7/26/2018 - Section 105:26-41
July 26,
2018
Section
105:26-41
Law of Consecration, United Order, Charity,
Draw Near Unto Me, Seeing Others as the Lord Sees Them, Spiritual Growth, Patience,
Endurance, Keeping Our Goal In Sight,
As I
read v 28 & 29, it suddenly struck me at the economy of the Lord’s
language, of his ability to say so much in so few words. He is speaking of how
to proceed with the growth and settlement of Jackson County, and this is given
AFTER many of the saints have been forced from their home, and after the Lord
has explained where and how they failed to live up to the law of consecration “And to
have sent wise men, to fulfil that which I have commanded concerning the
purchasing of all the lands in Jackson county that can be purchased, and in the
adjoining counties round about. For it
is my will that these lands should be purchased; and after they are purchased
that my saints should possess them according to the laws of consecration which
I have given.” They have been through
much hardship. He has given them an explanation of how they have failed, and
what they must do to truly live His law. But they, in normal ‘natural man’
thinking, didn’t step up to thinking more broadly, to reaching out to others
even in their own extremities, to shifting their focus to open their hearts and
continue on in loving and caring and serving one another….and that could
include those around them who were not members of the church. The task of
learning to see others the way the Lord sees them is truly difficult. He sees a
persons total journey. He sees all the things that have influenced their thoughts
and behavior. He sees them with love and hope and understanding and the desire
to help them in the best possible way. While I see people and their actions ‘in
the moment’, and think of what they do that irritates me. I need to look for
the good in them, and not be side tracked by idiosyncrasies. If I ask, each
day, for the spirit’s help, and live, each day, in a way to invite the spirit,
and if I remind myself about the qualities of charity, maybe I can tune myself,
bit by bit, to come ever closer to the way the Lord wants us to live, and see,
and be.
It was
not easy for these early Saints. J Rueben Clark described their situation: “It was
under these circumstances, with the Saints scattered and sometimes hunted like
wild animals with their property gone, their organization largely broken up,
wounded in mind and spirit, with the condemnation of the Lord Pronounced upon
their heads because of their unfaithfulness, not to say wickedness, with Zion
to all intents and purposes destroyed…” and
just one of the problems those of Zion’s Camp faced occurred in Rush Creek,
Missouri where there was a cholera outbreak in their camp. So my understanding
from this is that the Lord’s commandments are not just important in our normal,
routine times of living, but they are important during our hard and perilous
times of living. We are here to develop Christ-like attributes, and that is not
an activity for our leisure time, it is our full time job ALL the time. It is
the difficult climb that will get us back to Heavenly Father. It is putting our
shoulder to the wheel when our hand cart is mired.
9/17/21 – D&C 105
My study manual gives such a good description of the where’s and why’s of Zion’s Camp that I felt I should include it in my notes:
“In October and November 1833, the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri, were driven from their homes by mobs. “A revelation was given to Joseph Smith December 16, 1833, giving the reason for the expulsion of the members of the Church from Jackson County (see D&C 101:1–9)” (Smith, Essentials in Church History, p. 142). As part of that revelation the Saints were instructed, through a parable, to “gather together the strength of the Lord’s house, ‘My young men and they that are middle aged also among all my servants, who are the strength of mine house, save those only whom I have appointed to tarry,’ said the Lord, ‘and go straightway unto the land of my vineyard, and redeem my vineyard, for it is mine, I have bought it with money.’” (Smith, Essentials in Church History, p. 143.) The parable was explained to Joseph Smith in a revelation on 24 February 1834 (see D&C 103:21–34). “Joseph Smith met with the High Council in Kirtland on February 24, 1834. The subject uppermost in the minds of everyone present was how could they relieve and rescue the Saints from the mobbers in Zion. At the meeting attended by about forty others, the group listened attentively to Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight, newly arrived from Zion, pleading that the Saints there be succored. “All were quiet when the Prophet arose and stated that in response to a revelation, he intended to go to Zion to assist in redeeming it. He asked for council sanction. There was unanimous assent. He called for volunteers. Forty hands were raised.... “The revelation to which the Prophet referred instructed him to do his best to recruit five hundred men. They were to be young and middle-aged. If, perchance because of poor response, he should have to accept less, he was not to start until he had a minimum of one hundred. Led by Joseph Smith and Parley P. Pratt, four pairs of elders were to seek volunteers to go to the redemption of Zion. Within two days Joseph and Parley were on their way east seeking volunteers and friends. For a month they labored diligently to obtain the required help. By that time there were 125 who had volunteered to go.” (Young, “Here Is Brigham . . . ,” p. 89.) When ready to start from Kirtland, the group consisted of about 150 men. This number increased to about 200 by the time the camp arrived in Missouri (see Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:358). I read that and think that 300 men missed the opportunity to help others…and if they did it with the correct attitude, they would—at the same time—be helping themselves. Zion’s Camp arrived at Fishing River, Missouri, on 19 June 1834. Two days later, “on Saturday, the 21st of June, Colonel Scounce and two other leading men of Ray County visited Joseph, and begged to a campsite of Zion’s Camp know his intentions, stating: ‘We see that there is an Almighty Power that protects this people.’ Colonel Scounce confessed that he had been leading a company of armed men to fall upon the Prophet, but had been driven back by the storm. The Prophet with all the mildness and dignity which ever sat so becomingly upon him, and which always impressed his hearers, answered that he had come to administer to the wants of his afflicted friends and did not wish to molest or injure anybody. He then made a full and fair statement of the difficulties as he understood them; and when he had closed the three ambassadors, melted into compassion, offered their hands and declared that they would use every endeavor to allay the excitement.” (Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, p. 180.) “On the arrival of the camp in the vicinity of Jackson county, negotiations were opened with Governor Dunklin asking him to fulfill his promise to call out the militia in sufficient numbers to reinstate the exiled saints in their possessions. The governor admitted the justice of the demand, but expressed the fear that should he so proceed his action would excite civil war, and he dared not carry out what he admitted to be the plain duties of his office. He suggested that the delegation that waited upon him urge their brethren to sell their lands in Jackson county. This the saints could not do without repudiating the revelations that designated Jackson county as the land of their inheritance, the place for the gathering together of God’s people, and the location of the city of Zion; also it meant an abandonment of their right as citizens of the United States to settle wherever they thought proper to make their homes within the confines of the Union. “With the governor unwilling to fulfill his engagements to the exiles by calling out the militia Revelation to Zion’s Camp Section 105 257 to reinstate them in their lands; with the inhabitants of western Missouri deeply prejudiced against them, and greatly excited by the arrival of Zion’s Camp; and the brethren of the camp, and the exiled brethren, painfully conscious that the saints in the eastern branches of the church had not responded with either sufficient money or men for them to act independently of the governor, take possession of their lands, purchase other lands, and hold them despite the violence of mobs—the necessity of disbanding Zion’s camp, and awaiting some future opportunity for the redemption of Zion, was apparent to the minds of its leaders. Accordingly it was disbanded from its encampment on Rush Creek, in Clay county, on the 24th of June, and word to that effect was officially sent to some of the leading citizens of Clay county.” (Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:359.) Although the avowed purpose of the camp (to reinstate the Saints to their lands in Zion) was not realized, it was not an exercise in futility, but rather served as the forge in which the Lord tempered the steel of many of his early leaders, including the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Delbert L. Stapley said: “Zion’s Camp was disbanded on June 24, 1834. It had furnished the know-how and experience which made possible the subsequent exodus of more than 20,000 men, women, and children from Nauvoo to the Rocky Mountains, and prepared leaders for the great exodus. It also provided a proving ground—some 1,000 miles of it—for the future Church leaders. This is evidenced by the fact that when the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was ‘searched out’ by the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, all chosen had been members of Zion’s Camp. These men had demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice everything, even life itself, when commanded by the Lord. The First Quorum of the Seventy was likewise made up of the men who followed the Prophet to Missouri in Zion’s Camp.” (The Importance of Church History, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [Provo, 15 Apr. 1970], p. 3.)”
The preface to this section: Revelation given through Joseph Smith, the Prophet, on Fishing River, Missouri, June 22, 1934…Mob violence against the saints in Missouri had increased, and organized bodies from several counties had declared their intent to destroy the people. The Prophet had come from Kirtland at the head of a party know as Zion’s Camp, bringing clothing and provisions. While this party was encamped on Fishing River, the prophet received this revelation.”
In v’s 1-5, the Lord explains that these terrible times came upon the Missouri saints because so many of them did not follow the Lord’s commands in their hearts or actions. “But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I requited at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them;….And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.” (v’s 3 & 5) The Lord had given the saints a higher law. For our benefit, we need to work to grow into what the Lord desires of us: a celestial love within our hearts and a celestial effort in our days.
The Lord is so disappointed by the way the saints lived and acted, and He explains “That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands.” But then He follows with a promise of what CAN be ahead for them to enjoy: “For behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them, inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me.” (v 12) These are the things we can learn in the temple. And then in v 14 He reminds them again that they will grow in righteous ways as they grow in obedience and dedication to His laws. And that is not happening now. The Lord had asked that Zion’s Camp be composed of 500 men – “but the strength of mine house have not hearkened unto my words.” (v17). But to the 200 or so men who did harken to the Lord’s word, He promises in v 18: “But inasmuch as there are those who have hearkened unto my words, I have prepared a blessing and an endowment for them, it they continue faithful.” There is more explanation in v 19 “I have heard their prayers, and will accept their offering; and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith.”
Once again, in v ‘s 23 & 24 He teaches us the way to grow nearer to Him: “And let all my people who dwell in the regions round about be very faithful, and prayerful, and humble before me….Talk not of judgements, neither boast of faith nor of mighty works” Many of the saints living in Missouri had acted in a haughty way to those not in the church and sometimes to those in the church. They did not show love or charity for those around them. J Reuben Clark spoke of their actions as “unfaithfulness, not to say wickedness, with ‘Zion” to all intents and purposes destroyed” that which the Lord was wanting them to build. As the Lord spoke to these ‘saints’ in v 35 He says “There has been a day of calling, but the time has come for a day of choosing; and let those be chosen that are worthy.” I want to work in a way that I can be called AND chosen! For the promise He gives us in in v 36 “And it shall be manifest unto my servant, by the voice of the Spirit, those that are chosen; and they shall be sanctified:” Sanctification is simply the process of --with the Lord’s help-- our living and thinking in such a way that we are just a little better, and a little closer to Heavenly Father, every single day.
In V 37 He explains that this will happen “after many days” which helps me to always remember the importance of my faithfulness and my patience. He confirmed this in His final pleading for us in this section: “Therefore be faithful; and behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end.” Sometimes life seems easy, sometimes it seems very hard and heavy, but I remind myself that ALWAYS He is with us even unto the end.
Some of those men who volunteered for Zions Camp who chose to follow the Lord’s request to come and help became disenchanted and left the church, but others of those men became more sensitive to the Lord and grew to be great leaders in the growing church.
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