Words of Mormon 1:7-18
I was pretty interested in how all the plates worked and went together, as far as the large plates, the small plates, were they separate records, what exactly did Joseph Smith do, etc.? I asked two of my friends who I consider pretty knowledgable about the scriptures and they both gave me answers that were good, but not the definitive "well the plates consisted of these many plates, and they weighed this much, and had these people's fingerprints on them, etc." But what they both taught me was that this information, while interesting, is not essential knowledge, so best to move on. So I will move on, and I'm glad for the lesson of, it's more important what's on the plates than what they're made of.
I also decided to start a daily gratitude journal, nothing long, just saying something I'm thankful for and why briefly. Today, I'm thankful for my job. I'm a single mom and I am SO blessed to make enough money to support my kids and to do so comfortably. I find my career fulfilling with many opportunities to serve people and to help others, I feel fulfilled as a professional with growth possibilities and even the option of owning my own business, which is my main goal. When I was first looking for something to go to school with, the Lord dropped the school to get my training into my lap, and he hand held my internship, like honestly a frickin miracle, everyone was like "wait, what?!" I'm grateful that the Lord provided for me and for my family long before I ever knew that I would need to be the breadwinner, and not only that but give me such an amazing skill that has so many avenues of movement. I'm so grateful.
1:7 - This is where I started to get confused about how the plates were arranged, etc. And interestingly enough, this is where we come across the loss of the 116 pages during the translation. According to the IM we learn that "the loss of the manuscript clearly demonstrates why the Lord commanded Nephi to write the small plates and why Mormon was inspired to include them." Ok, so I know from this that the small plates were included in the abridged record and came included in what Joseph Smith got. The IM continues "Joseph Smith was told not to retranslate the portion he had already completed, but to replace it by translating the small plates of Nephi. The translation of the 116 pages covered 600-130 B.C. - from the time of Lehi to the time of King Benjamin. The small plates also covered 600-130 B.C. - from Lehi to King Benjamin." So both records covered the same period of time, which I guess would make sense. "The Lord in His omniscience had the second record, the small plates, cover the exact time period that was covered in the stolen 116 pages. This also allowed the Lord to keep His covenant with Enos that 'he would preserve the records." If the first 116 pages of translation had been lost, in that all the writings were gone, the Lord would not have been able to keep his covenant to the earlier prophets to "preserve the records" and bring them forth later for the benefit of the Lamanites. The IM quotes Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching "at least six times in the Book of Mormon the phrase 'for a wise purpose' is used in reference to the making, writing, and preserving of the small plates of Nephi. You and I know the wise purpose - the most obvious one - was to compensate for the loss of the earlier mentioned 116 pages of manuscript. But is strikes me that there is a wiser purpose than that... as the Lord instructs Joseph... 'behold, there are many thing engraven upon the (small) plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel.' So clearly, this was not... tit for tat, this for that - you give me 116 pages of manuscript and I'll give you 142 pages of printed text. Not so. We got back more than we lost. And it was known from the beginning that it would be so." As I was reading D&C 10 about the loss of the pages and the rebuking that Joseph Smith got from God, I thought, not only do I think that I couldn't handle something like that, straight from God, but to also include it in the modern day scriptures for all to read at will must have been pretty humbling. I believe that that might have been a breaking point for me, just out of sheer embarrassment. I feel that this shows the truly humble and selfless nature of who Joseph Smith was and for me, this example contradicts all those who describe him as a self serving man, hungry for power. Clearly not, not if we are looking at actual factual example of events happening to him in real life. It also makes me wonder, satan was around when the Book of Mormon was complied, and surely during the 1,000 years of writing he would have heard that the purpose of the book was to convince future generations of the truth of the Messiah. And he knew that there were lots of repeated information in the book, especially that the first 470 years were repeated twice, but he still convinced Martin Harris to go against God and show the writings to his friends which led to the loss of the pages. I've always wondered, how much does satan know, how much power over our minds does he have? And I used to think that he could read our thoughts and all that crazy stuff, but know I don't think that that is true. I mean for one, it doesn't make sense that he would have that kind of power over us, and for two, there are numerous examples of things he's convinced people to do that looking back show that he clearly doesn't have the inside scoop on what everyone is thinking and surely not the mind of God. This is just an interesting example of that to me. And the final point for this verse is the "for a wise purpose... the Lord knoweth all things which are to come." This just reminded me of the importance of following the counsel of God both from the prophets and from personal revelation. I think that we can look back throughout history and see that there are many examples of times when those who obeyed were prepared and those who didn't were not. Noah's ark for example, the prophet's admonition to get out of debt, the word of wisdom, the avoidance of pornography, etc. Usually when these commandments are given, we can't see the purpose yet. Like when the word of wisdom was revealed, I guarantee that the vast majority of people did not believe that it would be at all beneficial physically. And likewise, back when the economy was great, and banks were handing out credit cards like candy, the prophet's warned us against their use, but we could see the reasoning behind that, and yet those who obeyed are weathering the storm much better than those of us, myself included big time, who are trying to row a sinking boat. Just another lesson to me to always follow the prophet's counsel, especially if I have no idea why it's important.
1:8-11 - I believe that in the other night's reading we discussed verse 8, where the manuals ask "what did Mormon say was the purpose of the entire sacred record he was abridging? Why is it important that we read the Book of Mormon with this purpose in mind?" And after reading from that the other day and thinking about it, I believe that the most important purpose of the Book of Mormon is "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God." So if they wrote a book specifically for the purpose of teaching this principle, what does that mean for us as we study? Thinking about my own life, I've experienced the most spiritual and personal growth of my entire life during the last several months of this blog, of intensely and thoroughly search the scriptures. This quest has become so important to me that instead of watching a movie or browsing Pinterest, or even making a budget and paying my bills (well kind of,) I do this, I read, I think, I study, and I try to remember to pray, and it takes me quite some time during the day to do this, most of my free time to be honest, but why? For what purpose? And it's because I feel a draw to the scriptures, I feel peace and security when I read and study. I've learned SO much over the last 5 months, and it's been life changing. I've never been so happy, I've never felt so much peace, and I've never been this optimistic about the future before. It's honestly been a miracle to take where I was 10 years ago, to where I was just 1 year ago, to where I was 6 months ago, and where I am now. I'm settled, I'm focused and I'm happy, and this only because I've come to know and love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I found him in the scriptures. So if I've felt all this happiness and love and peace for myself, even though it's on an infantile level, and it's still new to me, why would I not greatly desire that for others, especially my "people," whoever that is. I can imagine that once I'm settled in this life, in the Spirit, that it will become a most earnest desire to have my loved ones and even those I don't know to come "partake of the fruit" and be happy.
1:12-18 - Again, being the military type, I love getting back into the war and strategy chapters, I mean, I don't love the horror that is inflicted, but I love learning about it in the light of the fallen world that we live in, and like I talked about earlier, in preparing my children for their own encounter with the dark side. Here we learn that again, the Lamanites have followed the Nephites to their new place to live and sought to destroy them. And so far we know that not only were the Lamanites more numerous than the Nephites, which is definitely a strategic disadvantage, but that their numbers were growing rapidly with Nephite dissenters and those wicked Nephites that were spared when the Lamanites took over the Land of Nephi. In verse 13 we learn that King Benjamin was himself a warrior and fought with his people for "he did stand against (the Lamanites,) and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of Laban." There's been a theme throughout the Book of Mormon so far that includes all the leaders, including the prophets, to fight along side their people. Nephi did it, Omni did it, King Benjamin did it, and probably others, and there is definitely a sense of equality in that the leadership wielded a sword in their own defense. There is definitely a disconnect when leaders send their people to war but don't go themselves or don't even stay abreast of the happenings. There is almost always a loss of respect for life there, and that's a very detrimental way to govern a war. "And in the strength of the Lord they did contend against their enemies, until they had slain many thousands of the Lamanites." What does it mean to contend "in the strength of the Lord?" I'm doing to have to look that up and see. Maybe it means a righteous people fighting for a righteous cause, with righteous intent, without a thirst for blood, with a God fearing respect for life, through prayer and faith that they can prevail even against unlikely odds. I would imagine that becoming bloodthirsty, or hurting noncombatants, or prisoners of war, or the civilian population would not be conducive to the "strength of the Lord." And within the Nephite community there came false Christs, false prophets, false teachers and preachers, these were probably stirring up the people to all types of craziness, and these were "punished according to their crimes," I'm assuming through the very strict laws of the land, and "there having been much contention and many dissensions away unto the Lamanites" it took King Benjamin "laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets" to once again establish peace in the land. And that's where we go into Mosiah.
Oh and one more thing, unrelated to the scriptures, well kind of. This is week 4 of my making a concerted effort to read the scriptures with my kids. Honestly, last week we didn't do so great, we probably only read 3 days last week, and today it wasn't looking good either, so we listened to it in the car and talked about what he had heard, and it went really well, their retained and were interested in the background story. But I've noticed something, last week my kids' behavior was for the most part, out of control, break downs, constant fighting, and I didn't put it together with our lack of scripture study until today when, after we got home, and after we had listened to and discussed only a few verses, my kids went outside and played together, catching a lizard, naming it, making it a cage, and then having a water fight together. They were laughing and having so much fun together, and usually that kind of behavior toward each other ends in a blood bath and screaming. But then I thought about it and saw a pattern, on the days that we study together, the immediately start playing together and loving each other, and on the days we don't they fight like crazy and are pretty unhappy. It was just so eye opening for me when I went to say goodbye before leaving for work and there were both my kids soaked and smiling, and I'm grateful.
I also decided to start a daily gratitude journal, nothing long, just saying something I'm thankful for and why briefly. Today, I'm thankful for my job. I'm a single mom and I am SO blessed to make enough money to support my kids and to do so comfortably. I find my career fulfilling with many opportunities to serve people and to help others, I feel fulfilled as a professional with growth possibilities and even the option of owning my own business, which is my main goal. When I was first looking for something to go to school with, the Lord dropped the school to get my training into my lap, and he hand held my internship, like honestly a frickin miracle, everyone was like "wait, what?!" I'm grateful that the Lord provided for me and for my family long before I ever knew that I would need to be the breadwinner, and not only that but give me such an amazing skill that has so many avenues of movement. I'm so grateful.
1:7 - This is where I started to get confused about how the plates were arranged, etc. And interestingly enough, this is where we come across the loss of the 116 pages during the translation. According to the IM we learn that "the loss of the manuscript clearly demonstrates why the Lord commanded Nephi to write the small plates and why Mormon was inspired to include them." Ok, so I know from this that the small plates were included in the abridged record and came included in what Joseph Smith got. The IM continues "Joseph Smith was told not to retranslate the portion he had already completed, but to replace it by translating the small plates of Nephi. The translation of the 116 pages covered 600-130 B.C. - from the time of Lehi to the time of King Benjamin. The small plates also covered 600-130 B.C. - from Lehi to King Benjamin." So both records covered the same period of time, which I guess would make sense. "The Lord in His omniscience had the second record, the small plates, cover the exact time period that was covered in the stolen 116 pages. This also allowed the Lord to keep His covenant with Enos that 'he would preserve the records." If the first 116 pages of translation had been lost, in that all the writings were gone, the Lord would not have been able to keep his covenant to the earlier prophets to "preserve the records" and bring them forth later for the benefit of the Lamanites. The IM quotes Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching "at least six times in the Book of Mormon the phrase 'for a wise purpose' is used in reference to the making, writing, and preserving of the small plates of Nephi. You and I know the wise purpose - the most obvious one - was to compensate for the loss of the earlier mentioned 116 pages of manuscript. But is strikes me that there is a wiser purpose than that... as the Lord instructs Joseph... 'behold, there are many thing engraven upon the (small) plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel.' So clearly, this was not... tit for tat, this for that - you give me 116 pages of manuscript and I'll give you 142 pages of printed text. Not so. We got back more than we lost. And it was known from the beginning that it would be so." As I was reading D&C 10 about the loss of the pages and the rebuking that Joseph Smith got from God, I thought, not only do I think that I couldn't handle something like that, straight from God, but to also include it in the modern day scriptures for all to read at will must have been pretty humbling. I believe that that might have been a breaking point for me, just out of sheer embarrassment. I feel that this shows the truly humble and selfless nature of who Joseph Smith was and for me, this example contradicts all those who describe him as a self serving man, hungry for power. Clearly not, not if we are looking at actual factual example of events happening to him in real life. It also makes me wonder, satan was around when the Book of Mormon was complied, and surely during the 1,000 years of writing he would have heard that the purpose of the book was to convince future generations of the truth of the Messiah. And he knew that there were lots of repeated information in the book, especially that the first 470 years were repeated twice, but he still convinced Martin Harris to go against God and show the writings to his friends which led to the loss of the pages. I've always wondered, how much does satan know, how much power over our minds does he have? And I used to think that he could read our thoughts and all that crazy stuff, but know I don't think that that is true. I mean for one, it doesn't make sense that he would have that kind of power over us, and for two, there are numerous examples of things he's convinced people to do that looking back show that he clearly doesn't have the inside scoop on what everyone is thinking and surely not the mind of God. This is just an interesting example of that to me. And the final point for this verse is the "for a wise purpose... the Lord knoweth all things which are to come." This just reminded me of the importance of following the counsel of God both from the prophets and from personal revelation. I think that we can look back throughout history and see that there are many examples of times when those who obeyed were prepared and those who didn't were not. Noah's ark for example, the prophet's admonition to get out of debt, the word of wisdom, the avoidance of pornography, etc. Usually when these commandments are given, we can't see the purpose yet. Like when the word of wisdom was revealed, I guarantee that the vast majority of people did not believe that it would be at all beneficial physically. And likewise, back when the economy was great, and banks were handing out credit cards like candy, the prophet's warned us against their use, but we could see the reasoning behind that, and yet those who obeyed are weathering the storm much better than those of us, myself included big time, who are trying to row a sinking boat. Just another lesson to me to always follow the prophet's counsel, especially if I have no idea why it's important.
1:8-11 - I believe that in the other night's reading we discussed verse 8, where the manuals ask "what did Mormon say was the purpose of the entire sacred record he was abridging? Why is it important that we read the Book of Mormon with this purpose in mind?" And after reading from that the other day and thinking about it, I believe that the most important purpose of the Book of Mormon is "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God." So if they wrote a book specifically for the purpose of teaching this principle, what does that mean for us as we study? Thinking about my own life, I've experienced the most spiritual and personal growth of my entire life during the last several months of this blog, of intensely and thoroughly search the scriptures. This quest has become so important to me that instead of watching a movie or browsing Pinterest, or even making a budget and paying my bills (well kind of,) I do this, I read, I think, I study, and I try to remember to pray, and it takes me quite some time during the day to do this, most of my free time to be honest, but why? For what purpose? And it's because I feel a draw to the scriptures, I feel peace and security when I read and study. I've learned SO much over the last 5 months, and it's been life changing. I've never been so happy, I've never felt so much peace, and I've never been this optimistic about the future before. It's honestly been a miracle to take where I was 10 years ago, to where I was just 1 year ago, to where I was 6 months ago, and where I am now. I'm settled, I'm focused and I'm happy, and this only because I've come to know and love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I found him in the scriptures. So if I've felt all this happiness and love and peace for myself, even though it's on an infantile level, and it's still new to me, why would I not greatly desire that for others, especially my "people," whoever that is. I can imagine that once I'm settled in this life, in the Spirit, that it will become a most earnest desire to have my loved ones and even those I don't know to come "partake of the fruit" and be happy.
1:12-18 - Again, being the military type, I love getting back into the war and strategy chapters, I mean, I don't love the horror that is inflicted, but I love learning about it in the light of the fallen world that we live in, and like I talked about earlier, in preparing my children for their own encounter with the dark side. Here we learn that again, the Lamanites have followed the Nephites to their new place to live and sought to destroy them. And so far we know that not only were the Lamanites more numerous than the Nephites, which is definitely a strategic disadvantage, but that their numbers were growing rapidly with Nephite dissenters and those wicked Nephites that were spared when the Lamanites took over the Land of Nephi. In verse 13 we learn that King Benjamin was himself a warrior and fought with his people for "he did stand against (the Lamanites,) and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of Laban." There's been a theme throughout the Book of Mormon so far that includes all the leaders, including the prophets, to fight along side their people. Nephi did it, Omni did it, King Benjamin did it, and probably others, and there is definitely a sense of equality in that the leadership wielded a sword in their own defense. There is definitely a disconnect when leaders send their people to war but don't go themselves or don't even stay abreast of the happenings. There is almost always a loss of respect for life there, and that's a very detrimental way to govern a war. "And in the strength of the Lord they did contend against their enemies, until they had slain many thousands of the Lamanites." What does it mean to contend "in the strength of the Lord?" I'm doing to have to look that up and see. Maybe it means a righteous people fighting for a righteous cause, with righteous intent, without a thirst for blood, with a God fearing respect for life, through prayer and faith that they can prevail even against unlikely odds. I would imagine that becoming bloodthirsty, or hurting noncombatants, or prisoners of war, or the civilian population would not be conducive to the "strength of the Lord." And within the Nephite community there came false Christs, false prophets, false teachers and preachers, these were probably stirring up the people to all types of craziness, and these were "punished according to their crimes," I'm assuming through the very strict laws of the land, and "there having been much contention and many dissensions away unto the Lamanites" it took King Benjamin "laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets" to once again establish peace in the land. And that's where we go into Mosiah.
Oh and one more thing, unrelated to the scriptures, well kind of. This is week 4 of my making a concerted effort to read the scriptures with my kids. Honestly, last week we didn't do so great, we probably only read 3 days last week, and today it wasn't looking good either, so we listened to it in the car and talked about what he had heard, and it went really well, their retained and were interested in the background story. But I've noticed something, last week my kids' behavior was for the most part, out of control, break downs, constant fighting, and I didn't put it together with our lack of scripture study until today when, after we got home, and after we had listened to and discussed only a few verses, my kids went outside and played together, catching a lizard, naming it, making it a cage, and then having a water fight together. They were laughing and having so much fun together, and usually that kind of behavior toward each other ends in a blood bath and screaming. But then I thought about it and saw a pattern, on the days that we study together, the immediately start playing together and loving each other, and on the days we don't they fight like crazy and are pretty unhappy. It was just so eye opening for me when I went to say goodbye before leaving for work and there were both my kids soaked and smiling, and I'm grateful.
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