Captain Moroni

We were asked to speak in our ward today and I must say this was probably the most fun I've ever had preparing a talk. The bishopric approached us before the meetings last week and gave us the topic (the speakers they originally had lined up weren't available for some reason). I started penciling in some notes for my talk, then Brother Jensen from the high council got up and gave a great talk on faith. He covered everything I had written down already, so I had to do something that wouldn't sound like a rerun. So I decided to talk about Captain Moroni as an example of faith in Christ. Rather than post all five pages here, I thought I'd just post the link and let you download it if you're interested (you'll need a PDF reader).

Click here to download.

I had so much fun with it that I want to work on it more and fill in all the parts I had to glaze over because of time restraints. Maybe I'll do another running series here when I get all the parts put together. This could easily turn into enough content for a fireside, there was a lot of content that I couldn't put into the talk.

It was a very interesting experience this past week, because I also had to teach the Gospel Doctrine class today. I had a talk that practically fell together as fast as I could get it on paper. Then I had a lesson that I couldn't pull together to save my life. I don't know what I am supposed to learn from this yet, hopefully it'll make sense at some point in the future.

The Example of Enos, or “Why My Prayers Suck”

The lesson on Sunday (number 14, for those who may be keeping track) deals with the books of Enos, Jarom, Omni, and the Words of Mormon. As I read the account of Enos praying in the wilderness, I feel like I’ve been reading Miracle of Forgiveness and stopped before I get to the reassuring part at the end. I can’t help but compare with my own life and come up short on the balance. Enos goes off and prays all day and into the night, and if I kneel down at night there’s a good chance I’m falling asleep before I’m done.

Enos is on a hunting trip and from verse two seems to be concerned about a remission of his sins. There is a parallel here with Joseph Smith’s First Vision. One of Joseph’s first accounts (did you know there was more than one?) was in 1832 where he recounted his search for the true church from age 12 – 15. Part of his search was driven by a desire to obtain forgiveness and remission of his sins, recognizing that proper authority was necessary. (Milton V. Backman Jr., “Joseph Smith’s Recitals of the First Vision,” Ensign, Jan 1985, 8).

Anyhow, I don’t think there is any room here to assume Enos was guilty of any serious transgression. As the Prophet Joseph Smith taught:

“The nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 51)

Our friend Enos was probably a habitual jay-walker or maybe he waited until the 20th to do his hometeaching every month. Whatever it was, he was moved by the Spirit to seek forgiveness as part of his process of improvement. I’m always impressed at how he describes his experience. He only uses the word ‘prayer’ (or variants) three times in his narrative (in verses 4, 11, & 12). He uses other descriptive phrases ten times. For example:

-“wrestle … before God” (vs 2)
-“my soul hungered… and I cried unto [my Maker]” (vs 4)
-“supplication” (vs 4). Interesting side-note, ‘supplication’ comes from Latin, meaning to bend or yield.
-“did… raise my voice high” (vs 4)
-“pour out my whole soul unto God” (vs 9)
-“struggling in the spirit” (vs 10)
-“many long strugglings” (vs 11)
-“labored with all diligence” (vs 12)
-“cried unto [the Lord] continually” (vs 15)
-“did cry unto God” (vs 16)

Elder David A. Bednar in conference last week started out by saying, “Simply saying prayers is quite a different thing from engaging in meaningful prayer.”

How long do you think it had been since Enos merely “said his prayers”? Look at how he describes his prayers, he felt his prayers! He was familiar with the process, he was used to praying under the direction of the Spirit. Check out verse 13, that’s a pretty specific “what if” to just pull out of the air.

Some have used his desire for a remission of sins to claim that this was a great turning point in his life. I feel that this was simply the next logical step in his spiritual progression. One doesn’t just jump right into an all-day, all-night prayer marathon after saying routine prayers at home. Try praying for just 30 minutes, how long would it take you or me before we could pull a ‘prayer-a-thon’ like Enos did?

Elder Bednar also said “meaningful prayer requires both holy communication and consecrated work.” Well, Enos had both of those marked off. He “labored with all diligence” (vs 12) while praying, and then when he got back home, he testified “of the things which I had heard and seen” (vs 19) and “declared [the truth] in all my days” (vs 26).

On a different topic, something jumped out at me as I was reading verse 1. Enos describes his father Jacob as “a just man” who “taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord…” What does it mean to be “taught… in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”? At first, I figured it must mean that Jacob taught him the gospel. But why not just say “he taught me the gospel”? Especially considering the difficulty involved with the engraving process. Enos, like his father, chose his words very carefully. So, what did he mean? May I suggest a few possibilities…

Could this be his way of saying Jacob taught him about the Lord’s nature? Our Perfect Parent nurtures us and encourages our growth and admonishes us if we start to wander off (admonish: ‘to advise, caution, to reprove in a mild and good-willed manner’).

Maybe he is describing Jacob’s parenting style? To paraphrase, ‘my father used the nurture and admonition of the Lord to teach me’. It’s not a stretch to see gentle Jacob as the nurturing type, and it’s easy to see him admonishing in his sermon at the temple (Jacob 2-4).

Anyhow, I’m not exactly sure what he meant. Just thought I’d throw that out there because it is the part that stuck with me the most over the last couple of days.

The "Isaiah Barrier" - Key 5

I'm finally getting around to the 5th and last key in the series. Then maybe I can back-track and cover a few thoughts I've had about other topics.

In 2 Nephi 25:4, Nephi describes what is possibly the most important key to understanding Isaiah's writings:

"...the words of Isaiah... are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy..."

Okay, if we have to have it, maybe we should figure out what it is. Revelation 19:10 tells us that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

So, does that mean if I don't understand Isaiah that I must not have a testimony? I think that might be over-simplifying things a little. I don't think Nephi is implying a direct correlation between the strength of our testimony and the degree to which we grasp Isaiah. Here's what I think: the same principles involved in gaining our testimony are required to understand any scripture, not just Isaiah.

How do we gain our testimony? Ammon and his brothers, some of the most effective and powerful missionaries we have on record, "had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God. But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting: therefore they had the spirit of prophecy,..." (Alma 17:2-3)

How did the sons of Mosiah gain the spirit of prophecy, or testimony of Christ? Through prayer, fasting, and diligent searching of the scriptures (not searching for their scriptures as we often do on Sunday mornings). How do you think they approached their scripture study? Do you think they begrudgingly read a few chapters before falling asleep so they could mark it off on their daily to-do list? Let me share an insight I had a few years ago, something which may help us with scripture study, especially Isaiah.

Ammon has always been one of my heroes. At first, I must admit the whole chopping off of the arms was the hook for me. But as I got older (I won't say 'mature' because no one will believe that), I became more interested in the other aspects of Ammon's character. I read Alma 17:2-3 several times before something jumped out. I think the phrase "that they might know the word of God" has a dualistic meaning. The first meaning is exactly what it seems on the surface, they studied the scriptures to learn the gospel.

To approach the second meaning, let me first cross-reference with Revelation 19:13. John, in speaking of Christ, wrote "...and his name is called The Word of God." Using both passages together, the sons of Mosiah "searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know [Christ]". The two meanings are complimentary and I believe as we focus on the first, we are lead to the second. We start off diligently trying to learn the things that Christ has taught in the scriptures, then we are gradually drawn towards coming to know the Author - often without even recognizing it.

That, I believe, is what Nephi is trying to tell us. Read Isaiah and "search... diligently" for the Savior. Once you learn to see Christ in Isaiah's writings, it'll be easier to understand. I was feeling ambitious during the Old Testament year in Sunday School and I made a chart listing all the references to Christ that I could find in Isaiah. If you're curious, you can download it to see what I missed. It was a great exercise for me, because when I was done I realized that Christ was everywhere in Isaiah. You can't go more than a few verses before running into another reference to the Savior.

Nephi prefaced his reference to Isaiah by saying:

"Behold, my soul delighteth in proving ... the truth of the coming of Christ... And my soul delighteth in proving... that save Christ should come all men must perish." (2 Nephi 11:4,6)

What does Nephi write after his Isaiah marathon? In 2 Nephi 25, he talks about how Christ shall come in the flesh and be crucified (vs 12-13) and then resurrected (vs 14). He speaks of the restoration and how the Jews will be convinced of Christ's role as Messiah (vs 18), how Christ's is the only name by which men can be saved (vs 20), Nephi's labors to persuade others to believe and be reconciled to Christ (vs 23), how they are made alive in Christ because of their faith (vs 25), how they "talk of Christ, ... rejoice in Christ, ... preach of Christ, ... prophesy of Christ" (vs 26). He says "the right way is to believe in Christ...and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul" (vs 28, 29).

Are you starting to see a trend? To Nephi, the Book of Isaiah was about his Savior. He delights in the promises that Christ will again gather the scattered branches of Israel. I really believe that as we tune ourselves to the Spirit, we will see how Christ is the central theme in all of Isaiah's writings. Like the principle of sympathetic resonance. Huh? Lemme 'splain... no, there is too much. Lemme sum up... If you have two tuning forks that are tuned to the same pitch and frequency (eg. Middle C), striking one will cause the other to vibrate as well. Nephi's 5th key to understanding Isaiah is (and I'm grossly simplifying here) to make sure our tuning fork is on the same pitch with the Spirit so we can use our testimony of Christ to recognize Isaiah's testimony in his writings.