Moses and a Unicorn

I have an announcement--I've finished all 5 books of Moses! I've been on a journey to study the Old Testament since the beginning of the year. Five months in and I just turned the last page of Deuteronomy. Due to the fact that most of the content is laws (and interpretations of laws and repetition of laws), of which I only had short ponderings not enough to create an entire post, this is only my fourth post throughout my studies. I did, however, have a couple of thoughts to share today.

The second to last chapter in Deuteronomy is Moses' blessing (a.k.a God's blessing) to each tribe of Israel. I've been encouraged to study the duties and blessings to the individual tribes of Israel before, but never found a scripture that I feel gives me much to think on, and while these verses are very symbolic (or possibly because of that), I got something out of them today:

"[Joseph's] glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh." --Deut. 33:17

I paid special attention to this verse because in a blessing from my Stake Patriarch I was told my heritage is the tribe of Ephraim. I hardly ever see Ephraim mentioned, so lately I've noted the few times that it is. The wording of pushing the people made me realize that the special duty of the tribe of Joseph (and by extension his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh) is to unify the people. To bring them together. The choice to use the image of a magical horse/unicorn is something I'm still trying to figure out, but I like the sparkly-ness it brings to the old testament.

On a completely different note:

"...neither did he acknowledge his brethren, not knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept they covenant" --Deut. 33:9

This verse is likely commending a part of the tribes of Israel for their adherence to the covenants they had made, but I read it differently today. It made me wonder: are there times when we only pay attention to those who are lost? Do we only acknowledge those who are off the covenant path, thinking that all is well with those who seem to be living right? This leads me to think how I can better support the people around me, because even if everything in their lives seems to be going fine, all of us need to be acknowledged and supported.