Come Follow Me Insights (Doctrine and Covenants 85-87, Aug 2-8)

i'm taylor and i'm tyler this is book of mormon central's come follow me insights today doctrine and covenants sections 85 through 87. as we dive into sections 85 86 and 87 it's kind of significant to note that section 85 and 87 are a bit of of an outlier compared to some of these other sections around them yeah so it turns out that these revelations are given at the time indicated but they actually don't get put into the canon until under the direction of brigham young orson pratt is making they're making inspired updates to the doctrine of covenants in 1876. so section portions of section 85 and section 87 get included in 1876. and we should just point out that we have these canonized revelations from joseph smith and yet actually joe's received lots of revelations some that never even got canonized yeah if for those of you who want to to dig deeper along that line go to josephsmithpapers.org and start looking at some of the references under the revelations received and you'll notice if you go by year 1830 1831 32 33 you'll notice the long list of documents and letters and papers that we have access to and then they'll have the section number attached if it ended up in the doctrine and covenants and there are many of those revelations that come that never never made it into our canon of scripture so just because we only have these sections as recorded here doesn't mean that joseph isn't receiving all kinds of answers to his questions and directions and revelations and again we would encourage you if you're if you're interested in that to just start looking around at some of those additional sites uh additional sources and it's interesting because there's so much going on right you have this emerging restoration going on and joseph smith is learning line upon line right he's a human just like the rest of us and it's not like god tells them everything it wants it says here's all the answers to anything you'd ever need to know and just look it up he have to he has to return to god again and again as situations arise and he's continuing to stay engaged in the scriptures and we'll see this in section 86 where he's going back into matthew 13 with all these incredible parallel parables and he's receiving inspired interpretation about how do these parables help us understand the restoration so these are great sections to to get into today yeah so to begin with section 85 it's it's significant to note the date of section 85 that it's november 27th 1832 when this section is is received and it's not as if section 80 5 is one big revelation in fact most of this section is simply joseph writing a letter to w.w phelps in response to some things that the holy ghost has impressed upon his mind but he's writing a letter it feels a little bit different in places than perhaps some of the other revelations in the doctrine and covenants because of the fact that that he is writing this letter and parts of it are the lord speaking to w.w felts and part of it is joseph speaking to him the thing that is interesting about the actual date is if you go once again to the josephsmithpapers.org website and you look up or click on journals that entry and then you click on the very first entry there lo and behold you're going to find that the very first time that joseph smith puts ink on paper for himself in a journal sort of capacity is that day this very day right here he makes his first entry now you have to you have to look at this it's it's kind of fascinating the journal this actual 1832 journal is in salt lake city in the the church history library it's quite small you can see it pictured there on the screen it looks like a big book but in reality it's a really small book physically speaking and then if you click and look at the very first page let's look at his his his first journal entry ever on november 27 1832 now you'll notice it's kind of hard to read the the cursive text there but they have the the transcription here joseph smith jr's record book bought for tonight all the minute circumstances that comes under my observation now you'll notice what happened isn't it fascinating that joseph didn't like his first attempt so he simply crossed it out because he doesn't have any a backspace or an eraser so he crossed it out and he says let's try again here's attempt number two to write his own story joseph smith jr's book for record bought on the 27th of november 1832 for the purpose to keep a minute account of all things that come under my observation etc oh may god grant that i may be directed in all my thoughts oh bless thy servant amen what do you think i think he did a much better job the second time around but here's the fascinating thing what you're looking at there on that page is joseph's first uh effort to keep his own journal so notices the significance of the date here this is 1832 november we're almost finished with 1832. keep in mind the book of mormon was the manuscript was was finished they they were complete by june of 1829 so that was june this is more than three years ago when the book of mormon is complete i don't know about you but there's a significant difference between reading joseph smith's journal when he should have been more polished more refined more eloquent more filled with great phrases three years later compared to when he had finished the book of mormon but there's a noticeable difference from my view between joseph smith the man or joseph smith the farm boy and joseph smith the prophet and the seer of our lord in fact a researcher brian hales has done a lot of work on this topic this disparity between joseph's innate intellectual and cognitive abilities and an ability to speak and to be a a writer compared to what we see recorded in scripture and in the revelations that come and there is a noticeable difference if you put joseph smith's journal entry side by side with any passage out of the book of mormon you can see a noticeable you can feel a noticeable difference here uh the grand irony to me is if you look at pages of scripture in our canon and you can you can do your own uh research on this if you prefer but if you add up all the pages of our book of mormon and all the pages of the doctrine and covenants minus those sections that didn't come to us through joseph smith or the official declarations and then you add the pearl of great price you come up with about 877 pages of scripture now if you add the lost manuscript the last 116 pages of the book of mormon and those are on fool's cap pages they're bigger than our scripture pages it would come out to be roughly 145 of our pages here once you add that joseph is well over a thousand pages of scripture you'll notice if you start looking through the bible the book of mormon the doctrine and covenants your next closest is mormon who produced 339 pages of scripture by my count moses would be number three uh 308 and then paul at 122 and then nephi at 112. you have to add those four prophets together to finally get up to 877 pages like joseph did all by himself isn't that interesting that here's this farm boy a poor farm boy in frontier america in those 18 uh late 1820s when he first begins his work on the book of mormon and something else that brian hales has pointed out is most famous authors produce their big work their their their best work closer towards the end of their life isn't it interesting that joseph is producing most of his incredible work very early in life as far as the canon of scripture is concerned and then it it peters out from there as far as the the canon is concerned because he's doing other things in building up the kingdom of god uh if you add this all up what we currently have in our scriptures page count wise joseph smith is responsible for over 35 of of our current canon of scripture this is a fascinating insight that you've brought up tyler it just shows that god specifically chose joseph smith as the vessel to reveal all this truth and it wasn't like joseph woke up one morning and decided i want to go launch a church i want to go become a famous scriptorian god chose him and it's evidence to us that god can do his work with the weak things of the earth and i love the fact that there's all this beautiful truth like that god was willing to give us so much and that we are invited now to use these tremendous resources to find peace and comfort and guidance and perspective in the latter days and we should expect to receive more yeah i love that taylor so to me there is a there is a distinct difference between joseph the man and joseph the seer and when when i open that book of mormon i i feel connected to heaven i feel connected to the lord jesus christ and i i am so grateful that he used that farm boy as his instrument to produce this work so as we look at the historical context that produced dnc 85 we're looking at late november 1832 and joseph smith had been off on a mission just briefly out to albany uh new york city boston he'd gotten back around november 6 and then he's getting all these letters from missouri from zion now remember there are two church centers there's kirkland ohio and then there's zion or independence missouri and the intention is to build up zion to live in this society where everyone has consecrated everything they have and then the bishop who's edward partridge is supposed to deliver back to people their needs and some other wants and earlier there have been revelations that only those who had been called and chosen were supposed to go to zion not everybody's supposed to gather there and you realize most of us get excited about like new things we want to go see all the great stuff and unfortunately some members of the church went without being called and they were actually quite destitute and they had nothing to consecrate so suddenly the storehouse was being called upon to give out far beyond it had means and not everybody was consecrating as much as they were supposed to and and you know we're human people are like well let me give this much maybe i'll hide this over here and nobody will know and there's sold all this conflict and so joseph he didn't have the internet and email and phones so he's getting these letters now weeks and weeks after the fact and hearing about the very normal chaos that happens in human relationships as they try to pursue truth and live the zion lifestyle and so he has to continue to address the problems of how do we live in a zion society it's a great question part part of the other issue there is you do have some people who have means that they they could have helped greatly they went early william mcclellan is a classic example of this he's he's pretty wealthy but he shows up in independence he hadn't been called to go there but instead of consecrating he goes and he buys two lots right on main street in independence in his own name he doesn't consecrate any of it so you've got you've got all of these issues that are all coming together in section 85. and joseph is in part trying to well he's trying to address these issues and we also get the message to edward partridge that you need to step up your game like you've committed sin now sometimes we think sin is this terrible things to keep you out of the kingdom of god it is true any sin can but edward partridge is just one of these people you'd really want him as a neighbor you'd want him in your ward he's an incredible guy and yet here he is just struggling with how do i manage all these people in competing interests and we're out on the frontier and he's basically edward gets called to repentance a pretty stern warning and we get this phrase that shows up about if he doesn't do what he's supposed to he will be replaced by a mighty and strong one and we we hear later in a couple couple years later that actually god had fully forgiven edward and so it seems that edward actually had resolved some of the core issues that he was working through but it turns out that the people struggled to actually live this full law of consecration and eventually was abandoned it was they tried later at other times to do it even when they moved out to utah in fact you have some towns here that actually have the name like circleville where they won porterville and orderville and uh it's been very hard for humans to live god's full law of consecration so uh it's it's no surprise that god was addressing the needs so let's take a look at what we learn here from from god's inspiration to joseph smith about how to build up zion in the latter days so you'll notice that he he begins with with kind of this rebuke uh voice because there had been so many people who had not kept the commandments or or gotten their their direction from the lord through the appointed means of the lord they they became disorderly disorderly they didn't follow the order that god had revealed there you go and so he describes what will happen to them in verse 2 3 4 and 5 where he says uh they're we're not going to keep their genealogy their names aren't going to be found names of their fathers they're going to be taken out of the book of the law of god now this is this is a fascinating concept that comes up in a in a couple of instances here in this section the book of the law of god is something that joseph takes he he lets this kind of distill on his soul and in 1841 so this is nine years later joseph was going to buy an additional book a journal and he's going to start writing down names of people in that book it's in other places in scriptures it would be called the book of the lamb or it's this book with all of the names of the faithful that will be presented so joseph at least in 1841 he takes section 85's uh description he takes it literally and he starts writing in this book uh he writes an entry for emma his wife and extol some of her virtues for newell k whitney for hiram smith for others and you can tell that he gets to a point where he's thinking wow i i can't write everybody's name and so he just kind of does a generic and many others whose names also belong in here so you get this contrast of those whose names should be in the book and those whose names should not be recorded and their names kind of blotted out and part of it's a practical measure so if you look at verse one it talks about it is a duty of the lord's clerk whom he has appointed we're actually talking the church historian here john whitmer and the idea is like let's keep regular church records so for example if you move from ward to ward there's actually a transfer of records and your membership clerk and one of those words will make sure that those records end up on the right books on the right in the right word and this is actually part of the starting of that where before that there wasn't the full understanding of how to keep those records so again if you have a group of members who come down to zion and they actually weren't called to go to that ward and they show up and there's not like a record that they were supposed to be there and now they're calling upon the bishop storehouse so imagine if you're a bishop and somebody moves in and they say hey i need support from the ward and i need support from the bishop storehouse now a good bishop would say let's consider your circumstances but if they're not a member of that war but a different word you might say well actually your records are in this other ward we should have that bishop make sure it comes from that storehouse so it's mostly just there's there's in addition to the very spiritual lessons here there's a deep practicality in pragmatism let's keep order and there have been quite a bit of disorder in trying to build up zion and of course god uses some pretty strident language about here's what's going to happen if you who are in zion are not consecrating your properties and receiving in return you don't get to participate in this grand dream of zion and so yeah you won't be on the rolls of the church if you choose to leave you're off you don't get access to all the resources i have to offer so as we look at it if you kind of peel back some of the language and you look at just the historical circumstance you're like that makes a lot of sense why god is organizing things in this way a house of order now look at verse six you can you can sense a little bit of a shifting of gears here ye thus saith the still small voice so joseph is is making something clear here that look this isn't just joseph smith writing in this personal letter to you w phelps this is the the still small voice whispering through and piercing all things which by the way i think it's worth noting here yet again because it comes up in the text it is a still and a small voice uh i believe that there are many members of the church who sit in congregations and listen to people speak from the pulpit or in classrooms and listen to lessons and stories told where people talk about fantastic experiences they've had with with an outpouring of the spirit guiding them or directing them and i believe there are far too many members of the church who sit there and think huh i guess i don't receive the holy ghost because i don't have those kinds of experiences the way that that you're describing i love this wording here it is a still small voice it it will come through your own thoughts using using your own thought patterns and your own vocabulary in your own words most of the time and your own feelings and instead of waiting for some huge angelic manifestation kind of revelation expect that god is speaking to you if you're trying your hardest to be on the covenant path and striving to keep the covenants that you've made trust that he is speaking to you and pay more attention to those thoughts and feelings that come in those still small moments instead of expecting these big huge moments to come and i do like how it says the still small voice it causes his bones to quake so you kind of have this paradox that it is so quiet and so beautiful and piercing and yet when you know it's there it's it's undeniable even if it's not like this overwhelming outpouring that just shatters windows or whatever it might be i love it now verse 7 is the the verse that taylor spoke about earlier it shall come to pass that i lord god will send one mighty and strong holding the separate scepter of power in his hand clothed with light for a covering why will this person be sent it this one mighty and strong will only be sent if edward partridge doesn't fix his his struggle in independence well the fact is edward did fix his struggle so the conclusion doesn't need to happen the consequence in that if then doesn't need to become a reality there have been people in the history of our church who have set themselves up as the fulfillment of verse 7 trying to call people to themselves saying i am the one mighty and strong come i will now lead you as a fulfillment of this prophecy that just strikes me as really odd because of what comes in verse 8 right after it you'll notice while that man who was called of god and appointed that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of all of god shall fall by the shaft of death he's referring to that story out of second samuel 6 and first chronicles 13 where it describes david who is now moving the ark of the covenant that contains the two tablets of stones with the ten commandments written by the finger of god as well as aaron's rod and a pot of manna this this most sacred artifact of the of the ancient israelites david has it on an ox cart and they're now moving it he's going to be taking it to his house in the city of david in jerusalem and along the way the ox cart starts to tip and what happens to ooze is like i'm going to help and he just puts his hand out to study the ark and you know he's thinking i can do god's work i can do it for him without being asked to do it i'm just going to go jump in and do god's work for himself but god had actually already made it pretty clear like this ark is mine my presence is here and i own it and there's only a few people that i have ordained to actually touch this and uzo wasn't one of them it was outside of the orders outside of his obligation then and this story doesn't end well and it's for for 21st century sensitivities that story doesn't it's not usually people's favorite story because it's that it's a god of of justice and a feeling of wrath uh teaching a lesson and and perhaps we don't have the full story and all of the background information but the principle is clear when god authorizes servants to do something he doesn't want other people that aren't authorized to come in and say no i can do it better which is what some people ironically have done with verse 7 saying i'm not authorized by god but i'm going to step forward and i'm going to be the one the the mighty and great one and the strong one to to fulfill this this promise in section 85 which to me i i would say to any of those individuals in history or or currently who who have that feeling of i'm going to be that guy or the future or the future i'd say keep reading read one more verse because god has an order with which he does these things and we we sustain our first presidency in our quorum of the twelve pro apostles as prophets seers and revelators and the president of the church as the only person on the earth who is authorized to exercise all priesthood keys there's there's an order to that that i don't need to i don't need to wonder if i should go to google because i i don't think the bible tells me surely the lord god will do nothing except he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the bloggers the facebookers the youtubers he didn't say that his his order his authorized channel is through the prophets and unfortunately in our world today it's that there are so many competing voices stepping up trying to say in one form or another one form or another look at me i've i've got these answers and i've i've got some things figured out that the prophets and apostles haven't yet taught us about that's a that's a red flag of warning i i think this is my personal opinion about the mighty and strong and it's based on the hebrew many of you are familiar with the word elohim this nice hebrew word the base word in hebrew is actually l and it means god um oops and it turns out that this is the plural of of god but this word in its most ancient hebrew meaning literally means mighty and strong so if we wanted to actually read this in the hebrew it would say and it should come to pass that i the lord god will send god like i'm sending myself holding the scepter of power in my hand clothed with light for his covering i cannot think of any human i've ever known who actually fits this reference and so now again this is just my personal opinion i think god's basically saying to edward partridge i need my work done well and i will come and replace you if you don't do it well and frankly that's how god always does his work he invites all of us we are all called to the work but only those who actually are diligently involved and purposely repenting and changing through the tone of jesus christ are chosen that's how i understand mighty and strong that's beautiful because i like this concept that even if it is a human being who ends up doing the work in your ward or in your stake or in the church that human being as we've demonstrated earlier with joseph smith the farm boy that that human being isn't the one actually doing the work that human being is an instrument in the hands of he who is mighty and strong to do all these things we simply become instruments for him to do his work which is kind of liberating when you get a church calling it's not this feeling of the god in heaven who has all this power saying go good luck i hope i hope you you accomplish what i've asked you to do our god never does that with callings whether they be in the church or whether they be in the family setting our god is a god of come walk with me assist me in my work and helping me to build the glory of the kingdom of god assist me it's my work but i'm inviting you to help me with it whether it be in the church or in the home and that's liberating that we don't have to own it in its entirety we can let the the ultimate mighty and strong one own it and just walk with him and and labor with him in the vineyard that's that's liberating for me okay now as we shift gears uh into section 86 this is where joseph smith in the spring of 1831 so so look at the timeline here sometime in spring 1831 he has gone through the what he calls once again the new translation of the bible the nt but we call it the jst the joseph smith translation so in spring of 1831 he's already come through the book of matthew specifically today section or chapter 13. so it he's already he's already done that but notice the date on the page it's december 6 1832 now so some time has passed and we're now in december of 1832 and joseph has experienced some things that he sees as connected back to those parables in matthew 13 there are eight of them so eight parables here now he asks the lord some specific questions about some of those parables gets an answer and because of this answer which is section 86 joseph now goes back to his joe smith or the new translation manuscript and he's going to make some adjustments in the matthew 13 section so here we are a year and a half later and he's tweaking it now some people would say well some prophet he is he should have gotten it right the first time he went through or he's not really a prophet i love the fact that god is a patient and merciful and long-suffering god that he allows us to learn lessons line up online precept upon precept hear a little there a little and that in in the beginning of the restoration he doesn't have to give this huge exhaustive blueprint to the prophet joseph from from day one i love the fact that he's letting joseph learn from his own experience and by default letting us learn along with the prophet as these revelations come out that he got some adjustments back in 1831 but now he gets additional ones and what a beautiful thing to have a living prophet seer and revelator or in the plural 15 of them on the earth today whose right it is to be able to help us understand scriptures at in this case deeper and deeper levels of meaning so let's talk about this just briefly the word parable actually another word related to this is the word problem you might not imagine these two words are connected it actually comes from the word that forms the word problem and parabole actually comes from the word ball so imagine a game pro means in front of so if you want to throw a ball in front of somebody a problem is something you put in front of somebody a situation they have to resolve para means alongside so what you're doing is putting two ideas side by side to compare and contrast so again it's almost like you're throwing something like that's what the word ball comes from that same word throwing it out there so you can see and learn and god is a great teacher and it's beautiful how jesus uses comparison and contrast to teach people and that was a very common tactic anciently and we're going to see some interesting things about what joseph learned from these parables particularly the one about the wheat and tears that actually is relevant to the restoration today so joseph smith is fascinated with with these eight parables in matthew 13 possibly uh because of the fact that he says that there is no better place in the entire bible than matthew 13 these eight parables to describe the gathering now i don't know about you but if i read matthew 13 from start to finish on my own i don't know that on on my own learning i would come away from that chapter with these eight parables saying wow this is the most incredible description of the gathering of israel anywhere in all of the bible but joseph smith read it and studied it and says these parables are all related so he then in this letter that you can go and read in greater detail he's going to show you that that first parable of the sower and those seeds and the soils the different types of soils he shows how this is a description of jesus and his apostles spreading the gospel and the different responses that people have to those seeds of the gospel that get planted by by the lord and the apostles then you get into the second parable of matthew 13 of the wheat and the tares so this is joseph's description of this is given here in section 86 by the lord telling him exactly how to interpret it which if you open up matthew 13 the parable of the sower will start at verse three and end in verse eight and then it's afterwards that those apostles come to him kind of like taylor's description of what the word parable means this this setting side by side this comparison and they're understanding what he said in the parable but they're not making the connection to what the lesson was so they come to him and say what did you mean by that the peril becomes a problem for their understanding and it's not supposed to be a problem for those who who have eyes to see and ears to hear as he describes it in verse nine i love the disciples joseph smith does the same thing seek understanding and we should all i love that lesson that it's okay if you feel confused seek understanding from the lord from from the right source from the lord so notice what he does verse 18 of matthew 13 he says hear ye therefore the parable of the sower and then starting in verse 19 all the way down through 23 jesus himself gives them the interpretation of what he meant by it we don't have to guess we don't have to speculate he told us exactly what that parable means from his perspective then he started into the parable of the wheat and the tares and so what section 86 becomes is this prophetic insert back into matthew 13 very similar to what jesus did with his apostles in verse 19 through 23 where he's giving the interpretation of that first parable well here's the interpretation of the second parable the wheat and the tares and there's some interesting things that are different or changed or updated that should help us to understand the restoration which is why god gave joseph this inspired interpretation because back in you know the time the disciples 2000 years ago they wouldn't need to understand the intricacies of the restoration that was going to happen 18 or 1900 years into the future but today this inspired interpretation from jesus helps us see the context for why this parable helps us to see what his work is today with us so if you combine this so the sower has planted these seeds and any farmer any any good sower doesn't go out and throw out weed seed they throw out seed that will produce fruit food sustenance life-giving and so the wheat has been planted by the lord jesus christ and all of those whom he has called to assist him in his work so that part's very clear here but then an enemy comes along it actually turns out in the ancient world we have stories of farmers getting in fights with each other and one farmer goes out at night and literally throws seed into his neighbor's yard and or into his farm and the problem with tares and wheat is early on you cannot distinguish between what is what now when they're fully ripe it is absolutely clear which is which but when they're young you can't and so if you want to survive as a farmer the only way to do it is to let both develop at the same time exactly and so section 86 he the lord tells joseph verse 1 verily thus says the lord unto you my servants concerning the parable of the wheat and tares behold verily i say the filled was the world the apostles were the sowers of the seed and after they have fallen asleep the great persecutor of the church the apostate the even babylon behold he soweth the tares wherefore the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into the wilderness joseph is giving us this beautiful analogy in 1835 in the letter that he writes out to the elders he takes this one step further and he says this parable clearly teaches this great apostasy where the church is driven into the wilderness by the enemy who hath done this so notice verse 4 but behold in the last days even now while the lord is beginning to bring forth the word and the blade is springing up and is yet tender and the angels are crying unto the lord day and night they're ready to come down to to reap the as taylor said verse 6 the lord saith unto them pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender for verily your faith is weak lest you destroy the wheat also interesting this section 86 analogy between the wheat and the tares that the saints and the servants of the the enemy are going to grow side by side seemingly independent of each other competing for the light and the soil and the the moisture and the nutrients in the soil they're going to grow independent because you can't pull up the one without negatively affecting the other now you'll notice a major change in verse 7. this is this is a significant adjustment from what you read in the biblical account in matthew 13. therefore let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe and then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares and after the gathering the wheat behold and low the tares are bound in bundles and the field remaineth to be burned did you notice the order of operations there if you read in the matthew account of this parable it says in verse 30 of matthew 13 let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest i will say to the reapers gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn now this isn't a huge difference as far as the words they're just switched the order of operations but if you think about it in the context of the building up of the kingdom of god on the earth in the latter days the gathering of israel this is profound the gathering first the correction that comes from the lord in section 86 is no we're going to first gather out the wheat now when wheat is growing like taylor said you can't tell the difference between wheat and the tares they look similar it's only once the wheat finally starts ripening and those grains of wheat start getting more and more full that this whole plant the heads of the wheat way down they they are bowed down with the weight of all of that that fruit that's inside of the grain right not the tares the tears are still very haughty so to speak very very lifted up there's no there's nothing weighing them down nothing that we can benefit from so the gatherers the people who god has asked to assist him in this work are supposed to go out into the field out into the world and find the wheat find the humble the receptive the ones who who have taken in the nutrients that god has provided for them and turned them into a fruitful production find those gather those out first into the barns we could say into the covenant fold into the temple into these eternal family relationships that are so significant gather those first leave the tares out in the field and then at that point they can be gathered in bundles and we know that at the lord's coming the earth will be burned if whatever hasn't been gathered into the barns is going to be burned which is a very typical first century practice at the end of the harvest you want to burn and destroy any of those seeds so that are bad so they don't ruin your fields next year i find a personal application here that in our own lives there are wheat and tares we have difficulty and at some point god will gather the good and burn the bad in our own lives and that then becomes the nutrients for the next season of planting so all of us are going to experience weeds in our lives and we can complain about them or we can see them as the opportunity for those to be the nourishment for future experiences of growth because the very next year when you plant the wheat all the ash that's left over from these dead weeds makes it possible for the next crop to grow so just a perspective in our suffering that good can come of what's hard love that love that personal application uh now look at verse seven in the context of living in the world uh that we have today let the wheat and the tears grow together until the harvest is fully ripe we live in the dispensation of fullness of times it's not just a fullness of times for the wheat it's a fullness of times for the tares as well there was never a better day to be on the covenant path that there were never more resources given to disciples of christ than right now to be good and to be able to do temple and family history work to be able to do missionary work to be able to gather israel to be able to connect with loved ones there was never a better day where that fullness of times is is fuller than ever before but at the same time there was never an easier time to engage in sinful behavior in deceptive practices and in terrible things that that exist in this world it is truly a fullness of times and they're growing together uh i believe it was elder maxwell who said something along the lines of we shouldn't be surprised as time goes on that the tears start looking more and more like tears with each passing day now this ties back into the the previous sections we've talked about of signs of the times and and looking towards the second coming when jesus comes he won't come into a period of great peace and contentment for the world he'll come when there's great turmoil and great wickedness abounding on the earth and hence our urgency to accelerate our gathering efforts and it's not the terrors we're trying to gather as we would read in matthew 13. it's the wheat that we're trying to find and seek and gather safely into the barns in preparation for that day so as soon as we talk about this earlier as we were preparing we were talking about there's so much misinformation and falsehood in in the world on many different topics and in some ways it's almost like people are consuming tears and becoming addicted to this and feeling like this is what i need for my regular diet and they're misunderstanding what it feels like to taste the wheat of god and there's such a need for us to be grounded in truth both the truth of god and also the truth about the world because there's there's salvific truth right faith repentance baptism holy ghost there's also truth about how the world works and how science works and god is a god of total truth now ultimately it's only the salvific truth that will save you but i think god also loves and embraces actually i know he loves and embraces all truth and we should do the same and learn to distinguish we shouldn't be planting weeds we shouldn't be coming addicted to the taste of the tares yeah there is no there is no benefit in leaving a place in your heart or in your soul for falsehoods or for lies or deceptions or for even half truths that aren't ultimately going to produce fruit for us that's why i love i love the concept we thank thee oh god for a prophet to guide us in these latter days to help distinguish especially in those salvific things but also in scripture and and personal revelation ways to start distinguishing between truth and error between wheat and tares when it comes to things that don't have to do with our salvation that have to do with the physical world in which we live there's no benefit that comes from believing a falsehood or from following a half-truth or some made-up theory that turns out to be wrong or some prediction that doesn't happen and we could actually use the example of the enemy who sews tares we live in a world where it's easier than ever for any one of us to have a voice that gets amplified to the world and all of us are spreading seeds of information and are we planting wheat or we planting tears and so before you click a like or click share i know i've struggled with this i i see something like oh i gotta share that without even making sure i understand what even what seed i'm casting out to the world so it's a real opportunity for us to understand the wheat and only be sharing that and to not be sharing the tares or to encourage people here's the wheat that makes a difference since joseph smith made this statement in that 1835 letter to the elders of the church that there is no better place in all of the bible that describes the gathering than these eight parables of matthew 13. we've already covered the first two let me just very very quickly walk you through the rest of some of the things that he shared in that letter and you can read that letter yourself on the joseph papers website so the next parable is the grain of the mustard seed which is the smallest of seed that when you plant it then it becomes this this biggest of herbs as it's described here where the birds of the air can come and lodge joseph smith compared that to the book of mormon this little tiny thing that was planted by a man named moroni in a hill and it germinates symbolically and eventually it comes out of the hill and it grows and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and this is the means whereby the angels the birds can come down and manifest truth to to the world the church could also apply to that little grain of mustard seed this little teeny insignificant seed being planted and then growing to become the largest and the greatest the next parable is the parable of the leaven where a woman took three measures of meal and she leavens the whole lump with with these three uh three parts of leaven joseph smith compared that to the three witnesses in this letter i would have never made that connection but it's beautiful their their testimony leavening the whole lump being spread to the whole world and keep in mind it's the three witnesses who are going to be tasked with the job of calling our original 12 apostles that's going to have this global effect that will affect the whole world moving forward for the rest of history uh and are moving forward into the future the next parable is the treasure hidden a field joseph smith compared that to discovering the land of zion and then the man a merchant man seeking goodly pearls and he talks about finding the gospel this this greatest pearl of great price and then the parable of the net talking about how it's not the missionary's job to decide who is worthy of of being saved and who isn't we cast out the gospel and that we bring in all kinds and judgment rests with the lord and then the last parable the the scribe who brings out of the treasure things new and old compared to joseph smith himself bringing scriptures and and scriptural truth spiritual truth both old and new you've got the book of mormon the pearl great price and the doctrine and covenants of course pearl great price isn't going to be a canonized scripture until the 1870s but you've got the book of mormon the doctrine and covenants and then old treasures as well the joseph smith translation this new translation some additional treasures coming out so just wanted to to walk through some of those you see this unfolding gathering effort and what is required for that work to actually be accomplished coming through those uh those parables in matthew 13. now let's finish with section 87. it's christmas day in 1832 and there is a lot happening in the world near the end of 1832. so in 1832 there's there's been this huge outbreak of of cholera i believe and it's it's catching the global attention even in that day the word is spreading across the globe and great concern there are major struggles in those young united states at the time where the federal government had been making some passing some decrees some laws some tariffs that were very um negatively affecting the southern states from their perspective and they were starting to really ramp up in their opposition especially south carolina notice section 87 verse 1 verily thus saith the lord concerning the wars notice that's plural that will shortly come to pass beginning at the rebellion of south carolina which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls steve harper pointed out in his book making sense of the doctrine and covenants that nobody this revelation that joseph smith received about the war the civil war as this beginning point of multiple wars that because it wasn't put in the doctrine and covenants it it wasn't completely known to everybody but there were copies of it that were spread around and steve harper points out that it was a newspaper in philadelphia after the war breaks out those first shots are fired in april early in april of 1861. so if you do the math we're talking 29 years later when the war actually does break out and steve harper points out this newspaper in philadelphia says is there not a prophet among us and then they include joseph smith's prophecy to say this this war was prophesied very clearly and why it would happen and where look at verse 2 and the time will come that war will be poured poured out upon all nations beginning at this place now i am not an expert in in war history and i've i've not mapped this out but based on this revelation the way the wording comes out is there will have been many conflicts and many wars previous to the to the u.s civil war beginning in 1861 but the way this is described here is that war is going to be poured out upon all nations that's worldwide beginning at this place for behold the southern state shall be divided against the northern states and the southern states will call on other nations even the nation of great britain as it is called and they shall call upon other nations in order to defend themselves against other nations and then war shall be poured out upon all nations it seems like there's this prediction of an increasing wars and rumors of wars that really starts ramping up beginning with the civil war with some very specific prophecies coming from joseph smith on this christmas day 1832 he's also describing the slaves rising up against their masters and verse 5 it shall come to pass that also that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves and shall become exceedingly angry and shall vex the gentiles with the sore vexation so there's going to be this turmoil in this conflict wow merry christmas indeed right this is this is not a joyous thing and you thought it was bad up to that point well verse 6 thus with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn and with famine and plague and earthquake and the thunder of heaven and the fierce and vivid lightning also shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to fill the wrath and indignation and chastening hand of an almighty god until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations now at this point you're thinking my goodness this is really a downer look at verse 7 that the cry of the saints and of the blood of the saints shall cease to come up into the ears of the lord of sabbath from the earth to be avenged of their enemies he's saying i'm not going to let the these injustices whether they be because of racism or because of domination and domineering of of rich and ruling classes of the people grinding upon the faces of the poor classes of the people over time he's he's not going to keep letting these injustices happen this is a really powerful verse for a couple of reasons if you think back to the time of noah it was actually the blood of the righteous that are crying unto god because there's so much violence going on and people are killing one another and god's like people have lost their humanity and he decides to reset creation and make noah a new atom he's like let's just start over let's just flood the earth and let's start with kind of a blank slate and start over with noah also the phrase the lord of sabah oath the word sava oath is actually a transliteration of a hebrew word that literally means hosts so you'll see this phrase throughout scripture either lord of sabbath oath or lord of hosts they both mean the same thing this one's the hebrew version this is the english translation what hosts are we talking about in the ancient israelite worldview and what they taught in the bible is that god the god of heavens has all these angelic hosts and it's actually it's a military host that will do god's bidding to cleanse the earth of wickedness and in the context of what's going on here is that there's all this war among humans and god's like listen ultimately i'm the god of war no he's the god of love he's the god of many things but he's like humans should not be warring against one another and if there's a need to cleanse the earth through war only god should be doing it and it's to cleanse out the wicked and that's what we see going on here is the cry the saints and the righteous they're saying lord it is time for justice and the real war then god brings upon all of those who will not be humble all of those who refuse to love their neighbor again i think most of us would say yeah i can love god because he's so good to me in my own life i think the most difficult challenge i face in the two great commandments loving god loving my neighbor is probably loving my neighbor and this prophecy lays out how difficult has been for humans to do this so when you see this phrase in scripture we just all hope that we can be on the side of the saints and not on the side of the tares they're going to be mowed down by the the military hosts of heaven isn't that isn't it remarkable to picture in your mind's eye these hosts of heaven marshaled in their strength ready to bring the battle against ultimate evil whether it be in a pre-mortal context or in a mortal context or a post-mortal setting fascinating to me that the civil war that's being prophesied here for the united states of america as the beginning point of all of these wars being poured out as we pull in this this war analogy from heaven as well that war is fought with the essence being centered on agency hmm i wonder if there's any connection to the war in heaven satan who sought to destroy the agency of all of us and so we were willing to stand up and fight against that before he came to the earth now you see uh these attacks on agency in our world whether it be over race whether it be over gender whether it be over political differences or all of the ideologies that exist out there you peel back enough of the layers on on war and you're going to find somewhere down there at the very core the route is somebody is trying to take away agency to one degree or another on on one side or another or maybe both parties are trying to do that but it's usually a war of agency which brings us back to the original war that satan started or one group trying to create more agency for them and for others versus what god did jesus he comes down and says i want to help more people have more agency think about that what does ammon do does ammon go in like a typical nephi like let's go war against the lamanites and take away their agency no let me go in and serve them according to their needs now the closing verse of 87 is verse 8 which after all these difficult prophecies and and painful things that are being laid out in their future look at verse 8 wherefore notice the word wherefore is a cause and effect qualifier so because of everything that i've just told you verse one through seven because of all of that here's the outcome here's the effect stand ye in holy places and be not moved until the day of the lord come for behold it cometh quickly saith the lord amen i love the insight that steve harper also shared where he said the lord didn't say stand by he said stand ye in holy places it's not this passive sit back and let the world do whatever the world's going to do it's no we take a proactive stand and we stand in holy places places where wheat can grow beautifully and freely and we be not moved those holy places like the temple like a christ-centered home like a stake of zion that we're seeking to establish and and strengthen and build up those around us that we don't we don't just dress in the armor of god and then go uh whimper over in the corner hoping that that nothing bad happens to us we stand up in these holy places and we don't need to be afraid of all of these prophecies that have been given so as we finish off section 85 86 and 87 it's these sections about gathering to zion consecrating our lives to him and in spite of prophets looking down the road and saying whoa there are a lot of bad things that are going to happen and that are going to come our way we don't need to be moved we can stand in holy places there are safe places that god has given us uh in this earth where where we don't need to feel terror and and fear about what's going to happen in destructive ways god is the lord of the outstretched arms and there is nothing happening on this earth right now that is causing the heavens or the angels to to panic and to wring their hands in fear and and anxiety wondering oh no what are we going to do now everything that you see happening has long been foretold and foreseen and prepared for far in advance and part of the solution for all of the struggles you see out there happens to be you happens to be us collectively working to gather zion be part of the solution rather than sitting back passively looking at all of the problems let's stand in holy places and assist the lord in his greatest of all works the gathering of the elect out of the four corners of the earth in these latter days know that he lives know that this is his work that we do have prophets seers and revelators who stand at the head of the the church today guiding us as the lord guides them to move forward and to know how to uh to build up the kingdom and we leave that with you in the name of jesus christ amen know that you're loved spread light and goodness [Music] you

Channel: Book of Mormon Central

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Keywords: Come Follow Me, Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith, Church History, Mormon, LDS, Latter Day Saint, Latter Day Saints, Lesson

Id: 8_pstCnqhIE

Length: 68min 34sec (4114 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021