Zeezrom - An Unlikely Hero

On Sunday we were introduced to Zeezrom as Alma and Amulek were preaching in Ammonihah (Lesson 23, Alma 8-12) and we get to continue his story in next week's lesson (#24, Alma 13-16). Sure, his story didn't start out on the right foot. He was "the foremost to accuse Amulek and Alma" as they taught (Alma 10:31) and seems to be a 'big shot' among the city's lawyers. He was also an "...expert in the devices of the devil, that he might destroy that which was good..." (Alma 11:21).

I'm not going to go through the story of his conversion experience, you can look it up in Alma 11-15. The short & sweet of it is that he was converted and stayed faithful.

I think one of the key points in this story is the power of the Atonement to change lives. Not just the lives of the "good" people, but any life. Here is a man who was actively engaged in fighting against the prophet Alma. In that respect, he's no different than those who came before him - such as Nehor. What made him different, however, was the fact that somehow he found the humility to listen to the prophet and change his life. It's not easy for any of us to admit we're wrong, and here is Zeezrom sincerely asking Alma to teach him.

I never made the connection before, but these two men were very similar in their backgrounds. Both had been actively engaged in trying to break down the church of God and after their conversions spent all their efforts in teaching others. Who better to reach out to Zeezrom than Alma? In both cases, it was their new-found faith in Christ that saved them. I'd like to imagine Alma giving Zeezrom a pep talk. Imagine the genuine love and empathy in his voice as he says, "Z, I know what you're going through, trust me. Remember what we told you about Christ and the atonement." (don't bother looking for that in the scriptures, I made that part up). This part is true though:

"And Alma said: If thou believest in the redemption of Christ thou canst be healed." (Alma 15:8).

What a powerful statement! Christ can heal us! He has already carried our pains, sicknesses, and sins (Alma 7:11-12) and knows perfectly how to heal our wounded souls and hearts. I think we know He can heal us, but we often don't believe it.

To me, Zeezrom is a great example of the atonement in action. If it can make such a dramatic change in his life, I have to believe it can work in my life too.

Abinadi – A Renewed Appreciation

In our ward we have three Gospel Doctrine teachers and two classes, so every third week I get a week off. I was fortunate enough to be able to cover both of the Abinadi lessons (Mosiah 11-17). I gained a renewed appreciation for his example of being “steadfast and immovable”. Here are some of the things that impressed me.

1. I learned that in Hebrew, ‘Abi’ means ‘my father’ and ‘nadi’ means ‘present with you’. So together, the name Abinadi would mean something along the lines of ‘my father is present with you’. Way cool, because God was certainly with him.

2. In Mosiah 11, we are introduced to Abinadi, who enters the scene prophesying against the people’s wickedness and exhorts them to repent. King Noah put out an “arrest order” on Abinadi with the intent of killing him. Two years later, Abinadi returns to the city in disguise and says “Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying – Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this my people…” I wondered what’s the point of wearing a disguise if you’re just going to tell everyone who you are anyway. Then I realized Abinadi was only worried about getting into the city, not getting out. I think he went in knowing that he wasn’t coming out again. I can’t imagine getting a mission call that said “you’re going to be the first martyr recorded in the Book of Mormon”.

3. I didn't realize just how extensive the results of his mission really were. I had a vague idea that most of the Book of Mormon from that point on was a result of Abinadi's influence, but I had to see it on paper to really get it. Because I like playing with CorelDraw, and also because a good visual aid never hurts, I made a chart of Alma's family. Every Nephite record keeper up to Mormon was a direct descendent of Alma the Elder. Three of them were also Chief Judges. Two were among the 12 chosen by the resurrected Savior to be special witnesses. I wonder if Abinadi was given a glimpse of just how far his influence would reach. In a way, any of us who read the Book of Mormon are indebted to Abinadi.

4. As often as I read the account, I will always be impressed and awed at how he stood in defiance of King Noah's priests. I try to imagine this prophet of God standing before his accusers, much like Christ stood before the Sanhedrin, as they tried to find some grounds to charge him. Trying in vain to catch him with their clever questions, instead being "confound[ed]... in all their words" (Mosiah 12:19). Picture the priests and those in the court cowering before an unarmed prisoner as he boldly declares, "Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver..." (Mosiah 13:3).

If you want an interesting exercise, compare Abinadi's teachings in Mosiah 15 & 16 with Alma the Younger's teachings. You'll find that Alma uses a lot of the same language and phrasing used only by Abinadi. I wonder how often he heard Abinadi's teachings from Alma Sr. during Family Home Evening. This is totally unwarranted speculation, but I wonder if the angel who visited Alma the Younger (both times) could have been Abinadi.

I used to think there may have been a connection between Abinadi and King Benjamin because there are several similarities in their teachings, but then I realized Abinadi was killed approximately 24 years before King Benjamin's final address.

Anyhow, as it always does, studying the material for the lesson somehow gets me into the scriptures in a way I don't normally reach in my own personal study. I hope I have half of Abinadi's faith and courage when my time of testing comes.

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.

The "Isaiah Barrier" - Key 4

This could be arguably the most difficult of the five keys. In 2 Nephi 25:6, Nephi said because he lived at Jerusalem, he knew "concerning the regions round about", which gives us another key into understanding Isaiah. Granted, this one probably won't make the Isaiah sections jump out and start singing, but it helps a little when you know where he's talking about. Your best friend on this one will be the Bible maps.

Isaiah speaks of the "end of the conduit of the upper pool" in 2 Nephi 17:3, which doesn't mean anything to most of us. Once we learn that the Pool of Shiloah was also called the upper pool, then we know exactly where Isaiah is referring, and the conduit or aqueduct is Hezekiah's tunnel that was constructed to bring in water into the seiged city of Jerusalem from the nearby Gihon Spring.

In 2 Nephi 20:9 when the Assyrian king is boasting about Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, and Arpad, it's helpful to know that those are the names of cities (not people as I had assumed) that had been conquored by the Assyrian armies (738 BC, 717 BC, 720 BC, and 738 BC, respectively).

2 Nephi 21/ Isaiah 11 speaks a lot about the conditions in the Millennium and the gathering of Israel. Verse 11 indicates that the "remnant of his people" will be gathered from "Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." Egypt I can pick out of that line-up and even find on a map, but the rest is a little fuzzy. After a little research, I found that Assyria is comparable to present-day Iran/ Iraq. Pathros is Upper Egypt, Cush is Ethiopia, Elam is Persia, Shinar is the city of Babel, and Hamath is Upper Syria. Now it's a little easier to get the scope of this specific gathering. The Islands of the sea were pretty much anywhere you couldn't get to on land, which would include the Americas, England, etc.

So there we go, the fourth key is knowing a little about the geography of Israel and the surrounding areas. Part of what makes this one so difficult is the fact that some of the places Isaiah names have been renamed or don't exist anymore. Don't let that trip you up though, there's enough information available to get the general idea.

The "Isaiah Barrier" - Key 3

Time for the third key to our understanding of Isaiah (almost seems like a contridiction in terms, doesn't it). After Nephi finished quoting from Isaiah, he mentioned a couple of things his people would need to know in order to understand these chapters (and presumably the rest of Isaiah). He said he taught his people "concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews" (2 Nephi 25:6).

How is that going to help us with Isaiah?? There are a couple of answers which may help. First, if we see that Isaiah's prophecies concerning his day came true, then we can be confident his prophecies concerning our day will also come true (and some already have). Also, as if he wasn't hard enough to understand already, Isaiah made several dualistic prophecies which can apply to our day and his day at the same time. Understanding what happened in his day can help us figure out things that will happen in ours. For example, 2 Nephi 23/ Isaiah 13 uses the destruction of Babylon as a symbol of the destruction that will accompany the Second Coming.

So, where exactly do we start? One thing I found helpful was to make two lists as I went through 2 Nephi 12 - 24. The first list was God's judgement for the righteous. The second list was God's judgement upon the wicked. This helped me put things into perspective and sort out some of the tricky parts.Let's take a look at a few passages to see if they make more sense.

2 Nephi 12:6

Therefore, O Lord, thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and hearken unto soothsayers like the Philistines...

I wondered for a long time what it meant to be "replenished from the east". I should've checked the footnotes. The corresponding verse in Isaiah 2 has a footnote which explains that 'replenished' is an Idiomatic Expression meaning 'are filled, supplied with teachings' (Isaiah 2:6a). So Israel was getting a time-out for turning to other philosophies and beliefs, rather than turning to God for direction.

Another example is in 2 Nephi 13:16-24. I have read this passage several times in the past and have heard it discussed in Sunday School classes as being judgements against Babylon. Take a moment to read verse 16 again:

Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes...

Whoa, Isaiah is saying that this is judgement upon the Lord's own chosen people. Those of the Lord's church are being chastized for following the world's extremes in fashion and for being proud while they're doing it. The word wanton means "sexually lawless or unrestrained; loose; lascivious", and these are the daughters of Zion... I don't need to know what a caul, wimple, or crisping pin is to know these girls are in trouble.

Let's shift gears and look at something a bit more uplifting.

2 Nephi 15:25:
"...For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still."

Some commentators interpret this as saying the Lord is just waiting to strike Israel again. I see it as the dual roles of justice and mercy. On one side, justice demands that we receive "the fruit of [our] doings" (2 Nephi 13:10), whether good or evil. On the other side, mercy seeks to lift us up as much as we will allow. I read that scripture and I see God's hand reaching out to pull us up if we will only grab hold.

Anyhow, go through and make your own list so you can see how Isaiah refers to God's judgements on Israel and other nations. I found the corresponding footnotes in Isaiah really help to understand the same passages in 2 Nephi, especially in the context of God's judgements.