Christ still gives glory to the Father

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. (D&C 19:18-19)

I think it is notable that Christ gives glory to the Father in the midst of telling how hard it was to bear the sins of the world. Look at that last dash in the text and think about all the things He could have said following it.

He could have forgotten to give that credit for His success and take all the credit for Himself, but He didn’t. This shows how serious He is about doing the will of the Father and giving the Father the glory. He was serious when He said, “Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.”

It’s a nice reminder that I need to give the Father credit for my successes. After all, He gave me my life, He has supported me from day to day, lending my breath, letting me move and try things. Even allowing me to make mistakes (though I would prefer not to). All the intelligence I gain is from learning principles that He knew first and has shared with humanity. Any good I do is because I learned His commandments and felt inspired by the Spirit to do it. Any sins I’m forgiven of through repentance are because He put the Plan of Salvation in place so I could repent.

Some thoughts on a story of Joseph Smith’s kindness

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The July 107 Ensign had an article called “Kindness” in which one of the example stories was of a time the prophet Joseph Smith showed kindness. To me this story is familiar, but I was struck by a deeper truth in it when I read it this time.

The prophet Joseph Smith showed kindness one day when two children got their feet stuck in the mud on the way to school. They both began to cry because they couldn’t get loose. When Joseph saw the predicament, he bent down and pulled each child out of the mud. He cleaned the mud from their shoes. Then he took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away their tears. The children smiled as he spoke kind words to them and then sent them on their way. (p55)

When I think about the context of this story, I imagine it was after a hard rain, and with no hard pavement, the roads were a morass of mud and this was what the children got stuck in, simply by heading for their destination at school. I noticed Joseph went above and beyond the hoped-for help. Not only did he free the children, but he cleaned them off and comforted them. He may have been thinking that if he sent them to school muddy they would get a tongue-lashing from their teacher for coming in with such muddy shoes. He probably had to scrape clods of mud off and  rinse their shoes at a pump nearby.

I also noticed this little story is a neat analogy of how Christ saves us. He finds us stuck in the mud of sin on our journey through life. He finds us crying because we can’t get loose ourselves. He pulls us out, cleans us up, dries our tears and comforts us, and gets us moving again in the right direction so we can arrive clean at our destination of eternal life.

3 Scriptures with neat things to say about the atonement

As I was studying for a Sunday School lesson on the atonement, I found three scriptures that talked about it with interesting imagery. As I thought about each of them, I really liked the implications of those images, so I wanted to share them with you.

1)   Isaiah 53:12 “…he hath poured out his soul unto death”

I get an image of pouring water out of a pitcher until it is all gone. But instead of water, this is Christ’s soul that is poured out of His body. And He’s the one doing the pouring, not those who crucified Him. So this teaches in an interesting way that He was the one who had control over whether He’d die or not.  

It also might say He gave His all. He poured all of Himself into His ministry until His death.

2)   Isaiah 25:8  “He will swallow up death in victory”

This uses the idea of swallowing something unpleasant. I think this tells us about how Christ tasted and ate death, then rose again afterwards. I think it also teaches about how He tasted all the bitterness of our sins and weakness and afflictions and infirmities when He suffered for us, and He overcame it all so we can too.

3)   Hosea 13:14  “…O death, I will be thy plagues…”

This uses the image of a plague that sweeps through a town and uses it to describe how Christ’s victory over death would spread.  I think our knowledge of disease makes this even more meaningful today. You catch the life disease from contact with someone who is alive, and it starts to grow and multiply in you as the natural man’s antibodies fight it desperately, but if you give in to it, you can carry it to others and get a full-blown case of eternal life!   And when our bodies lie in the grave, maybe resurrection will be like disease reversed.  I really like the idea of death dying of the Christ plague.

Something else I think this teaches is the inevitable nature of catching physical life from Christ.  Sooner or later we’ll all get it, but we get to choose whether we’ll be in the first wave or not.

A meditation on the atonement of Christ

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Our Sunday school class last week spent some time thinking and talking about these verses:

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:11-12)

Over and over, my fellow Saints observed in different ways that it is neat to know that Christ can help us, not just with removing our sins, but also with our pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities.

The question is, how? How will Christ help us?  Well, we don’t exactly know how.  We know the mechanism is Christ’s grace and mercy, but we don’t know how and what Christ will do in any particular situation that we bring to Him.  We have to find out.   We have to trust that He has experienced it, and then call upon God and ask for help, then continue to cope in as best we can, while looking for His grace. 

At the risk of sharing too much, I’m going to give a recent example from my life.  About a week ago I had very bad cramps and bloating associated with my menstrual cycle.  It woke me up in the very early morning.  For the next hour I coped with the pain, trying to deal with it in different ways (including pain relievers and such).   My sincere question at that time was, “How can the atonement of Christ help me with this?” and I prayed for mercy and to be helped through it.

In some miraculous way I was helped through it.   At the time I couldn’t tell I was being helped, and afterward at first all I knew was that somehow I had been helped.  I had to think about it to be able to understand.  So here’s how I think I was helped. 1) I got ideas of how to move around such that a new position would bring about the next bit of progression through it.  2) Praying my way through it and pondering how the atonement might help me kept my mind off the pain and kept me from getting frustrated. 3) Even though the whole process lasted an hour, it didn’t feel so long because I was concentrated on praying and pondering. 4) My husband woke up near the end and gave me a blessing, so I had some company. 5) I was able to go back to sleep afterwards for three hours.

This was how the atonement helped me with this experience. If my circumstances were different, the divine help might have come in a slightly different way. 

Still, it taught me that using the atonement in our lives often requires experimenting and asking for help in a situation where we may wonder if the atonement can be used.  (Oh look! Experimenting is an opportunity for exploration and adventure of a spiritual nature!)  

We may wonder, how is the atonement of Christ going to help me with this?  But I learned that if we pray for mercy and strength, then re-engage in the problem, pondering and looking for the hand of the Lord, we will receive help.  And when we have been helped, we need to record what happened so that we can remember for later. These experiences tend to fade too quickly.  But if we can remember, they encourage us to keep experimenting with new ways to use the atonement.

That a righteous judgment might come

Here are part of King Benjamin’s words about Christ which he shares with his people as they had been given him by an angel:

And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men. (Mosiah 3:10)

That bit at the end is intriguing as it suggests that Christ’s atonement and resurrection (which leads to the resurrection of all men) had to happen in order to bring about a righteous judgment on mankind, as if justice would be frustrated otherwise.

In what way would this be the case?

Well, we know that every person becomes spiritually alienated from God from their very first sin committed contrary to their knowledge of the commandments. Without the atonement of Christ, not only would man stay alienated from God, but after death they would never receive their body back, and they would remain cast out of God’s presence, and there would be no chance for additional judgment beyond their first fall.  No final judgment. 

Further, if man happened to do any good works before their fall, he would have no opportunity to be rewarded for those works because the fall would have alienated them from God forever already.

So, the atonement was needed to bring man back into the presence of God for final judgment so that they could receive reward for good works as well as punishment for evil not repented of.  Righteous judgment requires that good be rewarded, not just for evil to be punished.

And the atonement makes it possible for us to do good even after having fallen. 

The thing is, any good we do we owe to God. We would not know what was good without the light of Christ, our conscience within us. We would not know how to improve without revelation to us of the way. We would not have power to overcome the natural man without the enticing of the Holy Ghost.  Everything good about us we owe to God in one way or another. 

It’s taken me a long time to realize that, but I think I’m okay with that.  When I was young, I wanted to be good on my own.  I thought I could be good separate from any help from God.  But the longer I live and learn, the more I see that there’s nothing good in me that I wasn’t given from God, starting with being a child of God with divine potential.  

I’m happy with that because it means I can really depend on God if I let myself.  (The question is if I can keep letting myself.) 

Every valley shall be exalted

Every valley shall be exalted,

and every mountain and hill made low;

the crooked straight,

and the rough places plain.

(Isaiah 40:4)

For the longest time I read this scripture as referring only to changes to the geography of the earth at Christ’s second coming.  But over time I’ve come to realize that the more profound lesson it has for us is a symbolic message about the ability of Christ’s atonement to change people.  This is the message we can use every day of our lives.

Just like there is variety to geography, there is variety in people.  Just like the earth has valleys and mountains, among people we find the humble and downtrodden and depressed, as well as the proud and tyrannizing.  Christ’s atonement has the ability to correct those conditions all in the best way. 

Just like there are crooked places, there are crooked people, both physically and spiritually.  Christ’s atonement can fix that.  He can straighten people’s character and He can heal crooked limbs.

Just like there are rough and bumpy places on the earth that can be planed down, nearly every human being has rough places in their character, and Christ’s atonement can plane those down.  He is a refiner and polisher.

 

Neat principles in what Alma quotes Zenos about prayer

In this section of verses, Alma goes after the Zoramite mistaken notion that the only place they could worship was in the synagogue.

2 And Alma said unto them: Behold, ye have said that ye could not worship your God because ye are cast out of your synagogues. But behold, I say unto you, if ye suppose that ye cannot worship God, ye do greatly err, and ye ought to search the scriptures; if ye suppose that they have taught you this, ye do not understand them.

3 Do ye remember to have read what Zenos, the prophet of old, has said concerning prayer or worship?

4 For he said: Thou art merciful, O God, for thou hast heard my prayer, even when I was in the wilderness; yea, thou wast merciful when I prayed concerning those who were mine enemies, and thou didst turn them to me.

5 Yea, O God, and thou wast merciful unto me when I did cry unto thee in my field; when I did cry unto thee in my prayer, and thou didst hear me.

6 And again, O God, when I did turn to my house thou didst hear me in my prayer.

7 And when I did turn unto my closet, O Lord, and prayed unto thee, thou didst hear me.

8 Yea, thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men, and thou wilt hear them.

9 Yea, O God, thou hast been merciful unto me, and heard my cries in the midst of thy congregations.

10 Yea, and thou hast also heard me when I have been cast out and have been despised by mine enemies; yea, thou didst hear my cries, and wast angry with mine enemies, and thou didst visit them in thine anger with speedy destruction.

11 And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son. (Alma 33:2-11)

The repeated phrases of this section should stand out. (I marked them here so they become more obvious.)  Count how many times “thou art merciful” and variations are used.  Count how many times “thou didst hear me” and variations are used.  Count how many times “because of thy son” is used. This is the message that Zenos wanted to hammer into the people—“thou didst hear me and thou wast merciful because of thy Son.”

The part of Zenos which Alma quotes is interesting because it is essentially a prayer of realization as Zenos reports to the Lord what he’s learned about prayer from experience. It is interesting this prayer was written down. We usually don’t write down prayers; we usually say them. However, Zenos felt this one important enough to save for himself and others.  It is also possible that Zenos felt the only way he could teach his people about prayer was during a prayer (if they were getting hard-hearted).

Modern instances of prayers written down include temple dedicatory prayers—the Kirtland temple’s dedicatory prayer is in the Doctrine and Covenants—and a few others. When reading the first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, I was touched to see that many times Joseph Smith recorded his prayers for the cause of Zion and for individuals in the church, even if his prayers were brief. For some years afterward I experimented with writing prayers in my journal concerning different things I recorded.

Back to the above verses.  The first thing Alma does is preface the Zenos quotation with a statement that it teaches worship can be done outside of synagogue or church.  He essentially equates prayer with worship, and this is enlightening. Communication with our Heavenly Father can be considered worship. We usually think of worship as an exalting thing that widens the distance between man and God, but prayer as communication closes that distance, bringing man to God instead of pushing him away and downward. I don’t think prayer is the only means of worship, but it is definitely one aspect.

Another thing we can notice about the Zenos section is Zenos reports his prayers have been heard and answered when offered from a variety of places—in the wilderness, in his field, in his house, in his closet, in the midst of “thy congregations,” or after having been cast out.  It is also implied that Zenos was heard even in sin, since he says the Lord turned judgments away from him. Clearly anyplace is a good place for prayer.

Something I notice is that only a few of those prayers are declared to have visible effects that involve other people, and yet Zenos says multiple times, “thou didst hear me.” A question we can ask ourselves is, “Do we feel the Lord hearing us even if we don’t yet see a change in our circumstances?”

I can testify that I have felt the Lord hear my prayers. I don’t know if I can describe it, but it is like a silent message felt in my core—“I hear you. I’m listening.”  Something feels different about the air, like someone loving, caring, and interested is there.  Like there could be invisible beings listening.  You probably have had this same experience.

Another neat thing is how this all answers the Zoramite questions. If you remember, after Alma got finished comparing the word to a seed that could be planted and nourished, part of what the Zoramites wanted to know next was HOW they should begin to exercise their faith.  The simple, short answer of Alma 33 is just three easy things: 1) pray 2) read the scriptures 3) believe Christ can save you in any predicament. 

Doesn’t that sound like the perfect way to begin building faith? I must be very slow because I never connected that together until when I started studying this chapter more closely, and I think it is SO COOL!!   If any time we feel lacking in faith or feeling unstable in the gospel, if we go back to those three basic practices – and it takes practice—we will start building our faith more.  No longer do we need to flop around helplessly, flailing in our doubts, seeking refuge in worldly things.  Just go straight to prayer, scripture study, and belief in Christ’s salvation.

Verse 8 tells us there can’t be any pretense in our prayers. “Thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men.” Heavenly Father knows us inside and out. He knows if we’re just praying for other people to admire us. He knows when we’re just making a public performance out of it solely for our own prestige. 

In Zenos’ prayer he says over and over that he did “cry” unto God.  When we are in deep distress there can certainly be tears involved, but I think he mostly means he raised his voice loudly in his prayers. It may be hard to imagine praying like this. Usually we think of prayers as being silent or quiet reverent things. Zenos shows us that Heavenly Father hears us even when we are loud.

I have personal experience with praying loudly. Usually my prayers get loud when I am frustrated. I feel most comfortable with loud prayers when I’m alone. It feels odd at first, but it has become more natural, and I know the Lord has heard me. I have complained, I have vented when my weaknesses have messed things up, I have railed against my ignorance, I have thrashed in uncertainty about what I should do, I have ranted about overwhelm and fear.  Heavenly Father has heard my cries, and I’ve felt that.

Another cool thing about Zenos’ prayer is it shows us different ways the Lord can help us deal with enemies when we pray. Verse 4 tells how Zenos prayed about his enemies and the Lord turned his enemies so they became friends. Verse 10 tells us that after Zenos had been cast out and despised by other enemies, the Lord was angry with his enemies and destroyed them.  (We also get another possible response from Nephi, who prayed about his brothers who were his enemies and he was directed to leave them.)   In passing, I have to note that the possibility that the Lord would punish the enemies of the righteous who are cast out and despised foreshadows how the poor Zoramites would be cast out and how the wicked Zoramites would eventually destroy themselves in battling the Nephites. 

The Zenos mentions his prayers are heard and mercy is given “because of thy Son,” which shows us that there was knowledge among the Jews during Old Testament times that there was a Father and a Son who would come. Our Old Testament only speaks of Jehovah, so Zeno’s knowledge (and also Zenock’s later in the chapter) shows us that by some means that knowledge of Father and Son had been suppressed.

In verse 11, there is something else to give us faith to pray, which I’ve touched on a little before. “for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son.”  Zenox learned he could pray for forgiveness and he would still be heard in his sinful state. This lets us know we are not stuck in some radio silence away from heaven because of our sins and weaknesses.  We can reach out. Zenos also knew when he was forgiven. He knew judgments had been turned away from him. He could feel it.  I believe we can look for that too as we pray for forgiveness.

Verse 11 gives us another truth—“thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me.”  Zenos knew Heavenly Father could hear his prayers, but he didn’t get confused about how Christ’s atonement fit into that. He knew that without the atonement, Heavenly Father would still hear prayers, but would be unable to show mercy because of our fallen state.  Prayers are mercifully answered specifically because of the atonement of Christ.  If we ever wondered why prayer has power, now we know why. Our prayers use the atonement. 

So, let’s see if we can pull together a list of principles from this prayer of Zenos.

·      God mercifully answers our prayers because of Christ.

·      We are heard when we pray for forgiveness. We will know judgments have been turned away.

·      The Father and the Son were known in the Old Testament.

·      We can pray about our enemies.

·      We can cry to the Lord. We can know He has heard us.

·      Pretentious prayer is bad, so we should pray to be heard by God.

·      Prayer is a way for us to begin to exercise our faith.

·      The Lord will hear our prayers anywhere.

·      Prayer can be written and recorded.

Today let’s try to make our prayers more meaningful and concentrate on hearing and feeling responses from the Lord.

What the creation tells us about the atonement

I was in the temple recently watching the creation narrative and it struck me how much the creation tells us about the atonement of Christ.

The great power God has to create worlds tell us about His power to create great changes.  We need to change when we repent and the greater the change we need, the more we need that assurance that Christ has that power.

His ability to bring plants and animals tells us about His ability to help us grow. We need that for faith in His power (grace) to help us reach greater levels of righteousness than we've ever had before.

The long period of time it took to create the world tells us about His great patience. If He could wait for the earth to obey His commands, He is going to be patient with us as we grow.  He can't be discouraged.  (But just because He could wait for the earth doesn't mean that we have all the time in the world to do our part.  We only have so much time in mortality to do our changing and improving in, so the sooner we get cracking, the better for us.)

The way God pronounced it all good when it was done gives us hope that when we have finished progressing, He will similarly pronounce us good as well. It tells us God's approval can be attained. (What a wonderful thing that will be!)

David delivers Saul’s sons to the Gibeonites

1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,

6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them. (2 Sam. 21:1-6)

This is a rather odd story. 

If you remember, the Gibeonites were people who tricked Joshua into making a league with them when the Israelites were entering the land.  They were allowed to stay and became servants to the Israelites.

Evidently one of the perfidious things Saul had done was he had broken that league and killed Gibeonites and the Lord wasn’t happy about it and wanted to use the famine to bring that to remembrance so that David would make it right.

At David’s question of how to make it right, the Gibeonites asked that seven of Saul’s sons be given them to be hung up unto the Lord in Gibeah.  And David consented to this.

Just who was executed is a little in doubt because in v7 it says Mephibosheth was not delivered to them, but in the very next verse it says he was.  Also, v8 says five sons of Michal were delivered over, but earlier in 2 Samuel it is said that Michal never had children.  (It could have just referred to children by her other husband that Saul gave her to, and before David got her back again.)

Now, in principle, this story is weird because the whole of Israel is plagued for the sins of one man and then Saul’s sons (who we presume are innocent) are put to death as restitution for those sins.

However, if we see this story as yet another type of Christ’s sacrifice in the scriptures, we can gain instruction from it.  The whole nation of Israel is plagued by the sin of Saul, corresponding to how the whole world is plagued by the sin of Adam and the fall, and we all partake in it.  To make it right, the king’s sons are executed, even though they are innocent, thereby prefiguring how Christ, an innocent man, gave Himself to atone so that we could escape the punishment.

Where is Christ in the story of David and Goliath?

What can we learn about Christ from the story of David and Goliath?  We might see Him in the question David asks of the soldiers when he sees Goliath mocking:

“What shall be done to the man that…taketh away the reproach from Israel?” (1 Samuel 17:26)

Christ took away our sins, and thus took away our reproach.

Interestingly enough, the answer is given in the verse before:

…the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.” (1 Samuel 17:25)

Christ’s reward for taking away the reproach of Israel would be:

--Great riches from Heavenly Father (all the Father hath)

--Marriage to the king’s daughter.  This could be both literal and spiritual.  Spiritually the Father has given the whole church to Christ as part of the new and everlasting covenant.

--Freedom of all Heavenly Father’s family.  All are made free from death by the gift of the resurrection, and all who believe in Christ and repent can be made free from their sins forever.

It is neat to see this parallel where I didn’t expect it.

The Ransom for a Census

12 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.

13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.

14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord.

15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.

16 And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. (Exodus 30:12-16)

It seems odd that a census might require a ransom to be paid for all the males to prevent a plague, but the language of “ransom” and “to make an atonement for your souls” should tip us off that the Lord wanted to use the occasion of a census to teach something about Christ’s atonement.

In verse 12, notice the repetition of the thought:

“when thou takest the sum of the children of Israel”

“when thou numberest them”

“when thou numberest them”

Who is “thou”?  “Thou” is the prophet.  So the occasion is the numbering the males by the prophet, which would require everyone to come to the prophet’s presence to be counted, either bodily or by representation.  This might be symbolic of the truth that someday everyone would stand before the Lord to be judged.   Counting and giving an account are very near concepts to each other.    Without any atonement, no one could come back into the presence of God; all would merit death.   This truth is represented by warning a plague would reduce the number of Israelite men if they don’t pay a ransom.

This teaches me that I remain on this earth on the sufferance of my Heavenly Father and that because of Christ’s atonement, someday I will be resurrected and come back into His presence to give an account of my life.  I want to be prepared for that day and Christ provides the means for that too.

The Priestly Crown

36 ¶And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, Holiness to the Lord.

37 And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.

38 And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. (Exodus 28:36-39)

I have read somewhere that this plate of gold with HOLINESS TO THE LORD engraved on it is essentially a crown.  It doesn’t look like what we think a crown should be though, which is probably a good thing, just like real authority doesn’t look like what we think it should. 

The footnote about HOLINESS TO THE LORD says it means CONSECRATED TO THE LORD or “set apart for holy purposes.”

I think it is very interesting that verse 38 says this forehead plate means “Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts.”    We don’t usually think of holy things as having iniquity.  We usually think of them as being holy from the very beginning.  But this verse hints at an important principle.  It teaches us that before a holy gift is offered, it is not yet holy; it is still profane.  And for it to become holy, that profane state has to be removed by atonement.    The symbolism of Aaron bearing the iniquity of the holy things teaches us that Christ’s atonement doesn’t just sanctify us, it is instrumental in taking away the state of being profane from our gifts, thereby making them holy.  It sanctifies our tithing, our fast offerings, our temples when they are dedicated, our churches, our sacrament bread and water, our service when we are set apart for callings, our temple garments, and so on.  If it weren’t for the atonement, these things could not be made holy, nor could they be instrumental in changing us for the better.  The atonement makes it so those gifts (and by extension all the commandments that we keep) are counted to us for righteousness.

This really changes my perspective of the atonement of Christ.  It teaches me that nothing I do is good of itself because I am fallen, but that it is Christ’s atonement that enables me to do all my service and everything good.  It brings new meaning to Moroni 7:24 where it says, “and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them.”  It teaches me that good acts are miracles of Christ’s atonement, and we may be seeing many miracles in our lives without recognizing them.  So, we could write in our journals every day the good things we have done and acknowledge they are miracles of the atonement working in our lives.  Just that by itself would demonstrate that the day of miracles has not ceased.

What miracles have you seen in your life this week?

The Breastplate of Judgment

http://karengracehopper.blogspot.com/2012/01/breastplate-of-righteousness.html

15 ¶And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it….

17 And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row.

18 And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.

19 And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.

20 And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.

21 And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes….

29 And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.

30 ¶And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. (Exodus 28:29-30)

I think we learn something about Christ that is typified through the breastplate of judgment.  Just as Aaron was to wear this breastplate over his heart when in the temple, Christ was to always remember the children of Israel.  The use of gems to represent Israel’s tribes shows us that Israel is very precious to Christ.  Each gem is different, signifying their individuality and I think that also applies to us as well.

The Urim and Thummim (an instrument of revelation) is also positioned over the heart, which tells us that Christ would constantly have and live by revelation in His dealings with and judgments of Israel. 

We are told Aaron would “bear the judgment of the children of Israel,” which suggests Christ’s future atonement for their sins.

Something I find interesting is that it was to be “memorial before the Lord continually.”   Just as we promise to always remember Christ, it seems the Lord wants us to know that Christ will always remember us.  I think my “always” needs more work if it is to match His “always.”  How about you?