D&C 121:1-26

121:1-6 - The first 6 verses are JS praying asking God how long are they going to have to suffer, not only those imprisoned but all the saints as they are driven from the state of Missouri. He recognizes that at any moment the Lord can choose to stop the abuse of his people, but I believe mistakenly asks how long “before thine heart shall be softened towards them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?... Let thy pavilion be taken up; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.” I believe that this implies that the Lord is not concerned with what is happening to his people, and I don’t think that JS really felt that way, but it’s pretty desperate language and I totally understand that thought process. The IM asks, “Why did the Prophet use such words as pavilion and hiding place?” and answers, “These are expressions used by the authors of the Bible. When David says, ‘He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him; darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies,’ he considers the darkness of the thundercloud as a tent, or pavilion, in which Jehovah dwells in His majesty. The thunder-bolts, the hail, the wind, are His messengers. The Prophet Joseph, by using this grand, poetic conception, entreats the Lord to manifest Himself in His power for the salvation of the Saints from their enemies.” This is something I hadn’t considered before, how well JS knew the scriptures to use this type of language specifically.

121:7-8 - It’s interesting the way that the readers of the scriptures do it because the first 6 verses were read in a different voice, then when it got to the Lord’s part the voice changed, I don’t know if it was a different reader or the same one just changed his voice but it was pretty powerful. The Lord answers, “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thing afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.” The concept of diversity is complicated for me because I really struggle with it, as I suppose everyone does, but I never understood why is was necessary in this life. There have been countless general conference talks on why adversity, and they have all been excellent and I’ve come to learn that adversity is really what refines us in this life and that they are a necessary part of our progression, as much as I’d like to just be left alone. The IM gives some extensive teachings on the subject saying, “Elder James E. Faust said: ‘In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. In this way the divine image can be mirrored from the soul. It is part of the purging toll exacted of some to become acquainted with God. In the agonies of life, we seem to listen better to the faint, godly whisperings of the Divine Shepherd.’ Elder Faust noted that ‘unfortunately, some of our greatest tribulations are the result of our own foolishness and weakness and occur because of our own carelessness or transgression.’ Other afflictions are the result of disease and weakness of the mortal body. Some adversity is the result of wicked individuals misusing their agency. Also, God’s judgments against the wicked cause famine, pestilence, earthquakes, and other tribulations. But at least as important as the cause of adversity is how the Lord uses it to perfect us. President Brigham Young said that Joseph Smith progressed toward perfection more in thirty-eight years because of his trials than he would have been able to do in a thousand years without them. The Prophet Joseph Smith said, ‘I feel like Paul, to glory in tribulation.’ The Savior’s life is the perfect example of enduring tribulation. If we can look to the Savior or to the Prophet as models of endurance, we can find hope and strength to endure our own afflictions. Elder Marion G. Romney said: ‘All… who are being tried in the crucible of adversity and affliction: Take courage, revive your spirits and strengthen your faith. In these lessons so impressively taught in precept and example by our great exemplar, Jesus Christ, and his Prophet of the restoration, Joseph Smith, we have ample inspiration for comfort and for hope. If we can bear our afflictions with the understanding, faith, and courage, and in the spirit in which they bore theirs, we shall be strengthened and comforted in many ways. We shall be spared the torment which accompanies the mistaken idea that all suffering comes as chastisement for transgression… We can draw assurance from the Lord’s promise that ‘he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, (he said,) the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow much tribulation. ‘For after much tribulation come the blessings…’” I have learned that it’s so important to consider the eternal perspective when dealing with trials. I am not really a good source to look at when it comes to dealing with trials because I usually have a meltdown, many in fact, and I usually end up screaming at God in my head telling him that it’s not fair and begging him to just give me what I want. I don’t handle adversity well, it’s actually pretty embarrassing.

121:9-15 - I think that it’s interesting that the Lord focuses so much on the “friends” of JS telling him that “thy friends do stand by thee… thy friends do not contend against thee.” As far as I know, JS is in this predicament because those who used to be his friends testified against him so that he would be arrested and imprisoned. Maybe the Lord did this to emphasize the fact that he still had many supporters and people who cared about him, maybe he did this so that he wouldn’t dwell on the betrayal of those who were so close to him. Assuming that the Lord is referencing those friends who have betrayed him, the IM answers, “What happens when a member falls from activity into apostasy?” and answers by quoting Elder George Q. Cannon saying, “The Saints should not imagine that because they know the truth and the Work of God at the present time, that they will always know these things and therefore be able to stand. If they lose the Holy Spirit through their transgressions, from that moment their knowledge respecting the Work of God ceases to increase and becomes dead; a short time only elapses before such persons deny the faith. They may not deny that the Work was ever true, or that the Elders were ever the servants of God, but they will place a limit and say, ‘Up to such a time the work was true and the Elders were all right, but, after that, they went astray,’ –that very period being the time at which they themselves had committed some act or acts to forfeit the Spirit of God and kill the growth of that knowledge which they had had bestowed upon them. This has been the case in numerous instances in the past… It is plain that it is they who have transgressed, and thereby drive the Spirit of the Lord from them; and at the very time they say the Church of god strayed, they themselves were guilty of transgression.” There are a couple of points here that I think are important, the first being that we can lose knowledge and testimony just like we can gain it, what we have can go away in terms of spiritual growth. I had not considered this until recently when I heard something in Sunday School or something saying that we need to pray that we can keep our testimony’s strong and that one of the prophets used to do it every time he prayed privately. I thought about that and so the next time that I prayed, I asked for help keeping my testimony strong and I felt really good about it, so I took that as a sign that it was a good thing to pray for. I think that an attitude like this can be very beneficial in keeping us in the right mindset. If we look at our testimonies as bricks that we place on the ground and then leave alone, we can think that it’s a pretty permanent things, so little maintenance is required. But if we consider our testimonies to be living, breathing flowers, then we know that there is constant care required to keep the flowers and our testimonies strong and clean and thriving. Temptations arise, difficulties arise, all these aspects of life make it necessary for us to be always mindful of the status of our spirits, and truly that’s the way that it is. Another point made here is the speed at which we can lose what we have spiritually, this I know to be true from personal experience. I compare it to body weight, it could take only a few weeks to gain an obscene amount of weight, but it will probably take months or even years to lose it. Similarly, choosing to do something that we know to be wrong breaks us down spiritually at a rapid pace that will take tons of time and spiritual effort to recover from. The last point I want to cover is that those who go astray will say that the church lost its way at the exact same time as they began their downfall. There is a lot of logic in this because you can’t leave the church and say “it’s been bad for a while now, but I stayed because…..” This means that you knowingly followed a program that you knew didn’t work. It’s also really difficult to leave the church and say “I know it’s true I’m just not choosing to live its principles right now.” I did this for many years, and looking at it that way it doesn’t seem to be making a lot of sense.

121:16-26 – The Lord begins to describe the type of punishment that will befall those who seek to injure his people, and the IM asks a very interesting question, “Do enemies of the church prosper?” And answers by quoting Elder Heber J. Grant as answering, “Our enemies have never done anything that has injured this work of God, and they never will. I look around, I read, I reflect, and I ask the question, Where are the men of influence, of power and prestige, who have worked against the Latter-day Saints? Where is the reputation, for honor and courage, of the governors of Missouri and Illinois, the judges, and all others who have come here to Utah on special missions against the Latter-day Saints? Where are there people to do them honor? They cannot be found… Where are the men who have assailed this work? Where is their influence? They have faded away like dew before the sun. We need have no fears, we Latter-day Saints. God will continue to sustain this work; He will sustain the right. If we are loyal, if we are true, if we are worthy of this Gospel, of which God has given us a testimony, there is not danger that the world can ever injure us. We can never be injured… by any mortals, except ourselves.” Again, some good points I thought were interesting, the first being that no man can hurt the work of God. I think about the mobs and the persecution of the early church and I think if they destroyed the church. No, I think that they made it stronger because the persecution strengthened the resolve of those who truly believed, the ride or die members, or sent those who weren’t convinced of the truth away. This left a valiant, tried and true membership. Those who have opposed certain policies throughout church history have had similar effects, they either prompted inquiry of the Lord and received changing revelation (such as lifting the priesthood ban in 1978) or strengthened current believers or letting go of others. The Lord says that those who are persecuting the Prophet “shall not have right to the priesthood, nor their posterity after them from generation to generation.” The IM brings up another point, asking “does God punish latter generations for the sins of their parents?” And answers by quoting President Joseph F. Smith as teaching, “the infidel will impart infidelity to his children if he can. The whoremonger will not raise a pure, righteous posterity. He will impart seeds of disease and misery, if not death and destruction, upon his offspring, which will continue upon his children and descend to his children’s children to the third and fourth generation. It is perfectly natural that the children should inherit form their fathers, and if they sow the seeds of corruption, crime and loathsome disease, their children will reap the fruits thereof. Not in accordance with God’s wishes for His wish is that men will not sin and therefore will not transmit the consequences of their sins to their children, but that they will keep His commandments, and be free from sin and from entailing the effects of sin upon their offspring; but inasmuch as men will not hearken unto the Lord, but will become a law unto themselves, and will commit sin they will justly reap the consequences of their own iniquity, and will naturally impart its fruit to their children to the third and fourth generation.” I believe that Laman and Lemuel were excellent examples of this principle, passing false doctrine to their children, but the opposite is also true, righteousness passes on too, much of the time. Like what Proverbs says, “train up a child in the way that he shall go and when he is old he will not depart from it.”