This section is the only section of the Doctrine & Covenants which is addressed to a woman. As I listened to my podcasts about it this week most of them talked about how wonderful that Emma is called an "Elect Lady" (v 3) and how she is ordained to "expound scriptures and exhort the church according as it shall be given thee by the Spirit." (v.7). They talked about how wonderful it was that Emma was given the task of creating a hymn book (v.11).
These things are all true, but I also know of a lot of women who would find this revelation to Emma as condescending. She is called to be a "comfort unto my servant Joseph Smith Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in a spirit of meekness." (v. 5) She is told to "Continue in the spirit of meekness, and beware of pride. Let thy soul delight in they husband, and the glory which shall come upon him." (14). They might point out that the man in this instance is setting up a whole church and community, and Emma, who is better educated and very intelligent, is only asked to assemble a hymnbook.
I can understand this point of view. In the modern world women have the opportunity to lead and make big things happen in the world. Emma ended up giving up so much to be Joseph's wife. Her family's financial situation was much better than the Smith's family. She was much better educated than Joseph and was already running her own cottage industry raising chickens and selling eggs. For years after she married Joseph she never had her own home, and was often left alone to fend for herself and her children as Joseph fulfilled his church duties, or spent time incarcerated because of his religion. Later she faced feelings of betrayal and resentments as Joseph started to practice plural marriage.
All the podcasters I listen too had nothing but praise for Emma but showed regret that after her husband's death she didn't follow the saints, but stayed back in Nauvoo, remarried, and gave consent for her son to head a new church patterned after the one Joseph started.
What I was thinking all week was how can we judge Emma for her decision to basically leave the church and stay in Nauvoo? Is it not possible that in doing so she was following inspiration? One of the reasons she stayed was to take care of Lucy Mack Smith who was too old to travel west. What if God wanted the prophet's mother to be taken care of and inspired Emma to stay. Later Emma married a man who was a drunkard. The man had a child with another woman while they were married, and Emma took the child into her home and raised her. We don't know the ways of God. Maybe the Lord knew the man would engender the child, and knew Emma was just the kind of woman who would be willing to take care of the child regardless. Is it not possible that that mission was more important to the Lord than anything Emma might have done if she had gone west?
The answer is, of course, we don't know. We don't know if Emma acted by inspiration at any particular point in her life, or not. We do know that sometimes God inspires people to do things that don't make sense at the time, or that may even seem wrong to the outside observer. We just don't know and we just shouldn't judge.
In the same way we cannot judge the Lord's revelation to Emma. It may sound like he was undervaluing her potential contribution to burgeoning church, but it is more likely, that with all the other things she had to contend with at that time, creating a hymn book was about as much as she could handle. Maybe instead of undervaluing Emma the Lord was protecting and supporting her. We just don't know what was really going on in Emma's heart at the time and we should refrain from judging.