What If

Tuesday I was sitting in the temple and I opened up the Book of Mormon to 3 Nephi 8. At first glance I thought that there wasn't anything in the chapter I needed to hear. We are at a downward turn in the pride cycle and there is destruction and darkness in the land for 3 days. In this darkness the people hear the voice of the Lord telling them of all the places he has had to destroy because of wickedness. When I was in the middle of saying; yeah, yeah, yeah. I suddenly realized something. Here it is:

In verse 5 Christ has just said, I destroyed  Zarahemla, Moroni, and the great city Moronihah. Why? "to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them."

Again in verse 7: "to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the ^cblood of the prophets and the saints shall ^dnot come up any more unto me against them."

Verse 8: "to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them."

He starts listing some of these wicked and abominable things that the people were doing that caused their destruction and we get that same phrase 2 more times. Making 5 total. 

Then in verse 13 he explains further: "O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?"

Next there is to be no more sacrifices offered by the shedding of blood, but to offer up instead a broken heart and contrite spirit. 

21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring ^aredemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.

When I finished the chapter I thought about the significance it was the Christ made the point 5 different times that justice was being cried out for, and the merciful thing to do was to bring the sinners back home so that further condemnation could not be heaped upon them. God has given us prophets for a specific purpose and they have a duty to warn the people of their wickedness. 

I then decided to try just opening up the bible. It landed on Ezekiel 33, and read about prophets being called as watchmen and that if they failed to warn the people about 'a sword coming upon the land' the blood of the people would be on the watchmen's hands. But, if the people were warned and did nothing, their blood was on their own hands. It then ends with talking about the destruction of Jerusalem because of wickedness. What seems to be the problem? They are on inherited land. With inheritance comes obligations.

25 Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Ye eat with the ^ablood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?

26 Ye ^astand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land?

I am reminded of the promise: if you keep my commandments you have a promise, but if you do not, you have no promise. They think they just get this inheritance without having to fulfill the conditions predicated upon it by offering sacrifices. Essentially thinking they had a license to do whatever they wanted because they were offering sacrifices.  

27 Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the ^asword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

28 For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.

29 Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.

Apparently we need reminded constantly who the Lord is. We are so inclined to start thinking of our own abilities as the means of our salvation, that we need reminding- which reminds me of the ministry of Korihor of every man prospers according to his talents. 

I still look at those 2 chapters and think that there is something really profound there to understand that I just can't get my brain to wrap around quite yet. I'm just leaving the start of this process here. This is the formula I use to discovering the 'mysteries of the kingdom.' I start thinking about something and then hope that other things lead me to an answer. Like everything I read from now on will somehow tie into this, and eventually I will understand what I'm meant to. What I do know is that when I keep an eternal perspective, it is much easier for me to see the Lord's mercy in meting out justice. Death is not the end. It is being called back home. I believe the destruction of the land or people is much like talking about ex-communication in the modern times. Someone is not ex-communicated to be punished, but to stop them from further harming themselves because they aren't keeping their covenants. To remove them from the obligation of covenant keeping until they can repent. To prevent further condemnation. It is only when we fail to recognize the significance of our covenants that we forget/don't know how important it is to keep them. What if 'destruction' and ex-communication are the mercy extended to fulfill the demands of justice?