Mormon’s analysis of the spiritual result of the Amlicite-Nephite battles

25 Now all these things were done, yea, all these wars and contentions were commenced and ended in the fifth year of the reign of the judges.

26 And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one.

 27 For every man receiveth wages of him whom he listeth to obey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to the truth. And thus endeth the fifth year of the reign of the judges. (Alma 3:25-27)

After all the messy battles with the Amlicites are over, Mormon gives us this sum-up statement.

What Mormon implies but doesn’t say is that this shows us how quickly people can meet their end. In one year these contentions started and brought on a war that expanded, and the Lamanites were drawn into it, and by the end, tens of thousands of people were dead, all of whom probably expected to live a full life.

Because death can come when it isn’t expected, it is best for us to repent day by day and live our lives righteously so that we are not caught unawares if it comes sooner than expected.  The Nephites had had quite a long stretch of peace, and yet, in that one year it all broke down.  Living in America, we’ve had a long stretch of civil peace, so we might think it couldn’t happen here, but can we say that we are better than the Nephites?  That peace could be shattered more easily than we think, so we are not so secure as we might think.

It is also interesting that Mormon mentions this concept of which spirit one lists to obey.  The archaic meaning of list is “want or like.”  If think what you list, then you think what you like. 

Another meaning of list is related to shipping.  If a ship lists, it leans to one side because of the weight put on that side of a boat.  So if you list to obey a particular spirit, you lean toward or have a preference for obeying that particular spirit because of the weight or importance you put on what it says.

It is worth thinking about the kinds of impulses we have a tendency to follow in life.  Are they angry?  Criticizing? Procrastinating? Punishing? Kind? Honest? Greedy?  Lustful?  Amusement-seeking?  Loving? Industrious?  Generous?

Mormon also says that every man receives wages of that spirit they list to obey.  So it is worth thinking about the wages we will receive from the particular spirit we follow.  What are the wages of procrastination and delay?  Lack of readiness and sloth and non-completion of tasks and a sense of non-efficacy.  What are the wages of industriousness?  A sense of power and satisfaction.  Enjoying the fruits of our labors, and so on. 

Today let’s determine to list away from those spirits that entice us to bad things and list to obey the Spirit of the Lord.

Lessons from how the JST illuminates the parable of the laborers in the vineyard

The verses I want to blog about today (Matthew 19:16 – 20:16) have three different stories all linked together and which I think need to be read together so that they can be fully understood.  First the rich young man who declines to sell all he has to give to the poor and follow Jesus at Jesus’s invitation.  Second, the clarification to the disciples of how difficult conversion is for the rich and an explanation of the heavenly reward for difficult sacrifices.  Third, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard who are all paid equally even though they were hired at different times of the day.

I think the key to it all starts with the JST of Matt. 19:26 as Jesus explains who can be saved if it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God:

KJV	JST
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.	But Jesus beheld their thoughts, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but if they will forsake all things for my sake, with God whatsoever things I speak are possible.

So Jesus puts the spotlight on how the sacrifice of all things for Christ’s sake is an important principle of salvation, and of course we are to understand that the rich are very reluctant to sacrifice, which keeps them out of the kingdom.

So then the disciples ask what the reward of their sacrifice will be, since they have given everything up to follow Jesus, and Jesus tells them how they will be given a hundredfold of what good things they had to give up, and receive eternal life.  But then He adds a caveat that the first will be last and the last will be first, and He tells the parable of the laborers in the vineyard to illustrate what He means.

The parable shows laborers who were called to work latest getting their wages first, and the first laborers becoming miffed that working all day didn’t give them a bigger reward.  If we only focus on the time factor, we only get part of the message.  We are meant to understand that the length of time we are part of the kingdom doesn’t matter as much as something else.

There is something the first laborers say in their complaint—“Thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.” (Matt 20:12)  They are complaining, but if they could only see from the master’s perspective, a more optimistic view, this could become a cry of triumph and praise—“Thou hast made them equal spiritually unto us!”  A certain thing has made them equal, worthy of the same reward, but the first laborers don’t understand what it is.

This factor is SACRIFICE, as Jesus mentioned earlier.  We don’t get this from the parable very well because the laborers were standing idle before they were hired, but we can easily see it if we think about what it takes to be converted earlier in life versus later in life.  For those converted early in life, the sacrifice happens as they remain faithful all their lives.  For those converted late in life, they sacrifice all they have been and done previously, all the life they previously built for themselves, as well as their sacrifices to remain faithful afterward.  If we are inclined to dismiss someone else’s sacrifice, we will certainly find ourselves among those complaining laborers, thinking someone else is not worthy of the reward the Lord gives and expecting more ourselves.

I also believe that when the day of judgment comes and the rewards are given out, they will be given out in the order described in that parable.  Those who converted latest in life will be rewarded first and those of us who have grown up in the church will receive our rewards last.

Why will it be done like this?  I think Heavenly Father and Jesus understand how anxious will be those who converted late in life, and it is done this way to reassure them. 

Just imagine if you had converted at age 86 and you saw that the “lifers” were rewarded first?  You’d really worry you’d be found unworthy of glory in the highest degree, wouldn’t you?  You’d worry you’d only end up with a lower degree of glory, wouldn’t you?  Now imagine you (still an 86-year-old convert) watch someone in front of you who was converted at age 96 getting their full reward of glory in the highest degree.  You’d then be completely reassured and be able to wait with joyful anticipation, wouldn’t you?   You can also see that while the rewards are given out this way it will be so easy to fall into the error of thinking the reward would be greater the longer you’ve been in the church.  This is why we have to be aware that the important principle that makes us equal is sacrificing all things for the Lord’s sake.

And again, this is why the parable ends with the words “So the last will be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matt 20:16).  Indeed, many are called to sacrifice, but few have chosen to sacrifice all things for the Lord’s sake.  And we don’t know what others have sacrificed to join the church, but the neat thing is that God makes us all equal as we sacrifice all for Him.

Shall In Nowise Lose Their Reward

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. 

And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. (D&C 58:28)

That bit “they shall in nowise lose their reward” at the end caught me for some reason.  It is peculiar phrasing to say that we will “in nowise lose our reward” instead of “we shall be rewarded.”

But I think there is a reassuring quality in the language that implies that it may seem like we are not rewarded in the short term, but in the long term the reward is there waiting for us and can’t be taken away.  That is reassuring.  If we were told “you shall be rewarded,” we would be looking for it to come more immediately, yes?

Adonai-bezek and the Law of the Harvest

4 And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.

5 And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

7 And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. (Judges 1:4-7)

This is kind of a gruesome story, but it is also instructive, so we can see why it was recorded.  At the bottom of it we see the Canaanite king, this fellow Adonai-bezek, announcing that the suffering inflicted upon him is exactly what he deserves.  Even more, he sees the hand of the Lord in it, as the reward according to what he had done to others. 

The sad thing is that he waited too late to see the Lord behind things.  He could only see the Lord in the penalty; he was too hard-hearted to see the Lord in whatever warnings came his way, as they would.  The Lord allowed the thing that Adonai-bezek inflicted upon other conquered kings to come upon him.

Adonai-bezek thinks it was just.  But was it really?  It we look at Adonai-bezek’s case in terms of the Law of Moses eye-for-an-eye ethic, what was done to him was far less than he deserved.  He cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 kings and he didn’t have enough digits for this to be revisited upon him.  Moreover, there were all the atrocities he committed in connection with the conquering of those kings, which, judging from those mutilations, would not have been as simple as just killing people. 

In short, Adonai-bezek thought God’s justice had been satisfied merely with his mutilation, but it was very far from being satisfied.  It was just Adonai-bezek’s idea of justice he was talking about, and even then he ignored those demands for a very long time.  If that is a king’s idea of justice, what kind of idea do we get about what his society was like?

In terms of justice, Adonai-bezek should have been executed.  And in fact, Israel had been commanded to kill all the Canaanites and Perizzites (and six other peoples in the land) but they disobeyed by sparing his life and mutilating him instead. 

I think a warning principle from this story that we can apply to ourselves is we do not feel the full extent of God’s justice for our sins in this life.  Like Adonai-bezek we may be punished a little bit and think we have experienced justice, but in actuality the full and very terrible weight is waiting for us on the other side.  If we all were given what we deserve right now, we would all perish because we have all sinned.   But our life is prolonged to give us a chance to choose to repent and have faith in Christ and follow him.

Do Not Alms to Be Seen of Men

1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

 2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (Matt. 6:1-2)

I used to think this verse meant we should try to make all our good works as anonymous as possible, but lately I’ve been thinking that isn’t necessarily where the emphasis is. 

When Jesus uses the phrase “take heed that ye..” He is usually about to warn us to watch out for a particular mindset or thought pattern that can get us in spiritual trouble.  (You can do a search for scriptures that use this phrase and find out some interesting things.)  The thought pattern He warns us of here is the motivation for doing “alms” (or good works) “to be seen of men.”  Verse 2 expands on the effect of this motivation and points out that it leads to hypocrites sounding a trumpet in the synagogues and streets to do to try to get noticed and praised for their alms.

The trouble is that when people do good works just to be praised by others, you get a whole mess of loud PR efforts with everyone struggling for attention and praise.  It means that people begin to think that only large dramatic acts of charity are worth doing, and they begin to neglect that class of good works that are quiet, small, and simple, but which are often invisible.  Yet those small invisible acts are the kind of thing that make life more beautiful.  It also means that people begin to make decisions about doing good works not on the basis of it being good, but on the basis of how visible it will be.  (I suspect that modern technology and social media networks make this even more applicable for today…)

I get the sense that Jesus wanted us to understand that seeking praise from men is a form of idolatry—worshipping the approval of society.  That approval is paltry thing that doesn’t penetrate the soul, but washes away like water, and given effusively, it is addictive and corrosive.  The Lord tells us that when we do good works to be praised of men, we will get the reward we wanted—praise from men—but we’ll get nothing from God for it.  Instead, Jesus wants us to be seeking reward and praise from God, trusting that He sees everything we do, whether public or private, and that He will reward us in His time and way.  If we trust God sees everything, then we aren’t reluctant to do good works in small, invisible ways.  The Lord approval and praise is a much more lasting and soul-satisfying thing.  (I’ve had some occasions when I’ve felt it and tasted it for days.)

Part of the test of mortality is to see if we will do good things even when it seems like it isn't rewarded.  I suppose there will come a day when all the invisible good we've done will be made known and receive its full reward.

This brings me to an interesting question, and maybe you have some thoughts about it.  Where do you think is the balance between “not doing alms to be seen of men” and “letting your light so shine that men may see your good works and glory your Father in heaven”?  

Those Persecuted for Christ’s Sake: KJV versus 3 Nephi

KJV:

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you,

and persecute you,

and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,

for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:

for great is your reward in heaven:

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

(Matt. 5:11-12)

3 Nephi:

11 And blessed are ye when men shall revile you

and persecute,

and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,

for my sake;

12 For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad,

for great shall be your reward in heaven;

for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.

(3 Nephi 12:11-12)

In this block of verses, Jesus commends those who are persecuted for Christ’s sake.  3 Nephi 12 speaks of the reward of joy as something reserved for the future, unlike Matthew, which seems to command those persecuted to be glad in the middle of the pain they undergo.  To me, 3 Nephi seems more realistic; persecution is not fun to go through.  Joy tends to come after long spaces when we can look back and begin to understand and feel satisfied with how we made it through, rather than being pained and fearing a repetition.

Some might argue that the KJV’s language bringing the reward in heaven into the present tense is more powerful, but the reward isn’t just because you are persecuted for Christ’s sake.  It’s for staying faithful to the end, and you have to get to the end to see whether a reward is merited or not.

God is the reward

After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying,

Fear not, Abram:

I am thy shield,

and thy exceeding great reward.

(Genesis 15:1)

 I was looking at “reward” in the Topical Guide and I saw the above verse cited.  I saw it differently than I had before.  Previously, I thought “I am thy…exceeding great reward” just meant that it was Abram’s reward and privilege to have God in his life.

Today I realized Abram already had God in his life. He was promised more--the prospect of becoming like God.  The Lord meant, “I [or what I am] is thy exceeding great reward, what you can expect to become.” 

I love that the promise of becoming like God is recorded this early in the Bible.

The eternal wages of sowing the gospel

35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.  (John 4:35-38)

Here Jesus spoke to His disciples just before the people of Sychar came to see Jesus at the recommendation of the woman at the well.  The disciples are about to reap many souls ready to hear the truth when they didn’t have to do any searching for them or sowing gospel seeds.

I really like verse 36.  “[H]e that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.”   The first part we know; the reapers receive a great blessing of joy in the eternities for bringing souls to repentance, but the second part gets ignored, and it has a promise that I never noticed before-- “that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.”  That says to me that someday in the next life, the news will get out to all the people who sowed gospel seeds that they had a part in the bringing someone to salvation.   That means I will get to find out who got reaped.  I may find there are souls I seeded without even knowing it.

I will get to find out how all the gospel seeds I planted bore fruit and what part my influence played in the grand and gripping story of someone’s conversion.   With the person who reaped and the other people who planted seeds, I will get to rejoice that our work paid off.  

We know from D&C 18:15 that if we labor all our days crying repentance and bring only one soul to Christ, our joy will be great, but often the reaping may be far enough from the sowing that we don’t get to participate in that joy in this life, and others reap in our place.  Other times we may be the reapers of other peoples’ work to sow gospel seeds.

I like the promise of John 4:36 because I have been mostly a seed planter, not getting to see the reaping of souls.  We seeders occasionally wonder if we are doing any good.  Someday I’ll get to know.  Someday you’ll get to know too.  In the meantime, we sow.

Good desires and reward

And now I command you, that if you have good desires—a desire to lay up treasures for yourself in heaven—then shall you assist in bringing to light, with your gift, those parts of my scriptures which have been hidden because of iniquity. (D&C 6:27)

I like this verse because I feel like it doesn’t just speak to Oliver Cowdery about translating the Book of Mormon, but I feel it speaks to me and anyone else who works to understand the scriptures and write about them for other people.

I also like that it highlights that it is a good desire to want to lay up treasures in heaven. Laying up treasure in heaven usually means doing something that is not necessarily praised or rewarded on earth. It’s not rewarded on earth because the world doesn’t know how to estimate the true value of spiritual things, and even if it could, it doesn’t have the power or resources to reward adequately.

Fortunately, God can reward now and later, as is shown in v20, 33-34:

…Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love….

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

We see that we are rewarded by being encircled about in the arms of God’s love, we are promised a harvest of a good reward, and we are promised that we will prevail over the opposition that will come.

Which parts of this reward come now and which parts come later? In what ways have you felt that you’ve received some reward from God?

Three secret devotions with open rewards

In the scriptures there are three devotions that we are told to do in secret—alms, prayer, and fasting.

I think it is interesting that Christ would command that alms, prayers, and fasting should be kept secret. I suppose they are acts that are more visible than others, or can be. But perhaps the reason why Christ wanted them to be more private is so that they can be less forced and less pretentious, and more genuine, more focused on the individual’s true concerns, and so do them the most good.

Something that can easily happen in church is for people to be so intent on showing forth the fruits of Christianity that they begin to police each other and judge one another by what they see them doing. (“Is he really a saint? Is she really a Christian? Well, I saw him give a somebody a ride, and I saw her pray and she prayed well, so I guess they are good Christians.”) Or maybe we only imagine that others are looking at us this way.

The result of this is that we may feel we must put on some sort of show of righteousness to signal that we are okay, and that doing otherwise would attract attention and concern over our spiritual status.

Alms (charity)

1 Verily, verily, I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor; but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.
2 Therefore, when ye shall do your alms do not sound a trumpet before you, as will hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth;
4 That thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly. (3 Nephi 13:1-4)

Without any secret alms, we may feel pressured to give to “acceptable” charities, or give to the popular charities that are being pushed, even if we don’t really want to. The problem with this is that giving alms and charity doesn’t spiritually benefit us unless we truly want to help. Giving secretly takes all the pressure off so we truly have freedom to give. Secret giving means the amount can be what truly feels comfortable to us, rather than something that we feel we have to give to prevent others from thinking we are stingy. Secret giving means giving or not giving has no effect on our public reputation, so giving more won’t help it, and giving less won’t hurt it. I imagine it can be tempting to public figures to give publicly as a means to build good will.

But here’s a question. How can we teach children to give and teach others to give if we don’t set an example for them that they can see? Is a public example one that “sounds the trumpet before you” ? Does teaching involve just doing it and allowing children to see and then not saying much about it? Is that public, or is that still secret?

I remember once when my mom and I took some boxes over to a sister’s house. This sister was going to move soon, and she needed boxes. My mom suggested that we leave the boxes on her porch and then leave so that she wouldn’t know who had provided them. Is this public or private alms? Perhaps taking others into the secret so that they can participate too is not making it public, but is including them in the secret so they can learn and benefit.

Prayer

5 And when thou prayest thou shalt not do as the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (3 Nephi 13:5-6)

Without any secret prayers, we are unable to truly address the truly volatile concerns we have that really need divine help. For instance, an individual needs to have the freedom to pray, “Please help me keep my temper so that I don’t beat my spouse and children!” or “Please help me stay emotionally faithful to my spouse so that I don’t have an affair!” if those really are things that they are fighting. If the only prayers we say are public prayers, we tend to scrub the intensely personal things out of them, even though we really need it.

The thing that I wonder about is this: in what manner does Heavenly Father openly reward us for our secret prayers? Does anyone have some insights about this? Any examples that come to mind?

Fasting

16 Moreover, when ye fast be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face;
18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (3 Nephi 13:16-18)

I don’t know if our church really has much trouble with disfiguring our faces to look like we are fasting. Maybe the main thing we have troubles with is making jokes about fast Sunday being the slowest Sunday and making jokes about how it isn’t good to talk about food on fast Sunday. But perhaps another thing that we could do is look for occasional opportunities to fast at times besides the usual fast Sunday. No one on earth would know, so it can’t benefit our reputation.

I’m not sure I know of open rewards and blessings that the Lord gives for secret fasting. Maybe it is because I don’t fast at other time deliberately for a spiritual purpose. Does anyone have any experiences or insights they can share on this?

An amazing promise

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

I find this verse to be marvelous and astounding. It seems almost inconceivable that Christ would allow me to sit with Him on His throne even if I overcame the world. Considering my measly state right now, I might be inclined to think that this is just an honorary reward, kind of like an honorary doctorate degree (you know, where some university thinks you’re a pretty neat person so they give you a paper saying you have an honorary doctorate degree in… whatever). So there’s a tendency to think that Christ would let me sit on His throne with Him, give me a crown and a scepter to wave around for a little while so I can pretend I’m special and then that’s it, I have to give it all back at the end of the day and no real authority or power was shared.

Or there might be a tendency to think that it is a extended throne-sitting session with Christ where I sit back in awe and watch Christ do His Thing but still I can have no part in it.

But no, to make sure that we don’t misunderstand, Christ adds that our sharing the throne with Him will be just like how He shares the throne with the Father. We don’t think of Christ as being just a figurehead ruler. We think of Him as being very involved, with great power and authority. He’s part of the Godhead, after all! If we read this scripture plainly it says to those of us “that overcometh” that Christ will make us equal with Him. This idea is so much beyond the narrow-mindedness of men that those who are honest in heart must say that it came from God.

Joseph Smith wrote:

These shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever. … These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all. These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood. These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical.

Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, … by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. …

… [The righteous who have died] shall rise again to dwell in everlasting burnings in immortal glory, not to sorrow, suffer, or die any more, but they shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before. (Chapter 18: Beyond the Veil: Life in the Eternities,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2007), 221-222.)

That's what we're aiming for.

Image from the book “Spain – John L. Stoddard’s Lectures” by John L. Stoddard, as retrieved January 13, 2009 from http://chestofbooks.com/travel/spain/John-Stoddard-Lectures/Spain-Part-4.html.

What Isaiah has to say about the Celestial Kingdom - part 2

He will swallow up death in victory;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces;
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth:
for the LORD hath spoken it.
(Isaiah 25:8)

"He will swallow up death in victory" – How do you conquer death? How do you swallow up death in victory? Some people think that the way to conquer death is to never die, but they are wrong. For Christ to conquer death, He couldn’t run away from it, otherwise that would just have been avoidance, and there would always be the suspicion that death would still win in the end. For Christ to conquer death, He had to face it, choose to submit to it, and then come back with a glorified body un-killable. And not only that, He had to have power to bring other people un-killably back too. And that’s what He did. This is the biggest part of the healing that will take place, and it is the Resurrection not just of Christ, but of everyone.

11 He shall see the travail of his soul,
and shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 53: 11-12)

I suspect that these verses have the cause and effect being mixed out of order, so I colored the text to highlight the ideas that were similar, with red being the cause and blue being the effect.

"because he hath poured out his soul unto death" – First, this testifies of Christ and how He became worthy of celestial glory. He poured out his soul in service and teaching and in suffering for our sins. He poured out His soul to the very end of His life and never held back.

This is what makes us worthy of celestial glory too after repenting of all our sins. It tells us that we have to “pour out our souls unto death”, meaning we have to be faithful to the very end. Some of us will have to pour out our souls to death by dying as martyrs for our testimony, as the world becomes more wicked and intolerant of righteousness. Others of us will have to pour out our souls in a long life dedicated to the service of God. Others of us will suffer disease and accident and pour out our souls in the effort to remain cheerful and hopeful to the end. Some of us will be poor and pour out our souls in the daily effort to provide for our families. Others of us will be well off and pour out our souls to the end by being generous to those less fortunate. There are many ways it is possible to do it, but all of us must faithfully pour out our souls unto death.

"He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" - These verses testify of Christ looking back at the good things He did during His life—ministry, atonement, crucifixion—and being satisfied with how He did, but it will also be true of us, if we have faithfully poured out our souls unto death. We will also be able to look back at all the good things we did during life and feel satisfied about it.

It is hard for us to realize just how good our memory will be of everything we did during life. My brother Stuart told me something that really made it clear how well we will remember: The only part of time that we see and know perfectly while in mortality is “now”. The past we only see selectively, based upon a few things that stuck out to us. So I figure our mortal brains can only recall very little, but our spirit remembers everything. When we die, our spirit will have access to every little memory, and it will all be as clear as “now” is for us today. We will be able to see our struggles with perfect clarity and relive them with satisfaction. (If we have not repented of our sins, we will see those just as clearly too, and those memories will be terribly painful.)

"Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong" - We will all then divide the celestial reward—all the Father hath—as joint heirs with Christ, if we have been one of the “great” and “strong” who have been valiant all during our lives.

President Hinckley and a Prophet’s Reward

I learned something notable from Brother Guggisberg. He bore his testimony and expressed gratitude for President Hinckley’s great ministry as prophet and said something about how we all expected his reward would be great in heaven.

Then he whipped out his scriptures and read from Matthew 10:41....

He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

I had always wondered just what this scripture meant and I was ever so happy to be instructed about it. I learned that even though we can’t all be the prophet of the church or apostles either, if we consider the prophet to be the prophet and follow him as such, then we receive a prophet’s reward too. It is just as difficult to follow the prophet in a wicked world as it is to be the prophet in a wicked world.

The second part is about the same. If we consider a righteous man to be a righteous man, and follow their example, then we receive the same reward, because it takes the same amount of righteousness and moral courage to follow a good example as it takes to be a good example. (Especially when we are accused of being brainless "sheeple"!)