The Lord's Perspective

I recently started studying the Book of Mormon from the beginning again, and I just finished the part where Lehi and Nephi each had their vision of the Tree of Life, and I’ve been pondering on the very different ways that Nephi and Laman and Lemuel responded to the words of their father Lehi, the prophet, about the vision he had. 

When Nephi hears his father's account of his vision, his reaction is to immediately go to the Lord in prayer and ask to receive his own personal witness of the things that his father saw and shared. As a result, he received his own vision of the Tree of Life and an explanation of the meaning of the different things which Lehi saw in his vision and gained his own personal testimony and understanding of the prophet Lehi’s words. 

Laman and Lemuel, on the other hand, upon hearing the words of their father, the prophet, did not go to the Lord in prayer for understanding and their own personal witness of the truth of his words, but instead began “disputing one with another concerning the things [their] father had spoken unto them” (1 Nephi 15:2).

Nephi explains that Lehi “truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord…” (1 Nephi 15:3)

This is often true of the words of the Lord and His servants. As Jesus explain to Pilate in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and as He says in the Old Testament in Isaiah 55:8-9, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The Lord sees everything from an eternal perspective, while we see things from a finite, mortal, worldly perspective. It makes sense that in order to understand the words of the Lord, we must turn to Him and get help from the Holy Ghost to see and understand things from His greater eternal perspective.

When Nephi approaches his brothers and asks what they are disputing about, and they explain the words their father spoke that they did not understand, the very first thing Nephi says in response to their questions is, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?” (1 Nephi 15:8)

Laman and Lemuel’s response is, “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us” (1 Nephi 15:9).

Nephi reminds his brothers of the promise of the Lord: “If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you” (1 Nephi 15:11).

Nephi is teaching his brothers that other weak, fallible mortals are not the people they should be going to for greater understanding of the words of the Lord or His prophets; they should be going to the Lord Himself, the source of all knowledge and truth.

There seems to be a growing trend in society that when our modern day prophet and apostles say something that “is hard to be understood,” like the words that Lehi spoke to his family after receiving revelation from the Lord, people’s first reaction is to jump on Facebook and dispute one with another about the words of the Brethren like Laman and Lemuel rather than turn to the Lord in prayer for personal confirmation and understanding like Nephi.

As Nephi explains to Laman and Lemuel, disputations with other people about the Lord’s or His servants’ words is not an effective way of arriving at truth. You must personally go to the Lord Himself and ask with a sincere heart and real intent, with faith that He will answer you and with a willing heart to act on the answer you receive, whatever it is.

I think one of the biggest things that I have noticed that trip people up in following the Lord and His servants is that they have a bigger testimony of certain social agendas that are important to them than they do of the Lord’s prophet and apostles and their calling as prophets, seers, and revelators. They are convinced that their social agenda is equally as important to the Lord as it is to them and that the Lord has the same opinions as they do about the best way to bring it about. Therefore, if the words or actions of the prophet and apostles do not seem to further the cause of their social agenda(s), they have a difficult time believing that those words or decisions could possibly have come from the Lord, who obviously wants social justice just as much as they do and has that as His top priority in everything He does.

I think there is a false belief here that is the cause of so much of the confusion and dissent among members of Christ’s Church. Is social justice important to God? Of course it is. Would God prefer that all His children treat one another with kindness, respect and love and see each other as equally important in His eyes? Of course He would. Is it good for us to strive for greater social justice in our society? Of course it is. However, even though God loves all of His children equally and believes in social justice, I do not think that social justice is His top priority. 

Think of Christ’s mortal ministry. The Jews were convinced that when the Messiah came His top priority would be the same as theirs: to free them from Roman rule. But that was not what Christ did when He came, which is why so many of the Jews had trouble recognizing Him. Christ’s top priority was not their social agenda of being freed from Roman rule. His top priority was something with much greater eternal significance than any social injustices His people were experiencing in mortality. His top priority was, and still is, the eternal salvation of God’s children, and that can be achieved whether or not God’s children experience social injustices during their time on earth. 

We have power to hurt one another during our time here in mortality, but our power to truly harm one another in any way that is eternally significant is actually incredibly limited. We can enslave each other, discriminate against others for one reason or another, do physical harm to one another, say hurtful words to each other, but we have no power over how others choose to respond to our treatment of them. We cannot stop them from continuing to make good choices about how they treat those around them, from finding peace by forgiving us for our harsh treatment of them, from turning to the Lord for love and healing that transcends any amount of harm we could possibly do to them, from choosing to keep commandments and follow the Lord’s will for them in their lives and gain eternal salvation. No matter what we do, other people and the choices that will affect their eternal salvation are out of our reach. We have the power to make others’ journey through mortality more or less pleasant, to help or hinder them on their path to eternal salvation, but ultimately we cannot stop them from turning to the Lord for the love, healing, knowledge and strength necessary to achieve their eternal goal and reach their divine potential, if that is their true desire.

Indeed, challenging circumstances in mortality are often what lead people to humble themselves and turn to the Lord for help when they have nowhere else to turn. When others are cruel to them or do not meet their needs, they learn to rely on the Lord’s love and strength instead of trying to rely on other imperfect people who will always end up letting them down in one way or another. By humbling ourselves and turning to the Lord in our distress and committing to follow His will for us, we are able to feel a peace that transcends the horror of even the very worst of mortal circumstances.

So, while it is good and right for us to treat others the way Christ would and for society to encourage and give everyone the opportunity to achieve their greatest potential during their mortal life, what is most important to the Lord is that His children achieve their greatest eternal potential, and that can only be accomplished if they know the truth of who God is and of the plan He has prepared for them to gain salvation. It is the primary responsibility of the Lord’s servants to teach these truths that are most important for the eternal progress of God’s children. 

When we do our best to act in accordance with God’s laws and use the power of the atonement in our lives, we can continue to learn and grow and progress on our path to eternal life, irrespective of how others are trying to oppress us or limit our potential in this world. We can find peace and joy and a testimony of our eternal and divine worth as we apply God’s teachings in our lives and grow closer to Him. No one has the power to take that away from us when we have a true understanding of who God is and who we are as His children and of the ordinances and other tools God has put in place to allow us to unlock the powers of heaven in our individual lives. 

Without sufficient knowledge of God, His eternal plan for us, and how to access His love and power in our lives, however, we are much more likely to allow the difficulties of this mortal life to lead us to despair rather than to learning and growth. That’s why God places knowledge of eternal truths and of His plan of salvation for His children as His top priority. Rather than trying to achieve a heaven-like existence for His children in mortality, He uses the inequalities and other challenges of mortal life to refine and teach His children the lessons they must learn to qualify for life with Him in heaven after this mortal existence. This refining process includes a lot of lessons on compassion, patience, and forgiveness towards those who treat us poorly in mortality as they also struggle to learn to become more like Christ, achieve their divine potential, and qualify for heaven. We can't control how other people treat us, but we can control how we respond, and that is the true test of mortality and of the people we are becoming as we learn to rely on the Lord and His great love and wisdom.

Back to the story of Nephi and his brothers in 1 Nephi chapter 15. After first teaching his brothers the importance of turning to the Lord when they have questions, Nephi proceeds to address some of his brothers’ confusion about the meaning of their father’s vision using the knowledge he gained from the Lord during his own vision. 

The question that Nephi gets the most passionate about when teaching his brothers is when they ask what the rod of iron that led to the Tree of Life represented. Nephi explains that the rod of iron in the vision “was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction” (1 Nephi 15:24). After Nephi explains this, he then begins to exhort his brethren “with all the energies of [his] soul, and with all the faculty which [he] possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things” (1 Nephi 15:25).

Nephi knows that it is by continually  hearkening to and applying the word of God in our lives that we will be protected from Satan and his temptations and lies that can blind us and lead us to destruction. That is why it is so important to study the word of God in the scriptures, listen to the words given to Christ’s current prophet and apostles to speak, and seek the Lord in prayer to understand these words and how He would like us to apply them in each of our individual lives. If we hold fast to God’s words and keep the commandments He has revealed to His prophets, both anciently and in our day, we will be supported in all the trials and suffering of this mortal life, feel God’s immense love for us and the peace and healing only He can give, and be brought safely home to live with Him again after this life. Eternal life is God’s most important goal for us, and it should be our top priority as well, and hearkening to and seeking to understand the words of God and His eternal plan and perspective are what will help us achieve this primary purpose of mortality. I share these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.