TG Mortality 25 - 2 Nephi 2 (II)

It’s interesting that Lehi joins Schopenhauer, Margulis and Sagan in recognizing the category of “purposefulness” or “will” that seems to be connected to the condition of life.  He speaks of creation being full of “things to act and things to be acted upon” (verses 13 and 14).  In doing so he makes the same kind of distinction Margulis and Sagan make between living and non-living matter.  It is a side note, however, for he is not really concerned in his final message to his son Jacob with the state of all organisms.  The freedom he wishes to discuss is the freedom that Man experiences, and Lehi’s discussion of this category of freedom begins with the moral law—

“And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men…” (v. 5).

The normal, universal state of mortality (the world of “men”) involves being able to perceive (“know”) that some things are right and some things are wrong.  That knowledge is, to some degree at least, dependent upon “instruction,” but mortality is so structured that for everyone who is in a normal, mortal experience, the instruction available to him is “sufficient” and he finds himself existing in a moral universe, bounded by “good” and “evil.”

            For Lehi, the distinction between these two types of freedom is absolutely fundamental. So much so that he spends some time trying to imagine the implications of Man existing in a world where “freedom” just meant “purposefulness” or “will” without the existence of an objective moral law and its attending imperatives and consequences (verses 11-15).  He finds himself trying to imagine a universe “created for a thing of naught” because “there would have been no purpose in the end of creation” (v. 12).  Such a situation he recognizes implies the absence of a God who possesses wisdom or purpose, much less power or mercy or justice (v. 13).  He finds it impossible to believe in the real possibility of a creation without such a creator (v. 13), but concludes that if it did exist, many of the distinctions we human beings find most important would cease to make much sense.  Such a world view, he intuits, quickly empties such concepts as Morality (with its opposing conceptions of “good” and “evil”), Justice (with its principles of “righteousness/happiness” and “wickedness/punishment”), Consciousness (along with its divide between “sense” and “insensibility”), and even Life of their meaning because the distinctions (“oppositions”) we make in defining them cease to be true in any fundamental or ultimate sense.  The resulting conceptual muddle makes everything just a “compound in one,” where it is impossible to make clear distinctions in any of those things that matter most to human beings with any degree of certainty or authority (v.11). With eerie precision he anticipates the intellectual climate of post-modernity where the central concerns of human existence (Freedom, Love, Beauty, Truth, Meaning and Consciousness) become evolutionary epiphenomena.  Such a climate indeed tends to drain the life out of a culture.  It becomes “as dead” (v.11), because all of its tendencies flow in the opposite direction of “God’s eternal purposes in the ends of man” (v. 15).

            The modern cult of “scientism” has the tendency to create just such a world-- a world that exists without a creator (“universes happen…”); life that arose without any goal, intention or purpose (remarkable since the scientific underpinnings of such an assertion haven’t progressed much further than Darwin’s original attempt to imagine “a warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, lights, heat, electricity etc.,” with “a protein compound… chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes…”); a race of men who are nothing more than the fortuitous result of natural selection on the random variations of genetic material; and a mind whose moral “laws” are simply a small subset of his randomly created instinctual responses that turned out (so far) to have tended towards the improved survivability of one’s progeny.  And as Lehi suggests, there IS something about a world view that reduces all things to material and mechanical properties, that takes all the tools of human thought and experience and subordinates them all to just one of them (the scientific method) that tends to deaden and empty life of much of its vitality.

            Here I am going to use as an example a quote much pooh-poohed by Mormon intellectuals, but I’m sorry, I think it illustrates the point quite adequately.  It’s the quote from Charles Darwin’s Autobiography that Elder Packer used in “The Law and the Light.”

“I have said that in one respect my mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds, such as the works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare, especially in the historical plays. I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music.—Music generally set me thinking too energetically on what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure. I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did.”

“This curious and lamentable loss of the higher aesthetic tastes is all the odder, as books on history, biographies and travels (independently of any scientific facts which they may contain), and essays on all sorts of subjects interest me as much as ever they did. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes, depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organized or better constituted than mine, would not I suppose have thus suffered; and if I had to live my life again I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied could thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.”

            You can actually read Margulis and Sagan’s work as an attempt to reinfuse a scientific view of life with some of the values and qualities mankind began to lose when it embraced a materialistic/mechanical outlook on phenomena.  From the outside I’m afraid that emphasizing symbiosis, biophilia, and planetary autopoiesis seems to be woefully inadequate for the task they wish to accomplish.  I sincerely applaud their groping towards “something more,” but I am fairly certain that spiritual values are going to continue to be problematic for those who continue to deny the spirit. 

TG Dreams 14 - Jeremiah 29:

Again Jeremiah takes up the theme of false revelation, among which dreams have a place. 

"Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. 
For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord."

The Lord sends dreams, but we can also cause ourselves to dream dreams.  How can we tell?  No short term answer is given, but the long term answer is again alluded to - fruits.  Those engaged in false revelation ("spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them") have "committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbor's wives and have spoken lying words" (v. 21). 

אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם מַחְלְמִים 

"Which you (pl.) cause to be dreamed"

The Hebrew implies we can cause/create dreams.

TG Mortality 24 - 2 Nephi 2 (I)

This post (and the ones that follow on 2 Nephi 2) are a series of emails to some friends and family about this chapter about a year ago.

   I’ve been reading several books at once again.  As has happened before, I find one book serendipitously commenting on another.  The first book is What is Life by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan.  The second is Essays and Aphorisms, an abridgement of Schopenhauer’s Parerga and Paralipomena.

            Margulis and Sagan have been talking about life as “purposeful matter.”  Though perhaps none too clear about what to replace it with, they complain about the classical scientific model of the universe as a mechanism which (in their own words) “fails to account for our own self-awareness and self-determination because the mechanical worldview denies choice.  Mechanisms, after all, don’t act, they react.”  As they contemplate the Gaia hypothesis (based on the unlikely miracles of the long term maintenance of the earth’s temperature, atmospheric balances and oceanic salinities across geologic time) they even speak of a “mammal-like purposefulness in the organization of life as a whole.”

            Schopenhauer’s thought also seems bound to his experience of the existence of “will.”  He complains about the scientific model of mechanism in words that are eerily reminiscent of What is Life?  “If there exists no natural force whose essential property is just as much to act purposefully as it is the essential property of gravity to keep physical bodies together, which moves, directs and orders the entire complex workings of the organism, and which expresses itself in the same way as gravity expresses itself in the phenomenon of falling, then life is only a semblance, an illusion, and every creature is in reality a mere automaton, i.e. a play of mechanical, physical and chemical forces.”  Like Margulis and Sagan he has no truck with those who deny “will” or consciousness to other mammals and even sees will or mind pervading the ostensibly “dead” matter of the world we inhabit.

            Margulis and Sagan invoke the principles of “autopoiesis” and “emergence” as a non-theistic explanation of the existence of freedom.  Schopenhauer invokes the still scientifically respectable concept of the “life force” from his own time.  From the outside it seems to me that both of them are groping for “sciency” words to express from within an avowedly empirical worldview some of the insights of the mystical experience, specifically the experiences of consciousness and freedom.  Odd how “empirical,” which is supposed to mean ‘based on experience’ has come instead to mean ‘based on a very narrow set of experiences – those that involve measurement.’  Margulis/Sagan seem to me to be trying to widen the scientific view of the world to include some universal (but not quantifiable) human experiences.  I’m going to resist a temptation to take a detour down the side passage that opens up here into the limitations of mechanical/mathematical/scientific models of knowledge, but maybe we’ll come back to it before the end (I hope it does, because I think you would find it entertaining to watch me champion some major components of Elder Packer’s much maligned “The Law and the Light”).

            What I want to do instead is continue down the path of thinking about freedom.  For the third text I have been reading is the Book of Mormon.  Here I’ve been reading topically, rather than straight through as I’ve been doing with the other two.  With the New Year approaching and its normal accompaniment of evaluation of past directions and the setting of new goals, I’ve been reading on the topic of CHOICES.  My starting point has been Second Nephi Chapter Two.  Early in my life this chapter seemed to me to be a glimpse into the underlying structure of the universe.  Though my conclusions differed markedly from Skousen’s, my approach to the text was similar to his – I assumed the intent of the passage was to reveal the mechanics of how agency worked, and that by carefully piecing together insights here with other scriptures a reasonably complete schematic or wiring diagram of the true “nature of things” could be assembled.  Though three decades later I’m still awed and amazed by the depth of Lehi’s insights, I find myself less certain about just what it is I am being given a glimpse of in this inspired text. 

            I bring this up because I want to make clear what I am and what I am not trying to do.  I’m not trying to create a Mormon Theology in the style of Blake Ostler.  I’m not working on the assumption that the revelations we have are, say, the equivalent of an automotive manual that details the workings of a car and its systems in such a way that we can clearly trace the details of causes and effects.  I’m assuming that they resemble much more the sketchy user’s manual that comes with any new automobile and which contains useful and necessary information for the safe long term use and maintenance of the vehicle.  I am assuming that the information is accurate but limited – i.e. geared to the understanding of a mortal being working WITHIN the veil, with no memory and little direct experience of the vast realities that lie beyond the narrow confines of this specialized environment.  A user’s manual does not provide a wiring diagram.  It doesn’t trace the flow of fuel through the engine, nor the path of air intake and the exit of exhaust.  A careful reading of it does, however, allow us to know that fuel and air and electricity are all necessary to the functioning of our automobile.  That is all I aim to do with Freedom in these emails, tease out a few of the elements involved in the functioning of agency and the admittedly limited things we might be able to say about how they relate to each other.

 I have no intention of attempting the systematic theologian’s self-imposed task of recreating some kind of authoritative mechanic’s automotive manual (a task that Mormon theologian Adam Miller usefully describes as follows – “Doing theology is like building a comically circuitous Rube Goldberg machine: you spend your time tinkering together an unnecessarily complicated, impractical, and ingenious apparatus for doing things that are, in themselves, simple”).  I also have no intention of being all that careful or complete.  These emails are working notes of a study in progress, not the thoughtful statement of a completed project of analysis being prepared for publication.  There will be dead-ends, mistakes, revisions, recantations, back tracking and some covering of the same ground yet again in an attempt to refine my understanding.  Assume all conclusions to be perennially tentative.  Feel free to question, challenge or expand on what I’m doing.     

TG -Dreams 13 - Jeremiah 23:32

From Jeremiah 23 we raise the question, how do you know that a dream/vision/word is from God?  Jerusalem had plenty of priests and prophets, but not of justice and righteousness.  Those who styled themselves prophets were lying, committing adultery, not calling the wicked to repentance and in fact were strengthening the hands of those who did evil (v. 14).  Following their example the people were given to adultery and lying as well (v. 10).  When these prophets spoke they spoke "lies" (v. 26), "a vision out of their own hearts and not out of the mouth of the Lord" (v. 16), or "after the imagination of his own heart" (v. 17).  They were not prophets of the Lord.  They were "prophets of the deceit of their own heart" (v. 26).

Dreams were among the tools of these deceivers, the Lord complains that they "prophesy false dreams...and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all" (v. 32).

None of this was meant to discourage legitimate prophecy or the use of dreams -
"The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.  What is the chaff to the wheat?" (v. 28)

The question we raised is not directly answered in this chapter, though the issue of fruits is quite directly pointed to.  Those who were dealing with "false dreams" were caught up in financial and sexual immorality and in giving support to others who were so doing.

TG Mortality 23 - II Corinthians 5:4

Paul Contrasts our present condition "in this tabernacle" - "our earthly house" - where we are "absent from the Lord" (v. 1, 6), with a future condition where we are clothed with "a building of God" - "clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" - and "present with the Lord" (v. 1, 4, 8).  As with the Book of Mormon passages earlier, the Resurrection brings to Paul's mind the judgement, for when we are brought before "the judgment seat of Christ" each man will receive "according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (v. 10).  That coming judgment motivates Paul to labor that he might be "accepted of him"  (v. 9).

And his labor is to bring souls to Christ, that they might be "reconciled to God" (v. 20) through the atonement.  Men reconciled to God are made "the righteousness of God" in Christ (v. 21) and are renewed in Christ, a "new creature" for whom "old things are passed away; all things are become new" (v. 17).

TG Dreams 12 - I Kings 3:5

A prototypical Type 1 dream

The Lord speaks clearly and unambiguously.  His word is authoritative.  The Dreamer is able to respond in his own voice.

TG Mortality 22 - 2 Corinthians 4:11

The end goal of a Christian's mortality is this: "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."  The grace which has "shined in our hearts" (v. 60, if we are careful to make sure that the "inward man is renewed day by day" (v. 16) makes us more and more Christ like.  He becomes 'manifest in our mortal flesh.' 

However, we do not become perfect.  "We have this treasure in mortal vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (v. 7).  Even this imperfection has its purpose making sure that no one can mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself!

Nor will our circumstances be perfect.  We will be subject to being troubled, perplexed, persecuted and cast down, perhaps even killed.  But if we renew the inner man and keep that light shining in our hearts we need not be distressed, in despair, forsaken or destroyed, and in death we will be raised up (v. 8-14).

For Paul, the chief thing then, is that we do not hide our light in mortality.  Being imperfect, having troubles does NOT diminish the light that shines in us!  We may not be perfect, but He is!  It is natural for our imperfections and troubles to make us a little reticent to share.  "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; (v. 3-5)"

TG Dreams 11 - 1 Samuel 28:6

A sad and strange story from the ending of Saul's life.

Saul has cut himself off from God.  He faces a terrible battle and in his fear he seeks counsel from God.  But it is fear seeking, not repentance.  There is no sign of remorse.  No sign of a desire to change.  No need for a closer relationship with God.  Just fear.  The Philistine host looks bigger than he can handle.

Saul is obsessed here with technique.  Can I get a dream?  Does any prophet have a message for me?  How about the Urim and Thummim?  Is there a woman with a familiar spirit?  But what is really needed here is a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  In the end, he finally gets the revelation he seeks, but since he has not made peace with God, he receives no counsel, no comfort and no benefit. 

Revelation is always more than a technique, it is always embedded in the context of our relationship with God, and that relationship is more important than the technique or its results.

TG Mortality 21 - Moroni 6:21

Mormon's echo of Paul's phrase ("mortal must now put on immortality") is, like it's other occurrences in the Book of Mormon, centered on the judgment. 

"They day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works;" (v. 21)

Mormon's use of the phrase is the more poignant because he is literally surrounded by a scene of flesh returning to corruption

"their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth." (v. 15)

 He has just witnessed the near total destruction of his people, men, women and children.  And for very few of them can he hope that the judgment will be joyful.  For a few perhaps - "if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you."  For the majority though, the lament is this:  "oh that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you." (v. 22)

Interesting that of the four Book of Mormon references we have found that echo this Pauline phrase, three of them are integrally embedded in a concern with "the fathers." Whether Enos' testimony that begins with "the words which I had heard my father speak concerning eternal life, or the joy of the saints," or Alma's evocation of the deliverance, first temporal and then eternal, of his audience's "fathers," or Mormon's phrase "blessed with your fathers."  In 1st Corinthians 15 itself, Paul's treatise on the resurrection has the mysterious reference to baptism for the dead in verse 29. 

Might it be fruitful to search for the antecedents to Paul's phrasing?  What text or tradition underlies both Paul's use of these phrase and the Book of Mormon prophet's use of it.  Is there in the possible sources a juxtaposition of the resurrection/judgment and a concern with our fathers?

TG Dreams 10 - Judges 7:13

This is a classic type three dream, heavily symbolic and the interpretation provided by an inspired outside source.  The ironic thing is that the inspired interpreter is one of the enemy host and he thinks he is interpreting for his companion but is in fact interpreting for Gideon who was hidden or disguised nearby.  The Lord delivers his interpretations in the way of his choosing - often unexpected and unlikely.

TG Mortality 20b - Alma 5 continued

So, if you haven't come unto Christ (v. 34), the concept of the resurrection and the judgment that accompanies it functions as a litmus test that enables you to do a "thought experiment" (one of Einstein's "gedanken's") that will, if you do it honestly, help reveal your need for the atonement.  If you HAVE come unto Christ, experienced a mighty change of heart, received his image in your countenance, and been spiritually born of God, then the same thought experiment - picturing yourself at the resurrection, before the judgment seat of God - enables you to tell if you have continued in Christ, connected to the Vine or not.

"if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask can ye feel so now?" (v. 26).  The litmus test here involves

          Retaining/renewing a remission of your sins
                 "keeping yourselves blameless before God"
                 "garments...cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ"
          Avoiding a sense of self sufficiency and superiority that is a common trap for the redeemed
                 "have you been sufficiently humble?"
                 "are ye stripped of pride?"
                 "are ye stripped of envy?"
                 do you "make a mock" of your brother?
                 heap "upon him persecutions?'

your answers to these questions reveal whether you, just like those who have never yet know the Savior "have gone astray, as sheep having no Shepherd." 

The continuing presence of the atonement in our lives IS after all the continuing presence and influence and direction of the Shepherd, which we gain and retain in the same way - by listening to and accepting his invitations and hearing and following ("hearkening unto") his voice. (v.33-35, 37-38,

TG Dreams 9 - Deuteronomy 13:1

The Ancient Greeks spoke of dreams that came from Zeus through the "Gate of Horn" (true dreams) and those that came through the "Gate of Ivory" (false, deceptive dreams).  In Mormonism we recognize that all modes of revelation (dreams included) have a potential of arising from one of three spiritual sources -

     The influence of God
     The human mind of the man himself
     The influence of Satan

Note that in Deuteronomy 13, that safety and the correct path cannot necessarily be found by trusting the gift of dreams or prophecy but in loving the Lord with all your heart and soul, walking after him, keeping his commandments, obeying his voice, serving him and cleaving unto him (v. 3, 4).  Revelations can be counterfeit.  Safety lies in a correct RELATIONSHIP with the Lord, not just by attempts to open up a channel of communication with him.  We will see this theme reiterated in future references.

TG Mortality 20a - Alma 5 continued

Alma also talks about how (in the light of a coming judgment at the resurrection) to escape our mortal condition:  First, Faith, believing in the words of God (v. 11,12), putting your trust in him (v. 13); Second, Repent (v. 33); Third, come unto him and bring forth works of righteousness (v. 33 - 35). 


This is accompanied by a promise that the Lord will then deliver us from our hell and our bondage (v. 6,7, 9), awaken us to himself from our deep slumber (v. 7),  replace our darkness with light (v. 7), cause our souls to expand (v. 9), create a mighty change in our hearts (v. 12, 13, 14), fill us with his love (v. 9).  These changes are so profound we can be said to have "received his image in [our] countenance" (v. 14).

TG Dreams 8 - Numbers 12:6

Although they are an important method of divine revelation, scripture makes clear that neither the vision nor the dream is the pinnacle of divine communication.  In Numbers 12 the Lord parallels dreams and visions by which the Lord certainly "speaks" and "makes known."  He also contrasts them with the kind of direct visitation that Moses sometimes enjoyed.

Moses saw "the similitude of the Lord" (a phrase that brings to mind Ether 3:16-17) and he spoke with him "mouth to mouth."  Aaron and Miriam had indeed enjoyed some of the gift of prophecy - dreams, visions and "dark sayings" - and could claim with some justice that the Lord had "spoken by us."  The Lord rebukes their attempt to put themselves thus on an equal footing with his anointed by first reminding them of the clarity Moses had been given (qualitatively superior to their own) and by giving Miriam a week of being a leper.  The experience is a sobering reminder that revelation (like most gifts) is a "limited good," subject to misuse and abuse, and must be accompanied by Charity (see I Corinthians 13) if it is not to lead to pride.

TG Mortality 20 - Alma 5

Alma also uses language that echoes Paul's - "this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption..." (v. 15).  As in the previous two Book of Mormon uses, the context is the association of the resurrection with the judgment - "...to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body."

In this classic sermon Alma uses that judgment as a horizon against which to measure what happens in mortality.  Are we going to be prepared to face it?  Should it not motivate us to be constantly evaluating ourselves and our readiness?  If we would let it, wouldn't its reality be prompting a series of deep personal questions that would impel us to use the atonement in a more immediate and powerful way? 

First of all, doesn't the reality of the judgment that accompanies resurrection force us to acknowledge our basic fallen, mortal state?

Until we come unto Christ and put our faith in Him, Alma reminds us, all of us are in the same condition as King Noah's people before the preaching of Abinidi and Alma.  We are in a "deep sleep," "in the midst of darkness," "encircled about by the bands of death and the chains of hell" (v. 7).  We yield ourselves "to become subjects to the devil" (v. 20).  Our destination is a meeting with God where our souls are "filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all [our] guilt, yea a perfect remembrance of all [our] wickedness, yea a remembrance that [we] have set at defiance the commandments of God" (v. 18).  The path we are on leads to hell (v. 6) and an everlasting destruction (v. 7). 

TG Dreams 7 - Genesis 42

Verse 9 gives us another way that the heavily symbolic dreams of type 2 and 3 can be understood – hindsight.  When Joseph saw his brothers bow before him in his role as viceroy of Egypt “he remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them.”  The light begins to dawn, the meaning of the dream begins to become clear.  Through further pondering, and doubtless personal revelation, Joseph sees that the dreams are telling him that the whole sequence of events that brought them here was meant.  God’s purposes were being carried out by his slavery and imprisonment.  With that “wisdom and discretion” that comes from the Spirit of God he sees that not only was he blessed personally but as he explains to his brethren in chapter 45, “be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life….And God sent me before you to preserve you posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”

The inspired insight from the dream, understood in hindsight, helps Joseph avoid the natural temptation to resent and to take revenge on his brothers.  Part of the dream’s purpose is to help him see that God foresaw and worked through events that might have appeared disastrous.  It surely helped to enable him to be in a position to bless his family where he might have otherwise taken vengeance upon them –

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.  Now therefore fear ye not:  I will nourish you and your little ones.” (Genesis 50:20-1)

TG Dreams 6 - Genesis 41

             Pharaoh’s Dreams are also Type 3, heavily symbolic and requiring inspiration to interpret.  It is not just skill and experience with dreams –

            “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph…I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.  And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, it is not in me:  God shall give Pharaoh an answer…”  Joseph’s interpretive power comes because he is one “in who the Spirit of God is.” (v. 15, 16, 38)

            All of the dreams reported in Genesis before Joseph’s story are messages from God giving commandments or making offers.  All of the dreams in the Joseph sequence foretell the future.  Explicitly, in Pharaoh’s case, offering an opportunity to adjust behavior to take advantage of one’s foreknowledge.

TG Mortality 19 – Mosiah 16

            We find another echo of Paul in Abinidi who speaks of the resurrection when “this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption.”  Chapter 16 of Mosiah is the last chapter of Abinidi’s final testimony.  The resurrection here is a prelude to the judgement, which has a place in Abinidi’s summary of what life is all about.

            First, since the Fall of our first parents (v.3), “all mankind” are in a “lost and fallen state” (v.4).  They are “carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil” (v.3).  No one can escape from this condition unaided (v. 13).

            Second, the Atonement offers us a way out.  “God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state,” a redemption that “cometh through Christ the Lord,” who is the life and light of the world and is the only way man can be saved (v. 4, 9, 13, 15).

            Third, the atonement is an offer, not an irresistible force.  The Lord extends his “arms of mercy,” warns of our iniquities, and commands us to repent (v. 12).  To accept the atonement means to “hearken unto the voice of the Lord” (v. 2), “tremble and repent of [our] sins” (v. 12), “depart from them” (v. 12) and “[call] upon the Lord” (v. 12).

            If we fail to take advantage of the offer, it is for us “as though there was no redemption made” (v. 5).  If we will not hearken (v. 2), persist in our carnal nature, go on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God (v. 5), go according to our own carnal wills and desires, not calling upon the Lord, if we will not to accept the arms of mercy extended towards us, and will no repent and depart from our sins (v. 12) the consequences are horrific.  We are carnal and devilish and the devil has power over us (v. 3), we are an enemy to God (v. 5) just like the being who now rules over us, and at the resurrection we are delivered up to the devil who has subjected us (v. 11).  We experience damnation – a stoppage of our divine potential to progress.

            

TG Dream 5 - Genesis 40.

The Chief Butler's and the Chief Baker's fit into another category yet. 

The content is symbolic, but initially unintelligible.  The dream requires a divine interpretation, from a divinely gifted interpreter:

"We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.  And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God?  Tell me them, I pray you."  (v. 8)

We will call this type Type 3.

Hebrew for interpreter (poter) from a root meaning to interpret or explain.

פֹתֵר

Hebrew for interpretation (pitronim)

פִּתְרֹנִים

TG Mortality 18 - Enos 1

Paul's phrase "mortality putting on immortality" is echoed many times in scripture.  Enos uses it when he pictures his resurrection in verse 27. 

The chapter gives the background of his anticipation.  The word of God, delivered by his father, had "sunk deep" into his heart (v. 3) and caused his soul to hunger (v. 4).  His faith in Christ (v. 8) resulted in mighty prayer (v. 4), and a wrestle (v.2) that resulted in a remission of his sins and a change that filled his heart with a desire to bless those around him (v. 9, 11) and bore fruit in prayer, labor, diligence, strugglings and seekings in God's service (v. 11 -12, 14, 20).  He spent his life declaring the word of God (v. 26).

Enos' redeemed life allowed him to face death and the resurrection with anticipation.  In death he would go to his rest in Christ.  In the resurrection his "mortal shall put on immortality" and he would physically see the face of the Savior.  Having his calling and election sure, Enos knew that Christ would invite him to take his place prepared among the mansions of the Father.

TG Dream 4 - Genesis 37

With Joseph we have another kind of dream entirely.  The content is symbolic and the meaning is an interpretation - in this case given spontaneously by those to whom Joseph related his dreams, his immediate family.

"Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?

"Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?"

We will call this type of dream, Type 3

TG Mortality 17 - I Corinthians 15:33

I Corinthians 15 is a difficult chapter.  Paul preaches the reality of the resurrection in words that have mystified Christians for centuries.  Modern revelation has elucidated such concepts as baptism for the dead and bodies with the glory of the sun and the moon and the stars, but much in his argument still remains clouded.

        corruption                 incorruption
        weakness                  power
        natural body             spiritual body
        living soul                quickened spirit
        natural                      spiritual
        of the earth/earthy    from heaven
        bear the image          bear the image
           of the earthy             of the heavenly
        mortal                       immortal

If Corinthians 15 were the only chapter on the topic available to us it would be extremely difficult to get a clear picture of what the resurrection really is.  Reading this chapter in terms of the resurrection being a physical resurrection of the body with spirit in its veins and not blood, with all corruption and mortality removed from it, is certainly no wresting of the text, but it's also not the only possible reading of the text.  Plain and precious things are missing here.
 
  

TG Dream 3 - Genesis 31:24

Laban's dream is told in little detail.  Again it is treated as a visitation - "God came to Laban."

The message God gave is clear and literal - "Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad."

It is treated as a direct communication - "the God of your fathers spake unto me yesternight, saying..." (v. 28).

No record of Laban answering back or being anything other than a passive recipient of a message.

We'll call this Type 1a.

TG Mortality 16 - More Romans 8

The promises for those who become the sons of God by yielding to the Spirit are some of the most comforting in all of Scripture -

"All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose" (v. 28).

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (v.31)

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (v. 35)

"For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v. 38-39).

TG Mortality 15 - Romans 8:11

Romans 8 again reminds us that the choice our unaided efforts to be good are doomed to failure without the atonement

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit." v. 3-4

The trick is to yield to the enticings of the spirit and be transformed (Mosiah 3:19).

Again the implication is that there is a daily choice before us -

"walk after the flesh"                         "walk...after the spirit" (v. 1, 4)
"law of sin and death"                       "law of the spirit if life in Christ Jesus" (v. 2)
"they which are after the flesh"         "they that are after the Spirit" (v. 5)
"mind the things of the flesh"            "mind the things of the Spirit" (v. 5)
"carnally minded"                              "spiritually minded" (v. 6)
"death"                                               "life and peace" (v. 6)
"in the flesh"                                      "in the spirit" (v. 7-9)
"have not the Spirit of Christ"           "the Spirit of God dwell in you" (v. 9)
"debtors to the flesh"                         "through the Spirit"
"live after the flesh"                          "mortify the deeds of the body"
"die"                                                   "live" (v. 12 -13)
"the spirit of bondage again to fear"  "the spirit of adoption by which we cry Father" (v. 15).

And what is the conclusion?

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God." (v. 14)

TG Dream 2 - Genesis 28:12

In Genesis 28:11-22 -- the dream of "Jacob's ladder."

The Lord still speaks here in his own voice, the words are clear and authoritative.

There is symbolic content as well, the visual image of a ladder into heaven with angels ascending and descending.

Jacob does not respond, verbally, to the Lord until he is awake.

We will call this type of dream, Type 2.

TG Dream 1 - Genesis 20:3-7

 "God came to Abimelech in a dream by night" parallels "the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night."

Abimelech's dream, like Solomon's two dreams, are visitations of the Lord.  The dreams are straightforward with no symbolic elements reported.  The Lord speaks in his own voice.  The dreamer is able to respond as his own true self.  The information imparted, the promises made, the warnings given are direct and reliable - as they would be spoken by the Lord himself.  The dreamer is able to speak and choose as himself.

We will call this kind of dream Type 1.

TG Mortality 14 - Romans 6:12

Chapters 6 and 7 in Romans spell out a good deal about our mortal condition.  To fully understand this odd place it is useful to look forward to a chapter we will not reach for some time: 2 Nephi 2.  There we are told how the Lord carefully balanced the forces of opposition - grace and sin, the atonement and the fall, the law and temptation - to give us freedom.  Within that context, Paul tells us how that drama of agency plays out.

First of all, it is not simply a situation of being enabled to make a straightforward choice between good and evil.  Our fallen natures complicate that choice immensely - "the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, that I do" (7:14-24).  The choice isn't so much between good and evil as it is between sin and grace.  Our way out isn't so much to try to strengthen by our own exertions the good side of our warring nature, but to accept the atonement "through Jesus Christ our Lord" who can "deliver me from the body of this death" which I, strive though I might, cannot do.

Within THAT context, we have an ongoing daily choice between Grace and Sin (Chapter 6). 

On the one hand we can
     "continue in sin" (v. 1)
     "live therein" (v. 2)
     "serve sin" (v. 6)
     "let sin reign in our mortal body" (v. 12)
     "obey it in the lusts thereof" (v. 12)
     "yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin" (v. 13)
     "yield our members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity" (v. 19)
On the other hand we can
     be "dead to sin" (v. 2)
     "walk in newness of life" (v. 4)
    "reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 11)
          (this one is done by dwelling on the significance of the symbol of the ordinance of baptism)
     "yield ourselves unto God and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (v. 13)
     "obey doctrine from the heart" (v. 17)
     "be made free from sin" (v. 18)
     " become a servant of righteousness" (v. 18)
     "yield our members servants to righteousness unto holiness" (v. 19)

In both cases it is a matter of surrender.  As Bob Dylan once sang, "everybody's gotta serve someone."  We yield our body to be used by God or to be used by sin.  One or the other will have Dominion over us (v. 14).  "Know ye not that to who ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness" (v. 16).

No matter what some of our Protestant brethren say, you can't come to know Christ once, and then be automatically delivered for eternity from sin.  Coming unto Christ opens a door through which daily grace can enable us to choose to yield ourselves to God and become obedient through the power of the atonement.  After that door is opened we can still  (Paul warns us) choose in our daily walk to yield ourselves to sin and be not deceived, if we continue on that road (he warns) , the wages of sin ARE death (v. 16, 23).


    

Wisdom - First Synthesis

We've followed all of the scriptural references available in the LDS version of the Bible for our first "Wisdom" passage from the Syntopicon (1 Kings 3:5-14).  From here we will take advantage of the footnoted subjects from the Topical Guide.  Over the next months we will be looking at Dreams; Understanding; Heart; Spiritual Discernment; and Divine Guidance - all of which promise to shed some very interesting side lights on Wisdom.

Before we take our long detour, however, I want to take some time to look over and summarize what I have learned so far.

First, the foundation of wisdom is humility - a sense of one's own lack, an recognition of one's dependence on God, and an acknowledgement of the need to walk with God, in the path God has laid out.  Both Solomon's archetypal gift of wisdom and the wisdom Joseph Smith received as he began the Restoration of the gospel were rooted in a deep recognition on the part of the recipient - "I am but a little child," "how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know."  Whatever our circumstances, the responsibilities and opportunities available to us in which we might do good or evil, influence and affect others are so much beyond our natural abilities and vision that we all, whether we can see it or not, need the gift of wisdom.  The first step in wisdom is to be able to see that.

Second, wisdom must be desired.  It comes to those who seek God to obtain it.  Both Joseph and Solomon verbally sought the gift from the Lord as a result of a deep inner desire to obtain it.  "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5).

Third, the desire for wisdom has a series of potential competitors in the heart of man.  Selfish desires for riches, fame and recognition, power, pleasure and the wants of the flesh can all put the heart of a man in a position where it is not prepared to receive the gift of wisdom.  There can only be one ruling passion in the heart, and it subordinates all others.  The Lord gave Solomon only one request at Gibeon.  He had to decide what one thing to ask for and had to put all other possibilities aside.  Joseph's search for wisdom began to consume his mind and energy - a search marked by "serious reflection and great uneasiness... deep and often poignant feelings."  His "mind at times was deeply excited."  He "often" rolled his doubts and questions around in his mind, which labored "under extreme difficulties."  When he encountered the promise in the epistle of James he "reflected on it again and again."

Those who find themselves hijacked by the search for riches are especially singled out in scripture as being on a path that is in opposition to wisdom (as well as to salvation).  "Seek not for riches but for wisdom."  Like Solomon, we have to choose between them.

Fourth, wisdom includes the following components

• an understanding heart - there are two phrases in Hebrew translated thus: first, a heart that listens; second, a heart that discerns.
• the ability to discern between good and evil
• the ability to judge and decide in those areas and for those people over which we are responsible - the ability to "discern judgment."
• it includes the ability to gain knowledge that accumulates over time

Fifth, the gift of wisdom can be lost.  If the humility and relationship with God that bring the gift are lost, so is the gift.  Solomon was given clear "maintenance instructions" -

• to walk before God in integrity and uprightness
• obey God's personal commandments to him; to "follow" him
• keeping Gods statutes and judgments
• not to go after other Gods to follow or worship them

Sixth, the gift of wisdom does not carry its own safety with it.  Our spiritual security does not rest in the gifts we have been given, whether that gift is wisdom, or revelation or healing or whatever.  Spiritual security and safety (and ultimately the integrity even of our gifts) is dependent on something much deeper, the integrity of our relationship with God - the ultimate source of our gifts. 

Seventh, a key component of maintaining the integrity of our relationship to God is again, Humility.  We often begin to seek wisdom at moments of being "compelled to be humble."  As we gain wisdom it is possible to lose sight of that deep need.  As the Lord responds to our humility and repentance with grace and blessings we have a tendency to lose our willingness to submit ourselves to his direction and guidance.  We no longer desire that God rule us or guide us.  It is not easy to "always retain in remembrance...your own nothingness" to continually "humble yourselves in the depths of humility" (Mosiah 4:12), and continue to remember in the times when we are not in trouble that we are still comparatively "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" before God (Revelation 3:17).  Here, Jesus set the ultimate example, submitting his own will and judgment to the Father's in all things.

Eighth, wisdom in its widest and deepest sense includes being wise in our use of our mortality - the sense that Jacob invoked in his exhortation "O be wise; what can I say more."  Here wisdom involves not wasting the day of our probation, not resisting the spirit's enticements, not rebelling against God.  Instead it is wisdom to become as a little child - to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit, to repent, come unto Christ, and take advantage of the atonement, enter in by the gate and continue on the straight and narrow way by cleaving unto God.

Ninth, wisdom (especially viewed in this widest and deepest sense) seems to bring with it a train of blessings - physical needs met in abundance, a "larger heart" - the increase of sympathy and understanding, and peace.

TG Mortality 13 - Luke 9:56

A stunning story of the Savior's attitude towards life is found in the 9th chapter of the Gospel of Luke:

51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
 52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
 54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
 56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

In the apostle's defense, they had recently seen Jesus transfigured in the presence of Elijah and Moses and had heard the Father's audible voice from heaven testifying to his divine sonship.  Surely, one greater than Elijah had come among them, and the penalty for rejecting such a one must be great!  But Jesus was on a mission of life, not of death. 

WISDOM 28 - Matthew 6:33

Our final cross reference from our initial passage about wisdom in 1 Kings 3 takes us to the Sermon on the Mount.

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little bfaith?
 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

The passage is given to those who are about to be sent out two by two to take the good news to the scattered cities and villages of Israel, but its echoes and resonances reach into every corner of the Christian life.  Who is your master?  Who do you trust?  Who do you seek for first?  Where is your faith?  The wisdom that seeks the Kingdom of God first stands in stark contrast here to a more worldly wisdom that puts physical needs before spiritual needs, that is wrapped up first in needs and then in luxuries.

TG Mortality 12 - 1 Peter 1:24

18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Peter's gloss on Isaiah 40:6, like that of James, focuses not only on the comparison between man's brief earthly glory and God's eternal glory, but also on the contrast between that part of man that identifies with earthly glory (the "corruptible seed" in us) and that part which actually has a share in God's eternal glory.  The "incorruptible seed" of the word of God is sowed and grows in us not to wither and watch its flowers fall away, but to endure forever.  The flowering of that seed is to "believe in God," to have "faith and hope...in God," to see our souls "purified...in obeying the truth through the spirit," to possess "unfeigned love" and "pure hearts."

WISDOM 27 - I Kings 10:23-25

 23 So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.

 24 And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

 25 And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

We now move to the first of two references on a footnote on 1 Kings 3:13, keyed on the word "riches."  The implication of this passage is that a significant portion of Solomon's wealth came as gifts.  People  from distant lands who wanted "to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart" and they brought gifts with them.

Are there echoes here of the Savior's admonition to "consider the lilies of the field" and trust him to meet our needs?  It ought to be said that in both the Savior's speech on the Sermon on the Mount and Solomon's situation there is a great deal of context behind the seemingly simple proposition.

TG - Mortality 11 / James 1:10

James glosses Isaiah's statement that all flesh is grass near the beginning of his epistle: 

 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

 10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

 11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

The gospel takes those who are counted by society as unimportant, and opens their eyes to the importance they possess in the eyes of their Father.  It takes those whom society counts as important and opens their eyes to the falseness (and indeed the briefness) of that measure, giving them another, truer measure to guide their actions and judge their relationships by.

At the moments we are tempted to exalt ourselves, we all, like the victorious Roman general in his triumph, could use someone whispering in our ear, "you are only human."

WISDOM 26 - Joseph Smith - History 1:11-13

 8 During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong.
 9 My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
 10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?
 11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
 12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.
 13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

Interesting parallels with Solomon's experience.

1) Both have feelings of inadequacy connected to youth and inexperience.
2) Both are making a gesture of communication towards God they have not done before
        Solomon sacrificing at Gibeon for the first time as king
        Joseph trying his first attempt a vocal prayer.
3) Both result in a theophany.

TG - Mortality 10 / Isaiah 40:6

We begin an interesting series of references today - a passage from Isaiah and its echoes in the New Testament:

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
 6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
 7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
 8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

The context is the second coming and the events leading up to it, which Isaiah tells us will make the glory of the Lord stand out in stark contrast against the glory of man.  Wrapped up as we are in human society where status and accomplishment and skill and power and wealth and fame seem so real, it is an important reminder.  All of us are grass, here today, gone tomorrow.  The seemingly huge gaps between us in this world disappear completely seen from the perspective of eternity.  Seen in its light all of us together are but withering grass and fading flowers. 

Isaiah's words parallel those of Moses after his theophany:  "I know that man is nothing, which thing I had never supposed" (Moses 1:10).  To a man raised amidst the wealth and power, the pomp and ceremony of Pharaoh's court, the insight must have been quite a useful corrective.

WISDOM 25 - Mormon 9:28

Again a reference from the Book of Mormon takes us to a passage that points us towards the deepest wisdom available in mortality - the wisdom of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

27 O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.
 28 Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.
 29 See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out.

Mormon exhorts us to

• hearken
• ask
• be believing
• begin
• come unto the Lord with all our hearts
• work out our salvation
• strip ourselves of uncleanness
• pray for what we really need (strength to serve and withstand temptation)
• Be worthy (act in the name of the Savior)
• endure to the end

I think being "wise in the days of your probation" is an excellent summary of his advice.

Running through the entire passage as a thread of contrasting color is a list of what it means to be foolish in the days of our probation -

• despise and condemn
• doubt and wonder about the reality of miracles
• remain unclean
• be so focused on our lusts that even our prayers are full of them
• yield to temptation
• not be careful about our worthiness to participate in sacred ordinances

The exhortations and warnings gain added emphasis from a realization that they arise from his vision of our times.  He addresses us directly.

 30 Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words.

TG - Mortality 9 / Ecclesiastes 12:7

Our next scripture reference under the topic of Mortality takes us to the first part of Ecclesiastes 12.

 1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
 2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
 3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
 4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
 5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
 6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
 7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

The traditional interpretation of the images in this passage is that they are all metaphors for old age an death.  Old age when eyesight fails and we cannot make out the heavens, the arms tremble, the legs bow, the teeth are few and unable to grind food, we can't get around, are afraid of falling, our hair is white as almond blossoms, we can't even lift a grasshopper and we lose our desires for the things of this earth.  The loosing of the cord, breaking of the bowl/pitcher/wheel are all references to death.

The main lesson of the passage is to remember God early in life, when the possibilities and opportunities open to you are so much greater.  For the Latter Day Saint, perhaps the most commonly used verse in this passage is our reference verse, verse 7.  The spirit returning to God seems a clear reference to a time before mortality when our spirits dwelt with Him.

WISDOM 24 - Mosiah 29:11

The next reference from footnote b of 1 Kings 3:12 leads to Mosiah 29.  Here we are discussing the gift of wisdom in the arena of politics.  Not a topic for an election year.  When Mosiah proposed changing the government from a kingship to a rule by judges he urged the people to appoint "wise men" who would "judge according to the commandments of God."

 A parallel scripture is found in D&C 98:10 where the Lord instructs modern day saints, living under a constitutional republic to seek diligently for "honest men," "wise men," and "good men" to represent them.

TG - Mortality 8 / Psalm 103:14

 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
 9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
 13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
 14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Again we are reminded that the Lord "knows our frame."  He understands the challenges of mortality and has compassion upon our condition "as a man pities his children."  While he cannot condone wrongdoing, his mercy to wrongdoers is "plenteous."  As we keep our hearts full of reverence for God - the fear of the Lord - we find the extent of his mercy for our failings and transgressions and his willingness to meet our repentance with forgiveness to be almost infinite - "as the heaven is high above the earth," "as far as the east is from the west."

WISDOM 23 - Jacob 6:12

I Kings 3:12 next sends us to Jacob chapter 6, where we encounter some of life's deepest wisdom - certainly the most decisive wisdom on a mortal beings life.

Like many an Old Testament prophet Jacob is in the midst of a meditation on God's dealings with Israel and Israel's relationship with God - past, present and future.  Jacob then lays out how his people (Israel) can choose foolishly or wisely.

How to be foolish

• be stiffnecked
• be gainsaying
• harden your heart
• bring forth evil fruit
• reject the words of the prophets (especially those concerning Christ)
• deny the word of God, the power of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost
• quench the Holy Spirit
• Make mock of the plan of redemption

How to be wise

• not harden your heart
• repent
• come unto God with full purpose of heart
• cleave unto God
• enter in at the straight gate
• continue in the narrow way

The most decisive wisdom in mortality is the wisdom that impels a man to come unto Christ and to stay connected to him.

 12 O be wise; what can I say more?

TG - Mortality 7 / Psalms 78:39

Our next window on the mortal condition comes from Psalms 78.  In some ways you can look at this Psalm as an extended and more diffuse illustration of Mormon's meditation in Helaman 12:1-7. 

The Psalmist rehearses all that God has done for Israel, from the miraculous deliverance of Exodus down to his present day, and then contrasts it with Israel's constant forgetfulness.  The tale he tells is more than just an indictment of Israel, it's a catalogue of the propensities of the Natural Man.

First in the wilderness:

• rebellious and stubborn, not setting their hearts aright, not steadfast with God (v. 8)
• turning back (v.9)
• keeping not the covenant, refusing to walk in his law (v. 10)
• forgetting God's works and wonders (v. 11)
• provoking God and sinning more (v. 17)
• tempting God by asking him to fulfill their lusts (v. 18)
• speaking against God (v. 19)
• not believing nor trusting in Him (v. 22)
• even when he answered their prayers miraculously, they didn't turn their attention to God, they were "not estranged from their lust" (v. 30)
• instead of being humbled by affliction, they continued to sin and to not believe (v. 32)
• when affliction got so bad that they were compelled to humble themselves before Him, it wasn't from the heart - "their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant" (v. 37)
• they provoked, grieved, tempted and limited God, and turned back, forgetting past deliverances (v. 41-2)

Then again in the Land of Israel (v.56 - 58):

• tempted and provoked God
• the kept not his testimonies
• they turned back
• dealt unfaithfully
• they were turned aside
• they moved God to jealousy by worshiping other Gods

Again, all of this against a backdrop of a steady and often impressive stream of blessings.
As Mormon tells us

 1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.
 2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.
 3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.
 4 O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!
 5 Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths!
 6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide.
 7 O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.
                                                                                                              Helaman 12:1-7
But in the heart of the Psalm is a note of hope --

38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
 39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

The natural man is indeed an enemy to God and he who willfully persists in it will face its consequences, but (and the "but" here is everything) we have a God who took upon himself flesh, experienced the full mortal condition for himself, that he might understand us and know how to succor us according to the flesh.  He remembers our mortal condition with its inherent unsteadiness and it gives rise to compassion, patience, understanding and a willingness to forgive.

WISDOM 22 - 2 Nephi 28:15

The next reference off of 1 Kings 3:12 is one that echoes the cautionary tale of Solomon's life.

 15 O the wise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the pride of their hearts, and all those who preach false doctrines, and all those who commit whoredoms, and pervert the right way of the Lord, wo, wo, wo be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell!

Wisdom and learning, goods in themselves, do not stand independent of the virtue of humility.  Allied with pride, these characteristics are actually caustic, damaging the soul and alienating it from God in ways that have repercussions well beyond this present life.

TG - Mortality 6 / Job 21:26

Chapter 21 of Job focuses on one of Mortality's salient points - its unfairness:  innocent babies die without even a chance of fulfilling their potential;  Long life is often wasted on those who do not appreciate its opportunities; the wicked prosper; the righteous suffer; outcomes often appear to be more random than lawful.

Job assures us that justice is not, however an illusion.  Some of the consequences are hidden.  We focus on outward goods - wealth, health, family size, fleeting pleasures (v. 7-13).  In this life, however, the wicked inwardly bear the weight of an alienation from God (v. 14-15).  And in time or in eternity the full consequences of their actions do eventually catch up with them (v. 17-33).

WISDOM 21 - 1 Kings 5:12

 12 And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.

Not enough data to be conclusive, but a strong hint that wisdom and peace (the establishment of real actual peace and harmony) are related.  David was not a man of peace, but a man of war.  His son seeks wisdom and enjoys peace throughout a long reign (until towards the end, when he abandons wisdom for his heathen wives).

TG - Mortality 5 / Job 19:26

There is a certain sense in which a Christian's appraisal of this life is nested in his knowledge that what occurs down here on Earth is not the final scene of our drama.  In chapter 19, Job acknowledges his current misery and suffering, but affirms a faith in a rightness that transcends death.

25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Job's testimony of a resurrection is couched in legal terms.  There is a hint, not just of a physical life after death, but of a judgment and a reckoning where hopes to be vindicated and justified.

WISDOM 20 - 1 Kings 4:29-31

From verse 12 of 1 Kings 3, we are directed to a series of references keyed on the phrase "a wise and understanding heart."  The first reference is 1 Kings 4:29-31.  The passage describes, often in hyperbole, just how much Solomon's wisdom exceeded that of all he could be compared with.

On phrase sticks out to me, one that hasn't shown up yet in our discussion.  The Lord gave Solomon "largeness of heart."  How important largeness of heart is to wisdom.  Wisdom is more than just the ability to coldly calculate the cost/benefit ratios of various options.  Deep wisdom depends upon our ability to feel as well as upon our ability to think.  When we see with our heart as well as our head added dimensions are revealed.

Another meaning of 'largeness of heart' is the expanded sympathy and understanding that occurs when we are able to put ourselves in other's shoes and see the world through their eyes; when we are able to consider the interests of another as if they were our own; when we see our actions towards those in need or suffering as Christ sees them - As if they were towards Him.

Largeness of Heart must be one of the distinguishing characteristics between mere intelligence and true wisdom.  How many foolish "smart" men have we met, and how many are the unsophisticated and unlearned "wise"?

TG - Mortality 4 / Job 2:4

Job's plight is an interesting counter example to the "gospel of prosperity" that sees health, wealth and success as a sign of God's favor.  As Satan implies in chapter one, if for "fearing God and eschewing evil" (1:8) we are automatically rewarded with a hedge about us and our house, if all the work of our hands is invariably blest, and our riches automatically increase (1:10), then this life's purpose as a test is defeated.  We will not reveal our true character or desires.  In such a circumstance our obedience to God has all the moral weight of the salivation of Pavlov's dog.  We have simply been conditioned, like any rat in a maze, to take the path that leads us to the cheese.

The book of Job is a reminder that in this life our righteous efforts and desires guarantee neither our family, nor our wealth, nor our health any permanent invulnerability.  The righteous as well as the wicked are subject to job loss, sudden infant death syndrome and cancer.   What we do have is an assurance, which we can only lay hold of by faith, that none of this is allowed to come to pass without our Heavenly Father's permission.  He knows the afflictions he allows to occur and he knows why.  In time or eternity, so will we.

In the meantime, Satan's words remind us that the blows that strike against us at our most vulnerable points offer us an opportunity to reveal the nature of our attachment to God and to righteousness.  Are we just opportunistic servants who are loyal as long as we are rewarded?  Or are we someone who loves the good and loves God whether that love seems to be rewarded or not?  Satan's hope was that Job was one who could be turned away by adversity - one who under the weight of affliction would curse God to his face (1:11, 2:5).

Some of the hardest trials we can endure are those that afflict the body.  After Job successfully endures family and economic losses, temptation strikes even more intimately -

 4 And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
 5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

WISDOM 19 - 2 Nephi 21:2

Footnote "c" from 1 Kings 3:11 links the phrase "understanding to discern judgment" to Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah (2 Nephi 21 and Isaiah 11).  

2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.

In mortality, even the wisdom of the Son of God has its foundation in his humility and reverence, his "fear of the Lord."  In not seeking his own will, but the will of him who sent him (John 6:38), he is given access to wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and a sharpness of insight ("of quick understanding") that is safely grounded.

How much more important is it for us to be willing to set aside our own preconceptions, experience and prejudices - the sight of our eyes and the hearing of our ears - in order to be filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding.

TG - Mortality 3 / Deuteronomy 4:40

 40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.


The link to mortality here is the phrase "prolong thy days."  The context is the Deuteronomic recapitulation of Israel's covenant relationship with God.  I find I'm not all that interested in scriptural methods of prolonging the lifespan - and, in reality, the individual lifespan was never the point here anyway.  Given the fuller context of the Deuteronomic concern with the nation as a whole, we are actually talking about the abiding of the nation upon the land (see verse 26). 


What is interesting, however, is the phrase that "it may go well with thee."  There is throughout the entire Old Testament a subtext of a promise of temporal blessings (by which I do not necessarily mean either wealth or honor or power)  during the mortal lives of those who made and kept covenants with God.  Solomon was promised that if he respected his covenant as a member of Israel he would "prosper" in all that he did (1 Kings 2:3).  Psalms 1:1-3 promises the same to anyone who would so live -  "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."  Concrete examples of this were found in the lives of the Patriarchs - especially Joseph of Egypt, of whom it was said that "the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper."


Again, the key here is not so much "success" from a worldly perspective.  Joseph's career included long periods of time as a slave and a prisoner.  The key is found in two things.  First, the presence of the Lord in your life - even as a slave and a prisoner "the Lord was with him."  Second, even amongst trials and seeming setbacks and triumphs of enemies, the knowledge that there is an overarching pattern and meaning to your life.  God is doing something here and it will all rebound to your own good and - even more significantly in the long term - to your being a blessing to others.  As Joseph told his brothers at his final voicing of his forgiveness, "ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good."  Interesting that when he tells them the good that the Lord meant he is not referring to his own status or wealth but to the opportunity given him to "save much people alive" (Genesis 50:20).


The key to a successful mortality is to so live that God is with you.  This involves the creation and maintenance of a covenant relationship with him.  To begin focusing in again on the chapter we began with, the important thing is to remember that covenant.  The whole point of Deuteronomy is Moses's plea - "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons" (Deuteronomy 4:9). 


Important to note that we are not talking about some kind of legalistic perfection here.  Backsliding and forgetting are perhaps inevitable for all of us.  But when we come to ourselves again and remember, we will find that the Lord has not forgotten or forsaken us.  We have but to seek him again with all our heart and soul, turn to him and be obedient to his voice (Deuteronomy 4:29-31) and the covenant is restored anew.  It is the relationship that God is concerned with.  It all begins and ends with relationship.