LOOKING UP

From the very creation of the world to this last dispensation, God has provided his children with many effective ways to admonish them to 'look to God and live'. We might look to the children of Israel and the miracles they witnessed and think that it should have been easy for them to do so with such tangible proofs and evidences that He was in their midst.  Our signs to direct us towards Him seem subtle in comparison.  After all there is no manna in our backyard and there is no smell of animal sacrifices in our temples to provide such visually searing remembrance of shedding of His blood for the souls of men.  So how can we effectively remember to stop looking down under the crushing weight of this world that oppresses us with demands of daily necessities and hardship?  When we are looking down, we cannot look up, it is impossible to do both,  but look up we must if we want to rise above this oppression.  The Israelites of old make an interesting study in this regard.

The Israelites' entire journey to the promised land was an exercise in 'looking up' to see the Saviour of the world, their personal and collective saviour who would not only lead them to their promised land but also to life eternal.  Everything the Saviour did for them was symbolic of Him to keep them in remembrance of His power to save and deliver.  Even the rod with which Moses challenged Pharoah's authority, which parted the Red Sea and provided drinking water to the needy Israelites became the symbol of Christ's ability to heal the believing, as it held up the serpent symbolic of Him who has all power.  According to the mythic epics of the ancient Near East, this rod was cut from the tree of life itself and passed down through the patriarchs to Abraham and ending up with Moses.  In the Book of Mormon we learn from Nephi that the tree of life represents the Saviour (1 Nephi 11) . Even though the Saviour sought to establish himself as the God of Israel to ultimately lead the Israelites to exaltation, he used the needs of this temporal life to point them in that direction.

I think why the Israelites found it difficult to cope with the challenges of their journey is because they expected the deliverance to give them immediate ease from any burdens and difficulties. They expected the milk and honey straight away.  Surely that's what deliverance means?  What happened instead was that they went from slavery to the harsh challenges of the wilderness.  Each of those challenges though were needful for them to get to know the God of Israel. The water that issued from the rock of Horeb became a symbol of Living Water as the rock yielded under the Christ within the rod in the hands of Moses. How else could Israelites learn that they were in the hands of the Living Water? And as manna descended upon the dew straight from heaven and filled the hungry hosts of Israel, how could they not know that they were fed by the Bread of Life?  How tough would it have been in the wilderness that afflicted them with so many personal discomforts and fears, yet the wilderness was exactly what was needful to serve as the training ground to make the Israelites God's people.

I love this painting by the LDS artist, Rose Datoc Dall.  It is titled "Hope of Israel".  A babe, yet a god. I love to see the Saviour depicted as a child because it reminds me that He experienced mortality like the rest of us, that He had to become acquainted with humanity to save the humanity.  He truly was the hope of Israel for no other power could have delivered them from their misery and He remains the hope of Israel today. Now more than ever, the house of Israel needs to be invested in that hope. Our needs today are really not that different from ancient times, they are just packaged differently.  Our only hope is the Saviour of the world who had 'descended below all things' that he might comprehend all things, 'that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth' and who 'ascended up on high' (D&C 88:6).  Where once he dwelt in the tabernacle of the congreation, He now sits upon His throne.  A god of majesty and power filled with grace, mercy and truth.  A god worth knowing and looking up to for we cannot afford not to.

"For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys" (Exodus 40:38).  Imagine having physical evidence that God is in your midst.  Ancient Israel was constantly subjected to signs and wonders, yet they found it difficult to trust that the Lord would supply the necessities of life for them.  No wonder they rejected the higher law, the commitment was not there, but murmuring was.  For this reason the Lord in his mercy gave them the lower law to live by.  We however, are required to live by the higher law and are required to have an exorbitant amount of faith to follow Him in all things, and to trust that He will care for us as he cared for ancient Israel. No cloud of the Lord resting on our temples by day and fire by night for us.  So how do we remember to look up and believe the Saviour can do for us what he says He can do?  By living in constant 'state of grace'.  Grace being  God's power to fill the gap between what we can give and what is required of us.  In all things, both temporal and spiritual.  When you are looking up in constant supplication to the God of Israel depending on Him to provide what is lacking that you cannot supply, you are in the state of grace. This applies to temporal needs as well as spiritual striving to become better.

There is a component of the state of grace that the ancient Israel was somewhat short on and that is gratitude.  When you are constantly murmuring, you cannot cultivate the attitude of gratitude and Israelites were proficient at murmuring, constantly afraid that they would die from their afflictions.  Why would God take them out of Egypt to allow them to die in the wilderness? There was no logic to their fears.  When you are murmuring you are denying God's power to come to your aid, his goodness and his watchful eye. Murmuring destroys your faith and breeds distrust and doubt.  By it you are denying what God has already done for you and given you and what you have learnt about your total dependence on Him.  When you pray for something and then go about complaining that you don't have it, you have stepped out of the state of grace.  God cannot give you what you need if you are creating the feeling of lack for your reality will always match the vibrational energy that you are creating.  This vibration can be likened to a magnetic field that you create by believing that you will receive.  If the magnetic field is not there, the blessing can be repelled.  If however, you ask for something and reflect consistently on all that you have already received from the fountain of all blessings, you are acknowledging God's power and your gratitude will create the vibrational energy that will draw that blessing to you.  This is the power of faith because faith is energy. Whatever you invest yourself in will create the energy to match that investment.  If you invest yourself in sorrow, you will create more sorrow, if you invest yourself in joy, you will have more joy.  If you are looking up, believing that you will receive, you will (1 Nephi 7:12).  The Saviour himself said this many times in the scriptures:

"Behold, I say unto you that whosoever believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth." (Mormon 9:21)

To know God is to trust in His might and power and in His promises.  How much more blessed are you than the Israelites of old if you believe without the signs, if the bended knee is all you need to find the God of Israel.  How beloved you are of God if you honour Him with your faith and faithfulness.  Abraham's belief in God's promises to him were accounted to him for righteousness (Galatians 3:6). You are of the seed of Abraham, a true Israelite in the household of God. You have the power to believe.  No matter how heavy your load, lift your head and look up.  Look up and believe.