The Woman in the Wilderness from Revelation 12

 Several of the podcasters I listened to this week referred the story of the woman who is cast into the wilderness in Revelation 12. I am not sure why.  Maybe there are some key words in this chapter that refer back to the passage in Revelation, but if so, they aren't super obvious to me. More than one commentator talked about it, so there must be something there.

In that story the woman is about to give birth (Revelation 12:2) but as soon as her child is born it is taken up to heaven. Then the woman flees into the wilderness (v. 6) where is she protected while the dragon fights against Michael and his hosts. Once the war is over the dragon his hurled to earth. He then pursues the woman, but she is miraculously saved and preserved (v. 15). Then when the dark ages are over, she is brought out of the desert and enthroned with the Lamb (21:9). The podcasters compared this to the apostacy and restoration.  The true church is the woman, who, after Jesus is taken into heaven, has to flee and hide because of persecution.  This leads to apostacy which is represented by the desert. The restoration is when the church is restored by Joseph Smith and takes its place as God's true church. I think that is a good interpretation of this scripture, but I think the image doesn't just have one interpretation. 

I tried to think up all the times this pattern was reenacted.  To be clear, this is the pattern

1. a start-up group of people bring forth something great but then immediately has to flee into the wilderness for safety.
2. While in the wilderness they are protected and nurtured.
3. When they are strong enough, they emerge from hiding.  
4. They are then ready to take their place next to God. 

The first place this happens is when the children of Israel, while still a small group, produce the Abrahamic covenant and religion, but within a few generations descend into Egypt so they won't die due to a famine.  There in the wilderness, although enslaved, they grow into a mighty nation. When they get strong enough they are lead out of Egypt into the Promised Land. They eventually conquer the people of the Promised Land establishing Jehovah worship at the temple as the dominant culture. 

Most Christian religions see the woman figure as Mary, who watches over the church between the time of Jesus' death until his return. It is she who will join Jesus on the throne at his second coming.

It happens again with the Latter-Day Saints. While small, the church produces the Book of Mormon and establishes a church.  It is then driven out of the USA and hides in the desert of Deseret, protected and safe from the Civil War.  In recent decades we have seen it then emerge from obscurity to become a major force for good in the world. 

This further confirms what I wrote in my last blog.  It really was essential for the continued success of the church to leave civilization and set up camp in Utah.  The whole Doctrine and Covenants document key events in that process. There they were able to grow in both size and cultural identity until now, we have gone to almost all the world, trying to bring people back to Christ.

I am curious if there are other instances of this pattern.  It feels like an archetype--like the wilderness journey, and the hero's journey--to me.  I will have to keep my eye open for it. 

The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

 It is now January and in Come Follow Me we are starting the study of church history and the Doctrine and Covenants.  I must admit it is my least favorite year in the four year cycle of study.  I think that the last time we studied it I began to understand it better and reconcile myself to what it is and what it isn't. 

The hardest thing about the Doctrine and Covenants is that so often the Lord tells people that they should do something, and then a few chapters later he says, "because you were wicked you no longer get to do that thing.  Instead do this thing."  It is hard to feel like the Lord isn't deceiving the Saints in these instances. This is most obvious concerning the establishment of Zion. The Lord tells the people they will establish Zion in Missouri, but it ends up that they hardly spend any time in Missouri at all. Then they go to Nauvoo, and build the temple, only to have to leave it soon after it is completed. 

I have partially reconciled myself about this with the idea that God knew the end from the beginning.  He knew that he needed to get his people from New York, to Kirtland, to Missouri, and then to Illinois.  He new that he then needed to somehow get them to cross the Great Plains and end up in a fairly desolate desert in Utah where they could finally grow and flourish.  For God it was about like herding cats. The Saints would have not been prepared to move to Utah when they were in Kirkland, either emotionally or temporally. They needed the time and the motivation to want to follow the church here and there and finally clear out of the country so that they could have the protection of the vast frontier before the Civil War broke loose. God knew this, but he couldn't tell them straight forwardly, because they weren't ready to accept it. So he herded the cats from one place to another until they were ready to be swept out the back door into the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

Since I had this realization I have been able to see God working in my life in a similar way.  I feel directed to do something that then doesn't work out.  I didn't realize that direction wasn't to an end, but just to the next point in the map on the road to where I really needed to go. When I am feeling emotionally strong, I can tell myself that God knows what he is doing with my life, and I can just trust him. When I am more vulnerable I worry and cry and plead with the Lord on my knees in the middle of the night. I think, however, the trust periods are getting longer, they really are, and the cry-in-the-middle-of-the-night events... well... that still happens pretty often (:-). I guess I have a way to go.

Moroni

 This week we finish off the Book of Mormon with Moroni 10. Here are some insights about the prophet Moroni I have gleaned over the last three weeks of study.

Moroni is a sad and solitary character.  If you follow the time stamps in the Book of Mormon it seems that Moroni lived alone for three decades after the final Cumorah battle.  He was constantly on the run, hiding from the Lamanites who wanted his blood. It is remarkable that in the end he dedicates his book for the benefit of the the very people who killed his own family and nation. I also find it touching and suitable that he was chosen to reveal the plates to Joseph Smith.  At the end of the Book of Mormon we see Moroni placing the plates in the earth and then, at the beginning of the Doctrine and Covenants, we see Moroni instructing Joseph Smith to retrieve them and translate them.  

I often listen to the Church News Podcast, and at the end of each episode, the host asks his/her guest, "What do you know now?"  So, I ask myself, after reading and studying the Book of Mormon again this year, what do I know now that I didn't know at the beginning of the year?  Most of my insights this year came from the different podcasters I listen to.  Jack Welsh and Lynn Wilson were constantly showing how the writing in the Book of Mormon fits into the tradition of ancient Israelitish texts. They pointed out how many times the Book of Mormon uses chiasmus, and how often important terms or ideas are repeated seven times within the text, (a significant number in Jewish theology).  Bryce Dunford from Talking Scripture never missed a chance to point out temple imagery in the Book of Mormon.  It really helped me understand what temple imagery is and why modern prophets have been emphasizing temple worship so much in the last 10 years. Finally, this year I have benefited more than in previous studies of the Book of Mormon by applying teaching from the book in my personal life.  I have seen the stories  as symbolic of universal human experience and God's guidance in those stories as direction for the world in how to handle universal challenges. I have also had stories come up right at the time when I, personally, needed the messages that story taught.

I am genuinely sad to be ending this year of studying this book.  I admit that I do not face studying the Doctrine and Covenant with as much anticipation as other of the standard works. Still, who knows,  maybe this will be my best Doctrine and Covenants year ever.

Ether

I was out of town and missed a couple of weeks so I am combining a bunch of thoughts about the Book of Either into one post.  

The Book of Ether is a short account of a group of people who came to the Americas more than a 1000 years before the Nephite exodus from Jerusalem.  The first part is in the form of an epic origin narrative, and there is a cursory account of the various rulers of the people, and then it ends with an epic destruction narrative. The whole story mirrors in miniature the account of the Nephite people. Here are a few things I found interesting in the story. 

The Brother of Jared was the religious leader at the beginning of the story. His actual name is never mentioned, but one of the podcasters noted that if you are writing in a pictorial language, like ancient Egyptian, (not that it says it was written in that language, but many ancient languages started out as pictorial) it is a lot easier to use a common idea, like "brother" than to come up with a sign that represents the phonetic recreation of someone's name. This is because each picture represents either a word, or a syllable. Common words have their own symbol, but an unfamiliar word, like a name, would be represented by symbols of words that sound like the syllables of the name. For example, if the language required that there be a picture letter for each syllable of Mohonri Moriacumer, it would have needed to use eight symbols each time the name was mentioned.  But if the language already had an accepted symbol for brother, then writing, "The Brother of Jared" would only take three symbols. 

The experience of the Brother of Jared seeing the finger of God is very much a temple experience. It resembles more the ancient temple experience than the modern one, but all three have the key element of being allowed to move through the veil to enter the presence of the Lord.  There is a good "Know Why" by Scripture Central about the imagery.

Even though this is an "epic" narrative, and is not trying to be historically accurate, there are ways that ancient peoples could have crossed into the Americas using boats.  It is unlikely that they would have been able to do it in one go, like is suggested by the text, because they would not have been able to store enough water and food, and deal with refuse from the animals and people, if they really did spend almost a year in the boat without reaching land.  It is not, however, impossible that they could have used boats to move in increments along the coast to get to the Americas.  I watched a PBS video that suggested that the first peoples to enter the Americas did come by boat, moving in stages from Asia to Alaska to Washington etc, camping on the beach along the way, rather than by walking across the frozen Bering Strait. 

The most impactful thing about the Book of Ether for me this month has been the metaphor of God sending someone on a difficult and uncomfortable journey to get them to a better place.  God wanted to give the people of Jared a promised land, but he knew they could only get there by making a frightening and uncomfortable journey.  Because they had faith, the people were willing to undertake the journey in hopes of receiving God's blessing.  In return, God gave the people what they needed to make the journey safely and even gave them whatever comfort he could to make the journey less arduous (e.g. the lighted stones in their vessels, and the strong wind that blew them across the sea more quickly). But he didn't remove the necessity of making the journey.  They had to make the journey to get where they needed to be.  Life is sometimes like that.  We have to go through the hard dark times for God to get us to where we need to be.  It takes faith not to back away from the hard stuff, but if we do have faith, and call on God for help, he gives us what we need to get through the journey. 

About Mormon

This week we start the Book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon. In it we learn of the utter destruction of the Nephites.  I think Mormon is the most tragic figure in all scripture.  I don't know how a man could endure what he endured and not be utterly crushed.  We actually don't know that much about his life.  He gives us the barest of outlines, and we are left to speculate on the rest.  Here are some speculations based on hints in the text. 

Mormon was only ten when Ammaron came to him and asked him to keep a record of what he saw. I hope someday to have a full account of how that all happened.  Why would Ammaron choose Mormon?  Was he a relative? Was he a student of Ammaron? I think we can deduct from the text that Mormon came from a prominent family.  He states that he "began to be learned somewhat after the manner of the learning of my people." (Mormon 1:2). In most ancient agrarian cultures, education and literacy are only available to the upper classes. It also seems that he was unusually intelligent. Why else would Ammaron single him out for such an important task at such a young age. 

Then at the tender age of 15 he was"visited of the Lord" (1:15).  Again, why so young? Of course there is precedence. David was probably about that same age when he killed Goliath, (see this link for justification for that assertion). Samuel was a boy of 12 when he heard the voice of the Lord (1 Sam 3). Later, Joseph Smith had his First Vision at age 14. The Lord is willing to call young people  into service as soon as they are willing and able.

Soon after his vision he became a military leader (Mormon 2:1). He modestly states he got the job because he was "large of stature" (ibid) but there must have been something else going on there. Some of the podcasters this week (Jack Welsh, and Lynn Wilson were two) suggested that he was likely the son of the previous commander, and that the position was hereditary.  That is how Alexander the Great came to lead his army at age 18. The text suggests that he had an academic education, but did he also understand warfare and strategy?  Apparently the Nephites thought he did. That fact that he was trained as a military leader and given an academic education further supports the idea that he was some kind of aristocracy, being raised to rule. 

So, he is the leader of the army and even though the people were wicked, under his leadership they had some success. During that time we presume he started reading the plates.  One should remember that when he was initially called at ten, he wasn't appointed to abridge the plates of Nephi, just to add an account of the things he saw in his day.  Perhaps his call to abridge the plates came when he was visited of the Lord at age 15.  He doesn't say.  We do get a sense that he has read the plates, or at least part of them, by the 46th year because he encourages his people with almost the exact speech Captain Moroni used, "for their wives, and their children, and their houses, and their homes." (2:23). 

Because of his inspired leadership, He was able to make a treaty with the Lamanites and had ten years of peace. (2:28) We know he preached to the people during this time and made military preparations (3:1), but I think we can also presume this is when he started his abridgment. There was also a time when he refused to lead the Nephites because of their wickedness. He most likely worked on the abridgment then as well.  Once he goes back to being a military leader, he moves the plates to protect them from the Lamanites (3:9).  After that he would not likely have had time to work on them as it is just war and preparations for war, at the end of which he gives the plates over to his son. 

There is a theme in the Book of Mormon that if you are righteous you will prosper in the land.  The text helps us understand that this is a promise made to groups, on individuals.  Mormon had a lifetime (perhaps 75 years) of life during which there where only short snippets of time that he prospered as an individual. He strove, suffered, grieved and died.  He had the satisfaction of knowing that his son Moroni was righteous and outlived him.  He had the hope that his great work, the abridgement of the history of his people, would someday come forth and bless Israelites and Gentiles alike, but his life was rough, by any standard.  He saw the death of almost all of his friends, and all of his people, men, women and children.  Almost worse, he saw them sink into vicious wickedness and open rebellion against God.  Sometimes it is terrifying that God can ask so much of some people.  We just have to have faith that Mormon's ultimate reward will compensate him for all he went through. 

Jesus' Second Intercessory Prayer

One of the podcasters (Jared  Halverson) compared Jesus' prayer in 3 Nephi 19, to the account of the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26.  In both cases Jesus went a little way off and prayed (Matthew 26:39, 3 Nephi 19:19).  In both cases three times he comes back to check on his followers, then returned to praying. Brother Halverson compares the sleeping apostles in Matthew, to the receptive and attentive disciples of 3 Nephi 19.  

As I read 3 Nephi 19 it reminded me more the the "great intercessory prayer" recorded in John 17. In John 17 the Gospel writer records a prayer that Jesus gives right before going to the Garden.  It is often called the "Great Intercessory Prayer."  They have a lot of phrases and ideas in common.  Here is a list of some.

Jesus prays for those God has given him (3 Nephi 19:20, John 17:6)

Jesus prays for the ones who will believe on their word (3 Nephi 19:23, John 17:20)

Jesus prays for oneness among his disciples (3 Nephi, 19:23, John 17:22)

Jesus prays they may be purified/perfect (3 Nephi 19:29, John 17:23)

The heart-warming thing about comparing these two prayers is that when Jesus prayed in Jerusalem, his disciples didn't really understand.  He gave and showed the Jerusalem saints all that he could, but they were not ready to receive aa fullness. When he came to the Americas, the people who were at the temple at Bountiful were spiritually ready to receive him.  They didn't fall asleep, as the apostles did in Jerusalem. They instead prayed and were purified and shone like Jesus.  As a result, instead of being filled with sorrow, Jesus "did smile upon them" (v. 30).  It was a great experience for both the people at the temple, and for Jesus himself.

Sermon at the Temple

 In this week's chapters, Jesus teaches the people of Bountiful a version of the Sermon on the Mount.  Two of the podcasters I listened to talked about how this sermon can be seen as a temple ordinance.  In modern temple ordinances the participant beholds the creation of the world, the fall, and then progresses through the Telestial and Terrestrial to the Celestial glory where they are admitted into the presence of the Lord. I believe they have convinced me that that is what is happening here. 

The destructions that occur at the time of Jesus' death represent a kind of anti-creation.  Earth is returning to the unordered state it was in in the beginning of the creation. It is becoming "tohu va-vohu" without shape and void (Gen 1:2)  Cities are burned, buried, or drown.  Smooth ground is broken up, and darkness hangs over everything.  Then after the destruction, they hear the voice of the Lord through the darkness, just as in Gen 1:3.  

The time before the destructions represent the Telestial existence.  People, lead by the Gadianton Robbers, were breaking all of the 10 commandments; lying, murdering, steeling, etc. Even government had broken down (3 Nephi 7) and people willfully rebelled against God.  The destructions purify the people of the more wicked elements, and what we have left are the terrestrial people. They were spared because "ye were more righteous than they" (3 Nephi 9:13) but they still have a way to go, since Jesus completes the verse, "will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?"

How are they to do it?  What do they need to do to repent?  The answer comes in the Sermon at the Temple, 3 Nephi 12-15.  They are given the Beatitudes, and then a section of  "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time... but I say unto you..." and other sayings that are intended to move them from the Terrestrial to a Celestial frame of thought. 

After the sermon, Jesus is about to let them go home and rest, but they beg him to stay, so he goes around healing people. He also gives the 12 Disciples the Melchizedek priesthood.  All of these have modern temple analogs. 

It is not the most obvious correlation, and might be a bit of a stretch, but if we think of the temple ceremony as a symbolic progression from the Telestial to the Celestial, I think we can make an interesting case. Thanks to Jack Welsh and Bryce Dunford for talking about this idea on their podcasts this week.