12/24/2017 - Section 73:1-6

December 24, 2017

Section 73:1-6

Missionary Work, Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, Priorities, Work for the Lord, Seek the Lord Early…And Late, Church Callings,

It the D&C 73 it is January 1832. A little over 1 month ago (Dec 1 1831) Joseph and Sidney were commanded to go to Ohio and preach the gospel. Several people had left the church and had written letters, “scandalous letters”, to the newspapers which in turn caused many people to be more than upset about Mormonism and to reject its teachings before ever hearing of those teachings. Joseph and Sidney had followed the Lord’s command, they stopped their work of translating the Bible and began their 5 weeks of missionary work where they “did much towards allaying the excited feelings which were growing out of the scandalous letters then be published in the Ohio Star.” (p 153)

In the April 1978 General Conference, President Ezra Taft Benson said: “The Church’s mission is to declare the gospel of the kingdom to all the world, to redeem our kindred dead, and to perfect the Saints of the Church—a positive approach. Never in the history of the church has there been such an expenditure of time, planning, and resources to accomplish this mission. In the final analysis, this effort is the only solution to the problems of the world.”  Joseph and Sidney were doing just that as they taught all who would listen the truths of the revealed gospel.  Joseph recorded the following in his journal: “For this time until the 8^th or 10^th of January, myself and Elder Rigdon continued to preach…setting forth the truth, vindicating the cause of our Redeemer; showing that the day of vengeance was coming upon this generation like a thief in the night; that prejudice, blindness and darkness filled the minds of many, and caused them to persecute the true Church, and reject the true light; by which means we did much towards allaying the excited feelings where were growing out of the scandalous letter than being published in the Ohio Star…”

Thus Joseph and Sidney had had to leave a very important task—that of ‘translating’ the Bible, in order to correct the erroneous rumors about the Church that were being spread in Ohio. They were successful in their efforts.

The student manual gives an explanation of Joseph’s work of ‘translating’ the Bible: “Although the word translation brings to mind the use of original texts and ancient languages, Joseph’s work was to restore the correctness of the scripture by the power of the Spirit, not by scholarly interpretation….Joseph’s work of translating the Bible was a spiritual task. Later he studied Hebrew and German, but it was not his knowledge of languages that provided a basis to correct the scriptures.  Joseph Smith went through all of the Bible, dictating to a scribe changes, deletions, or additions, but he did not complete a revision of the entire Bible. He never considered what he had accomplished as ready for publication, and he probably would have made many more corrections had he lived longer.”  Joseph followed the Lord’s commands immediately. Sometimes that required putting down one important task for a difference important task. The significant thing is that he let the Lord determine which tasks had the highest priorities at a particular time.

I love the Lord’s final advice in this section: “Now I give no more unto you at this time. Gird up your loins and be sober.” (v 6)  I don’t think the Lord meant for us to only be serious around each other, for Joseph was quite a social and jovial person. But I do think the Lord meant for us to take our callings in the Church very seriously, and perform them to the very best of our abilities—always asking for His continued guidance and help to us.

6/30/2021 – D&C 73

For almost a month, Joseph and Sidney Rigdon have been preaching throughout eastern Ohio in an effort to repair much of the erroneous information that had been in Ezra Booth’s preaching and newspaper articles. The section synopsis it tells us that “by this means much was accomplished in diminishing the unfavorable feelings that had arisen against the Church.”

A few days after Sidney and Joseph had returned home, this revelation was given to Joseph who said that it made “known the will of the Lord” to the elders of the Church until the convening of the next conference, which was held two weeks later. The ‘will of the Lord’ was that Sidney & Joseph should “continue preaching the gospel, and in exhortation to the churches in the regions round about, until the conference.” (v 1)

And then, after the conference, they are to devote their time fully to “the work of translation until it be finished.” (v 4) And that’s exactly what Sidney and Joseph did until July 2, 1833, when they wrote to the Saints in Missouri that they had, that day, completed the translation of the Bible. Their work includes the Joseph Smith Matthew, and the Pearl of Great Price.  It is very interesting to me that more than half of the revelations that are in the Doctrine and Covenants were received in the three year period in which Joseph worked on this Bible translation. So many of those revelations came as direct answers to the questions that Joseph asked the Lord as he worked to restore the plain and precious parts of the Bible. (This is from “Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation” in Revelations in Context, 103)

I love the way the Lord ends this section as He tells them that there is more to give them, but “I give no more unto you at this time. Gird up your loins…” This earthly journey we are on is to help us increase our faith. And one way we to that is to take a step forward, even though we don’t exactly know what the end result will be. We only know that we learn as we go forward in the way the Lord suggests to us. And I have found when I haven’t chosen to ‘press forward’—when I sit idle as far as the gospel goes, I have found frustration and depression. For this reason, I much prefer to live as close as I can to the Lord’s commandments—for that is where I find a deep peace and amazing comfort and happiness.