Some verses from the Book of Mormon are of interest to me, to start with, starting with 2nd Nephi 1:
1 And now, my beloved brethren, I have read these things that ye might know concerning the acovenants of the Lord that he has covenanted with all the house of Israel—
2 That he has spoken unto the Jews, by the mouth of his holy prophets, even from the beginning down, from generation to generation, until the time comes that they shall be arestored to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be bgathered home to the clands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise.
A few interesting points to be gleaned from this,
- One, is that there are more than one land of inheritance, and more than one land of promise.
- Two, is that the covenants of the Lord are with all the house of Israel.
Continuing, we can examine Jacob 5, a chapter which many consider rather long and tedious, but, which to careful perusal contains nothing if not a careful and rather complete allegory showing that the ten lost tribes of Israel have been hidden in plain sight -- throughout the world. Drawing from a couple of representative verses, perhaps I can encourage the reader to examine the chapter for him- or herself:
63 Graft in the branches; begin at the alast that they may be first, and that the first may be blast, and dig about the trees, both old and young, the first and the last; and the last and the first, that all may be nourished once again for the last time.
...
67 And the branches of the natural tree will I graft in again into the natural tree;
68 And the branches of the natural tree will I graft into the natural branches of the tree; and thus will I bring them together again, that they shall bring forth the natural afruit, and they shall be one.
And finally, before entering into my primary thought from the Sunday School lesson today, from 2nd Nephi 26:
33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he ainviteth them ball to ccome unto him and partake of his goodness; and he ddenieth none that come unto him, black and white, ebond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the fheathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.
Black and white, bond and free, male and female, Jew, Gentile, and heathen, all are alike unto God.
Which of the human races of this earth is the chosen human race? The entire human race.
With that in mind, we were studying Isaiah today.
My reading of Isaiah chapter 1:
1 The avision of bIsaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning cJudah and Jerusalem in the days of dUzziah, eJotham, fAhaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Every tribe, every country and people of this world has its own land of promise; every land of promise has its City of Peace, its Jerusalem and its New Jerusalem.
2 aHear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have brebelled against me.
All God's children, the entire human race, is brought up and nourished by God, and then we all of us rebel.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s acrib: but Israel doth not bknow, my people doth not consider.
How many humans do you know that refuse to consider the possibility that they are themselves children of God?
4 Ah asinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, bchildren that are ccorrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto danger, they are gone away backward.
What is the anger of God besides the natural consequences of our own bad choices? If we chose to walk off the edge of a cliff, the pain of the sudden impact at the end of the journey is nothing more or less than the anger of a just God, giving us the consequences we, by our choices, persist in asking for.
5 ¶ Why should ye be astricken any more? ye will brevolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart cfaint.
We don't like it when the results of our choices are painful to others and to ourselves.
You know, we tend not to mind so much the pain others endure because of our decisions and actions, but we do mind the reminders.
And we shouldn't. We complain when the good results we expect are denied us, why should we complain when the bad results are not? In truth, bad results are good if they lead us to repent -- to turn ourselves to return to God. And good results are bad if they lead us away.
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been aclosed, neither bound up, neither bmollified with ointment.
How many wounds have you tried to heal lately? How many have you made worse?
7 Your acountry is bdesolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, cstrangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
(Biting my tongue, here.)
8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a avineyard, as ba lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small aremnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
The daughter of Zion? That's you and me.
10 ¶ Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of aSodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
What good does it do for us to seek power over others when we refuse to exercise power over ourselves to any good purpose?
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your asacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I bdelight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
What should we do with our formalities, our laws and rules that we use to hedge up the way of others and keep them from knowing heaven?
13 Bring no more avain boblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and csabbaths, the calling of dassemblies, I cannot eaway with; it is finiquity, even the gsolemn meeting.
14 Your new amoons and your appointed bfeasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am cweary to bear them.
What should we do with our traditions that celebrate what should not be celebrated?
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many aprayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of bblood.
Why should we try to claim truth is on our side when there are truths that we refuse to claim?
16 ¶ aWash you, make you bclean; put away the cevil of your doings from before mine eyes; dcease to do evil;
17 aLearn to do bwell; seek cjudgment, drelieve the oppressed, ejudge the fatherless, plead for the fwidow.
If we repent, if we turn our hearts and minds towards God, if we change our choices and begin to do the good things that we can do,
18 Come now, and let us areason together, saith the Lord: though your bsins be as scarlet, they shall be as cwhite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
...
Skipping forward a bit,
13 ¶ Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people adraw near me with their bmouth, and with their lips do chonour me, but have dremoved their eheart far from me, and their ffear toward me is taught by the gprecept of men:
We love to talk about truth and science with our lips while we reject the very source of truth and object of scientific study with our moment-to-moment choices.
We teach the way men teach -- we put on a show, we dazzle the eyes, we appeal to the intellect. Our respect of truth and nature is taught by the precepts, or wisdom, of human understanding.
Trying to touch the infinite with our finite minds, with our hearts veiled by mortality, is not really bad, or it would not be, if we never forget that we have not yet touched as long as we are still mortal, as long as we are subject to the laws of thermodynamics, no matter how far we go before we pass through the veil of death and find that entropy is only for mortals.
We cannot comprehend it all and remain in this life. Why do we pretend to?
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a amarvelous bwork among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the cwisdom of their wise men shall dperish, and the eunderstanding of their fprudent men shall be hid.
A marvelous work and a wonder ...
In Japanese, a marvelous work is 「
And a wonder is 「
It is a wonder that the human mind should ever consider the journey complete, should ever believe that all the evidence is in.
It is even more of a wonder that God will forgive us when we put our arrogance aside and ask if there isn't something more to be learned.
It is a thing rarely seen when we set aside our ambitions for power to do things that help us not.
It is even more of a wonderful thing that God will always help us when we do, if we are patient enough to really set aside those ambitions.
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their acounsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who bseeth us? and who knoweth us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the awork say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 ¶ And in that aday shall the deaf hear the words of the bbook, and the ceyes of the blind shall see out of dobscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their ajoy in the Lord, and the bpoor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
The poor among men.
What is it about the wealth of the world that keeps us out of heaven every day?
Hmm. Giving it all away and starving oneself to death is not usually recommended, even for the obscenely rich. Not usually.
It's rather simple, although it usually incurs the wrath of the board of directors when the board of directors is a bunch of mortal humans who are still controlled by their ambition, their passion for power that will help them not to be happy.
Start by cleaning up after your industry. Carbon footprint would not matter nearly as much if we weren't busy spewing it out randomly and recklessly in the environment.
Start by paying your workers something close to what they are really worth. If they quit working, you think you could replace them, but it costs to replace them, and you lose something when they go. You can't really pay them what they are worth, because they are worth more than your profits. But you can get a bit closer, if you're willing to let some of that profit that does not really profit get away from you.
If you let that profit go to those who make it for you, it ends up coming back to you. That's one of the ways that industry beats entropy and increases value in the economy.
Start by reaching out to those important to you, family, friends, neighbors, and go from their.
This is the marvelous work and a wonder.
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