Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Nephi 1-2 | Feb 5-11 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson

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2 Nephi 1-2 | Feb 5-11 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson · Scripture Central

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Hello, welcome back to Scripture Central.
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I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson and this is John W Welch.
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And we get to start the book of second Nephi, chapter One and
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two today, these fabulous chapters of Lehigh's farewell.
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This second Nephi is an amazing book, Lynn.
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But it's so different than first Nephi you know.
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What What do you like about second Nephi well?
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I sort of feel like first Nephi is stories and action and
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details. It's something like someone
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who's adolescent would enjoy it, where a second Nephi has a lot
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of deep doctrine for mature people to say what do you do
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when expectations are not met and how do you stay attached?
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And 2nd Nephi is so filled with Christ.
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The second Nephi is just an amazing book.
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Many people get through first Nephi a number of times, but
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then they start hitting these doctrinal sections.
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And of course there are a lot of Isaiah chapters, and we'll talk
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about the structure. It's not that it's a random
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book, it's very carefully planned, but it's it's also
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spending a lot of time looking at future events and talking
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about philosophical and theological concepts.
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Where first Nephi was was action-packed you.
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Know. In fact I even wrote up a little
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slide that describes the difference between 1st and 2nd
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Nephi. I start out with the dates you
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know. I don't know when Lehi is 1st
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called. I know they leave Jerusalem in
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600 BC, but is it one or two years serving as a prophet?
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I don't know. But he goes up before the
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temple's destroyed. The temple's destroyed in 586
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and that starts with second Nephi.
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So I think first Nephi is just this small few years here.
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Not only do we have faith building stories and focus on
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the current events that are consistent with what we read in
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the Old Testament in Second Kings, but Lehigh and his family
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escape murder and the family then become sort of an exodus
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sort of patterning Moses exodus, you know and other family units
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joined together. We've got Ishmael's family and
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Zoram coming in sibling rivalry. They have so many challenges
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physically that they are delivered from.
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Yeah, like you say, a lot of the problems that Israel faced in
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leaving Egypt, Lehi's family faces that in leaving Jerusalem.
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And I think in first Nephi Nephi tries to ride it that way to
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even make those parallels. In first Nephi, Lehi's family
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left and now Nephi's family in a few chapters.
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In second Nephi chapter 5, his family will have to leave.
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But then in second Nephi, it's like we've now crossed the the
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Red Sea. It's of course the ocean and
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we've arrived at the promised land.
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In parallel to the sibling rivalry, in Second Nephi, we
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have the example of Jacob's righteousness, and Jacob is
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phenomenal in his understanding of our savior.
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I love Jacob's words on the Lord.
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And then as in first Nephi we had a physical deliverance.
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Now in second Nephi we have a spiritual deliverance.
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You had mentioned before that a lot of the words are paralleled
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and I noticed in first Nephi chapter one, Lehi is prophesying
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that Jerusalem will be destroyed but God has mercies.
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The exact same words are used in second Nephi chapter one, verse
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two. You know, he's talking about
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Jerusalem being destroyed and then he refers to God's mercies.
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And I think that makes a strong point that Nephi is wanting to
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preserve the legacy of Lehigh in as many ways as he can.
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And one of them is to now apply Lehigh's prophecies and
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statements which had applied to the old world and now also
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applicable in the new in the new world.
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So they become foundational and Nephi.
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Then who knows that he needs to be and will be blessed by Lehigh
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to be the spokesman and the leader?
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And Nephi had already been promised that he would become a
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leader over his brothers back in first Nephi chapter 2.
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And so Nephi knows that he has to carry out this responsibility
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with the visions that he's had. If Lehmann and Lemuel are left
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in charge, the whole purpose of the exodus exodus by Lehi's
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family isn't going to, isn't going to play out.
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Sadly, sadly. So Nephi wants that authority
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that he is indeed the successor of his father Lehi.
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You had talked to me before about the outline being chiastic
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in the whole book of Just as loose Chias in the whole book of
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Second Nephi. And so I wrote down a little
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outline starting with Lehi's farewell blessing is Posterity.
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And then the beautiful chapter 2 on agency and redemption in the
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Fall. And then the writings from
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Joseph in chapter 3 and Nephi's Psalm in chapter 4, the Nephite
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separating in chapter 5, Jacob 6.
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This two day sermon and Nephi's third witness all the Isaiah
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chapters that that Christ is the Redeemer of Israel, and then
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Nephi's interpretation of that. And once I realized that I had
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to put this outline in some sort of a chiastic structure, the
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ending of Nephi's farewell began paralleling with Lehi's
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farewell. And I was fascinated that if the
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center of the poetry, the organization, if the center part
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is most important, isn't it interesting that it's Isaiah?
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Well, it is. And Isaiah of course is the
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heart of second Nephi, But Jacob and Nephi are on the flanks.
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And what Nephi begins in second Nephi Chapter 11 by saying is we
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have to have three witnesses, because in the mouth of two or
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three witnesses God will establish all things.
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Quoting Deuteronomy. So Jacob, Nephi and Isaiah
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become the three witnesses. And we'll get to that in a few
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weeks. We aren't quite there yet, but I
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I think that looking, zooming out and seeing the whole
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structure will help us as we dive in now to the beautiful
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patterns that we're going to see of the same messages that we saw
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in first Nephi, but now in a different.
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Light and I I think it always helps to try to get into the
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mind and condition and the context of the author.
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Why is Nephi writing this book? When is he writing it?
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And we'll see that as we go along throughout the whole book.
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And he's not just writing it in one sitting, I think to some
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extent at the beginning with the building of the temple.
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And that's still 30 years after they left Jerusalem, though.
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That's right, yeah. But still, he does a lot of
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writing then. And then he will finish it.
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At the end of his life, which is then like 40 years since they
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left Jerusalem. So you have those 10 years
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covered by second Nephi. Well, do you want to dive into
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the text? Let's do This is the only book
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in the Book of Mormon that has one author separating his book
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into two. But he's still talking about his
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father. And I love the fact that it's
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Lehigh as blessings that begin this book, this beautiful
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tradition in the old world of patriarchal blessings.
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We get it from Jacob. We get it all the way down that
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when people have received blessings, actually Isaac gives
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blessings. We actually have two different
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kinds of blessings here. There are, you might saw, say,
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patriarchal blessings, which we are blessed to have in the
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church, where you go to a patriarch who gives you a
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blessing. But there are also fathers.
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Blessings. And I think it's interesting to
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compare what we have in Genesis chapter 49 with what we have in
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second Nephi chapters 123IN. In a sense, what we have in
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Second Nephi, our father's blessings.
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Where Lehigh as a father is blessing his individual
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children, dividing his estate, giving people their assignments
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within the family, knowing that Lehigh himself will not be
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there, wanting to be sure that he can somehow keep Lehmann and
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Lemuel part of the family but give Nephi some kind of
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leadership authority. So Lehi gives a rather unusual
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blessing by saying to Lehmann, Lemuel and the others that are
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with him, you will have. My first blessing, whatever that
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is, as long as you listen to and obey Nephi.
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Didn't go over too well though, Jack.
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Well, it didn't, but I think in Lehigh's mind he's trying to say
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you can be administrators, you can have the first blessing of
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the double portion of the property, but you must listen,
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listen to Nephi for spiritual guidance.
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So I think he sees a distinction there.
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It gives Lehman and Lemuel an option and a possibility of
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actually following righteously, but being also not subservient
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to Nephi in Genesis chapter 49, we have the precedent of a
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blessing by the Patriarch Jacob. So father's blessing and
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patriarchal blessings together. And the patriarchal blessing of
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Jacob gives kind of a designation of the character and
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attributes of each of those 12 tribes.
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And many people aren't aware. But Moses will give another kind
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of blessing at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy
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Chapter 33, where he will also bless the tribes, including the
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Levites, who are very importantly included there.
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But now he's giving not so much personal blessings, but
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characterizing the nature of each of those tribes.
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And what do you see in Lehigh? Well, in Lehigh it's kind of a
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mixture because he's trying to create a tribal structure and
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all the way through we will learn that there are 7 tribes
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and these 7 tribes continue. Mormon will mention the same 7
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tribes that are mentioned at the beginning of the book.
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Of Jacob. So we do have that establishment
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of the organizational structure of the the family and of the
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nation, but at the same time, we now have personal blessings.
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Yes. And we don't see that so much in
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the case of Lehmann and Lemuel's blessing, but Jacob and Joseph?
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Oh, these are wonderful personal blessings.
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Well, I think all of them are. And in fact, the way Nephi has
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written them out is interesting. Now you're the chiasmus king.
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But when I was going through just cutting and pasting,
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looking at these blessings separately, it was so fun to see
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how carefully he has paralleled some of their messages.
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I just wanted to give an example because I really feel like if
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you are reading second Nephi, look for parallels, look for
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patterns, Look for this as if it were written by a skilled author
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because it was Joseph Smith had no idea when he was translating
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what would the Lord would open up to a missionary's mind on
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these things. But starting in verse 13, you
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know, awake, shake off the awful chains of hell.
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And then in verse 14 arise from the dust.
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Verse 17 cut off, and they're going to be destroyed forever.
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And in verse 18, he talks about this cursing that's going to
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come upon them if they if, because they're going to leave
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the presence of God and in 18 and they're going to be in
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captivity of the devil. But in 20, the most important
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part of this section, he says, if you keep my commandments, you
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shall prosper in the land. That becomes a theme almost of
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all of Nephi's writings that we see over.
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And then the parallels come out. They'll be coming down into
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captivity. They're going to be cursed with
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a sore cursing. They have to awake and shake off
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the chains, and they have to arise in the dust.
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This is just one of hundreds of examples that you have found.
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I'm just so grateful for your efforts on this.
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What you have here in this particular chiasm is an effort
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to speak to all of them together, All of my sons.
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He will bless others individually, but I like the way
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he uses the Chiastic Completion. Chiasm has a sense of completion
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and wholeness about. It you know what the author's
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intent is. You know when he's beginning.
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You know when he's ending, yeah. And and a center point and in
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the same way, I think this has a sense of completion and
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fulfillment for the family and for everyone.
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It's it's inclusive. And I think the Book of Mormon
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is very inclusive. It includes all family members.
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Lehigh doesn't want to leave any of them out.
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He wants to point out the way that they can live, how they can
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succeed and be righteous. And he gives blessings as well
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as the cursings. I mean he he blesses everybody.
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You can do this. I I love what you said about
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it's multi generational. This blessing is not just for
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these seven it's for their children.
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And he gives another blessing, and then another.
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It's kind of constitutional in a way.
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OK, Yeah, Establishing giving principles.
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Foundational principles by which Righteous Nephites will succeed.
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All the way through the end of the book of Marmont.
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And the answer is to keep the commandments and you'll prosper
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in the land. And that keeping the
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commandments is a very important point.
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God here is giving to Lehigh and his family a land of promise.
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Now you usually think of the promised land as just one place
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in the Middle East, but the land of promise can be anywhere where
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it's a land which is given to people by way of covenant.
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So the land of promise is a covenant land, is what you're
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suggesting. Use that word so that we realize
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God's directing his people on earth.
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He is not an obsolete watchmaker who just developed this watch.
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You know, he's right here with us.
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And he blesses us with these promises and tells us if we will
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do the things that he commands, The land will blossom for our
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sakes, and land will blossom as a rose.
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Isaiah talks about a number of these things.
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Now some people take the idea of a land of covenant or a land of
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promise, our promised land, And especially in the Middle East,
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some have said God's promises are indelible.
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If God has promised me, then this land is mine no matter
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what. Well, Lehigh doesn't say that.
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Lehigh doesn't. Lehigh says it's only promised
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if you're going to do your part. That's right.
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I love your idea of a covenant. That's great.
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It's The promise is only intact if we obey.
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Yeah. So it's it's conditional upon
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our performance. It's not conditional upon God's
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approval or for His providing it.
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It's all taken care of. But we must live properly in
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order for it to flourish and for us to be able to accept it.
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That's beautiful. Before we go into chapter 2, I
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want to share my favorite verse in verse chapter one, verse 15.
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Behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell.
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I have beheld His glory. I am encircled about eternally
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in the arms of His love. Lehigh is on his deathbed and he
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has the love of God in him. I see temple symbolism in this
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verse. I see his view of the eternities
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as our prophet called it the celestial think celestial.
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I see this idea of being encircled in the arms of God's
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love stemming clear back to his vision of the tree of life when
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he was able to taste of God's love.
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And now, at the end of his life, even though he knows things are
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not going to go well, he feels enough love from God that he, no
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matter how bad things are on earth, he trusts God's future
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plan for his family and for the world.
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Why is Jacob given this special blessing?
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It's interesting that he calls him always his first born in the
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wilderness. So he's he's recognizing that
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Jacob has not had any of the blessings of living in a normal
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home or a normal town or community.
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He's always lived out in the wilderness.
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But he calls him his first born in the wilderness.
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I think that's because Jacob righteous, Jacob good, righteous
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Jacob, who's still just a young boy.
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He's not very old yet Lehigh realizes he is going to become a
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leader as a first born should have been.
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So I I see Jacob's almost supplanting Layman and Lemuel,
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but the blessing is powerful to Jacob.
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And I I think in a way, Jacob has been preserved from a lot of
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the temptations and problems of the world because he's only
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known life, of isolation in the wilderness.
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He has only known the struggles. The family has not always pulled
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exactly together, but they have made it and they have had
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prayers and they have had scripture study.
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He had enough conflicts in the house, I think, with all that
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animosity in the home, because his dad even says in the
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blessing, Behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered
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afflictions, much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy
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brethren. But then the next verse
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discusses this beautiful ability for these challenges to be
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consecrated. Yes, in in verse 2, then Lehigh
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says. Nevertheless, Jacob, my first
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born in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God.
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You don't know the greatness of kings.
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You don't know the greatness of Jerusalem.
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But what you know is the greatness of God, the God that
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you have seen in nature, in the in protecting us, in guiding us.
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You've seen the way the Liahona has LED us through the fertile
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parts of the wilderness. Miracle after miracle after
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miracle. And so he has had a steady diet
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of understanding and appreciating the greatness of
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God. So he doesn't live with some of
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maybe the tormentor conflicts. Yes, he's had problems because
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of the rudeness of his older brothers, but I think that Jacob
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is able to put that aside. And because he knows that those
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afflictions have been consecrated, he can help other
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people make sacrifices and consecrate them at the temple.
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Because Jacob, as Lehigh sees, will be the right leader to be
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the High. Priest in the new temple.
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Interesting. Interesting.
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I'm going to finish chapter 2, verse two.
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He's talking about the greatness of God and then it continues on.
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He shall consecrate thine affliction for thine gain.
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Jack, I'm sure you felt that in your life.
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I I feel this so strongly every time something hard has
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happened. The silver lining is so worth
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it, the beauty of God's plan, that we can use our pain and our
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anguish to become more Christ like to become more humble, more
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meek, more sensitive to other people.
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I I love this. He can consecrate our
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afflictions. And Lehigh will say this in a
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way that makes sense, that if there were no pains, there could
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be no joy. We wouldn't know.
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Either and Lehigh knew both. And and so did Jacob.
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And you have to have both. And I think, by extension, the
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more exquisite, the more difficult the suffering and the
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pains, the greater the joy eternally can and will be.
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It's interesting to me to see from this blessing starting like
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in verse five. We read about it throughout the
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Book of Mormon. Even Mormon and Moroni at the
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end are still relating back to things that they learned from
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Lehigh's blessings. These doctrinal themes that are
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established here carry out through the whole Book of
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Mormon. Verse five says men are
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instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil and the
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law is given unto them. By the law no flesh is
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justified, but by the law men are cut off.
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These kind of ideas. Verse six is repeated elsewhere.
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Wherefore redemption cometh in and through the holy Messiah,
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and he is full of grace and truth.
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The the atonement becomes core to Jacob's ability to make these
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difficult things a blessing in your life.
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You have to go to Christ. Our hardships aren't always a
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blessing. It's only when we come unto
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Christ we become at one with God.
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And then this principle that we're talking about, where the
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affliction and the suffering will then be commensurate with
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and result in the great glory and happiness the Savior himself
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also lived that principle. No one has experienced more
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extensive exquisite pains than He did, and therefore he also
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has the greatest of all joys and powers, and is worthy of our
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love and worship. Oh, that's powerful.
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Thank you. Right here in these initial
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verses we see words like holiness, sacrifice, the
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importance of the Holy Messiah, laying down his life, and being
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the first fruits unto God so that he can then make
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intercession for all of the children.
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He has to do it first, otherwise someone who had done it first
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would be the intercessor for him.
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But he needs to be the one there who has led the way so that he
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can then make intercession for all of us.
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And 1st fruits are things that people would then normally
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consecrate in the temple. But Jesus is represented by
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those first fruits. So the first things that we gain
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under the Law of Moses, the very first fruits that were picked at
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the beginning of each harvest season.
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When you're the hungriest, when you need the food the most, you
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give those things to God. You give the best to God.
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That's right, you're eager to finally have the results of your
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labor, but you first give to the Lord.
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Not only is he referring a lot to the Atonement here, but back
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in verse four of chapter 2 is the first time in the whole
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Bible that we know of they refer to the word the fall.
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I'm fascinated with Joseph Smith translating these plates and he
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gets to this portion, and there is so much information on not
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just opposition, but on the adversary and on our Savior, on
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Satan and Jesus Christ. So I just did a little study and
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I've made a chart. In the Old Testament, the only
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time the word Satan is mentioned basically is in the book of Job.
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We don't have them in Genesis. We have it one or two references
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elsewhere, but that's about it. Devil's never mentioned.
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Serpent is never tied to the devil, and Lucifer is never tied
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to the devil because they don't have it connected.
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It's not until the Book of Mormon that we really understand
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who the Adversary is. And I think part of Jacob's
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blessing, because he had had opposition, because he had known
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both good and evil, his father is giving him this beautiful
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blessing that describes a lot not only about our Savior, but
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about the Adversary and the fall we believe in.
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The Restoration was so important, and that was not
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known in the rest of the biblical world at that time.
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I think this is all one reason why the book had to come out.
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Then he had to change the cultural dynamics of what
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Christianity meant. We did not understand the Fall
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or Satan until the Book of Mormon.
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Especially people didn't understand what was happening in
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Genesis as what we would call a fall forward.
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Yeah, you're right, you're right.
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And it's not a fall from from grace.
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It's not a fall from God's love. But it's a we have to come down
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from a premortal existence, and that coming down can be
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described as a descending. And I think that's where the
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word fall comes into play. It's sort of a free fall when
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the spirit comes down. Yeah, well, they're also falling
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from God's great God's, the Garden of Eden.
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Yeah. So where do you think Lehigh
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gets this idea? Well, it's got to come from the
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brass plates because starting in verses 17 and 18, he starts
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talking about Adam and Eve. And this is also interesting
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because, you know, the Book of Mormon does not have a creation
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account. And yet we get more information
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on Adam and Eve in the Book of Mormon than we do in any of the
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biblical accounts three times more than the Old Testament.
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But across the whole book, the Book of Mormon is filled with
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this information. When Nephi made that special
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trip back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates, Lehigh knew
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that they needed to have those plates, and we're finding out
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now why. The brass plates had different
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information. They did.
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I think that Lehigh, I don't know how much more was found in
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the opening chapters of Genesis on the brass plates than what we
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have in the Bible or in the Book of Moses.
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But I think what was on the brass plates must have been much
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closer to what we find in the Book of Moses.
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But what's wonderful is the way you have Lehigh explaining
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what's there before we even know what's there.
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The Joseph Smith translation hasn't even begun.
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No, not for another year and a half.
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But the when we refer to the book of Moses, that is the
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Joseph Smith translation of those first few chapters of
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Genesis. That's correct.
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And three chapters are added in that we're not there.
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And the reason why I think this is significant taken is because
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as the Jews and the Israelites are being taken captive both up
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to Assyria and over to Babylon, they are reworking the
27:02
Scriptures. And we have lots of examples by
27:04
biblical scholars of how those texts were changed and what was
27:08
improved and what was rewritten and the difference between first
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Kings and first Chronicles and a lot of effort on that.
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And yet, we don't have evidence of the original source until
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here. And Lehigh is giving us this
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information that is consistent with the Joseph Smith
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translation, even though the Joseph's translation hasn't come
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to pass. That is fabulous.
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That is great. It's profound.
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Lehigh understands the necessity for the dichotomy, the
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opposition. There must be an opposition in
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everything, and if not you really don't have certainly
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don't have a choice. But you probably also don't have
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discernment. We live in a world where we are
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confronted all the time with opposition.
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There's light and dark, hot and cold, wet and dry, but lots of
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other types of opposition as well.
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Jed, you think opposition is an eternal principle?
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I don't know that it's an eternal principle, but it's
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certainly a temporal, mortally condition.
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We have time and eternity. I think in eternity there maybe
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isn't time, but we are now temporal beings we know in this
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world. As Lehigh says, if there weren't
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an opposition, then there would be no purpose in the creation.
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Things would become a compound, he says, in one there would be
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no differentiation between righteousness, wickedness,
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holiness or misery, good or bad. And he says because of this, if
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it weren't for this opposition, everything would be as dead,
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having no life, ignore death. So verse 11 goes back to verse
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8, where he's just introduced for the first time in the Book
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of Mormon, the idea of the resurrection.
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So the death follows this hope of the resurrection.
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This is, I think, our best chapter on the atonement and
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resurrection in the small plates.
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It's just a fabulous discussion that Lehi is giving him on this
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plan of salvation. Resurrection is not a word we
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find in the Old Testament, and yet it was part of the Higher
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Law, and so Lehigh is teaching it to his sons and his daughters
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and his family. Well, and they need to know that
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because they're living in a world of death, and there must
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be an opposition. If there's death, there must be
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life, and resurrection is a part of that.
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Another interesting point here uses a phrase that will also
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show up much later in the Book of Mormon, and that's this
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phrase to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
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And contrite meaning crushed. Where does this verse show up
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later I. Don't know.
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Well, the words of Jesus speaking in 3rd Nephi out of the
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darkness. He's quoting Psalms.
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They talk about having a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
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So Lehigh knows that phrase from the Psalms, I would think, and
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he uses that to explain that Jesus, the Holy Messiah, will
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offer himself as a sacrifice for sin to answer the ends of the
30:37
law to all those who have a broken heart and a contrite
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spirit. You know, Jack, that's
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interesting because the broken heart, remember a heart in the
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ancient world was the mind in the Psalms it says as my heart
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thinketh. And so by saying broken heart,
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they're saying you have to change the way you're thinking
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too. It's not just your emotions.
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You got to change the way you're thinking.
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You accept Christ in your life, Messiah at that time.
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And I think also what he's saying here is that when you
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have a a broken heart, it's like having a heart attack, right?
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You're dying and in order to really live, you have to put off
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all. You have to die, put off the old
31:19
man, the old person. And if you do this, then the
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ends of the law can be answered, and you can then have the the
31:32
blessings of eternal life given to you.
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But there must be this difference between mortality and
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eternity, because there must be an opposition in all things.
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I want to move ahead to verse 21.
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We're still in chapter 2, but this probationary state, this
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time for men to prepare to meet God, is so beautifully described
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and the days are prolonged for the children of men.
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But they have the opportunity to repent.
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They might repent, you know, they they have this given to
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them. And then it goes down in verse
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22. If Adam had not transgressed, he
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would not have fallen. And all this builds up to verse
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25 and 26. Adam fell that men might be and
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men are, that they might have joy.
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And then he goes on to explain how that joy comes, and the
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Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, and he may redeem the
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children of men from the fall. So there we have two references
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to the Fall in one chapter. We have joy as an option for all
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humanity. And we have joy because the
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Messiah is going to come. He's going to suffer from our
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sins. No matter how bad life gets.
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We have a Redeemer. And then keep going into verse
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27. You're free to choose.
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You know we've got agency here, and I love the way he describes
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these two ways. Here you can either choose
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captivity or you can choose life.
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And in 28 He The way you choose life is to look to the great
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mediator that is such a beautiful image of our Savior as
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the one who's allows us to enter through him back to the presence
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of God. Another way of saying this is
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that if Adam and Eve hadn't fallen, they would really have
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lived in a condition where choice was meaningless, where
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they really didn't have any particular choice because they
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would have remained in the state in which they were created.
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They would have existed, but would have been static, and
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there would have been no progress or regress.
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There would have been no advancement, no regression.
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Until they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
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They had to be removed from the presence and influence of God in
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order to act for themselves and not always be somehow influenced
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by other factors around them. And so the Fall, as Lehigh says,
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makes us free in one sense. It makes us free to choose
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either liberty and eternal life or to choose captivity and
34:28
death. We sometimes think of free
34:29
agency as the power and the ability to do anything we want.
34:34
I'm free. Sadly, that is not the case,
34:38
yes. That's right.
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There are consequences. And we don't get to choose the
34:42
consequences. We can choose our action, but
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with those actions will come consequences.
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Our freedom is then that we can choose between consequences that
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we either know for sure or are likely to be able to figure out
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or through. Inspiration can be guided so
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that we don't make faults or bad choices, but we become free only
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in the sense that we can choose one of two ways, as Lehigh goes
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on to say. And that is that you can either
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choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediator of
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all men, or captivity and death according to the captivity and
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power of the devil. And here's another reference to
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the devil in this dichotomy between Christ and Lucifer.
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He's the great counterfeit. He's in opposition.
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And when you really think about it, any real meaningful choices
35:42
that we make are either bringing you closer to goodness and to
35:47
God, or are taking you away from that.
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And this theme saturates the rest of the Book of Mormon.
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It does. Lehigh's farewell message is so
35:57
crucial to everything in the text.
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And we'll see this showing up in Alma speeches in Samuel the
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Lamanites, and of course, all the way to the end in Mormon and
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Moronize writings as well. We almost can see here in the
36:11
text this idea that we are going to have to learn from our own
36:16
experiences to know what's right and wrong.
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This probationary state is for that learning.
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We're here to progress. We're here to learn.
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And if that means we have to fall off our bike sometimes and
36:27
fall off a few more things, it's OK, because God will consecrate
36:32
all this for our game. All these things will give the
36:35
experience and be for thy good. And you know, this reminds me
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also of where Lehigh would have had a vision that crystallizes
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all of this, and it's back in his vision of the Tree of Life.
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And there's the one path that leads to that.
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But there are other ways that lead to darkness and falling
36:53
into the mists of of error and filthy waters, and so.
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On that vision is part of rest of this book, as well as Jacob.
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I feel like that vision is used a lot in the rest of the Book of
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Mormon, and even right here in second ephi chapter 2.
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And I think the principle that we can take away from all of
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this Lehigh introduced back in verse 11, and then fills this
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out with the the doctrine and the revelation of the plan of
37:24
salvation, illustrating the principle that there must be an
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opposition in all things. And he uses it the Fulcrum, the
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Atonement of Jesus Christ. That becomes the pivot point.
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Accepting that or rejecting that is ultimately the the the most
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foundational part of the existence that we are living in.
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And Lehigh says if we don't have this opposition, we don't
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recognize Christ as the the main point of the opposition that we
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must face, then it would be as if we were dead, having no life,
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neither death nor life, he says. Corruption nor incorruption,
38:13
neither happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
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So all of these things that we just kind of naturally take for
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granted as a part of the human condition.
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All this opposition, really at the foundation, down at the
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metaphysical bottom of all of what we are, turns on this
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dichotomy between Jesus Christ choosing him or following Satan.
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And the whole reason why men are so that we can find joy, but we
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cannot find joy without knowing the bitter.
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And sometimes I feel like that the plan of happiness is
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misunderstood. To think like if I'm not happy,
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I must be doing something wrong or if something's going wrong
39:03
then I'm then God doesn't love me.
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No, no, no, no, no. The joy comes from understanding
39:09
both. And we are here to not only find
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our Savior, who is the source of joy, but to follow Him.
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And that message is so clear here in 1st and 2nd chapters of
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second ephi. I hope your scripture study this
39:26
week is enhanced because of these great messages.
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They testify of Christ and we add our testimonies that Jesus
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is our Redeemer. And I would echo that too, Lynn,
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saying, as Lehigh did I would, that ye should look to the great
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mediator and hearken unto His great commandments, and be
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faithful unto His words, and choose eternal life according to
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the will of His Holy Spirit. I testify that that is a
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wonderful formula for fulfilling the purposes and the reasons why
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we're here on this earth. And God will bless us.
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I know He will. Amen, Amen.