and evil makes you sad. He wants us to come down and have a life. And then He wants us to return above. To trust Heavenly Father. We just have to have faith.
It's not so complicated. You just have to ask a kid.