Transcript for Mosiah 4-6 Part 1 • Dr. Aaron Schade • April 29 - May 5 • Come Follow Me

These are some of the greatest chapters because they challenge us to become something. As we look at this second part of a sermon that was given, the overall experience was so powerful that it resulted in three years of peace. Can't even imagine the power of that type of sermon that changed so many lives took a people that had experienced some really difficult times and brought them into a full communion with God. And for me, that's one of the gems of these chapters is the ability to overcome difficult circumstances and situations and really feel in the presence of God.

Thanks for having me on.

I think so because by the time we start this chapter, the first thing we hear is in chapter 4 verse 1, we have a message that's been delivered unto King Benjamin by an angel of the Lord and it says that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude and behold they had fallen to the earth for the fear of the Lord to come upon them. At that point, you're starting to ask questions, what just happened here? What was the cause that resulted? What did the angels say? We do need to go back and take a look at a couple of things. And first of all, and approach to what were the circumstances leading up to the Book of Mosiah in King Benjamin, and then as well as what happened in chapters one through three that got us to this point to where all of a sudden we've got people on the ground with the fear of the Lord. because of a message of an angel, we do need to go back and take a look at the back stories. Neil A. Maxwell said, what a powerful experience it must have been to hear King Benjamin preach personally. And then he said, especially while sitting in one's family circle in a tent facing the temple. Just to think about what's happening. And I think to go back and sort of put that into perspective of what it is that's happening, the sacrifices that are being offered, what that all represented, that changed these people's lives forever. Because, Elder Max will said, we can hear him now. We can hear this sermon now. And if we read him reverently, the intervening century soon melt away. and his earnestness emerges. This is example combines with the powerful words about discipleship. If you've heard the song of redeeming love and rejoiced over it, can you hear so now? Then I think that's part of the message of these chapters is as will our lives be changed in similar fashion.

Let's go back to Omni because it's there that we're introduced to King Benjamin, and we learned some crucial pieces of information about his life. We learned that in the context of passing the plates down, this is something that becomes really crucial in these chapters is how significant the records that contain the word of God were. and the efforts that were taken to make sure that those were preserved. We encounter King Benjamin back in Omni, chapter 1, in verse 23, and it's talking about a Malachi that he had seen and lived to see the death of Benjamin's father. And he said that Benjamin rained in his stead. And then we get to verse 24. We start to hear something that is really crucial for us to read the book of Mosiah, these chapters 1 through 6. because it says, and behold, I have seen this is verse 24, in the days of King Benjamin, a serious war, and much bloodshed between the Nephites and the Laminites. But behold, the Nephites did obtain much advantage over them, and so much that King Benjamin did drive them out of the land of Sarah Hemlock. I just want to stop for a second and pose that question. How does this change the way we read? King Benjamin's sermon knowing that they're just on the heels of coming out of a terrible conflict and war. How might that affect the way that we approach the chapters?

Yeah, appreciate both of your comments because we're thinking about a people that are in an emotional state of pain. They probably suffered loss. They're probably trying to cope with the aftermath of what this was like. In fact, I know you've talked about inclusions and inclusions in some of your past episodes. If you notice that in between some of these, a lot of the inclusions include that there was contention in the land followed by there was no more contention in the land. We see that in Omnye we see it in words of Mormon when we look at verses 13 through 18. It talks about and there was contention and then there was no more contention in the land but peace. When we look at the first verse of Mosiah chapter 1, it talks about King Benjamin had continual peace in the land. There was no more contention and in fact chapter 6 ends the very same way. There was no more contention and they had peace in the land. There's something about these that this book is trying to get us to understand how to find peace in adversity. And this masterful sermon, these experiences at the temple are going to be what become life-changing for these individuals and the experiences that they have.

Yeah, as the book of Omni continues, it brings in something else that's really significant in this equation. And again, that's the value of the plates. I find this absolutely fascinating. And on my 125, we learn that King Benjamin obtains the plates. We learn that he's going to receive them. And it says these plates deliver up these plates unto him, exhorting all men to come unto God. the holy one of Israel, and to believe in prophesying and revelations and in the ministering of angels. So all this stuff that Benjamin is going to experience, all of these sermons that he's going to deliver to people that change their lives that we pick up within chapter four, words of an angel. It's an invitation to believe in the divine, to believe in the power of revelation. And it's for everyone. There's no exclusions here. And we see that I think is an important component of the book of Mormon. This book is inclusive. And I know that sometimes we can get into a reading where we look at certain passages and say, well, this is excluding certain groups of people based on skin color or it's excluding certain people based on things other than behavior. And I don't think that was the original intent of the authors here. And I believe the book when it says that all are alike and to God, that that's a crucial message of all of this because the whole power of the Book of Mormon are story after story after story of inclusion of bringing people into a covenant that was designed to bring all people peace and happiness. Again, I think that sometimes we can get caught in this malaise of trying to impose something on the text that wasn't there originally. I hope that we get to a point where we start looking at this for the way it was originally written and that was to bind communities together to bring people together to offer relief to the suffering. if we keep sort of imposing a reading on it that says that there's parts of the Book of Mormon about discrimination. It's not the original intent. I've actually never met anybody personally that studies the ancient context of the cane story or the ham story or these stories where we claim sometimes that there's a discrimination factor here or a misogyny. That wasn't the intent. You can't come to that conclusion when you've approached it from the ancient perspective. I truly embrace the church when it says that we disavow any interpretations that have arisen over the years that are based on scripture that resulted in discrimination. And yes, there's no question that that's been a part of both within and without the church. But I hope there comes a day when all are like in the God, but all are like into us. and we allow the scriptures to sort of speak that message for itself and take it out of its word. Because again, this is an invitation now for everyone to come and embrace this and partake of the salvation and the power of redemption and offer your whole souls to God. And this is an important part. If I think this bridge that's starting to be created between King Benjamin's earlier days of war and contention, where he then has to go back and try and heal a wounded community through the Word of God.

In verse 26, it talks about Continue in fasting and prayer and endure to the end. We're going to learn. and words of Mormon that this again is a bridge. Part of what I'm hoping that we'll accomplish here in the next few minutes is that we see the importance of these plates. We look at the correlation between the plates and how they interact over time and they're taking great care to make sure that those are conveyed from generation to generation. So we start looking at the bigger picture. We see that this was always a preoccupation even into the present day. We look at Mozaya 8 and it talks about the 24 plates that were brought back to Mozaya and that they need to translate. So they're trying to figure out these ancient scriptures. And we learn about this through some significant exchanges and words of Mormon are going to be this bridge where Mormon is going to come along with all of these. He's going to take these books from Nephi all the way up to Omni, and he's going to add this adendum that is a bridge connecting the historical narratives that are found within the early books of the Book of Mormon. Why so much effort to do this, to tie in these stories, to make sure that these plates are offering us something that has been official to us? You start looking a little deeper at words of Mormon. So there's a verse in here that really catches my eye and maybe we could read this words of Mormon one seven.

Thank you. Hank, I know you just had this conversation with Garrett, so maybe you could give us a little background of why that verse becomes so significant in the future.

Isn't that amazing? Because even all the way this far back in time, God is aware of how significant His Word is going to be and He's already influencing individuals in the past to take precautions to make sure that when the time comes, these words are preserved for another generation. With the bridge now that words of Mormon are providing for us, we see now that all is not lost in this equation, that there has been a provision made. To me, that's just an amazing part of the story as we're going through because, again, words of Mormon explain all of these contentions in verse 12. We learn that King Benjamin is fighting with his own strength, with the sort of labor. These are tough times that they're coming out of. I guess to kind of exacerbate that problem, the next few verses talk about on the heels of war that there's also false Christs, false teachers, false preachers. This is a society that's getting beaten up. They're experiencing things. that are really hard to describe, verse 16 then talks about after they're having been much contention and many dissentions, a wave to the laymenites, people are leaving. These are family members, these are ants, these are uncles, these are children, these are fathers, mothers, people are leaving. You get the impression that this is a destitute time and it talks about how Benjamin was a holy man. There were many holy men and they spoke with power and authority and with the help of these king Benjamin by laboring with all his might and his body and the faculty of his whole soul. Like this was everything he had to give that they did once again establish peace and the land. This was no easy task to get us to where we start in the book of Mosiah. Section 10 in the doctorate and covenants talks about this process of making sure that provisions are taken to preserve the plates and the word that's on them that are going to be lost. It's interesting if you go to the Joseph Smith papers and look up some of their footnotes talks about the Book of Mormon Nephite dissenters periodically break away and join the Laminites and again we're kind of seeing it here. In the purpose of the book one of the funnest things if you ever want a good read go back and look at the initial data category prayer for the Mesa Arizona Temple. and how significant the lame nights are in that equation and how it's going to be a part of bringing them into the covenant. There's this preoccupation. This is about everybody. It's not about one group. It's not about another. It's about anyone. And I actually see the Gentile chapters of Isaiah that that's how the Lord is using those chapters in the Book of Mormon. Those are some of the earliest chapters we get is when they first land in a new place. We've got individuals in the Nephi party that are like, what do we do now? How do we interact with these other populations and how do we maintain our identity? But also bring them into a covenant that has brought us much joy through our adversity. We see this now, this story opening up. And of course, if we spring forward, I guess forward in chronology of the book of Mormon, but also in time with Moroni, when we start looking at the book of ether, it also specifically says there are neither three and chapter four and verse one. It talks about for this cause that King Benjamin keep them, that they should not come to the world until after Christ should show himself into the people. It looks at the forethought that God is having about how we have to preserve this word on these plates that becomes a significant part of the equation leading us into these commissions that Benjamin receives from its predecessor and owner of the plates that just says you need to come into Christ and leave in the revelations and receive that piece that comes through that process.

And that really is significant because we remember our biblical history with the coronation of Solomon instead of Adonia. That was a rough bumpy process and it almost split the kingdom. This is a coronation scene as we get now to Mozaya chapter one and two that Mozaya is going to declare his son Benjamin as the legitimate king. He's trying to avoid any contentions that could arise. And it becomes a sacred setting because they're trying to portray Benjamin is not only a leader that you can trust because of his faithfulness, of his desire not to put burdens on them, you know, the practical things of life that you look for and relief as a citizen of a group of people or a country or a kingdom, but also that he is an upstanding man of God that is going to again kind of include that trust and build that trust that they can have in him. And that's how Mozaia chapter 1 and 2 sort of start. If we could, let's go look at that again as sort of a review and a backstory of all of this. Again, I haven't seen what you discussed in Mozaia 1 through 3, but maybe the two of you give us a little backstory here of some things that really impressed you about the first three chapters of Mozaia that will lead us to eventually we get into our discussion of chapter 4.

But appreciate the way that you've articulated that because do we understand what we have in front of us right now? And what it's taken again, we saw this in Revelation in section 10. We see this in ether. We see these in these chapters that are trying to get us to understand how important. the word of God really is, the difference that it can make, the change of heart that they can produce. They start talking in verses three and four in chapter one about the plates, about the language of the Egyptians and how they've taken great care to make sure that they can continue to read those and interpret these. We fast forward now into modern times and what's the big crux when Joseph actually gets the plates, get them translated. Nobody knows what they say. It's a form of authenticity. It's a genuine authenticity of these stories that help us to understand. I love the battle that Joseph has when he's trying to obtain the plates because obviously you see there of great value. There may have metal, something that could be cached in, melted down. And yet the whole point of this is, I think what you said there is verse seven. search them diligently that you may profit thereby. That's the profit that you get from the place. And it's not their value. And of course, we know that Joseph, this was a big part of his struggle. When we're on, I finally is trying to deliver him the place and his 1832 account. Joseph describes his own struggle with this. He says, for now, I had been tempted of the adversary and sought the plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandment that I should have an eye single to the glory of God. Therefore, I was chastened and sought diligently to obtain the plates. We know that he was struggling because his family was an indigent circumstances. This could have really put a fix on the Smith family. And particularly when Alvin dies and they lose the farm, his dad is impoverished and they can't pay the bills. And Oliver Cowdery said, God needed to raise him above a level of the common earthly fortunes. Joseph needed to come to comprehend. This was the value of the plates was what was written on them, the word of God. Of course, we know from one of the Whitmer accounts that that fourth year that the whole Smith family is back at the house waiting to see if Joseph is actually obtained them because he was told if he does not obtain them this time, he'll never get them. And just the anxiety and the waiting when Joseph finally comes and lets them know. Yeah, it's a huge relief. You think about how difficult this was, sorry, we're going off on a big side story here, but it's just this, the value of the plates. Joseph's concern is, well, nobody's going to believe me with all of this stuff. And I love Lucy Mack, Smith, and her history. She says that Joseph was afraid that his father would not believe him all that Moronite was telling him that there were these buried plates and to go do this and of course it's in the 1835 account. We're Joseph describes after the four visits from Moronite. He's just as active energy falls to the ground. He says the angel came to me and commanded me to go on tell my father what I had seen and heard. He said I did so and he wept. and told me that the vision was up God. And we learned from other accounts that Joseph Sr. had had some visions that were very similar to a buried box that contained something significant. So I think of how relevant this story is not just for their present. But for the future, they were learning the language of the Egyptians. And this was all a big part of the whole Charles Anton experience. And again, they had to learn to know and Garrett and Mike McCabe done so much work on showing, you know, we got to get this translated. Joseph wasn't quite sure who was going to translate these. The language of the Egyptians, shampooed the on was just beginning to decipher. Egyptian from the Rosetta Stone in it. The point was is there was no one on the planet who could decipher those and who could translate this book and Joseph had to learn that it truly was going to be by the gift and power of God and there was no other way. To me I look at this stuff and I think wow God has taken great care to make sure we get into our hands the same teachings that changed a group of people the way that it did with King Benjamin and his people.

When Joseph finally translates these by his 1832 history, he's stating that the coming forth of these plates in such a remarkable way and their translation thereof was a fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah. And we're seeing this story within a story, within a story that really underscores and accentuates how valuable the word of God is in this equation.

Yeah, this is a story now of trying to bridge the gap and we'll use the word at telmen. I know I've heard John talk about this in previous episodes of becoming one at one met with God. This is about overcoming that separation, closing that gap. through the atonement that we are no longer strangers. We're actually when we finally get to him was I have four through six. We're going to see about not being strangers to God. Part of what's happening. I think to bridge that gap is the ritual that's being involved in chapter two. So when we pick up on chapter two versus three and four, We see that they're coming forth, they're bringing forth the first links of the flocks that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses. When we take a step back there and thank for a second, that if burnt offerings represent a similitude of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, And it's doing so in a very ritualistic and personal way. I don't know what form of the law of Moses they're living at this point originally. If you go far enough back part of that ritual included. you know laying your hands upon the offering that you were transferring your identity to the lambs and it was because of its death that you got to live that the sinful self could die. So this is a very powerful way and you know some of us you know we cringe and think oh that sounds gross of the shedding of the blood of the animal to represent that. I mean we do it every Sunday to be honest when we go to the sacrament table to remember the blood that was shed on our behalf. This is sacred and it's something that's changing and it's offering a visual. We don't know the exact type of sacrifice. It says burn offerings. That's one category. The next verse says that they might give thanks to the Lord their God. That is a category of offering and they're actually called peace offerings. So think of the word peace that occurs throughout here. I love that concept of peace because it refers to an end of conflict and end to a struggle. whether it be sin, heartache, discouragement, these are meant to end pain, because that's what the Atonement of Jesus Christ does. And as they're sitting together now in this setting, they're offering sacrifices depending on the type of offering. It could also include a communal meal, and they may have been, again, partaking of Some of the offering as families, as individuals, but this is sacred. And it's talks about here that they establish peace in the land. And the way that they're establishing that peace is because their lives are changing as they're approaching God. And it's allowing them that they can rejoice and be filled with love towards God. This is at the end of verse four, but also almond. Now think about that. You came off of wars with people that you are clearly in opposition with and the teaching now is the first two great commandments. Love God and love your neighbor and these sacrifices that are being portrayed now that represent the slaying of the Lamb. the sacrifice that changes us, that takes away the sinful person. This is the hope that they're feeling in this process of the ritual that's allowing them to, again, close that gap between themselves and God. And the way that God is asking them to treat each other and take care of each other is going to become much more personal. Basically, if we transition now and we look at chapter 2 verse 9, it says, don't trifle with these things that have been spoken and prepare your hearts and your minds to receive the mysteries of God and that they can be unfolded to your view. as chapter two ends and you pointed to the south earlier, don't withdraw yourselves from the spirit of the Lord that it may have placed in you to guide you in wisdom's path that you may be blessed and prospered and preserve. There's something about this that's the invitation to come to Christ and allow him to speak to us and to hear him. With that is a transition now to chapter three, there's something going on in verse five that I think is really the crux here. Because as they're sitting together, offering these sacrifices, partaking of this joy of being unified in God. When we get to chapter three, five through seven, these are like the seminal verses. of what the angel is going to teach, and that is all that you're representing here in your sacrifice, in the form of this offering, in the life that was shed for you, the blood that was shed for you. He's real. And it's not far distant that he's coming. This is similar side story that we're going to have with a Benedict eye, and he's going to use Isaiah 53 as his burden of proof. to say that it's not the law that saves all these things that we're doing, the ritual that we're doing, it's important, but that law is pointing us to the actual sacrifice, who is Christ. And Torah, which is the word for law, might have a root, a meaning that means to point. So the law is pointing us to the reality of what it's teaching. and that is how do we gain the presence of God, which again is very powerful and a temple setting, where they're there with their tents facing the setting, the backdrop of the temple because they are learning how to commune with God. The angel teaches them in five through seven in chapter three of the reality of what this all means. Could we read these verses? I don't think there's anything more powerful than these. And John, would you like to read these?

Thank you. There's not even hardly words to describe what this means. The angel is saying that he'll take upon him a tabernacle of clay. The word tabernacle, depending on what word is being used here, that's also a way of describing the temple as a place where God dwells. It's a name that is sometimes given to the temple, everything that they're seeing, everything they're experiencing. is telling them that Emmanuel, that God truly is going to be with us, this setting of what it's going to accomplish. He's going to raise the dead. He's going to cause the lame to walk again. I don't have any idea the shape that some of these soldiers are in after these battles. We know from other accounts in the Book of Mormon that some of these battles were brutal. and that there were people that were hurt and harmed and injured to think what this means when an angel is coming and saying there will be healing and peace. Now that doesn't mean that everyone's wounds are going to go away. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have memories of hurt. It doesn't mean that all pain stops. But there's something about this that's supposed to inspire hope that says things will get better. when the savior performs these.

It's interesting because a lot of what we read about in here revolves around also the creation account, the God who created us. And I think that part of that is deliberately being interjected into these chapters because it's trying to get us to understand the purpose of our creation. When you start thinking of the image and likeness of God, I think part of what this is saying is it's giving us a hope that we can become something so much more than we are. And I think when we get to chapter 4, that's part of what's which is absolutely overwhelming to the people. is they're realizing their potential through their flaws. What they know or don't know, it appears they have access to other plates, they're preserving them, they're bringing them forth, but they're clearly also hearing some stuff very specific from an angel of God. And again, that seems to be something that amplifies their experience of what they're being told because these are very specific. about the types of things that Jesus is going to accomplish, the types of pains that He's going to relieve and has the potential to relieve. And we always have to be careful with that because there are some things in life that we don't experience relief from until the next life. But I think these are trying to give us hope and what it's going to cost is the blood that comes from every poor. This background of the sacrifices that are being offered at the temple representing the dwelling place of God that we're really being drawn in now to what it means to commune with God. And this is going to be overpowering to the people. I'd like to read a quote by Stephen Robinson. Every time I think of the Atonement, this really encapsulates how personal it is to me because as he goes through and expresses this, it really describes so many scenarios that I think are very personal to each of us. And he stated this, all the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously and guessed Simmini. All the private griefs sitting at in heartaches. All the physical pain and sanity caps. And all the emotional burdens and oppressions of the human family. He knows loneliness of those who don't fit in. Or who aren't handsome or pretty. He knows what it's like to choose up teams and be the last one chosen. He knows the anguish of parents whose children co-wrong. He knows these things personally and ultimately because he lived them in the 70. Having personally lived a perfect life, he then chose to experience art and perfect lives. And that infinite gifts, so many experience in the meridian of time, the center of eternity, he lived a billion billion lifetimes of sin, paying to see he's in sorrow. God has no magic wand with which to simply wave bad things in a non-existence. The sins that he remits he remits by making them his own, and suffering them. The pain and heartache that he relieves he relieves, by suffering them himself. These things can be transferred, but they cannot be simply wished away or waived away. They must be suffered, and thus we owe him. Not only for our spiritual cleansing from sin, but for our physical, mental, and emotional healing as well. For he is born in these infirmities for us, also. all that the fall put wrong in the Savior and as a torment putch right. There seems to be something about what the angel is teaching now that becomes so life-changing for the audience as King Benjamin will repeat them. There's nothing that's beyond hope in our lives and whatever it is we're experiencing that pain is something that can be reached. It doesn't mean that it always will, it doesn't mean that we're always going to have that relief. It doesn't mean that our suffering will always stop, but there's something with in us that I think these teachings are trying to give us a power that says, despite my circumstances, that through my circumstances, there can be some relief. And I know that that gets difficult because but sometimes we don't feel that when we're suffering with anxiety or with depression and maybe difficult to experience that feeling that we yearn for. But maybe even cognitively if we can begin to understand that we have a God who loves us and cares us, who says greater love has no man than this than he who laid down his life for his friends. That maybe that can offer some peace even when we're struggling to feel that peace in our own lives.

Yeah, and that's actually a category of a sin offering in the Old Testament. It's a trespass offering. And some of those can be a category of sitting in ignorance. Things, the sins of commission, things that are left undone, things that we're unaware of that we do. It's a compassion that is really hard to describe through the atonement that that compassion extends that sometimes we do things. We're not aware of it. There's ways to make restitution when that stuff happens. And that's a big part of that trespass offering is that restitution is required. When we finally do get over to chapter 4 now, that's exactly what the people are feeling, what you just described there, John. They've had the angel of the Lord has delivered this message. They're overwhelmed with what has happened and they fall into the earth and the fear of the Lord has come upon them. When we think about falling to the earth, this concept of frustration in the Bible, it occurs over a hundred times in the Bible, and it's one of the most sacred gestures, physical gestures, and ritual and sacrifice. You're dropping to your knees. I can only imagine moment, the song I could only imagine while I fall to my knees, while I be able to speak, how will I act? They seem to be having one of those moments. And they simply are in this awe of God. So fear not shaking in my boots, but you have my full allegiance. I love you. I care about you. I am here. Help me. and they're starting to recognize that need. And again, we start getting into this language in the next couple of verses of lower than the dust of the earth. They're nothingness. They're worthless and fallen state. And we start thinking, okay, let's talk about that for a second. What are we supposed to take away from someone who says I'm lower than the dust of the earth?

I think that's a wonderful explanation. I think it works well with what Hank was saying about creation because this is a major contrast that we're seeing here is this starting point. We're created from the dust of the earth. So we're talking about something that is unformed and unfinished and complete. It's sometimes in scripture used as a humility, frailty, mortality. It's also used on the flip side. So, for example, for Samuel 2.8, that God exalts somebody by raising them from the dust. There seems to be something about this acknowledgement that, yes, I'm here, but I know that you can raise me from the dust into something that is fully developed. And the reason I'm saying this, fully developed, is because if you look in verse five, when it talks about be awake into a sense of your nothingness and your worthless and fallen state, the nothingness, I don't know what word is being used here originally, but there is a word that occurs in Scripture, it particularly in the creation account, and one of them is Tohu, Meaning that the earth was created, Tahu Vavohu, meaning from out of emptiness. The earth was empty, invoid. I wonder if there's some connection here, we're saying, you know, recognize you're nothingness, meaning that right now we're not in the state that God intends us to be in. We're a little bit empty sometimes, we're a little bit void sometimes of what we can do to reach our full potential. and part of being in a state where you say, I recognize that. I recognize my complete dependence upon God to help raise me above where I am. Because this word is also used not just in the creation account, but it's also later used in Deuteronomy when God is describing, bringing Israel out of Egypt, and into this empty desert. And it's describing this as Deuteronomy 32. It says, I brought you out to this desert wasteland. I have circled you, I cared for you. I hovered over you, which is also a word, a lot of half it, is a word that's used also in the creation account. God is tenderly watching over us and helping to raise us from the dust. To help us become not just the base self that we are, but the exalted self that we can become. The people are using this kind of language, not to say I'm naveled, but that we can have a piece of conscience. Imagine, he's the war ends. Imagine being able to have a conscience just says all these things that have hurt me, all of these things that I've struggled with, all of these feelings that says, I'm not good enough. I can't do it. That's no longer a conflict that we fight, no longer a war that we wage with ourselves because God is able to bring us a peace that says you are good enough. And if you come to me, I can make weak things strong. As a missionary, 18 year old kid, I was happy to give ether a try. Pray that weak things could be made strong. And I didn't know what I was expecting from that experience. But I remember going down to my knees one night and saying, Hey, can you please tell me where I need some work? I was totally stunned because I didn't have one thing that I needed to work on. God revealed one after another after another, but what shocked me though, is that I did not feel like a loser. I felt like God cared enough to say yes, you need some help, but I'm here to help you. I can't help you through all of this if you let me. And I distinct this awe that's overcome the people in chapter four, that is leading them to understand what humility is before God, what it means to understand His glory, what it means to receive a remission of sins. Like that burden is being lifted from them to where they're in a state now, where they understand their complete reliance upon God. And they feel what that feels like, not in a negative way, but in a liberating way.

Yeah. And that feels like a really important part of chapter four verse two where it says have mercy and apply the atoning blood of Christ. Because that word apply, depending on which word is being used here, it can mean something that covers another thing like a layer of gold over an object. A tone says to do with covering. There's something about all of this apply this the atoning blood. And again, we're thinking of the sacrificial environment that they offered up the offerings. They've applied the blood. We truly can be healed, covered in the love of God and that creates this new creature in Christ and gives us hope and courage through difficulties.

A significant part of all of that process is that growing takes time, developing and understanding of how to recognize the spirit and how to be sanctified through the process of our life, this concept of justification and sanctification, that takes time. And we need to be patient with ourselves. And sometimes I know for me that's hard to do. I'm quick to beat up on myself. And yet, in verse 6 and chapter 4, It says, if you've come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, this is one of the great revelations here, you've come to know God and His wisdom and His patience and long suffering. If we could see Him as a loving father who's not just this Stephen Robinson, again, called it an cosmic bully with a stick. A key cares about us. He loves us. He's patient with us. and he understands that we go through difficult things that sometimes really try us in ways that push us to our limits and we don't always come out as our best selves through that process. He just says, if we come to know the goodness of God is long-suffering, and if you trust in the Lord, and be diligent in keeping his commandments the best that you can and faith. Trusting in God, that's something that can be so difficult to do when we can't always see his purposes, when we don't always understand why we're experiencing something that we're experiencing, but to trust him, nearly max will say God's not a postdoc student, trying to figure things out. And he doesn't come to some piece of the equation. He said, oops, I didn't see that coming. Sorry. He knows what he's doing. And he sent his son to make that possible. And through all of this, this trust is something that will allow us in verse 12 to say that will always rejoice. Always doesn't mean every minute of every day, every second. It doesn't mean that every situation is going to turn out like we want it to. but there's something about it that says we'll be filled with the love of God and retain and remission of our sins through that process. And I think that that's an important part of this equation.

Yeah, and in fact, I think there's a humility in there that's really being pulled out of this process and the way you put that it's fantastic because it's that recognition of what we can become and not that we're worthless or that we don't mean anything to God but that we mean everything to him. And that example of Moses is such a powerful example. Joseph in his 1832 account, he talks about, I felt convicted for my sins. Not that I was hopeless because of them, but it's just they mattered to me because I wanted to be better. I wanted to become something different. Even in this transition, it brings up another concept that we encounter here later in chapter four, and that's about being beggars. We encounter that a few times that are we not all beggars. There was a mechanism set up in ancient Israel to avoid poverty, to care for the poor and the needy. But there's something about this concept, though, that says with soberness, with diligence, with being of sound mind to pursue these principles. You know what? Talks about not suffering children to go hungry and our hearts break as we see things happening throughout the world of people who are suffering. And we want to help in any way that we can talking about how Teach your children not to fight or quarrel with one another. I mean, we can't even do that as adults. And we want to try and get our kids to act that way. And yet we're told to be beggars. I don't know if we can equate this one on one. But if you look at the sermon on the mount, which again, we're going here in the New Testament, but also later in third Nephi, blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. And part of what that word, poor means, is that we are recognizing our complete dependence upon God. To be poor and spirit, those who admit their spiritual poverty, those who acknowledge that without God, I can do nothing. I need God. I need help. And I'm beggarly that way. I'm poor that way. It's to have sort of this humility with regard to our own capacities. Let's say only through the Lord, can I do this? And we have now Benjamin is like, you guys are calling out your begging for a remission of your sins. It's because we recognize the limitations that our own capacities to accomplish that. That we feel a complete need to be blessed and spirit to inherit the kingdom of God. There does seem to be something significant now about what John was describing, like a humility through the process of life that gets us to recognize that we really are meaty when it comes to salvation. And there's only one person who can do that for us.

Now I was 14 years old. I'm really never forget this experience. It's been almost four decades and I still remember it like it was yesterday. It was that powerful.