D&C 124:18-48

124:18-22 - The Lord makes a very interesting statement here that after Lyman Wight preaches the gospel then “he shall finish his work I may receive him unto myself, even as I did my servant David Patten, who is with me at this time, and also my servant Edward Partridge, and also my aged servant Joseph Smith, Sen., who sitteth with Abraham at his right hand, and blessed and holy is he, for he is mine.” We know that David Patten was killed back in 1838 I think it was, but I didn’t have any knowledge of these other guys so I had to do some research. Apparently Edward Partridge died in Nauvoo in 1840 as did Joseph Smith Sr. It must have been comforting to the Prophet JS to know that the father he loved so much was in such a prominent place in the next life. It also provides some perspective on this life and the eternities. It is comforting to hear that Jesus is in the next life, it’s nice to feel the continuity of our existence, from here to there.

124:23-25 - The Lord commands, by name, many men to “build a house unto my name,” but this isn’t a temple, it’s a new concept, “and it shall be for a house for boarding, a house that strangers may come from afar to lodge therein… that the weary traveler may find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord.” I knew that they built the Nauvoo House, a hotel, but I didn’t know that it was commanded of the Lord, I thought that it was purely a business move. The IM makes a very interesting observation, “The Spirit of Revelation directs the Saints to build a fine hotel for the entertainment of strangers. There is no greater inducement for travelers to visit a place than good hotel accommodations. This Revelation proves that the Lord wanted the tourists of the world to visit and become acquainted with the Saints. These were not to be surrounded by a wall of isolation. They had nothing to hide from the world.”

124:26-28 - The command for a temple comes next with a call to adorn it with all these incredible natural things, which I think is interesting because as the creator of all nature, he’s calling for his own things to be brought to his house. The Lord speaks in the third person saying, “build a house to my name, for the Most High to swell therein. For there is not a place found on the earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you… even the fullness of the priesthood.” I knew that the Kirtland temple had been taken over by the mobs, but it didn’t occur to me that until the temple in Nauvoo, they had no temple at all, that’s probably because we have so many now. The IM explains how the temple and the fullness of the priesthood are connected by quoting President Joseph Fielding Smith as teaching, “Joseph Smith said…, ‘If a man gets a fullness of the Priesthood of God, he has to get it the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.’ I hope we understand that. If we want to receive the fullness of the Priesthood of God, then we must receive the fullness of the ordinances of the house of the Lord and keep His Commandments… Let me put this in a little different way. I do not care what office you hold in this Church, you may be an apostle, you may be patriarch, a high priest, or anything else, and you cannot receive the fullness of the Priesthood unless you go into the temple of the Lord and receive these ordinances of which they Prophet speaks. No man can get the fullness of the Priesthood outside of the temple of the Lord. There was a time when that could be done, for the Lord could give these things on the mountain tops- no doubt that is where Moses got it, that is no doubt where Elijah got it- and the Lord said that in the days of poverty, when there was no house prepared in which to receive these things, that they can be received on the mountain tops. But now you will have to go into the house of the Lord, and you cannot get the fullness of the priesthood unless you go there.”

124:29-48 - Now the Lord covers the ordinance for baptism for the dead saying that “this ordinance belongeth to my house,” but while they are building the temple, he will accept the ordinance outside of the temple. I feel like I’m just quoting the IM the whole time because I don’t have opinions of a lot of these concepts and I feel bogged down, so I’m just going to skip over a lot of it. The IM does make an interesting statement though, “This revelation explains that the ordinance of baptism for the dead is to be done only in a place designated by the Lord. Performing the ordinance was acceptable outside the temple only under special circumstances, and before the completion of the Nauvoo Temple the Lord permitted the ordinance to be performed in the Mississippi River. In October 1841 the Prophet announced that no more baptisms for the dead would be administered until the temple’s font was completed. It was finished in November, and baptisms recommenced on the twenty-first.” The IM also quotes President Joseph Fielding Smith as explaining the differences between ancient and modern temple ordinances saying, “It is true that in ancient Israel they did not have the fullness of ordinances as we do today, and most, if not all, of which they were privileged to receive, very likely pertained to the Aaronic Priesthood. Neither did the ancients labor in their temples for the salvation of the dead. That work was reserved until after the Savior’s visit to the spirit world where he unlocked the door to the prison and had the gospel carried to the spirits who had been confined.” I always find it really interesting to learn about aspects of the atonement and resurrection, especially when it pertains to the other side, for instance when I heard that John the Baptist had to die before Jesus because John is the forerunner of Christ, therefore he had to go to the spirit world to prepare the spirits there for the coming of the Savior. Or when Jesus actually gave up the ghost, the veil of the temple tore completely down the center and that’s because the separation of gospel from the spirit world was finally ended because the Savior had gone there. According to this, since the death and resurrection of Christ is the only time that ordinances for the dead were allowed to be done, and as far as I know, the Nauvoo temple was the first temple for such ordinances. Let’s think about all the people who have ever lived on the earth prior to 1846, there really hasn’t been much time  to get all the work done, and our record keeping isn’t that good, so we are really limited in our ability to do the work for the dead, so it makes sense when they say that during the millennium, the temples will be operating 24 hours a day.