D&C 125

I can’t believe that I’m done with section 145, lots of profitable information in there, but it was a beast. Section 125 is only 4 verses and deals with the will of the Lord concerning the saints that were living in Iowa. Apparently, and this is news to me, not all the saints coming from Missouri were able to go to Nauvoo, Illinois. The IM says, “the revelation directing such action came in response to a question about whether they should remain in Iowa or gather to the Illinois side.” The IM quotes Elder Joseph Fielding Smith as giving background saying, “Mr. Galland (the doctor who sold the saints his land in Nauvoo) in a communication to David W. Rogers, suggested that the Saints locate in Iowa, which was a territory; for he thought that they would be more likely to receive protection from mobs under the jurisdiction of the United States, than they would be in a state of the Union, ‘where murder, rapine and robbery are admirable traits in the character of a demagogue; and where the greatest villains often reach the highest offices.’ He also wrote to Governor Robert Lucas of Iowa, who had known the ‘Mormon’ people in Ohio, and who spoke very highly of them as good citizens.’ The purchase of land took place in 1839, as did the exodus from Missouri. The revelation in doctrine and Covenants 125 was received in 1841, when many Saints were already settled in Iowa, and it is directed to them. Before the Saints arrived, there were 2,839 residents in Lee County, Iowa. By 1846 the population had swelled to 12,860- many of whom were Latter-day Saints.” There are a couple of good points here, the first is that the Saints have bought all the land they live on, there is no take over, there is no squatting, it’s legal and orderly and ethical. Another point was the some saints were in Iowa, which is not the main gathering place of the saints at that time, which made me think about other revelations where people are called on missions to go preach the gospel and build up the church in those areas, mostly back east at this point, or when the saints go west and then Brigham Young sends many to settlements in Arizona, California, and southern Utah. I thought “why would the Lord spread out some of his people like that?” And I thought about the process of emigrating to the United States to go to Utah from Europe and how the saints there would need guide posts along the way. I also thought about what the Lord said about building the Nauvoo House to acquaint the unfamiliar with the gospel, and really, that’s the same thing as having settlements in other places away from the main body of the Church, especially in a time when people would travel from settlement to settlement just because the travel took so long. I just thought that it was interesting to think about why the Lord wouldn’t want his people, every single one of them, to be congregated in one central location. I guess that’s the point of us being all spread out now huh?

125:1-4 - Verse 1 is JS asking the Lord “What is the will of the Lord concerning the saints in the Territory of Iowa?” The IM makes an interesting point that “The pattern for revelation is that a humble seeker asks in faith, and then the Lord answers…The Lord explained that those who remain in darkness do so because they either do not ask or ask amiss. As James explained, ‘Ye have not, because ye ask now.’” The Lord says that “those who call themselves by my name… let them gather themselves together unto the places which I shall appoint unto them by my servant Joseph, and build up cities unto my name, that they may be prepared for that which is in store for a time to come.” He tells them to build a city and name it Zarahemla.” The IM suggests that the Lord mentioned the preparation alluding to the future time when the saints would be going west. The Lord also says that whoever wants to “take up their inheritance in the same, as well as in the city of Nashville, or in the city of Nauvoo, and in all the stakes which I have appointed, saith the Lord.” Nashville doesn’t means Nashville, Tennessee, apparently it was a neighboring city in Iowa where the saints had purchased twenty thousand acres of land.