BE NOT AFRAID BUT BE GLAD

I have for many years now used the scriptures as God's private messages to me. Each morning after I pray I randomly open the scriptures whilst still kneeling to see what the Lord has to tell me in answer to my daily petitions. I have been amazed 99% of the time how pertinent the page that falls open has been to my heavenly communion. As my scriptures are heavily marked, my eye is usually drawn to those passages that obviously stand out. Sometimes it seems strange to me that I have marked certain scriptures years previously that seem random but they make sense when they become answers to my prayers. 

The page that my scriptures fell open to this morning was like a salve to my sagging spirits in this time of unrelenting sadness and fear that is gripping the world. The page my scriptures opened to was chapter 2 of Joel that speaks of war and desolation preceding the Second Coming. My highlighted scriptures were as follows:

" ...turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping and with mourning:
.....and rend your heart.....And repent, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and HE WILL TURN AWAY THE EVIL FROM YOU......Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.......Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God...And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered......And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, AND NONE ELSE.....

May we rend our hearts in fasting tomorrow to the one true and living God whose arm is not shortened when petitioned for deliverance and may we be chastened by the world's upheavals to prepare ourselves for His coming when He shall bring peace, health, prosperity and joy to the pure in heart who seek Him and await His coming.

- Cathryne Allen

THE APPLE OF HIS EYE

There was a prophet in Israel by the name of Zenos who lived between the time of Abraham and Isaiah and who was martyred for his testimony (Helaman 8:19,20) of whom the Bible does not speak. We know of this prophet because of the brass plates which were taken to the land of the Americas with Lehi and his colony in 600 B.C. Nephi used the prophecies of Zenos extensively in his ministry among his people because Zenos testified largely concerning this broken off branch of the tribe of Joseph 'who were a remnant of his seed', meaning Zenos was of the tribe of Joseph himself (3 Nephi 10:15,16).

So important did Nephi's brother Jacob consider the prophecies of Zenos that he painstakingly engraved Zenos' allegory of the olive tree onto the small plates of Nephi even though he reiterated he could only write 'a few words' because of the difficulty of engraving upon plates  (Jacob 4:1,2). Why is this allegory with its' complexities and intricacies which makes readers skip Jacob 5 so important? Firstly, it is the greatest allegory ever recorded; secondly it, in my opinion stamps the Book of Mormon with authenticity and truth for no mortal man, without the inspiration of God, could have written it. It not only proves that Zenos was a prophet  but that Joseph Smith was one too, a prophet who translated the Book of Mormon as opposed to having written it himself. Not only would the scope of this literary work have been beyond his level of education, Joseph, even though a farmer, could not have known anything about olive trees as they are not native to America. The first seedlings of the tree were brought to South America from Spain in 1560 and planted in Lima, capital of Peru. Zenos, on the other hand, was a Hebrew prophet well indoctrinated in the agricultural practices of his time and place.

In the allegory of the olive tree, there are two principal entities, the Master of the vineyard and the servant. It has been suggested by some that the Master represents the Father and the servant is the Saviour but I tend to side with those who recognise the Master, who is repeatedly  referred to as the Lord of the vineyard, to be the Saviour who employs servants to assist with His work. This is obvious to me because this Lord of the vineyard focuses mainly on just one tree, a tame olive tree that becomes corrupted by other threes and begins to rot.  So why the obsession with this one tree? Because this tree represents the House of Israel, a group of covenant people most favoured by the God of Israel above all the nations of the world. And the God of Israel is Jesus Christ, the great Jehovah himself who has proclaimed: "I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn" (Jeremiah 31:9). The Old Testament highlights God's favouritism of Israel as a father would of a favourite son, whom He calls 'the apple of His eye' (Deut 32:10; Zechariah 2:8)

Whilst it is not my wish to overshadow the importance of the House of Israel's lengthy history contained within this allegory, which begs thorough study, and which spans from the time of the first scattering in 721 BC to the Millenium, it is my intention to focus on the Saviour and how he relates to us who are of this House. In the allegory of the olive tree, the Lord of the vineyard sets about  plucking, pruning, digging and grafting. He also grieves, preserves, labours, watches and tends to the vineyard constantly, but in particular one tree, the tame olive tree. The central theme of this allegory is the Saviour's enduring mercy, long-suffering, loving care and his most dedicated work towards His favoured people, the House of Israel. His frantic and desperate efforts can be seen through repetitious declarations of His protective love 'for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye' (Zechariah 2:8): His desire to preserve the tame olive tree is mentioned in the parable 11 times; He expresses His desire to bring us to Him at least 15 times; He shows his grief over losing 'this tree' 8 times'; and 3 times He asks with anguish, weeping, 'what could I have done more?'

It is obvious the Lord has done everything He can so perhaps the question should be, 'what can we do more'? It is simply not enough to physically be of the House of Israel. One must be spiritually so to be the favoured 'apple of His eye'. Love is a two way street. He loves us because we are the believing, the repentant, the obedient. And if not, then we should be. We are the ones who have accepted the Holy One of Israel to be our God, until the harvest is gathered home. We are important. Not only to ensure our own salvation but to save the other trees in the vineyard. It is up to us to graft the good branches into the wild olive trees of this world. The harvest is fast approaching and we must prepare for the reaping. We must honour the privilege of being 'the apple of His eye'. After he recounts the allegory of the olive tree to his people, Jacob admonishes them to repent and continue on the strait and narrow path until they obtain eternal life. And then out of desperation he says "O be wise; what can I say more?" (Jacob 6:4,11,12). What indeed?

TO OBEY UNTIL DEATH

I am constantly amazed at the way the Book of Mormon clarifies the doctrines of Christ and it amazes me equally how often we miss these clarifications. One ordinance in the Church that often gets misunderstood is baptism. I, like many others no doubt, have partaken the sacrament each Sunday with the idea that I if I do so I will walk away from the chapel 'clean' as on the day of my baptism. I don't know that this is entirely true or false but it is the idea I have lived with for the past 40 years.

The New Testament teaches us that baptism is important but the reasons why are quite vague. The idea of purification by baptism as suggested in Acts 22:15-16 stands more as a symbol than a reason, probably because we associate water with cleanliness. The act of baptismal cleanliness is not due to immersion but the purifying power of the Holy Ghost for the redemption of sins, which follows (2 Nephi 31:17). Paul also symbolises baptism with burial and resurrection in Romans 6:4. Whether Paul's references to baptism on these occasions were recorded accurately and in their entirety or whether they were references in passing is not clear. All we get from him however, is that it is important to be baptised. Jesus told John that He needed to be baptised "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15, 2 Nephi 31:5). Where does righteousness spring from? From obedience. Book of Mormon is clear on this fact: baptism's first and foremost objective is to make a covenant of obedience with God.  If the act of baptising was to wash away sins, Jesus being without sin would not need to be baptised. The obvious reaction to this is: He was baptised to be an example to us. But an example of what? This is where the Book of Mormon excels in clarification. Nephi makes it clear that Jesus' willingness to 'fulfill all righteousness'  was not to exemplify washing away of sin but to make a covenant of obedience (2 Nephi 31:6,7). In other words, at the time of His baptism, Jesus was making a covenant with the Father that He would be obedient and in the process making the example for us to do the same. And indeed the renewal of this covenant is what we hear in our sacramental prayers every Sunday (Moroni 4,5).

When Alma who had fled from King Noah with a small band of followers preached to them the covenant of obedience by the waters of Mormon, the people were so overcome with joy that they comitted to baptism there and then (Mosiah 18:10,11). Alma's first baptism was a man called Helam. His words to him took the baptismal covenant to a new level. He said: Helam, I baptise thee, having authority from the Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered into a covenant to serve him until you are dead...." (Mosiah 18:13). This is serious stuff. Especially considering that anciently covenants were not broken even at the point of death. 

Nehi makes it clear that enduring to the end is an essential component of baptism, one on which the whole concept of salvation hangs (2 Nephi 31:16). But there is another reason. Nephi says we must endure "in following the example of the Son' (2 Nephi 31:16). The Saviour endured to the end in every sense of the word. Not just to the end of His life, but to the end of His 'death'. You will recall that His suffering began in the Garden of Gethsemane where His mental anguish caused Him to bleed 'at every pore' (D&C 19:18). This suffering returned to Him when He was upon the cross enduring the physical break down of His body. Did He have the power to come down from the cross? Absolutely. But He chose to endure to the end, when all the mankind was redeemed and every soul accounted for, when He could say "it is finished' (JST Matthew 27:54, John 19:30). His death was His moment of choice. All things endured, all things suffered. Obedience made possible. Until death.