IT IS UP TO US

Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem

by Rembrandt

The biggest heroes of the scriptures are the ones that make things happen. They are workers who understand that God's will is up to His children to put into effect. When we read scriptural prophecies we tend to think that God will miraculously make things happen or that someone else will suddenly appear to fulfil the promises God has made.

Daniel of the Old Testament is a good example of making things happen. As we know he lived in Babylonian captivity in service to heathen kings for most of his life. He was very much devoted to the God of Israel and had Israel's welfare at heart. He eagerly hung onto the Lord's promise that Israel's captivity would last only 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). It is suggested by historians that when Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon that he found Daniel there in his governmental capacity,  and that Daniel  pointed out to him the prophecy of Isaiah that was given 140 years before the fall of Jerusalem, that the Lord would raise up a mighty king who would free the Jewish captives in Babylon and allow them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the holy city. Isaiah even named Cyrus by name.....210 years before he even appeared in Babylon. Astonishing isn't it? It certainly was to Cyrus because he freed the Jews and allowed 50,000 of them to return to Jerusalem. The rest chose to stay until Ezra's second party of 17,000 some years later after the construction project was completed. It is significant here to note that Daniel who so loved his homeland and his heritage did not choose to return to Jerusalem but chose to remain in Babylon to continue to serve God in a foreign land. The point is this. Daniel in all likelihood played a huge part in this historical event. This theory can be supported by another example of Daniel's doing.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the temple, they encountered bitter opposition from Samaritans who reasoned that they should be involved in the project. Because Samaritans were not pure Israelites and had practised a variant religion of Jehovah worship heavily intermingled with pagan and other unauthorised religious practices, the Jews refused. In retaliation the Samaritans influenced the Persian kings who succeeded Cyrus to halt the rebuilding project for 17 years. In steps Daniel again. In the first year of King Darius, Daniel again petitioned the Lord about Jeremiah's prophecy. Daniel 9:17-19 shows Daniel's prayerful concern for the unfinished temple and the city of Jerusalem. The Lord answered Daniel and raised two prophets in Jerusalem: Haggai and Zechariah. You might wonder how prophets could finish construction of anything, right?? You might wonder why God didn't send someone with political clout, negotiation expertise or even military power....but instead he sent two of his servants to finish the job....and finish they did....Haggai alone showed the Jews exactly why they were not able to finish the project. He taught them that all temporal problems arise out of spiritual weakness and that if they would put God first, they would extricate themselves from abject poverty they were in which was their main problem.  It makes for compelling reading. These two prophets instructed the governor Zerubbabel, the high priest Jeshua and the Jewish people how to complete the temple in spite of persecution, poverty and governmental red tape (Haggai 1:1-5, 12-14; Zechariah 4:9, Ezra 6:14). Even though these two prophets got the job done, in reality, this began with Daniel and was his doing.

President Kimball prayed and petitioned the Lord repeatedly regarding the priesthood for the black members of the Church. I am sure President Nelson did the same regarding the many changes he has brought in since his calling. They didn't sit back and think things will happen out of thin air. The state of Christ's Kingdom when we present it to Him upon His coming will depend on us. The Church as an administrative body takes care of the physical entity of the Kingdom but we, its' member body take care of its spiritual condition. We must consider this our responsibility because we will be the ones to usher in the Millenium. The scriptures state that at the beginning of the Millenium Satan will be bound and will have no power for 1,000 years. This loss of power will not be because God will bind him in chains and throw him in a dungeon but because we, God's saints and disciples of Christ, will be so spiritually strong that he will simply have no power over us and will therefore no longer have a role to play. We will simply make him irrelevant.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild, the first thing they built was the altar of the temple, even before the foundation of the temple was laid (Ezra 3:1-6). They knew that the altar was the heart of the temple and the temple was the heart of the Jewish religious life.  Our temples today dot the earth, and all without much sacrifice from us. Our temples set us apart from other religions, they make us a 'peculiar people' to the world and a 'peculiar treasure' to the Lord (Exodus 19:5). They provide us with spiritual backbone through our obedience to its covenants. It is in the temples of our God that we will be armed with His power to bind Satan and to become a holy people (D&C 109:22); and it is in the temples that we will find refuge from the storm that is yet to come upon the saints of God in the last days. Consider Elder Featherstone's words:

"Before the Saviour comes the world will darken. There will come a period of time where even the elect will lose hope if they do not come to the temples. The world will be so filled with evil that the righteous will only feel secure within its walls. The saints will come here not only to do vicarious work but to find a haven of peace. The covenants and ordinances will fill us with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction and death, we as a people will rest in the shade of trees, we will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm; we will mount up as on eagles' wings; we will be lifted out of an insane and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun ad clear as the moon. When the Saviour comes He will honour His people. Those who are spared and prepared will be a temple-loving people. They will know Him. Our children will bow down at His feet and worship Him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. They will bathe His feet with their tears and He will weep, and bless them for having suffered through the greatest trials known to man. Let us prepare them with the faith to surmount every trial and every condition. We will do it in these holy, sacred temples." (Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, Manti Temple, April 1987)

May we worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in our hearts, in our homes and in our temples that we may possess God's power and ever remember that "we have a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay to conquor the enemy of all righteousness." (Moroni 9:6)

ON THE ROAD TO JERICHO

"My father, a printer, worked long and hard practically every day of his life. I’m certain that on the Sabbath he would have enjoyed just being at home. Rather, he visited elderly family members and brought cheer into their lives. One was his uncle, who was crippled by arthritis so severe that he could not walk or care for himself. On a Sunday afternoon Dad would say to me, ‘Come along, Tommy; let’s take Uncle Elias for a short drive.’ Boarding the old 1928 Oldsmobile, we would proceed to Eighth West, where, at the home of Uncle Elias, I would wait in the car while Dad went inside. Soon he would emerge from the house, carrying in his arms like a china doll his crippled uncle. I then would open the door and watch how tenderly, and with such affection, my father would place Uncle Elias in the front seat so he would have a fine view while I occupied the rear seat. The drive was brief and the conversation limited, but oh, what a legacy of love! Father never read to me from the Bible about the good Samaritan. Rather, he took me with him and Uncle Elias in that old 1928 Oldsmobile along the road to Jericho."  (President Thomas S. Monson, Hallmarks of a Happy Home, Ensign, Nov. 1988, p 70,71)".

"....A certain man went down to Jerusalem from Jericho, 

and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, 

and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead" (Luke 10:30)

When a certain lawyer wishing to test Jesus, to see how He as a Rabbi would answer one of the points of debate in the Rabbinical schools, he asked Him the following question: "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). Jesus recounted to Him a parable in which He, by no chance, made the hero of the story a Samaritan. Jesus asked the lawyer what was written in the law of Moses regarding his question and the lawyer answered perfectly: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27). The question, however, had not been asked to gain information but rather in the hope that Jesus would not give the right answer, Him not being a qualified Rabbi (John 7:15). When Jesus therefore affirmed the truth of the lawyer's answer, the lawyer pressed him further by asking Him who exactly was 'my neighbour'. This too was asked in an effort to discredit Him, for he knew full well that Jesus and the other Rabbis differed widely as to who fell in the category of a neighbour as Jesus had taught His followers: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love your neighbour and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt 5:43,44) . To the Jews, their neighbours were the members of the House of Israel and no other. The Gentiles and all who opposed the Jewish people were considered enemies. The Saviour constructed the Parable of the Good Samaritan in such a way because centuries after Moses issued the law to 'love thy neighbour', the rabbis, in laying down for the people narrow and uninspired interpretations of this command, wrote the following: "We are not to contribute to the death of the Gentiles, but if they are in any danger of death we are not bound to deliver them, e.g. if any of them fall into the sea you need not take him out, for such a one is not thy neighbour." (Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, p. 751).  By the time Jesus was born the hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews, which had been growing for centuries, was at its peak. The Samaritans were a mixed people, in whom the blood of Israel was mingled with that of the Assyrians and other nations thus they were not recognised as pure Israelites by their Jewish neighbours ("The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 38). "To the orthodox Jew of the time, a Samaritan was more unclean than a Gentile of any other nationality" (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 172) hence a Samaritan could never be considered a neighbour.

Not only did the Saviour discredit the Rabbinic law of his day by the Parable of the Good Samaritan pointing out rather blatantly that both the priest and the Levite within the story had dishonoured their priesthood and brought disgrace upon their nation by not assisting their fellowman in most dire need but he elevated the hated Samaritan, who was considered an enemy, to the status of a neighbour who chose to make a half-dead Jew his brother (McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 3, p. 179). When Jesus asked the lawyer: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?", the lawyer could not deny that this honour belonged to the Samaritan who showed mercy.

As we travel through life, we will find ourselves on the road to Jericho, from time to time, on which we will encounter many people with different needs; beggars on the street, struggling single mothers, grieving widows, abused children, impoverished families and men, women and children of all nationalities and of all races. The Parable of the Good Samaritan invites us to ask ourselves who we consider to be our neighbour. It is easy to love the lovelies but not so easy to love those with differing views, those who do not live up to our standards, those who mock us or revile us or even those who purposefully hurt us or those who are just plain 'different'. Do we elevate ourselves above others deeming them unworthy of our association or do we actively seek out those in need, no matter how lowly they might seem? Do we allow prejudice or racism to dictate our actions towards our fellowmen? The Saviour made no distinction between those He served. He associated with publicans and sinners alike and those who needed Him most. And when He atoned for us, He atoned for us all, without any exceptions. When we stood in line to receive His redeeming grace, we all received an equal portion, there was no favouritism there. And when we return home to receive our reward, we will find ourselves amongst black and white, rich and poor, small and great; in short, all who constitute the human family. May we reach out to each other in brotherhood and love that we may be found worthy to one day inhabit together our Father's Kingdom  reserved for the merciful, and the kind, and the loving and the humble and the penitent. 

"Bishop Victor L. Brown told this story to employees of the Church Education System on 9 September 1983. A lesson [on the Good Samaritan] was in a seminary class . . . in Korea. The sequel is told about a student who was in that class. This boy’s father was a physician and a rather affluent man. One day one of the father’s friends called and asked if he were having financial difficulty. His response was that everything was fine. “But why do you ask?” The friend said, “I saw your son selling newspapers on the street corner in Seoul the other day.” The father replied, “It couldn’t have been my son. He has a liberal allowance and has no need for additional money.” The friend said, “I walked up to him and talked to him, and it was your son.” When the boy got home from school that day, his father asked him about the incident. He indicated that he had been selling newspapers. His father asked, “Isn’t your allowance sufficient? Do you need more money?” When the son responded that his allowance was adequate, the father asked, “Then why are you selling newspapers?” He said, “There is a boy in our class at school who comes from a very poor family, and he must have help if he is to stay in school. Each week I have taken my allowance and bought newspapers. I, along with some of my friends, sell the newspapers and give the money to this boy so he may remain in school.” In addition the son had asked his mother to increase the size of the lunch she packed for him each day. She didn’t question him about this; I suppose she thought that as a growing teenager, he was just extra hungry. He told his father that this boy from the poor family went hungry, so he shared his lunch with him. The father asked, “Why are you doing these things?” He replied, “In seminary we have been studying the lesson of the Good Samaritan. I didn’t just want to know what the lesson taught intellectually. I wanted to know how it felt to be a Good Samaritan.”

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE

".....I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35)

The Gospel of Matthew records that the second time the Saviour fed the multitudes was to the inhabitants of Decapolis which were presumed to be Gentile. Besides prefiguring the future presentation of the living bread to the Gentile nations (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal NT Commentary, Vol 1, p 375), the Saviour fed this multitude out of compassion. The people had been with Him for three days and had nothing to eat and He did not want to send them away fasting 'lest they faint in the way' (Matt 15:32) . This multitude numbered 'four thousand men, beside women and children' (Matt 15:38). They followed him bringing with them 'those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others' casting them at Jesus' feet that they might be healed giving no thought to the necessity of sustenance. When the dumb were made to speak, the maimed made whole, the lame enabled to walk and the blind to see, 'they glorified the God of Israel' (Matt 15:31). Jesus then proceeded to feed this multitude with 'seven loaves and a few little fishes' (Matt 15:34). When all were fed, there were seven baskets full that remained. This mixed multitude from the east of the Jordan proved more receptive than the members of the chosen seed.

The first time Jesus fed the multitudes, He did so to the House of Israel with a calculated purpose which was to proclaim himself as 'the bread of life' (Matt 6:6). By performing the miracle of feeding this multitude with five loaves and two fishes, He bore record of 'heavenly bread' of which all men must eat if they are to gain eternal life. The Gospel of John records that in this instance there were 5,000 men gathered 'because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased' (John 6:2). This feeding of so many with so little signaled to the multitude that this indeed was the promised Messiah (John 6:14) who they should crown as the King of the Jews (John 6:15). Had they not been subject for centuries to the Jewish tradition which taught them that the Messiah, when He came, would reveal Himself by repeating the miracle of 'manna from heaven' so prolific in Jewish history? "As the first Saviour - the deliverer from Egyptian bondage, said the Rabbis, caused manna to fall for Israel from heaven, so the second Saviour - the Messiah - will also cause manna to descend for them once more" (Geikie, pp. 516-17, as quoted by Bruce R. McConkie,  The Mortal Messiah Book 2, p. 368). This Messiah who could provide bread from heaven, as in the days of Moses, would break the Gentile yoke and fulfill all their expectations. He would give them 'corn without sowing, harvests without reaping, bread without baking. No longer need we labour at our oars and struggle with our nets when two small fish, at the Messiah's touch, will feed thousands. The Deliverer is here; he will feed us as Moses fed our fathers. Give us loaves and fishes forever and in thy beneficent goodness add raisins and oil and wine to our diet. Surely we shall now feast more sumptuously than Herod himself' (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 2, p 371).

When the crowds pursued Him wanting to make Him King, Jesus answered them: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me not because ye desire to keep my sayings, neither because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the father sealed" (John 6:26,27, JST). This is not something the crowds wanted to hear let alone wished to understand that the only crown that would adorn His head would be one of plaited thorns. As the Saviour proceeded to deliver His sermon on the Bread of Life He sealed His fate that would eventually bring Him to the cross of Calvary. By proclaiming Himself to be the only 'bread of life' that the Father would ever send them (John 6:35), He refused to conform to their concept of a temporal Messiah. Where up to now people followed Him and flocked to Him with emotional frenzy, from this time 'many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him' (John 6:66). The miracles forgotten, the healings ignored, the spirit rejected. Thus the Bread of Life sermon marked the saddest and the most heartbreaking point in the Saviour's mortal life for it instigated the parting of ways between Him and the common people. Whereas previous opposition was primarily contained within the circles of the scribes and Pharisees, the Rabbis and rulers, the Saducees and Herodians, now even some of his nearest followers hardened their hearts against Him with bitter disappointment, rejecting the gift of eternal life that He alone could give. Even though He knew well that He was headed up the lonely path to Calvary, the rejection must have been devastating to the gentle heart of the Saviour who had loved them, taught them and healed them of their infirmities; who had come to give His all that they might have all.

"He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by he Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. (John 6:56-58)

To keep us, His saints, who have taken upon ourselves His name and accepted His teachings, in constant remembrance of our commitment to accept and obey Him, the Lord has given us the ordinance of sacrament.  Those who love Him and serve Him and keep His commandments observe with diligence the ordinance to 'eat his flesh and drink his blood' which they do in the spiritual sense rather than the literal one. This we must do for His body broken for us, is the very spiritual food which gives life, thus we must eat and drink if we are to be His and have life with Him in the mansions of our Father who has sent Him. 

No doubt, among the disciples who fell away when they heard the Saviour's discourse on the Bread of Life, were both investigators and those who had entered into the covenant of baptism. "By the simple expedient of teaching strong doctrine to the hosts who followed him, Jesus was able to separate the chaff from the wheat and choose out those who were worthy of membership in His earthly kingdom....Unable to believe and accept His strong and plain assertions about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, even many classified as disciples fell away" (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 2, p 385). This process of sifting continues with us today. Those of us who are unwilling to 'drink His blood and eat His flesh', rejecting the spiritual life force the Saviour can give, will when the tests of time come, fail in our love for Him who has given His all that we might live. May we be as Peter, who replied when the Saviour asked the Twelve:  'Will ye also go away?': 

"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life"

LIVING WATER

When Christ encountered the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well He told her that He can give her water far superior to the one she was constantly drawing to assuage the thirst of her household. (John 4:5-15).  The water he said he could give her was living water 'springing up into everlasting life' (John 4:14) as opposed to water that satisfies the body which is destined to die, thus making the well water 'dead water' with a used by date.

In performing its main object of springing up into everlasting life, the living water also heals here and now.  It heals the broken hearted, spiritual wounds caused by sin, emotional and physical suffering and defects of the mind.  Just before the Saviour returns, the scriptures inform us, "a new spring will appear at the temple in Jerusalem and its waters will flow eastward to the Dead Sea which will be healed of its dead and stagnant condition. The Dead Sea, or any other body of water which is stagnant, is so because of two reasons.  First, it has little or no inflow; and second, it has little or no outflow.  In its stagnant condition it becomes lifeless water.  Since it is not renewed with fresh water, it cannot in turn pass living water onto other streams and bodies of water, nor can it support life within itself". (Larry Keeler, Living Water or Dead Sea) The spring which will appear at the temple in Jerusalem is symbolic of Christ's power to heal anything that is dead, either spiritually or physically.

When I reflect on the incident at Jacob's well, I feel it is important to understand why the person Christ chose to tell of the living water was this particular woman. His solemn invitation to her, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink", was a plain and open claim of Messiahship. In making this claim he identified himself as the very Jehovah who had promised drink to the thirsty through an outpouring of the Spirit (McConkie, DNTC, 1:445-46). This is a pretty serious declaration to make since it either meant that he was a blasphemer worthy of death or he was in fact the God of Israel. What is more astonishing is the fact that He made this declaration to a Samaritan woman rather than a person of authority. Surely the latter would have carried much more weight and bring His claim to more prominence. However, as the Saviour proved with subsequent declarations, those in authority were not meek of heart who were willing to accept His claim. In my mind Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman was not by chance. When all of Jewry chose to travel an indirect and longer route from Judea to Galilee rather than go through Samaria, Jesus chose to travel the direct route and sat himself down at Jacob's well at noon having sent his disciples to procure provisions. There are two facts worthy of notice here:

1. Samaritans were an impure race, remnants of the 10 tribes who had intermarried with Assyrians and other foreigners and even though they boasted that Jacob was their father, the Jews denied this vehemently and considered them 'more unclean than a Gentile of any other nationality' (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 172). Because of this disdain Samaritans rejected the prophetic writings now known as the Old Testament. The ill-feeling between Jews and Samaritans had been growing for centuries, and at the time of the Saviour's ministry, the feeling between the two parties had grown to intense hatred. It goes without saying that a Jew would not be caught dead speaking to a Samaritan.
2. The Saviour knew well the woman who came to draw water from the well. He knew that she had had five husbands and was now living with a man who was not her husband. This was a fallen woman who chose to come to the well in the heat of the day rather than the cool of the morning when it was the custom for women to gather and enjoy social interaction. The timing of her visit to the well emphasized her despised and outcast position. In general Jewish men didn't speak to Jewish women much in public, especially not to ones of ill repute. For a Jewish man to speak to a Samaritan woman in public would have been unheard of. And here is Christ, the Messiah, speaking to a fallen, Samaritan, woman.  It is obvious that he was not politically correct on three counts.

Through Jesus's encounter with her, the Samaritan woman became the symbol of the downtrodden and the lowliest of us who can qualify for eternal life. The Saviour came to heal the sick and bind the broken hearted. He did not minister to those who were well and rejected Him in the pride of their hearts. This is why He mixed with the publicans and the sinners. How else could he have demonstrated that His living water could heal us and give us eternal life? When I think of the Samaritan woman and consider His important message, I also see through my 21st century view the Saviour sending a message to the women of our day, a message of healing and hope. A great number of women today feel fragmented and damaged  having been divorced, widowed, abandoned or simply ignored by the opposite sex. Among the damaged are women who have been embroiled in sin, abused and enslaved in oppression. Perhaps they are all depicted in this Samaritan woman. No doubt having had five husbands came at a price. We who live in this modern world where so much suffering abounds feel the oppression of sin, affliction, hardship and temptation. Some of us are barely keeping our heads above the water and some of us are scraping up sludge of dry wells.

In all our suffering and stumbling in the dark we tend to turn to the ways of the world to fill us. Sometimes we get so blinded by the glare of this world that we dive headlong into Jacob's well eager to assuage our thirst with that which does not satisfy, benefit or fulfill us. We seek for the corruptible things of this earth that have no lasting power to fill our cracks, heal our sorrows and make up for our lack. We think that this dismal telestial world has treasures to offer us that will somehow make us whole. The truth is that the lustre of this world can only be seen during the day. When the night falls, the emptiness is still there, the pain exposed, the suffering unbearable.

Drawing water from a well used to be a thankless and miserable daily burden designated to women. Water is heavy, hard to pull out of a well and carry home, much like the cares of this world. The water the Samaritan woman drew out of the well was dead heavy water of this earth representing the burdens of this world. If you would but drink from the fountain of living water you would not thirst anymore for you would be filled with that which matters most, that which is lasting, that which will speak peace to the deepest recesses of your soul. Then the suffering will be bearable and even conquerable. Then the lack will not matter and the cracks will diminish and fade. Then you can look forward to the living water within you springing up into everlasting life. Then you can be filled with hope and happiness believing Him who has said, "....eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). He can give all this to you. Be filled and thirst no more.

"Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonder of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!" (D&C 128:23)

KING OF KINGS

We can find in the Gospel of Matthew the detailed father-to-son genealogy linking Joseph to King David. As Joseph was a cousin to his espoused wife Mary, Joseph's genealogy is basically Mary's genealogy too. Jesus, Mary's son, therefore, inherited from his mother royal blood and the right to David's throne. Had the tribe of Judah that Jesus was born into been a free and independent nation at the time of His birth, Jesus would have been born the King of the Jews. Instead Jesus was born of the lowliest birth  into the most humble of circumstances, his divinity heralded by angels to only a group of shepherds, announcing a less than majestic birth of a true Shepherd and the King of Kings. When Jesus was brought before Pilate accused of proclaiming Himself to be the King of the Jews, His response to Pilate was: "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). During his mortal life, Jesus was not interested in an earthly kingdom. His interests were not political aspirations or desire to gain power. What He was interested in was establishing a kingdom of loyal subjects who would take upon themselves His name and proclaim him their God and the King of their salvation.

When Daniel found himself in Babylon serving King Nebuchadnezzar,  he interpreted the King's disturbing dream through revelation from God. This dream had to do with earthly kingdoms who have come and gone and had no power of endurance. By the time Christ was born, Egyptians had been conquered by Assyrians, Assyrians by Babylonians, Babylonians by Persians, Persians by Greeks and Macedons and Greeks and Macedons by Romans. In Nebuchadnezzar's dream the kingdoms were portrayed by an image of a man signifying man made kingdoms of this earth. Each part of the image represented a different kingdom, the last being feet and toes that stood for 10 modern governments born from the Roman Empire. We know these kingdoms today as the 'crowned heads of Europe'. In his dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw the image of the kingdoms broken into pieces by a stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:34) meaning not a man made stone but divinely crafted by God representing a kingdom that the God of heaven shall set up, that shall never be destroyed, that would consume all other kingdoms and that shall stand forever (Daniel 2:44). This dream and prophecy was fulfilled in 1820 through the restoration of the Gospel.

The enduring nature of the kingdom begun in 1820 is intended to cover the whole earth and prepare it for the Millennial reign when Jesus will return and be at last crowned King of Kings bringing with Him peace and prosperity to his loyal subjects. Why the title King of Kings? Because no other kingdom that has ever existed will equal His in scope and perfection. Christ's kingdom will end political mayhem and oppression doing away with human foibles and man's wisdom. It will end crime, poverty, sickness, sorrow, death, killing, calamities, natural disasters and all evil. No other king has ever had the power to affect change of such proportion. We live in a troubled world: politically, religiously and morally. Governments are failing to safeguard our economies, law and order and the moral fibre of our society. Our judicial system, comprised of imperfect men who are exercising earthly wisdom are failing to protect the innocent in our society. We have witnessed this truth only this week as a madman was allowed to walk our streets free and inflict terror on the citizens of our city. The world is deep in sin and ripening for destruction. We are guilty of gross moral and ethic transgressions: human trafficking, sexual exploitation, abuse of children, thieving, murder, rape, greed, abuse of power, bondage and many atrocities that I couldn't even name. It always fascinates me when I sit in Church lessons where the coming of the Saviour is portrayed as something we should dread. Why are we anticipating the Saviour's return with trapidation? How long have we waited for Him? Long enough to warrant scorn from non-believers. Should we not look forward to His return with eagerness and joy? Instead of discussing in class how Daniel saved the day by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream should we not focus on the hope of the Millennial day, what that dream was really about? I feel that if we familiarised ourselves with the condition of the Millennial reign we would desperately await His coming with eagerness and joy.

It is true that when He comes, the Saviour will exercise judgment on the wicked but for the loyal subjects of His Kingdom, He will bring love, mercy, peace and joy because that's who He is. He will be eager to see us and press us to his bosom. Should we not be longing for this? Recently I sat in the Gospel Doctrine class where a question was asked: "If you knew that the Saviour was coming tomorrow what would you change in your life?" Of course, there were many answers indicating much needed personal change. The answer to this question should be: nothing! There is nothing you could do in one day to change your life in a drastic way. One of the answers was - doing more missionary work. How much missionary work could you do in one day that would make up for years of not doing it??? If the Saviour was coming tomorrow, there is nothing you could change, it would be too late. Should we not instead put on a party to welcome Him back, to let Him know that He is wanted and needed to fix this sad telestial world we find ourselves in, to take away our sorrows and dry our tears, to fix the broken hearted, to give us much needed peace?

Who is this King of Kings that will come to reign in righteousness for a thousand years? He is known by many names because He is a God of  many perfect attributes but mostly He is a God of love and mercy and justice. He will come to claim His own and when He does every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is the Christ. And when He comes we will hail Him as our God and our King, the King of Kings, known by majestic names such as these:

Jehovah

Jesus Christ

The Lord

The Son of God

The Son of the Eternal Father

The Lamb

The Shepherd

Redeemer

Almighty God

The God of Israel

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

The Lord of Hosts

The Holy one of Israel

The Redeemer of Israel

King Immanuel

The Eternal God

The Redeemer of the World

Holy One

The Saviour

The Mighty One of Jacob

The Mighty One of Israel

Messiah

The Lord God

The God of Hosts

The Prince of Life

The Lord of Glory

Eternal King

Lord God Almighty

The Son of Righteousness

The Lord of Hosts

Alpha and Omega

The Great I Am

The Stone of Israel

Holy Messiah

I Am

The Great Mediator

Son Ahman

Firstborn

King of Glory

The Lord God of Hosts

The Father of Heaven and Earth

The Creator of All Things

Wonderful

Counselor

The Mighty God

The Everlasting Father

The Prince of Peace

IN HIS HOLY HOUSE

"When I was doing missionary work with some of our brethren, laboring among the Indians, seeking the Lord for light to decide certain matters pertaining to our work there, and receiving a witness from Him that we were doing things according to His will, I found myself one evening in the dreams of the night, in that sacred building, the Temple. After a season of prayer and rejoicing, I was informed that I should have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious Personage, and as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld, or that I even conceived existed in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, He arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and He smiled as He softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into His arms and kissed me, pressed me to His bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When He had finished, I fell at His feet, and as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in the presence of Him who hath all things in His hands, to have His love, His affection, and His blessings was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I hope to be, to feel what I then felt!"  
-  Apostle Melvin J. Ballard (Joseph Heinerman, Temple Manifestations, p. 152)

A careful study of the Old Testament's reign of the kings reveals to us a continual battle between those who sought to worship Jehovah and those who sought to worship false gods which competed for the time, resources and affection of the Israelites. "This ongoing battle produced a cycle of wickedness, decline, repentance, prosperity and then a return to wickedness again" (Taylor D. Halverson, Come to the House of the Lord, Lesson 30, Meridian Magazine, Aug 2006). Because they chose kings to rule over them, the children of Israel were left at the mercy of these kings and their choice of the god they would follow. Some of these kings laboured fervently to rid the land of idol worship of their fathers and return the people to the true god. There is only so much a king can do though, despite the cleansing of the land through tearing down of the altars and groves. With only one temple located in Jerusalem, it had become more convenient to visit the local grove and there engage in lustful fertility worship to ensure your crops would grow, rather than travel for days to Jerusalem and there give your best animals for slaughter. With such corrupted mentality, Israelites lost the understanding of sacrifice and the spirit of temple worship which pointed them towards the Saviour. King Ahaz did the greatest disservice to the Kingdom of Judah, not only because he placed his trust in the gods of Syria to help him (2 Chronicles 28:23) but he 'shut up the doors of the house of the Lord' (2 Chronicles 28:24). These two things, the scriptures record were 'the ruin of him and of all Israel' (2 Chronicles 28:23).

King Ahaz' son, Hezekiah, who reigned in righteousness after him, 'opened the doors of the house of the Lord' (2 Chronicles 29:3), re-instituted animal sacrifice and called the people to repentance. He made Isaiah his private council and trusted in the advice the prophet gave him. With this trust the Lord defeated the Assyrian army that had ravaged the Northern Kingdom of Israel and spared Judah. Hezekiah was blessed with honour and riches for his righteous reign but his pride got the better of him and he showed all the royal treasures and armaments to the son of the king of Babylon which was a great mistake for it initiated a Babylonian lust for Judah's possessions. Isaiah condemned Hezekiah's action and prophesied that all the treasures of the kingdom would be taken and 'carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left' and that Judah's royal family would be forced into exile in Babylon (Isaiah 39:6-8). Thus the Kingdom of Judah would be dispersed by the Babylonians as the Kingdom of Israel was dispersed by the hand of Assyrians. Despite Hezekiah's good works during his reign he showed a lack of closeness and love for the Lord when he contracted a fatal disease and became 'sick unto death' (Isaiah 38:1). The Lord told him through Isaiah to set his house in order and prepare to die but Hezekiah could not reconcile himself to death and wept bitterly and prayed incessantly for the Lord to extend his life. He reasoned he was a good person and therefore didn't deserve to die, that he was in the prime of his life and that he would miss his family. He took to counseling the Lord and became so obsessed with his desire to live that he lost an eternal perspective. He even asked for a sign to believe the Lord was speaking the truth when He promised him an additional 15 years of life (Isaiah 38).

Hezekiah got what he wanted but it did not prove beneficial to others: "During Hezekiah's extra 15 years, his wife bore him a son, Manasseh, the heir to the throne. Manasseh began to reign at age 12 and ruled for 55 horrible years. He had the prophet Isaiah murdered and reversed all of the religious reforms of his father. He erected altars to Baal, installed idols in the temple, and burned his sons to death on these altars. He appealed to wizards for spiritual direction and hid the scriptures. His evil influence was a principal cause of the eventual destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (2 Kings 24:3-4). We do not know what would have happened to Judah had Hezekiah died as prophesied by Isaiah. But Bishop John H. Vandenberg (1904-92) has said: "There have been some noble men who unwittingly sought to counsel the Lord. One such man was Hezekiah...As one reviews his life, one wonders, would it not have been better for Hezekiah to have submissively accepted the Lord's first decree...'Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die'." (Charles A. Muldowney, "Hezekiah's Tunnel Vision", Ensign, Sept. 2002, p 30)

The worst aspect of Israel's idolatry was not the fact that they put their trust in wrong gods and did not worship the right one but that their idolatry led to neglect of temple worship. As the consistent practice of animal sacrifices ceased so did their understanding of the atonement. Animal sacrifice served the purpose of pointing God's children to the ultimate sacrifice of the Saviour who would with his blood atone for their sins. Had the proper temple worship endured throughout Israel's history, the messianic hope would not have been lost in the political overtones.  As they chose to worship other gods, the Lord no longer protected them from the control of foreign nations. By the time the Saviour was born they no longer looked for a Messiah who would atone for their sins but for a Messiah who would rescue them from the Roman rule. In other words, they wanted a Moses to deliver them from yet another Egypt. Instead of a warrior, they got a carpenter who claimed his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). Because of their blindness, 'which blindness came by looking beyond the mark' (Jacob 4:14) they missed the Saviour of the world for "the 'mark' beyond which they looked was Christ. When he did not come in the manner they anticipated, they looked beyond Him for another who should come. Thus, 'they still wait for the coming of the Messiah' (2 Nephi 6:13)" (Old Testament Manual, 1 Kings - Malachi, p 67). No doubt the Jewish nation today are expecting a Messiah who will deliver them from the affliction of the Palestinians.

It is in temples and temple worship that we find the Saviour of the world, his purpose and his work and his glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). Will we recognise and know the Saviour when He comes if we do not engage in temple worship and regularly renew our covenants with Him? It is not required of us to travel on foot for days to reach a temple, nor is it required of us to slaughter our best animals or pay for our visit there in any form. We are merely invited to 'come buy milk and honey, without money and without price' (2 Nephi 26:25) for the temple ordinances are the stay of eternal life.

"Without God we are nothing. We have no meaningful, purposeful identity when God does not exist in our lives. Temples are essential, for there we learn more fully of God's true nature, of his plan for our lives and the covenants that He lovingly offers to us that we might bind ourselves to Him in an unbreakable relationship that defies death and time. May we return to the House of the Lord. May we find ourselves there as we find Him" (Taylor D. Halverson, Come to the House of the Lord, Lesson 30, Meridian Magazine, August 2006)