Part of the Great Work of the Lord which Nephi Sees

In 1 Nephi 13-14 we have parts of Nephi’s vision in which he saw history and the future (all of which was future for him). We are pretty familiar with the parts of history from 1 Nephi 13:

·      The formation of the great and abominable church

·      The Gentiles coming out of captivity to the land of promise

·      The fight for independence

·      The book carried with them that has many covenants and prophecies

·      The coming forth of the Book of Mormon

However, we are less familiar with the stuff from 1 Nephi 14, except for v12-14 that talks about the mother of abominations gathering multitudes to fight the saints and the saints being armed with the power of God.  Let’s look at v1-10:

1 And it shall come to pass, that if the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks—

2 And harden not their hearts against the Lamb of God, they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father; yea, they shall be numbered among the house of Israel; and they shall be a blessed people upon the promised land forever; they shall be no more brought down into captivity; and the house of Israel shall no more be confounded.

3 And that great pit, which hath been digged for them by that great and abominable church, which was founded by the devil and his children, that he might lead away the souls of men down to hell—yea, that great pit which hath been digged for the destruction of men shall be filled by those who digged it, unto their utter destruction, saith the Lamb of God; not the destruction of the soul, save it be the casting of it into that hell which hath no end.

4 For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil, and also according to the justice of God, upon all those who will work wickedness and abomination before him.

5 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me, Nephi, saying: Thou hast beheld that if the Gentiles repent it shall be well with them; and thou also knowest concerning the covenants of the Lord unto the house of Israel; and thou also hast heard that whoso repenteth not must perish.

6 Therefore, wo be unto the Gentiles if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Lamb of God.

7 For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken.

8 And it came to pass that when the angel had spoken these words, he said unto me: Rememberest thou the covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel? I said unto him, Yea.

9 And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look, and behold that great and abominable church, which is the mother of abominations, whose founder is the devil.

10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth. (1 Nephi 14:1-10)

What I realized is these verses have important aspects of history too, but it is hard to see how because we’re in it.

These verses talk about:

·      the Lord taking away stumbling blocks,

·      a great work that either convinces and delivers people to life, or brings them to captivity and destruction temporally and spiritually

·      people of the great and abominable church digging pits and falling into them themselves and becoming captives of the devil

Don’t we live in a day in which all kinds of deep pits are being dug for people which can take them captive? Pornography is a pit. Excessive cell phone use is a pit. Drug use is a pit. Excessive video gaming is a pit. All kinds of addictions are pits. The risks of captivity through addiction today have multiplied, and there are lots of people that stumble over this, that, or the other thing.

But the Lord wants people to know the risks and avoid stumbling and falling into the pits, so He will do His best to make the truth known and people have to choose. We all of us have to choose whether we go on and stay in our various pits (because we all have our struggles and vulnerabilities that drag us down into pits) or whether we will get out of it and leave it alone.

Further, verse 3 warns that those who dig the pits for others to fall into will fall into them themselves, to their utter destruction. So that’s a warning to those figuratively in any “pit-digging” industries to get out of that work.

Whenever the prophets warn us about something, they are pointing out a pit that we might fall into. I’m so grateful for that because it takes a number of years for society to get the memo that certain things are harmful, and even then, they may never get it. If we went by society, we would become casualties of whatever it is.  But if we listen to the prophets, we will know to be cautious ahead of time, even if we don’t immediately see and understand the full significance and danger.

Whosoever that looketh to lust: KJV with JST versus Book of Mormon

 In these verses, Jesus expounds the higher law that one should not look on a woman (or anyone, I suppose) to lust, and looking to lust was to commit adultery in the heart.  However, Matthew and 3 Nephi have different attending explanations that seem to have different emphases.

KJV with JST:

27 ¶Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

 29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.  And now this I speak, a parable concerning your sins; wherefore, cast them from you, that ye may not be hewn down and cast into the fire.

 (Matt 5:27-30, JST added in green)

Book of Mormon:

27 Behold, it is written by them of old time, that thou shalt not commit adultery;

 28 But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery already in his heart.

 29 Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart;

 30 For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell. (3 Nephi 12:27-30)

I notice that the KJV has “hath committed adultery with her,” but the Book of Mormon has only “hath committed adultery.”  The KJV “with her” seems to imply that the woman participates too, but the Book of Mormon doesn’t, leaving the impression that it is all the man’s (or onlooker’s) sin.

3 Nephi doesn’t have anything about plucking out eyes or cutting off hands, so perhaps the Jews needed the extra vivid language more than the Nephites did.  Concerning this intense imagery, the JST gives us the info that Jesus was not speaking literally, which is a relief.  (We suspect it was the case, but it is nice to know for sure, since there have been people who have taken the extreme view from time to time.)  Learning it is a parable about our sins invites us to look deeper.

Comparing our sins to parts of our bodies shows that Jesus knew our sins can be so much a part of us that the prospect of repenting can seem as devastating as losing an eye or our dominant hand, such that we may ask ourselves, “What am I going to do instead?” especially when it is a favorite way of releasing tension, coping with stress or difficulty, relaxing, having fun, or passing time that weighs heavily on our hands.

I also think that Jesus’ choice of body parts in that parable is not accidental.  The eye is the way we see the world and our perspective, which means it is really about how we think, so Jesus meant we have to cast away sinful thoughts.  The hand is about the things we do, so I think Jesus mean we have to cast away evil deeds.  Evil deeds and evil thoughts that have become attached to us like body parts qualify for the terms “bad habits” and “addictions.”  Seen this way, we can understand why Jesus would use such extreme language about plucking out and cutting off. 

The Book of Mormon’s additions add more to this idea.

29 Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart;

 30 For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell. (3 Nephi 12:29-30)

Jesus makes it a commandment to guard our hearts so that we keep lust (and other ungodly desires) from entering.  AS someone has said before, maybe the bird lands on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest there. 

It is clear Jesus recognizes the difficulty of keeping this commandment, especially if there have been previous problems.  He calls it “tak[ing] up your cross.”  That implies to me a daily burden, a decision made every day that requires great care and self-denial.  I love that He says taking up that cross is better than being cast into hell because it exalts that painful watchfulness into a legitimate part of His higher law.  Thus, anyone who is recovering from an addiction need not think of the hard work of vigilance they do to stay clean as something that only brings them up to the level of ordinary morality.  Rather, it puts them on the higher way—Jesus’s way.  It is, after all, what He commanded as part of the higher law. 

I’m rather stunned to discover this.  I never thought of it in that way before!  What do you think?

Bonus: I found a neat PDF of Semitic idioms in the Bible that explains the meaning of some phrases that are odd in the KJV because they were idioms literally translated instead of explained.  Very instructive; I recommend it.  (It even had a bit about the plucking out of eyes and cutting off of hands, showing that it was an Aramaic idiom meaning about the same as stated above.)

The lunatic son and lunatic Israel

14 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to [Jesus] a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. (Matthew 17:14-17)

Verse 17 always puzzled me. I couldn’t figure out why Jesus spoke of the generation as faithless and perverse after the father’s petition to heal his son. Shouldn’t Jesus be talking to the father? Wasn’t the father rather faithless for saying the apostles couldn’t cure his lunatic son? Or was He addressing the disciples, since they didn’t have the faith to heal the man’s lunatic son? (If that was the case, why say “faithless and perverse generation” instead of “faithless and perverse disciples”?)

Today I realized that this is actually another case where Jesus tried to use the event to teach the people the eternal perspective. Jesus spoke the words in verse 17 as if He were Heavenly Father who was having the very same troubles with His children in Israel as the father was having with his lunatic son.

The father had no doubt often commanded and reminded his son to be careful around the fire or water and warned him of the harm he could suffer, but the son seemed to have no faith in those warnings and deliberately disobeyed in the most unreasonable way in spite of the consequences that often happened—many bad burns and near-drownings. Deliberately disobeying like that was very perverse.

In the same way, Heavenly Father had often given commandments to His children designed to keep them safe and many warnings about what would happen if they disobeyed, yet they seemed to have no faith in those commandments and often got themselves into terrible trouble and probably would have been destroyed long ago if Heavenly Father hadn’t delivered them many times. The Old Testament often reads like a case study of lunatic Israel.

When Jesus asked “How long shall I suffer you?” it was as if He put himself in the place of the father who has dealt with a problem for so long that he is thoroughly tired of it and wonders just how long this can possibly go on, wondering how much longer it is possible to stand it. Jesus could also have been wondering how long He’d have to suffer in Gethsemane because of the people’s sins.

“How long shall I be with you?” Just like a father who worries how a wayward child will ever survive when dad is gone, Jesus also worried the same way. Jesus personally wouldn’t be around for very long, and if Israel couldn’t get its act together during that time, Jesus knew it would have great difficulty without Him.

This story shows me that when I deliberately break the commandments, I’m no different from that lunatic son. Breaking the commandments = insanity.

It is interesting that Matthew records the father calling his son “lunatick” instead of “mad,” since “mad” is the more common term for insanity in the scriptures. (The scriptures use “mad” and its variations 25 times, but “lunatick” is only used twice.) The first part of the word “luna” referred to the moon, and it suggests that the strange behavior was associated with the phase of the moon. I’m not trying to say that the moon was influencing the son; rather, it seems this word expressed that the son’s perversity was of a cyclical nature—not daily, but stretched out over a longer period of weeks. Probably he was okay for a while, but then his dangerous behavior would start again, as if he had completely forgot the painful consequences he had experienced the last time he had done it. The dangerous and perverse behavior would run its course and bring its painful consequences, and then the son would come to himself and behave better for a period.. until the next time. I believe this is known today as “binge behavior.”

Seen from this perspective, I’m sure we can all identify with the lunatic son in some way. There are a number of behaviors associated with binge cycles. Some of the extreme ones are pornography, domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse, gambling, excessive spending, bulimia, and physical risk taking. But there are seemingly milder binge behaviors as well, such as binge eating, losing one’s temper, excessive shopping, excessive texting and cell phone use, excessive internet use, etcetera. Almost anything can become binge behavior. Binge cycles can become shorter and shorter until they are addictions. Binge cycles, when they are active, manifest sudden bursts of uncontrollable behavior (indicating loss of agency) interspersed with long periods of moderate behavior. It is just as important to conquer them as if they were full addictions.

18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. (Matthew 17:18-21)

We, like the lunatic son, may have been having the same trouble for a very long time and are probably stuck in a pattern of behavior. In this situation, it is very hard to imagine being able to conquer oneself. But Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you, ” which is to say that the smallest particle of faith is enough to move a heaping mountain of bad habit out of our lives. He also acknowledged the difficulty of the problem required some extraordinary measures—“this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” No doubt He was thinking of Isaiah’s words about fasting: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)

One of my binge behaviors that I had to conquer was going to bed too late. I used prayer and covenant-making in order to overcome it. (You can read about that in my post “There’s more to covenants than meets the eye” You’ll have to scroll down a significant distance before you get to it though.) While the resolution didn’t involve fasting, it did involve prayer and a mustard seed-sized particle of faith. And since it was successful, I suppose that fasting would have helped that much more.

I also found a website that has free self-evaluative quizzes that you can take to determine whether you have internet, cell phone, gambling, shopping, eating, alcohol, and drug addictions. I found out that I am borderline addicted to the internet, so I will definitely need to do some fasting and praying about that.

With Jesus’s help, let’s overcome our lunacies!