Satan’s attempt to further destroy Zeezrom

After the tragedies and difficulties at Ammonihah, we get this little bit:

3 And also Zeezrom lay sick at Sidom, with a burning fever, which was caused by the great tribulations of his mind on account of his wickedness, for he supposed that Alma and Amulek were no more; and he supposed that they had been slain because of his iniquity. And this great sin, and his many other sins, did harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, having no deliverance; therefore he began to be scorched with a burning heat.

4 Now, when he heard that Alma and Amulek were in the land of Sidom, his heart began to take courage; and he sent a message immediately unto them, desiring them to come unto him. (Alma 15:3-4)

I notice that Zeezrom began to be tormented about his sins, and he thought his wickedness caused the deaths of Alma and Amulek. He had no knowledge of their true fates, but he assumed the worst. It is easy to understand that he might feel like he deserved to suffer for what he did.

But on the other hand, it could be argued that he didn’t deserve to feel this way because when we look at his actions, even though he began by attacking Alma and Amulek, his heart changed, and he began to defend them instead.  But that seemed to count for nothing with him. Something made him forget his more recent better works and only remember his wickedness.

Satan really wanted Zeezrom to be miserable, so he played upon Zeezrom’s ignorance about Alma and Amulek’s fates and put a ton of blame and torment upon him, using Zeezrom’s awakened conscience against him.

Happily, when Zeezrom heard Alma and Amulek were alive and in Sidom,, this immediately showed him his fears concerning them were false. This gave him the courage to act and call them to come. It would take courage to again face those he had feared he had so badly wronged, but he did it, and through more faith in Christ, was able to gain full relief from the rest of his suffering.

I think there’s an important lesson for us here. Satan tries to make our sins seem so awful that there is no hope. He wants us conscious of our awful state, but he also wants to catastrophize the consequences and steal our hope that we can ever escape, or repent, or improve—all to make us miserable.  (And he will try to make things seem particularly bad when we are tired, hungry, lonely, bored, stressed, or sick.) We just have to remember that Satan LIES. Things are not as bad as he makes them seem.   We have to take courage and act in faith, believing that Christ can heal us, help us, give us strength, forgive us, save us.

The Suffering Alleviated by the Scriptures

Here King Mosiah teaches his sons about the sacred record on the brass plates:

And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God. (Mosiah 1:3)

That bit about how we must have suffered in ignorance struck me recently. It made me think about how I’ve made so many good choices in my life because of what I’ve learned from the scriptures. I’ve been able to resist many temptations and keep out of trouble because of what I’ve learned from the scriptures. If I hadn’t had the scriptures or the influence of the church in my life I really would have suffered so much because of all the mistakes I would have made in ignorance. There have been many pivot points when a scriptural principle I’ve learned has come back to me, and acting on instead of giving in to temptation or taking a lower way has brought blessings and safety to me.

I can’t deny I’ve also had some suffering arise out of following good scriptural principles, but it has been sanctified suffering, and knowing from the scriptures that I was right helped me persevere.

One major way we would suffer in ignorance from not knowing the mysteries of God is suffering the load of accumulated guilt for sin. Because no matter how the world will try to deny it, guilt is there. It piles up and you can’t get out from it without Christ and without repenting. The scriptures tell us about how we can escape guilt and sin and lay hold on salvation through Christ.

What a mystery of God repentance and faith is! That a God would become man and suffer for everyone’s sins to give us a chance to repent! That our belief in this God and efforts to change and prayers for forgiveness are efficacious! To a tangibly focused, material-evidence-oriented mind that would seem beyond belief.  But it’s real!

Crown of Thorns

When the soldiers put that crown of thorns on Jesus's head, undoubtedly they intended to mock his testimony of being a king, the Messiah. ("You claim to be a king then? Have a crown. Have a painful one.")

But it seems to me the crown of thorns was also a perfect visual representation of all He knew and felt of our sins and how He had to suffer that in order to save us. And if we let Him save us, then He truly is our King.

Doing it to the least of these, doing it to Christ

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matt. 25:34-40)

I don’t know why I didn’t see this before when reading these verses, but I realized recently that Jesus was using the fact of His vicarious sacrifice and suffering to plead for charity. 

Because He suffered the pains and sicknesses and sins and suffering of all, He also knows when that suffering has ended as others have relieved it with kindness.  Reducing others’ suffering quite literally reduces Christ’s suffering too by extension, and He rewards even the smallest charitable act.

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.

Why did Job curse his day?

Job 3 is a pretty startling chapter coming on the heels of Job 2 in which we read of Job refusing to curse God. In Job 2 Job notes that we can receive both good and evil from God.  He shows great patience there. But then Job 3 is jarring because Job curses roundly the day he was born and the day he was conceived.

Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. (v3)

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, (Job 3:9-13)

This utter spite for his own life is so startling that it makes us think that Job wasn’t as faithful as he seemed at first. We wonder why he could not continue as he began.

However, I somehow realized that this lament and cursing his birthday and conception was actually not an indication of crumbling integrity, but instead was his coming to the conclusion that he really had done the best he possibly could by repenting carefully.

I think he thought through his life and wondered how he could have done anything better in order to avoid what he was going through, and he realized he could not have improved on what he’d done. His sins were repented of, his good works were of the best quality. The only way he could have avoided the pain and loss he’d gone through was if he had died at birth. He continued as spiritually clean as he had been at birth, so to his mind it would have been better and saved more trouble if he had died at birth.

I hope that if I ever come to that same point of suffering that Job was at that I can have the same confidence, realizing I wouldn’t change a thing.   In the meantime, I can try to live each day such that I don’t regret anything, by sticking with my highest priorities, showing kindness, and by repenting of any sins I may have committed.

Afflictions consecrated for our gain

1 And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.

2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain. (2 Nephi 2:1-2)

That part about God consecrating our afflictions for our gain has to be one of those very comforting, but often overlooked principles.  We often repeat that bit from D&C 122 about our suffering being but for a small moment and how we will be exalted if we endure it well, but this adds the principle that our afflictions can become advantages to us and that we can profit from them.

I ran across this scripture at the end of May and I wrote about it in my scripture journal because the week before I read it I had taken a fall while mountain biking.  I scraped up my right palm pretty badly and I had a pretty bad gash in my right knee, along with a sprain that I didn’t notice until my cut was healing.  I found myself limping about, trying to keep my right knee straight so that the gash would have time to close.  I had to spend some time on crutches to give it a rest. Bending my knee was uncomfortable, and I yearned the day it would finally heal, when I’d be able to bend it normally and be active again. 

I wondered how that affliction would be consecrated for my gain, and I can now look back and say that I feel more sympathy for those who injure in those places.  (I’m sure we all wish we could have the proper sympathy without having to suffer something like that, but experience really is a great teacher.)  I also learned that it is possible to persevere and do things anyway when they have to be done. 

When our afflictions help us learn greater charity and perseverance, that certainly consecrates our afflictions for our gain.

How else might it help?

Job curses his day

We are pretty familiar with Job’s patience when he says: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21) after all the disaster that befell his family. 

Also, later when he was smitten with horrible disease, when his wife invited him to curse God, Job said: “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)

He’s pretty patient here at the beginning, but as time went on, Job began to have serious questions about why he was still alive in such a condition. It is interesting to see what he says, and it just wrings the heart.

1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2 And Job spake, and said,

3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, . . . .

20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? (Job 3:1-13, 20-23)

Job curses the day he was born and wonders why he didn’t die as a baby.  He also wonders why God extends the life of those that live in misery, especially when they want to die.

How could Job refuse to curse God and then turn around and curse his own birthday?  We know it shows the extremity to which he was pushed, but we can’t help but wonder if that was going too far.  We want him to be stoic and strong all the way to the end, but he’s not.

I think maybe Job at first had some of the same notions as his friends had. I think he wondered if somehow somewhere in his life he had made a wrong decision that he was punished for. But in careful examination I suspect he eventually came to the conclusion that if he had to live his life over again, he would end up in the same place, doing the same things, and there was no way he could have escaped what he was suffering.

This led to the conclusion that it would have just saved a whole lot of pain and suffering if he had just died as a baby.  After all, through continuing repentance he had kept himself that clean.

However, he doesn’t stay in this frame of mind for long. The ribbing his friends give him quickly pulls him out of that and gives him something else to focus on, namely pleading for God to reveal Himself so Job can argue his own case that what was happening to him was unjust.

One of the things I’ve figured out over a long period of pondering the story of Job is that the bad things that happened to Job could not remain unanswered in the eternal scheme of justice.  There is the law of compensation; his undeserved suffering had to be answered with divine compensating blessings.  And I imagine that same law works the same for us as well. 

How Christ learned obedience

8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Hebrews 5:8-9)

That first verse there has puzzled me a long time.  How did Christ learn obedience by the things He suffered?

I know I have learned obedience, but hardly ever has it been by suffering, except from suffering the consequences of disobedience.  How did Jesus learn from suffering when He did not disobey?

I’ve learned obedience by learning from other people’s mistakes, but that did not involve my suffering at all.  I’ve learned the sweetness of obedience by enjoying the blessings afterward, but that certainly wasn’t suffering.  I’ve been cajoled into obedience by parents and leaders, but I don’t know that can be called suffering either.

The only thing I can think of is if that suffering happened as Jesus had to make righteous choices and do His Father’s will.  We are told elsewhere that Jesus said, “I do not my own will, but His that sent me.” We often think those righteous choices were easy and painless for Jesus, but what if they weren’t?  What if it was just as hard for Him to give up His own will in favor of what Heavenly Father wanted as it is for anyone else?  I wonder what kind of pain Jesus went through as He worked to reconcile His own will to Heavenly Father’s. Still, we know He yielded willingly.  Every. Single. Time.  Knowing what I know of my own stubbornness, that gives me a huge respect for Jesus’s righteousness.

It’s also possible that part of the learning obedience through suffering happened as Jesus was stretched by what Heavenly Father asked Him to do.  Growing from grace to grace, He must have been stretched almost constantly.

Hmm, maybe I've learned obedience through suffering more than I thought.

What do you think?  Can you think of any other way Jesus might have learned obedience through suffering?

The big lesson from all the attempts on David’s life in 1 Samuel 18

1 Samuel 18 has so much happening in it that it is really compacted.  A cursory reading makes it seem like the chapter only records two of Saul's attempts on David's life, but there are actually at least five.

Attempt #1

We know Saul tried to spearDavid while David played his harp for Saul.

Attempt #2

After Saul's failed spearing attempt, v13-16 records:

13 Therefore Saul removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

14 And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him.

15 Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.

16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

What this tells us is Saul put David over a thousand men in the army and David went out on military missions set by Saul.  Can we imagine Saul giving David easy stuff to do?  No.  He would give David the dirtiest, most dangerous missions in hopes of getting him killed.

Do you think David was blind to what was being done to him?  I doubt it.  I think he had a feeling he was being treated like cannon fodder.  He could have complained, but it doesn’t seem like he did, and instead he just did his best.  That uncomplaining obedience may be what the text means when it says he behaved himself wisely.

The result was that Saul’s attempt failed.  God kept David safe, and David kept his mouth shut, and he ended up more loved by the people than before, which was the opposite of what Saul wanted.  Perhaps Saul hoped David would turn out to be an ineffective leader and was trying to “promote to discredit.”  Instead, God used it to increase David’s talents and made good come of it.

Attempt #3

In Saul’s next attempt, he tries to praise and incentive-ize David into doing something exceptionally foolish to get him killed.

And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. (v17)

Notice Saul gives this incentive—marriage to his eldest daughter—and his instructions are “only be thou valiant for me; and fight the Lord’s battles.”  That’s like saying, “Your only job is to be brave and fight.”

But… war takes more than just bravery and fighting, and in asking David to do that, Saul was attempting to discourage David from being smart about how he fought, hoping he would take stupid risks and get himself killed.  (As an aside, I’ve recently been reading a sci fi space opera series that has as a major plot point a space fleet’s tendency to suffer terrible losses because bravery was higher priority than discipline and strategy.  It gave this verse much greater significance than it would have had otherwise.)

How does David respond?  He refuses to take the bait and says that he and his family are nobodies and the last people to become connected by marriage to the king.  He’s okay with not being famous or connected to the king’s family.  His humility saves him.

Attempts #4 & 5

This is a two-parter. 

20 And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

21 And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain….

25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. (v20-21, 25)

Saul intends Michal to be a snare to David and of course he also requires David to pay a dowry of 100 Philistine foreskins to marry her, and we know he hoped David would get killed trying to fulfill that requirement.

But how did Saul intend Michal to be a snare?  I had to think about this one and read more about Michal to figure this out.  I have a feeling that Saul meant it in the same sense that the Lord told the Israelites the Canaanites would be a snare to them and the same way the Moabite women were a snare in Numbers 25.  Michal may have been idolatrous.  I Samuel 19:13,16 tells that she put an image in David’s bed as a decoy so that David could escape Saul’s servants.  But what was an image doing in their house when there is that commandment in the Law of Moses to not have any graven images?  This was a full-sized statue and it was moveable.  David was a man after God’s heart, so it had to be Michal’s.  So Michal was idolatrous.

It seems Saul hoped that Michal’s idolatry would begin to pull David down once he was married to her.  Saul hoped to destroy David’s righteousness and favor with God in a manner strikingly similar to what Balaam taught the Moabites to do to the Israelites.

No, David!  Don’t marry her!  It’s a trap! 

Yet David does obtain the 100 Philistine foreskins with God’s protection.  (Note: v27 says he brought back 200 foreskins, but 2 Samuel 3:14 says it was 100.)  And he does marry Michal.   (At this point we should holding our heads and yelling “Oh noooooooo!”)

But… instead of Michal becoming a snare to David, the Lord uses Michal as a means of delivering David.  Remember when Saul sent his men to kill David, Michal warned him of his danger and helped him escape.  Then, she took the image she worshipped and put it in service as a decoy.    The very things that Saul meant to destroy David became the means by which the Lord saved him.  How’s that for showing the Lord’s great power to bring good out of evil?

It’s really a sad thing reading about all the ways Saul planned to try to get rid of David.  Yet, we get a great lesson from David.  As we see all the ways that the Lord brought good out of evil for him, we can gain greater faith that the Lord does the same thing for us today.   If we try to be as faithful to the Lord as David was (at this time in his life), the Lord can similarly take the bad things and turn them to our good.   To use an airplane analogy, if we keep our wings tilted up, the winds of opposition will lift us higher. 

Probing the counsel to “Stand in holy places”

Sunday school lesson 36 has an attention activity showing some repeated counsel about standing in holy places from different parts of the D&C.  You may have just gone through this lesson, but I want to look at these scriptures to see if they can tell us more about how to stand in holy places, since that’s kind of abstract counsel.  Yes, we usually take it to mean attending the temple, but is that all?

31 And there shall be men standing in that generation, that shall not pass until they shall see an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land.

32 But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved; but among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die. (D&C 45:31-32, emphasis added)

The context of this verse tells of overflowing scourges and desolating sickness, and outside the range of those verses is desolations, murder, and massacre.  Among this, we are to stand in holy places.  Holy places seem to be places of refuge that help us withstand the difficulties spoken of.

In desolating sickness, we can stand in holy places with healing priesthood power, good sanitation practices, healthy diet, prayer for the sick, service to help one another, and faith in God that He has all power.  Is going to the temple the best thing if you are in close contact with communicable disease?  (Sanitation and hand-washing, people!)

In natural disasters, we can stand in holy places with our emergency preparedness, organizing together, watchcare and service to others, and keeping up the devotional practices that give us strength like prayer, scripture study, FHE, and church.  And going to the temple. 

Among violence, we can stand in holy places by not seeking revenge, avoiding anger, forgiving, praying for comfort and protection and courage, showing love, as well as continuing devotional practices.  And going to the temple.

Note that in contrast to the disciples who stand immovably in holy places, the wicked will lift up their voices, curse God, and die.  What does that really look like?  I suspect it is a ton of complaining, venting anger, bitterness, outrage.  It will probably involve many people looking at the widespread suffering and asking, “How could God let this happen?” and getting angry at God for not preventing it.  But because they were not willing to keep the commandments that would mitigate their suffering, they can only suffer and eventually die in their sins.  Very sad.

The contrast shows that the wicked place blame on God and yet don’t do the things He asks that would make it better for themselves or others, while the righteous trust God and at the same time keep the commandments and their obedience makes things better for themselves and others around them.

The next “stand in holy places” scripture comes at the end of the section that prophesied the Civil War and more troubles to come afterward:

6 And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations;

7 That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies.

8 Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen. (D&C 87:6-8, emphasis added)

Bloodshed, famine, plague, earthquake, storm, and a consumption (a consuming event) that will eventually make an end of all nations.  It also mentions the cry of the Saints and the blood of the Saints coming up into the ears of the Lord.

So not only does this tell us that standing in holy places will help us survive disasters, but while society and governments collapse, the organization of the church will help us maintain order among our own, through our obedience and diligence as we “be not moved.” 

Since it seems there are Saints who will be wronged and even killed unjustly, standing in holy places will mean staying with the principles of faith, forgiveness, prayer, and leaving justice in the hands of God.  And going to the temple.  We’ll also need courage and faith in the final judgment that God will right our wrongs.

20 And, behold, there is none other place appointed than that which I have appointed; neither shall there be any other place appointed than that which I have appointed, for the work of the gathering of my saints—

21 Until the day cometh when there is found no more room for them; and then I have other places which I will appoint unto them, and they shall be called stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion.

22 Behold, it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places;

23 And prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple, in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together. (D&C 101:20-23, emphasis added)

The context of this instance of “stand in holy places” talks about the gathering of the Saints in Zion and in stakes and preparing for the time when all flesh will see Jesus.  It seems to me that gathering with the Saints is one part of standing in holy places because we encourage each other and our service to each other helps us practice discipleship.

So it seems to me that more than being in a particular place, “standing in holy places” means to act in doctrine in a way appropriate to the emergency or need.  It’s falling back on gospel principles to get through the hard thing, the trial, the affliction, the whatever.  Going to the temple and going to church is only a few of the many good ways we can respond, although it could be argued that if you prepare yourself for the temple, that encompasses keeping a whole raft of commandments.

I think “stand in holy places” is yet another way of saying “keep the commandments” that build your house with an unshakeable foundation in the Savior.

Jacob considers how God is keeping the covenant

At the end of Jacob’s life, he talks to his son Joseph in Egypt and we see in the JST of Genesis 48 what his perspective is about the events of his life and how they fit with the covenant God made with him so long ago.

7  And Jacob said unto Joseph, When the God of my fathers appeared unto me in Luz, in the land of Canaan; he sware unto me, that he would give unto me, and unto my seed, the land for an everlasting possession.
8  Therefore, O my son, he hath blessed me in raising thee up to be a servant unto me, in saving my house from death;
9  In delivering my people, thy brethren, from famine which was sore in the land; wherefore the God of thy fathers shall bless thee, and the fruit of thy loins, that they shall be blessed above thy brethren, and above thy father’s house; (JST Genesis 48:7-9)

Jacob realized that in order for the Lord to keep the covenant to give the land Canaan to Jacob and his posterity, the Lord saved Jacob and his family from the famine.  (After all, if there are no people left to inherit, then the Lord can’t keep the covenant.) 

It must have given Jacob a good feeling to know that even if the Lord’s covenant hadn’t been fulfilled in his lifetime, he could still see how the Lord was working to prepare the way for it to be fulfilled in the future.  This gave him the hope that it would be fulfilled as the Lord said.  That’s a really faithful attitude—to not be angry that it wasn’t being fulfilled in his own lifetime.

Looking at it from another perspective, even though Jacob would die soon, his spirit would get to see over generations how the covenant would be fulfilled.  It would give a righteous spirit something to look forward to, wouldn’t it, seeing the culmination of all the promises and prophecies fulfilled little by little throughout the history of the world.

Both Jacob and Joseph had great spiritual maturity to see how their mutual suffering and grief was turned to the good of themselves and families.  I hope that at the end of my life I’ll be able to look back and see how my suffering 1) turned to my good and 2) helped prepare the way for the Lord to fulfill His covenant.

Isaiah Symbolism -- the Cup of Fury

Probing symbolism can help us understand Isaiah better.  Let's look at some verses of Isaiah to see an example.

17 ¶Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,

which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury;

thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling,

and wrung them out….

22                         Thus saith thy Lord the Lord,

and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people,

Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling,

even the dregs of the cup of my fury;

thou shalt no more drink it again:

 23                                                 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee…

(Isaiah 51:17, 22-23)

One symbol that is used in these verses is “the cup of his fury” (his meaning the Lord).  It is also called “the cup of trembling.”  Another symbol is “the dregs of the cup.”

The cup symbolizes a portion given to us.   Because these verses tell us the Lord gives this portion to us, we know that it is something justly given.  Calling it “the cup of his fury” teaches us that this is the portion of the Lord’s anger that we each deserve and will be given because of our sins.  

I don’t know about you, but I am scared of that.  This is why it is also called “the cup of trembling” to express our point of view, how we tremble with fear at the prospect of experiencing the Lord’s anger.

The “dregs of the cup” refers to the sediment left in a cup of wine at the very end.  Drinking the dregs means to drink every last bit, and in terms of the gospel and the symbols Isaiah is using, it would mean suffering for all our own sins, every last one.

Thus, when the Lord says He will take that cup of his fury out of our hand and not make us drink it again, it implies one of two things—either we have repented, or we have finished suffering for all our sins. (I much prefer repenting..)  It means the Lord is no longer angry with us.  (Yaaay!)