D&C 135:4-7

135:4-5 - Verse 4 has a very significant concept saying, “When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said: ‘I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me- he was murdered in cold blood.’” Joseph Smith knew that he was going to die, he knew it long before hand, this statement proves it and I recently heard a quote from Porter Rockwell, JS’s bodyguard, saying something like “when Joseph left for Carthage he asked me not to go with him despite the danger, indicating that he and the Lord had other plans.” The Lord sometimes subtly prepares us for events that are coming, and I believe that he does this as a tender mercy when he can without infringing on our agency. I’ve had several times in my life where I was prepared for something before hand, one very recently actually. My brother and his wife are going to be moving back up to Utah soon and if I had been blindsided by that information then it would have been devastating, but the Lord let me know a couple of weeks before the made their announcement, the Lord quietly told me that they were going to leave. Because of that, when the announcement came, I was not blindsided, I was ok, I was prepared. There have been several times when instances like that have happened, and it’s been a great blessing to me. Warning JS about his impending death was merciful to JS and his family, I wonder if Hyrum knew he was going to die too. I think he did because verse 4 continues, “the same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go- shall it be said to the slaughter? Yes, for so it was- he read the following paragraph, near the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it: ‘And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I… bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood. The testators are now dead, and their testament is in force.” Hyrum must have known that he wasn’t coming back.

135:6-7- - Interestingly, verse 6 says, “They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward.” I think that this can convey a different message to different people. For instance, back in the exploration times glory meant fame and wealth and reward and riches. But in the Lord’s vocabulary, glory means intelligence, if we say that phrase but substitute intelligence for glory, there is a distinctively different connotation. “They lived for intelligence; they died for intelligence; and intelligence in their eternal reward.” I think that there have been many great people who this could be said about, and they were not interested in fame or fortune, but in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. I believe that this not only applied to themselves, but to all people, their quest wasn’t knowledge for themselves but truth and light to share with the world, they wanted everyone to know about what they found, their quest was to find it for everyone. Another application might be that they lived and died for the glory of God, for the “fame” of God or for the knowledge and love of God to spread and abound throughout all nations or the whole earth to everyone for the benefit of all people. God’s glory brings peace, joy, love, comfort, and happiness and they lived and died so that all men could have that. That is quite powerful.