2 Nephi 3
3:1-5 - Lehi's youngest recorded son was named Joseph after ancient Jacob's son Joseph who was sold into Egypt by his brothers as a slave. Joseph in Egypt is an amazing story, he is an amazing man that I really respect and hope to one day study his story as in depth as I do these. Joseph was truly favored of God as a boy but young and probably a bit naive about the world, maybe a little arrogant as well. But to be thrown in a pit to die, then sold as a slave into another country a world away, he grew up quickly in the ways of the world. What is absolutely amazing to me about Joseph is that he was stripped of everything to the bare bones at least 3 times before he finally was given peace in his position. First he was betrayed by his brothers and SOLD into SLAVERY. Honestly how much worse can it get than that? I can't think if much worse, doing forward and backward math we can see that he was 17 when he was sold into slavery, and spent probably close to a decade as a slave, I'm not sure how long he was in Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife comes on to him, he refuses and that's terrible for her self esteem, she's the lady of the house, she has all power, and Joseph refuses HER?! Unacceptable. My guess is that Potiphar knew that Joseph was telling the truth and that his wife was lying. I mean if she is skanky enough to try to get the main guy to have random sex with her, I'm sure she wasn't interested in a relationship, surely this wasn't her first rodeo. This couldn't have been her first attempted extra martial affair. She was probably sleeping around for years, and then if she's dishonest enough to accuse Joseph of rape, after years and years of loyal servitude and prosperity, she is an evil hearted person. And surely this wasn't news to Potiphar, he probably secretly wished he could get rid of his crappy wife and keep the man who had made him prosper financially and been so very very loyal to him with his wife. But that probably wasn't a possibility, Potiphar probably was stuck between, saying his wife is a liar and getting rid of her which, who knows what kind of chaos that would bring, or to send Joseph to prison, and he chose the path of least resistance. But in Genesis 39:20 it says that " Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound." So it appears that Potiphar at least does the best he can and sends Joseph the the best prison. Honestly he probably could have had Joseph executed if he had truly believed the story his wife told him, and honestly if Joseph HAD had sex with Potiphar's wife, he probably would have had him killed once he found out. Sad. Then in prison for a MINIMUM of 2 years. Even in the King's prison let's think about the conditions of ancient Egyptian prisons for a sec. It's in the desert, and I've lived in the desert before, in the middle eastern desert in fact and they are VERY hot in the summer. We are talking 140+ degrees, sweating salt, little water, and the water you do get is almost boiling. Sand everywhere, sand storms, blinding, suffocating sand storms. If you're lucky enough to get vegetation, all it does is bring flies and malaria and dysentery. Then there's the winter, 50-60 degrees during the day, but literally freezing at night. I wonder if the prisons back then had insulation or heating or air conditioning? Probably not. I wonder if they fed or clothed the prisoners well? Probably not. I wonder if the prisoners were beaten routinely to keep them from rioting? Probably so. I wonder if there was mass violence amongst the prisoners themselves? Most likely. I can imagine few existences worse in the history of the world than those of prisoners in ancient Egypt. But in verse 21 "the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy." I wonder if the Lord had mercy on Joseph because he rebelled, cursed God and turned to wickedness and bitterness. My guess is not. The Lord is merciful to many, even many who don't deserve it, like me, but Joseph was truly blessed in prison because the Lord helped the keeper of the prison the worth and potential that was locked up in Joseph's cell. The worst thing that the "warden" could have done for his own well being was to hand over the workings of the prison to someone who was irresponsible, careless, or prone to betrayal. Joseph earned his way out of his cell, and the Lord was the one who focused the warden's eyes to the goodness and integrity there. Truly Joseph stayed true to the Lord while suffering the horror of his time in prison. I wonder how many times Joseph laid on the freezing floor of his prison cell and cried to God for mercy, for remembrance, for some food? This was truly a refiner's fire of epic proportions. But in God's own time, as Joseph proved worthy, not only to God, but also cemented his loyalty to God within himself, he was appointed to be the second highest ruler in Egypt, the greatest nation in the world. He was basically taken from a prison cell in absolute loneliness, misery, and suffering to being the king of the world. And this because he stayed loyal to the Lord and to who he knew he was and to what he knew was right. When speaking of Lehi's teachings about Joseph the Institute manual says "Lehi's teaching is a great example of how Heavenly Father honored the covenant He made with Joseph. We can have the confidence that God will always honor his covenants." And yes, God made specific, personal covenants with Joseph, and even though God hasn't appeared to us and personally made covenants that only apply to us as individuals, this serves as testimony that God will remain true to the covenants we make with him at baptism, in the temple, and even the sacrament on Sundays. They are blanket covenants made to all who will participate, but still apply to us on individual terms, and God will honor those commitments that he made to us as we individually keep his commandments. When we are in our darkest times, in the midst of the storm, and just fighting for sanity and survival against our afflictions, I truly hope that we can imagine the relief, the peace, and serenity that will come as we are taken from "prison" and crowned "king of the world." Because even though it is SO bleak, and it seems like there is no way out, like you literally can see no possible way of your situation getting better, short of intervention by the hand of God, please remember Joseph crying on his cold prison floor, and the miracles that came next to free and reward him for his undying loyalty to God.
3:6-7 - The Lord covenants with Joseph that "a choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins." I never really understood why people care about the "fruit of their loins." Maybe it's a man thing, I don't know. If someone said to me "I promise you that in 3,000 years one of your descendants will be a great prophet" I would probably look at them like "ok, doesn't this promise apply to the thousands of other people who will be in this 'great prophet's' family tree? I think it would be such an abstract concept that that wouldn't even be an incentive for me to do anything. Talk about my kids, grandkids, etc, then I'm listening, but my great grandkids 538 times removed and you might as well be talking about penguins, it won't make any sense to me. But then in the Institute manual President Brigham Young says "The Lord had his eyes upon (Joseph Smith), and upon his father, and upon his father's father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He watched that family and that bloos as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man." That puts the whole "fruit of your loins" concept into a little bit more focus. Clearly, the man "fore-ordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation" would have had to be raised by a great man. And it's hard to be a truly great man if you yourself don't have an amazing father. And so on and so forth until the beginning of time. But what about those of us who don't come from really strong trees? What about those of us who are trying to be cycle breakers? Can we not be great people? But I'm a descendant of Joseph so maybe I already am. Surely there were some scoundrels back in the line between Joseph of Egypt and Joseph Smith. But they had to be endured, learned from then eventually there had to be cycle breakers to create great children that could then have raised great men like the prophet Joseph Smith and his father and his father's father. Does that make sense?
3:8 - If you were to look at Joseph Smith's life as an unbeliever, it would be easy to see him as a failure in life. Already rejecting the idea that accomplishments of the gospel count, he died a poor man, was almost completely uneducated formally, few of his children survived, and every task outside of the gospel failed in a miserable way. He ran for president of the United States, wasn't ever even considered a viable candidate. Tried to start many businesses, failed miserably. In fact I don't even think he had his own house to live in hardly ever. But anciently this was foretold by the Lord to Joseph, then to Lehi saying "he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work." If you outright reject the fruits of the gospel as an accomplishment, Joseph Smith isn't even noteworthy by the world's standards. But if measured by the yardstick of fulfillment of prophesy, and unwavering commitment to God's work, then he excelled in a way most of us couldn't have even imagined. There are probably many reasons why the Lord insisted on Joseph Smith being successful in absolutely nothing else and I would like to think and research and post about that later, but for now let's just say that his life was absolutely consistent with Lehi's teachings.
3:9-17 - There is a table in the Institute manual that goes through the prophesies of Joseph of Egypt and possible fulfillments. They are quite interesting and I think that it speaks for it's self.
3:18-25 - I didn't quite understand this verse the first few times I read it, in fact I didn't understand it until I read the manual's take on it. Speaking to Lehi, the Lord tells him "I will raise up unto the fruits of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writings of the fruit of thy loins." So if the Lord is speaking to Lehi, then he's speaking of the descendants of Lehi, who are the Nephites and the Lamanites. So the Lord will give this "spokesman" the writings of the Nephites, and maybe the Lamanites too, I don't know, I haven't heard of that but that doesn't mean they aren't there. So the "spokesman" will take the writings and then write the writings. So I had no idea who or what in the world they were talking about, but in the Institute manual, Elder Bruce R. McConkie teaches that Mormon, the man who took all the Nephite and Jaredite records and condensed them into a useable record, is this spokesman in that he "wrote the Book of Mormon, but what he wrote was taken from the writings of the Nephite prophets." And this book was translated by the "choice seer" and taken to all Lehi's descendants unto the fulfilling of the covenant the Lord made to Joseph.
3:6-7 - The Lord covenants with Joseph that "a choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins." I never really understood why people care about the "fruit of their loins." Maybe it's a man thing, I don't know. If someone said to me "I promise you that in 3,000 years one of your descendants will be a great prophet" I would probably look at them like "ok, doesn't this promise apply to the thousands of other people who will be in this 'great prophet's' family tree? I think it would be such an abstract concept that that wouldn't even be an incentive for me to do anything. Talk about my kids, grandkids, etc, then I'm listening, but my great grandkids 538 times removed and you might as well be talking about penguins, it won't make any sense to me. But then in the Institute manual President Brigham Young says "The Lord had his eyes upon (Joseph Smith), and upon his father, and upon his father's father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He watched that family and that bloos as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man." That puts the whole "fruit of your loins" concept into a little bit more focus. Clearly, the man "fore-ordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation" would have had to be raised by a great man. And it's hard to be a truly great man if you yourself don't have an amazing father. And so on and so forth until the beginning of time. But what about those of us who don't come from really strong trees? What about those of us who are trying to be cycle breakers? Can we not be great people? But I'm a descendant of Joseph so maybe I already am. Surely there were some scoundrels back in the line between Joseph of Egypt and Joseph Smith. But they had to be endured, learned from then eventually there had to be cycle breakers to create great children that could then have raised great men like the prophet Joseph Smith and his father and his father's father. Does that make sense?
3:8 - If you were to look at Joseph Smith's life as an unbeliever, it would be easy to see him as a failure in life. Already rejecting the idea that accomplishments of the gospel count, he died a poor man, was almost completely uneducated formally, few of his children survived, and every task outside of the gospel failed in a miserable way. He ran for president of the United States, wasn't ever even considered a viable candidate. Tried to start many businesses, failed miserably. In fact I don't even think he had his own house to live in hardly ever. But anciently this was foretold by the Lord to Joseph, then to Lehi saying "he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work." If you outright reject the fruits of the gospel as an accomplishment, Joseph Smith isn't even noteworthy by the world's standards. But if measured by the yardstick of fulfillment of prophesy, and unwavering commitment to God's work, then he excelled in a way most of us couldn't have even imagined. There are probably many reasons why the Lord insisted on Joseph Smith being successful in absolutely nothing else and I would like to think and research and post about that later, but for now let's just say that his life was absolutely consistent with Lehi's teachings.
3:9-17 - There is a table in the Institute manual that goes through the prophesies of Joseph of Egypt and possible fulfillments. They are quite interesting and I think that it speaks for it's self.
3:18-25 - I didn't quite understand this verse the first few times I read it, in fact I didn't understand it until I read the manual's take on it. Speaking to Lehi, the Lord tells him "I will raise up unto the fruits of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writings of the fruit of thy loins." So if the Lord is speaking to Lehi, then he's speaking of the descendants of Lehi, who are the Nephites and the Lamanites. So the Lord will give this "spokesman" the writings of the Nephites, and maybe the Lamanites too, I don't know, I haven't heard of that but that doesn't mean they aren't there. So the "spokesman" will take the writings and then write the writings. So I had no idea who or what in the world they were talking about, but in the Institute manual, Elder Bruce R. McConkie teaches that Mormon, the man who took all the Nephite and Jaredite records and condensed them into a useable record, is this spokesman in that he "wrote the Book of Mormon, but what he wrote was taken from the writings of the Nephite prophets." And this book was translated by the "choice seer" and taken to all Lehi's descendants unto the fulfilling of the covenant the Lord made to Joseph.
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