3rd Nephi 20-26: Book of Mormon Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! In the following chapters, Jesus teaches a higher law than He did in the old world. He also expounds prophecies of the future. Usually, the greatest value we can get from prophecies is not to know the future, but to understand better the workings of God. This may sound strange, but it's true. Check it out below.

A note on General Conference

I hope you all grabbed the chance to listen to General Conference last week. If not you can find it here. I could tell that this year opened me up to listening better to the messages than I possibly ever have. I was surprised how many of the messages focused on reassurance. We may have some challenges ahead. If you listen closely to the brethren, you can feel an undercurrent that there is a divine current still rolling forward beneath the chaos of the surface waves.

Isaiah (again) and the last days

Isaiah comes up over and over again. It is mentioned by Nephi, Abinadai, and Mormon/Moroni. Jesus also speaks directly to these things. He expounds for several chapters the message He gave to Isaiah. We have tackled Isaiah before. When Christ teaches Isaiah, it is both plainer and more difficult for me. It is plainer because He speaks in plain terms. It is more difficult because I can't see the entire pattern playing out like I do when I read straight from Isaiah, or when Nephi long forms Isaiah, or when Abinadai quotes specific passages. I highly suspect that Jesus talked a lot more about Isaiah but we are only getting the highlights in the record we have today. Christ also asks us to search Isaiah at least twice, once in chapter 20:11, once in 23:1. Isaiah definitely thought differently than us, there is no doubt about that. There is also no doubt that Jesus commanded us to search the words of Isaiah in person and through His prophets, and that means that if we seek diligently, putting off all guile and insincerity, I am sure that He will give us understanding into these things.

Latter-Day work

At this time, the Nephites/Lamanites know they are a branch of many scattered branches of the House of Israel all over the world. Jesus tells them they will be gathered together again. Jesus then says this interesting pattern that will play out

15 And I say unto you, that if the Gentiles do not ^arepent after the ^bblessing which they shall receive, after they have scattered my people—

16 Then shall ye, who are a ^aremnant of the house of Jacob, go forth among them; and ye shall be in the midst of them who shall be many; and ye shall be among them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, and as a young ^blion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he goeth through both ^ctreadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.

17 Thy hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.

18 And I will ^agather my people together as a man gathereth his sheaves into the floor.

19 For I will make my ^apeople with whom the Father hath covenanted, yea, I will make thy ^bhorn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass. And thou shalt ^cbeat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. And behold, I am he who doeth it.

Think back to the context of the time. The civilization had just had a half century or more of extreme trials capped off by the disintegration of the society, and soon after the destruction of complete cities. In previous commentary, I mentioned how plain it is to see the words of President Kimball, that only the Gospel can save the world from the calamity of its own self destruction. I see Jesus teaching the people that the same thing that happened to them is going to happen in the last days, but that they (the house of Israel) can play a huge part in blessing the world, in helping the world choose to avoid the same calamity, thanks to the diligence and righteousness of this house of Israel, which is a beautiful segway to the next part.

It is quite clear that if the world does not turn toward this path, there are very real consequences. How this plays, out, I couldn't say.

Bless the earth

Jesus expounds the Abrahamic covenant. I believe the two great promises are that Christ will come through Abraham's line (salvation will come through his seed) and that the Gospel will be preached and spread by his children (by his seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed). Jesus reminds the people of His role, and then of their role, saying they are children of prophets. They have been given the words of the gospel, and they are part of the Abrahamic Covenant as well and that means that they have a big role to play.

For all those members of the Church of Jesus Christ who have been baptized, this applies directly to you too. You are part of the House of Israel. You have become part of the covenant. That means that you are part of the solution. You are part of the blessing to the earth. You have a big role to play and it has been prophesied and hoped for literally thousands of years, and that is really exciting, and possibly a little daunting, to realize.

26 The Father having raised me up unto you first, and sent me to ^abless you in ^bturning away every one of you from his iniquities; and this because ye are the children of the covenant—

27 And after that ye were blessed then fulfilleth the Father the covenant which he made with Abraham, saying: ^aIn thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed—unto the pouring out of the Holy Ghost through me upon the Gentiles, which ^bblessing upon the ^cGentiles shall make them mighty above all, unto the ^dscattering of my people, O house of Israel.

Jesus then quotes Isaiah directly. I highly recommend you reflect on your role in the last days, pray to understand, and then read these words and see if you can't feel a spirit of hope and mercy and of a latter day work that is happening today. 

We are Connected.

Jesus continues to connect their day and our day, His words, and us reading them, together. It is almost like He is literally talking to both the Nephites and us at the same time, especially when he talks about whom I can only assume is Joseph Smith in verses 9 and 10 of Chapter 21.

Jesus says that when the words He speaks to the people come forth to the gentiles, and from the gentiles, it is a sign that the latter day work is about to commence. He then ties in what he said before - that the House of Israel will be like a lion among sheep, that the world will be blessed, and comes back again to the work commencing.

A free people by the power of the Father

There is a serious psychological war being waged against the people of the United States of America to discredit any dreams people had about what this country means. I find this discreditation a tragedy, filled with possibly the greatest gas-lighting campaign of lies masquerading as truths that I have ever encountered. Now, I happen to have a lot of friends who I feel more or less believe a lot of lies about this nation. I also think that a lot of our history was glaced with a Victorian glow, which serves to befuddle the situation and, if turned aside, would change everyone's current understanding of the United States of America, but that we would actually revere the miracle of this country more, not less, as a consequence.

Whatever the spirit of the times that animates you, realize that this country is a land of liberty that was established by the power of God as part of His work. There are no perfect peoples, there is no perfect nation, but there are a handful of nations that are raised up by God Himself. This nation is one of them.

4 For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a ^afree people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the ^bcovenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel;

3rd Nephi Chapter 22 (Isaiah 54)

Jesus quotes directly from Isaiah for the entirety of Chapter 22. We can know based on the last chapter that this is at or shortly after what jesus already said. 

vs 1-4. Remember that the Jews as a people rejected Jesus when He came. It seems that there was some breaking of the covenant/turning away before them. In these verses, Jesus is saying that the covenant will be restored in full. in vs 4, it says 'for thou shalt forget the shame of they youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy youth'. This is a reference to the suffering of the people of Israel, of their wanderings, and their separation from God.

vs 5-11 in here are the verses of that Rob Gardner song 'My Kindness Shall not Depart from Thee'. These verses are really hard for me to capture in a blog without making it the entire blog. The main point is that God never broke His end of the covenant with the house of Israel, and He hasn't forgotten the travail, nor the return, of any of the so-called 'lost' peoples. While it is referring more specifically to Israel here, this also symbolically represents every child of God on the face of the earth.

vs. 12-17 God reminds us that He is the Master over affliction, particularly enemies. In vs 13 and 14, God establishes that 'all thy children shall be taught of the Lord...In righteousness shalt thou be established' as a condition for the deliverance he shows next. He aslo clarified that while enemies are not created by God, He has 'the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work'. He doesn't create the affliction per se, but he can create the furnace of the afflication that will refine and purify instead of burn up, such that we can have beauty for ashes.

The power of records

Jesus specifically asks for records of the fulfilled miracle of the resurrection of many people at the time of Christ, and when He finds them lacking, commands that the people should write those things down. There are two take-aways I get from this.

1. The resurrection is real. This is so crazy, and yet so true! What principle of nature can make those who die come back perfected in physical form? Whatever principle it is, it is manifested literally in the person of Jesus Christ and by Him to all people. It is almost funny to watch the world wonder how this could be possible. They can't believe it and yet, this really happened. Jesus knew this would be something we needed to know today amongst such confusion.

2. Keep a miracle journal. If you want to be connected to God, or if you want miracles in your life, keep a journal of every miracle from God in your life. When you record those things, you honor them and hold them sacred, and become a candidate for further light and knowledge that God wishes to send you.

The Teachings of Malachi

Jesus had them record the words of Malachi. Why do you think He had them write these down specifically, even when the first prophecies had already happened in a foreign land? I see this as a time when Christ is speaking both to them and to us again. Remember that they had just gone through a truly horrible time in their civilization where it was literally disintegrating around them, at which point the great destruction and coming of the Savior arrived. This is the same thing that is happening today. If you don't believe in the disintegrating of civilization and great destruction, just take a look at the 20th centuries' wars. If you don't believe in the coming of the Savior, that is a little more understandable because He hasn't come in fullness yet, but I invite you to read the witnesses of prophets then and now and if you really want to know without guile, you'll figure it out.

Here's the spiel on Malachi

vs 1. direct prophecy of the comming of Jesus. I see this as a super cool narrative of the coming of John the baptist to prepare the way before God. Remember that Lehi saw the same thing. He says 'Behold, I will send my messenger (John the Baptist) and he shall prepare the way before me (by bringing religion pure and undefiled before God and the Father back to the Jews), and the Lord whom ye seek (remember that there had been an apostasy of some 400 years after Malachi, who was the last prophet and the one who gets to tell us these things that we are reading right now!!!!, and so the people were distanced from the heavens, and then, a true manifestation of heaven came down) shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant (meaning that with no warning after those 400 years, the angel came to signify and prophecy that the covenant God made with Abraham and other prophets was about to be fulfilled)

vs. 2-7 Malachi does that thing that Isaiah loves to do and starts talking about multiple time periods as the same, speaking more to the symbolic or spiritual nature as well as the physical travails of the events. He helps us understand that the price of discipleship is much higher than we thought, and we are not in the place we probably think we are. Or more precisely, we are in a good place to seek him, but it requires greater sacrifice of soul than we imagined. God says that if you turn to him, like as in Isaiah earlier, this will purify you instead of destroying you.

vs 8-11 Malachi speaks directly of the sacrifice of tithes and offerings we need to make. There are plenty of talks, admonitions, and promises on this topic. Here are a couple things to think about. Most of us are not being persecuted or dying, or forced to go on Exodus for the gospel, but we are asked for tithing. The law of tithing, for most of us, is the most real measure we can use to see how dedicated we really are to Christ. If we can't even give a portion of our increase, what is our faith worth?

vs 12-18 There are a lot of ideas wrapped up in here. Basically, God says he knows that things look bad on the earth, and that sex, drugs, money, power, hedonism, taking advantage of neighbors, vengeful bitterness against oneself, one's neighbor, and against being itself all seem like they are pretty cool some days and suffer no consequence while you in your proverbial sackcloth only get to mix mud bricks for whatever you have for a vision of some better civilization, but first off, read vs 2-7 again. The refining process is way bigger than you thought, so if you were a lot more righteous than you pretend to be, you wouldn't be having this problem, and more importantly, if you do put on the altar your offering meet for sacrifice, yeah, the refiners fire is going to come, but you will come out as a jewel, and you will finally understand what it means to be truly righteous vs wicked and the difference between truly serving God 'and him that serveth him not'

Chapter 25 vs 1-6 Malachi expounds the words. He teaches on the healing power that comes with God, and of the severity of the trial, and of the redeeming work in the last days that once again you, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints especially, and ever christian generally, are a part of in the last days. Woot!

What we don't know is greater than what we do know.

Mormon ends by giving us a little peek into all the stuff we don't have today. We have only the tiniest fraction of what happened at Bountiful 2000 years ago. You can tell that Mormon wants us to know very badly. He wants to tell us all the things that happened there, but he is stopped by God, who forbids it saying 'I will try the faith of my people'.

I would like to talk about this phrase, because I feel like there is some really bad misconceptions about what this means. God is not making an arbitrary test here. If you think that, you don't understand faith at all.

Let me tell you a story that, I believe, is based on a real experience. Walking the plains, a young pioneer girl was trying to make it to the valley in the dead of winter with pioneer company that was having much more trouble than most. One of the men was driving a wagon in front of her. He looked back and saw her plodding and shivering exhausted, and he told her if she can walk a little faster, she can get a ride in the wagon. So she begins to walk a little faster. She closes the distance and is almost there when she sees the wagon pull away farther. She thinks she's slowed down and redoubles her fatigued efforts, but when she is about to hop on, the wagon gets farther away again. She begins to cry hot tears against the freezing wind as she realizes that the man is doing this on purpose. He encourages her to keep going; she can make it. Malnourished, with poor sleep, cold, exhausted, she still can't give up on the thought of making it into the wagon, so she runs as fast as she can. the wagon gets nearer and nearer, and she finally grabs onto the backboard and strong arms hoist her in. As the man puts a blanket around her and gives her a hug, he explains 'I had to make you run somehow because if I had let you simply hop into the wagon, your body would not have created enough heat to keep you alive. I'm sorry you had to go through this, but because of it, you can keep yourself warm enough to live.'

Faith is holding onto the truth we know, come what may. If we are given everything spoon fed on a platter, what hope do our souls have of the fire of faith strong enough to be purified? 

God is 'trying us'. It comes from the frenche 'trier', from the Gallo-Roman 'triare', which means to separate the good from the bad by examination, patience, and endurance. When we have endured by the patience of hope, the fire of faith, and the labor of love, we will be ready for the greater things.