D&C 12-13 + Joseph Smith History 1:66-75 CFM with Sam: my fellow servants

 Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam!! This week's readings are super short and so my encouragement to you is to read them in the first day (Monday) and then use the rest of the week's study time to ponder, pray, meditate, and write about its meaning. I believe that this is the first place where keys were given so the organization of the church, or at least part of the organization really comes back to this moment, and later the formal establishment of a church body.

Section 12: qualities of the work

the first six verses of section 12 are repeated in sections 6, 11, and 14. I see them as an introduction and repetition to understanding missionary work. Here are some highlights

4. Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.

    God knows to shape the tool for his work and He knows the end from the beginning. He is looking for those who are really willing, and whomever is prepared is that person which is called. The ramifications of this mean that there a lot of non-members also called to the work. They are obviously missing a lot of the keys, promises, some protections, and certain types of guidance outside the Church, but if they are willing, they are called to the work, and God loves them no less and accepts their offering no less than any other person called, according to the light and knowledge given them.

5. Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you

    Once again, the most repeated vs in scripture, but what does it really mean? who hasn't asked God for something expecting a certain answer and feel a little abandoned when the answer they expected did not come? In this case, the scripture is tied directly to vs 4, which means if you are asking God how to build the kingdom and you are ready to thrust in your sickle and reap, you have a promise.

8. And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.

We talked about these back in Section 4. They are worth rereading and repeating because of my own experience I know that this is absolutely true. Also, remember that you aren't going to come into this work perfect, and God knows that. If you come to do the work, all you need to do is to open yourself to these qualities and God knows how to manifest the rest in you.

9. Behold, I am the light and life of the world, that speak these words, therefore give heed with your might, and then you are called. Amen.

Never let forget the glory of the Being we serve.

Section 13 : the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood

Section 13 is one of those rare beautiful and glorious moments, where a prophet of God returned in angelic form to restore the great work that was prepared to go forth. In this case, it is specifically the Aaronic priesthood. Lets do the breakdown.

Upon you My Fellow Servants: This invocation fills me with such wonder! It is a strange thing that mortals should work alongside angels, and even stranger that we can become Gods under the plan of the Most High God. What a strange and wonderful rippling out of the ineffable work of God that this might happen. Alma pondered this very thing in Alma 29 and his conclusion was that our work here, if done with sincerity is as great as the work of angels. really cool stuff. When you serve God's children, or when you join His church, you join a long, unbroken chain of heroes and saints that walked after the path of the Master. It is a wonderful thing to be a fellow servant.

In the name of Messiah: I just pointed out above that we should never forget the glorious nature of the Being we serve. Remember that John the Baptist, the speaker here, knew the Savior in their earthly life. Equally, Christ was both the Messiah of John the Baptist and of Joseph the Prophet as he is for all times and peoples. It is a wonderful thing to know whom you serve.

I confer the priesthood of Aaron: Many of you know Aaron is a preparatory priesthood, and a sub branch of the greater Melchezidek Priesthood. Here an ancient order was being reestablished, connecting us back to the sons of Levi, and in the greater sense of the priesthood, back to Adam and all ages of time and eternity. 

which holds the keys: There is some wonder in the church about what keys are. We know they are the delegated power and authority to administer in the church, that there are many keys, and that someone needs them to lead. They are tied to the ability to call on God for certain spiritual gifts in the administering of those keys. The early church knew this was a big deal as well, as Peter is most associated with those keys that Christ gave him to administer the church.

Don't take this too seriously but it may help to understand them like the power of the King of the Forest in the Enchanted Chronicles series (I highly recommend it for young women and men!). The King can deal with certain threats to the enchanted forest based on his power, but he needs the sword for his powers to extend enough to protect the entire forest from the massive threats. The way that he and his son (slight spoiler there, sorry) exercise their power to protect the forest is also described in a manner that is similar to using a key to unlock a certain result in the magical fabric of the enchanted forest. Like the sword, the keys are for delegating the kingdom of God in an organized structured manner. With out the Keys, everyone in the church is just another simple servant in a fallen world; there is no promise of delegation or organization.

Of the ministering of angels: There is some wonder in the church about what this means as well. Some have supposed that this means that the men holding the priesthood are like ministering angels, which is to me a ridiculous idea. Others perceive that it may mean that angels can't minister except to or through men who have the Aaronic priesthood. Once again, this is on its face blatantly false. That the key to the ministering angels may mean in a cosmic sense that without the power of the Aaronic priesthood acting in the world there could be no angelic ministrations. Probably the closest description of my understanding is that ministering angels are here understood to be messengers of God, and that, as we learn in Moroni 7, messengers, whether angelic or mortals that speak the angelic words of Christ, are the critical component where faith can take root and the work of salvation can begin. As a preparatory gospel, this is under the power and mission of the Aaronic priesthood, and a holder of the Aaronic priesthood, or the power of god with this same mission designated, can speak the words of life necessary to seed this work of salvation in the souls of the human race. This isn't to exclude the actual physical presence of ministering angels, but it is an explanation tied directly to the powers of heaven and the mission of the Aaronic priesthood.

and of the gospel of repentance: leading from the ministering of angels where faith can take root, is the gospel of repentance where we can give up all our sins and point our path directly to Christ. the Aaronic priesthood has the power to help such people as wish this to obtain their desire.

And of baptism by emersion for the remission of sins: leading from ministering angels and the gospel of repentance is the first ordinance of the gospel, which is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. Having helped the candidate to gain faith by the seed of the word of God, and guide them to forsake anything that would keep them from the presence of God. the person by the same priesthood can administer the ordinance by which the candidate signifies to God, angels, and all witnesses that they will faithfully adhere to this path.

and this shall never again be taken from the earth: The priesthood was never fully taken from the earth. At the base level, the priesthood was the power that organized the creation, so to deprive the earth of all priesthood would be for it to degenerate back into matter unorganized, into the great black. In the second case, there were at least 4, and sometimes other individuals that held the priesthood. This refers back to the keys specifically to be delegated to use in the great latter-day work. The priesthood keys and organization had been taken away before, and John the Baptist's promise is that this time, that organization will not be taken away...

until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness: Remember that John the Baptist himself would be considered a son of Levi (Pure bloodline? if not, then it would be through his recognition as a priest among the Jews in his mortal life). This is a reference to multiple prophecies, the fullness of which, I expect, we do not have today. There are references from this to D&C 84:18-34, 124:39, and 128:24, which I encourage you to look up. The basics are that the Israelites rejected God and refused to approach Him on the mountain and so by their hardening of their hearts, the priesthood was taken away except for that portion known as the Aaronic Priesthood (note that the prophets still held the Melchezidek priesthood, it just wasn't administered generally), which was to stay with the people to help prepare them for the greater things. When the sons of Levi offer again an offering in righteousness, they will have become prepared to once again be brought into the presence of God, and at that point, according to my understanding, this portion will have fulfilled its purpose and it will be subsumed back into the Melchezidek priesthood without distinction. Note that the powers of the Aaronic priesthood are eternal, and simply a lesser form of the Melchezidek priesthood, so those are not going to go away; rather, it is this specific order of the priesthood that will have fulfilled its purpose, in many ways like the Law of Moses that was issued with it, but has already been fulfilled.

There is more to this equation than I have put here. Notice that the other sections are referencing both specific events that will happen around the time of the Millennium as well as our own actions today that, while we are not by blood the sons of Levi, yet have a part to play in the prophecies and saga of this part of Gods plan.

If people understood this better, the church and the world would be a much happier place. Pinky Promise. So I encourage you to take extra time this week to really ponder and pray about this section once you have read it.