5/21/2018 - Section 98:16-48
May 21,
2018
Section
98:16-48
Jews Message To, War Advice from the Lord,
Qualities that Displease the Lord, The Law of Forgiveness, Adversity From
Others How to Handle It, Last Days,
What a
beautiful verse! 16 “Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace, and
seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the
hearts of the fathers to the children.” No
matter what goes on in this world, this is our quest—in our nations and in our
homes.
The
following verse was very interesting to me: 17 “And
again, the hearts of the Jews unto the prophets’ and the prophets unto the Jews’
lest I come and smite the whole earth with a curse, and all flesh be consumed
before me.” In May 1976 President Ezra
Taft Benson spoke in Canada to a congregation that included many Jews. “In
Jacob’s blessing to Judah he declared: ‘Judah is…as an old lion: who shall
rouse him up?’ Gen 49:9. We come as messengers bearing the legitimate authority
to aruse Judah to her promises. We do not ask Judah to forsake her heritage. We
are not asking her to leave father, mother, or family. We bring a message that
Judah does not possess. That message
constitutes ‘living water’ from the Fountain of living water. Our prophet, Joseph Smith was given a commandment
by the Lord to turn the hearts of the Jews unto the prophets, and the prophets
unto the Jews.’ (D&C 98:17) We are presently sending our messengers to
every land and people whose ideology permits us entrance. We have been
gathering Joseph’s descendants for 146 years. We hope you, who are of Judah,
will not think it an intrusion for us to present our message to you. You are
welcome to come to our meetings. We display no crosses. We collet no offerings.
We honor your commitment to your unique heritage and your individuality. We
approach you in a different way than any other Christian church because we
represent the restored covenant to the entire house of Israel. Yes, we understand the Jews….We understand
them because we belong to the same house of Israel. We are our brothers—Joseph.
We look forward to the day of fulfillment of God’s promise when ‘the house of
Judah shall walk with the house of Israel (Jer 3:18)” (Ensign Dec 1976 p 72)
V 20:
the Lord tells us why he is “not well pleased” with many of the saints in
Kirland:
1)
they do
not forsake their sins; 2) they do not forsake their wicked ways; 3)nor their
coventousness; 4) nor their detestable things; 5) They do not observe the words
of wisdom and eternal life which I have given unto them. Then in v 22, he gives
his promises of what will happen if they repent: “…if ye
observe to do whatsoever I command you I
the Lord will turn away all wrath and indignation from you and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against you.” (This
is the phrase that my mother heard repeated to her as she read these very words
in the Book of Mormon. This was one of her early intimations of the spirit as she worked to determine
whether or not to join the church)
V’s
23-48 tell us how to respond to attacks of persecution upon us. Some scholars
have called v’s 23-32 The law of war & v’s 33-38 the law of forgiveness.
Under Moses’ law, the highest level the children of Israel could rise to was an
eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth—but the Lord has given us the higher
ideal—and he has explained the eternal implications. of living the higher
ideal.
President
David O McKay taught: “There are…two conditions which may justify a
truly Christian man to entere—mind you, I say enter, not begin—a war. 10 an
attempt to dominate and to deprive another of his free agency, and 2) Loyalty
to his country. Possibly there is a third: Defense of a weak nation that is
being unjustly crushed by a strong, ruthless one. Paramount among these
reasons, of course, is the defense of man’s freedom. An attempt to rob man of
his free agency caused dissension even in heaven….Without freedom of thought
freedom of choice, freedom of action within lawful bounds, man cannot progress.
…The greatest responsibility of the state is to guard the lives, and to protect
the property and rights of its citizens; and if the state is obligated to
protect its citizens from lawlessness within its boundaries, it is equally
obligated to protect them from lawless encroachments from without—whether the
attacking criminals be individuals or nations. (Apr 1942 gen conf)
Smith
and Sjodahl commentary of the Law of Forgiveness: In v’s
23-32 the Saints are taught to bear persecution patiently, and not to seek
revenge; here theyare instruct to go still farther, and forgive an enemy as
often as he repents of his evil-doing, and
state number of times, even if he does not repent (v43). If, however, he
continues to trespass and does not repent, the case is to be brought before the
Lord, in the hope that the sinner may be brought to repentance; when that
object is gain, he is to be forgiven (v 44,45); if there is no repentance, the
matter is to be left entirely in the hands of the lord. Until seventy times seven means, practically
an unlimited number of times. In the days of our Lord, the Rabbis taught that
no one was under obligation to forgive a neighbor more than three times. Peter,
asking the Master for a ruling on that questions suggested that perhaps seven
time would be a liberal improvement on the rule of the Jewish teachers, but our
Lord answered, “seventy times seven’…The gospel teaches us that if we have a
grudge against many man, in our hearts, we should drive it out. It teaches us
to do good to all, even to enemies and thereby it makes us happy as only a
heart full of sunshine can be.”
The
student manual, page 234, points out that while the terrible times the saints
endured during this time of the D&C, and while the times we now live in are
relatively peaceful as far as the church is concerned, that there are
prophecies of war nations against nations, and also against the church. In
April 1980 Gen Con, Bruce R McConkie said “But the
vision of the future is not all
sweetness and light ad peace. All that is yet to be shall go forward in the
midst of greater evils and perils and desolations than have been known on earth
at any time….the way ahead is dark and dreary and dreadful. There will yet be
martyrs; the doors in Carthage shall again enclose the innocent. We have not
been promised that the trials and evils of the world will entirely pass us by.”
And then the student manual adds: “In
other words, the Saints may yet have cause to look to the laws of retaliation,
war, and forgiveness as outlined in section 98 to know how to respond to
persecution. As the Savior himself said in another setting: ”These things I
have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. “ John 16:33
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