There are several paths I could
walk with this topic. The chapter in the
Gospel Principles manual is 8 pages
long and has 7 different topic headlines.
After spending some time this morning asking the class about their
impressions of General conference last week, the remainder of our class time
focused just on the predictions of Christ’s birth before He came to earth. I’ll begin there myself and see where it
leads. J
The prophet Isaiah had much to
say about the Savior’s meridian advent.
Of His birth, Isaiah prophesied: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (7:14). During a time when the Israelites had
“forsaken the Lord, [and] … provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger” (1:4),
they needed to know who to look for to overcome their iniquities. Isaiah also foretold that the Messiah would
“grow up … as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground” and would be
“despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”
(53:2-3). He warned the Israelites that
the Messiah was not to be some grand and glorious personage when He came. Instead, He would have “no form nor
comeliness; and … there [would be] no beauty that we should desire him”
(53:2). He would be one of them—only not
one of them.
The people in the “old” world
weren’t the only ones given signs of the Messiah (even though He would not
visit them until after His mortal
ministry had concluded). King Benjamin
in the Book of Mormon testified, Jesus would “suffer temptations, and pain of
body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be
unto death” (Mosiah 3:7). He would also
“go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick,
raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight,
and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases” (3:5). Those preparing for the Savior’s advent
needed the reassurance that Father in Heaven had not abandoned them or left
them to the devices of the adversary.
They needed to understand that through the Savior, they could “wash [and
be made] … clean” if they would “cease to do evil” (Isaiah 1:16). If they would have faith in Christ as though He had come and completed the
Atonement, their scarlet sins would become “as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
To me, that is the key to the
prophesies concerning Jesus as the promised Messiah. Those who lived in the time before His coming
had to exercise faith in Christ for what He would
do, while we in these latter-days need to have faith in Christ for what He has done. In either case, part of the test is to cling
to our faith when the conventional wisdom of the world says: “Behold, ye cannot
know of things which ye do not see … it is the effect of a frenzied mind; and
this derangement of your minds comes because of the traditions of your fathers”
(Alma 30:15-16). On the other hand, we
need to also keep from “looking beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:14). This is what caused people to miss Jesus when
He was among them. For us in the
latter-days, I believe “looking beyond the mark” would lead us to set ourselves
up as the guiding light (instead of being guided by the Light) and to shun the prophets because they don’t follow
our personal agendas.
Another way in which Isaiah
prepared the people for the coming of Jesus was by helping them understand the
names by which He would be called: “and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”
(9:6). These names not only identify who
He is, but also reveal His characteristics.
President Ezra Taft Benson declared that Jesus “is given over one
hundred different names in the Book of Mormon” (Ensign, Nov. 1987, 83). I
will touch on two that help me enhance my understanding of His personality and
characterize not only His life during His sojourn on earth, but who He is and
continues to be in my life.
First, Jesus Christ is our Comforter. Usually we associate this title with the Holy
Ghost. Don’t worry, the Holy Ghost
hasn’t lost this important role, but Jesus told His Jerusalem Apostles
something very important about Himself as He lead them toward the Garden of
Gethsemane on that critical atoning night: “And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16, emphasis added). The emphasized word is the key. Jesus would
pray for another Comforter to be
given to the Apostles. If the Holy Ghost
is a second comforter, Jesus is the first.
We live in a time when Satan
“rage[s] in the hearts of the children of men, … stir[s] them up to anger
against that which is good” and causes “the whole earth [to] be in commotion (2 Nephi 28:20; D&C 45:26). To liken
the scriptures to our day, we could equate a scriptural moment Elder David A.
Bednar reminded us of when “Alma’s people were frightened by an advancing
Lamanite army.
‘But Alma went forth and stood
among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but … should
remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them. Therefore they hushed their fears’ (Mosiah 23:27-28).
“Notice Alma did not hush the
people’s fears,” Elder Bednar continued. “Rather, Alma counseled the believers
to remember the Lord and the deliverance only He could bestow (see 2 Nephi 2:8). And knowledge of the Savior’s protecting watchcare enabled the people to
hush their own fears” ("Therefore They Hushed Their Fears," April 2015 Conference ).
Based on the earlier
discussion, this episode shows the strength of the faith of Alma and his
followers in the Savior’s role in their lives.
The Savior is our Comforter in
troubled times whether those times are collective or personal. Even though we may feel worried, distressed,
or bleak, we can be assured that our Elder Brother will support us through our
trials. As I have stated in an earlier post, He will not carry us through our trials—to do so would
deprive us of the opportunity to learn and stretch and grow—but He “will go
before [our] face” and “will be on [our] right hand and on [our] left” (D&C 84:88). If we put our trust in Jesus and
seek to rely upon “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8), He will grant us the comfort and peace “which passeth all
understanding” (Philippians 4:7).
The greatest way Jesus blesses
us with such comfort is through the incomparable gift of redemption. Someone who
redeems another recovers them from captivity by ransom (see merriam-webster/redeem: 2a). This is what Jesus did for us
through His atoning sacrifice; He became our Redeemer. He declared to His
meridian disciples that He came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Significant in Heavenly
Father’s perfect plan was the necessity of a fall. Adam and Eve were the first to experience
this. Their fall placed the earth in a
state where they could fulfill the first commandment to “multiply, and
replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28). As
father Lehi taught his son Jacob, “if Adam [and Eve] had not transgressed
[they] would not have fallen … And they would have had no children; wherefore
they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew
no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin” (2 Nephi 2:22-23).
Just as Adam and Eve’s
transgression, and subsequent fall, cut them off from the presence of Heavenly
Father, our sins also cause us to
spiritually fall from Father’s presence.
Since “no unclean thing can dwell with God” (1 Nephi 10:21), if there
was no way to overcome the stain of our sins, life would be bleak indeed. However the great perspective of the gospel
message teaches us that we need not remain in captivity to our sins. It is possible, as Isaiah declared, to wash
scarlet sins “as white as snow” (1:18).
Just as in our premortal life, we may overcome our personal, spiritual
falls “by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11).
We can trust that through the
Atonement Jesus “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows … was wounded for our transgressions, … bruised for our iniquities … and
with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). Elder Bednar testified: “The power of the
Atonement makes repentance possible and quells the despair caused by sin; it
also strengthens us to see, do, and become good in ways that we could never
recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity” (“Therefore They
Hushed Their Fears”). Truly, Jesus is
our “Redeemer of Israel, … Our King, our Deliv'rer, our all” ("Redeemer of Israel," Hymns, 6).
I am thankful for the Savior’s
perfect life. Without it, my opportunity
to return to Father’s presence would be forever lost. I am grateful for the gospel message that He
taught, the compassion that He showed, and the sacrifice that He made. I stand all amazed at His love. I hope that I can live my life in a way that
would be pleasing to Him and to Father, that through my Elder Brother’s
sacrifice, I may one day stand with confidence in the presence of God knowing
that my Savior’s grace has helped me to achieve the blessings I seek.
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