Out of Obscurity

 

First and foremost I want to testify of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He loves us and is very cognoscente of each one or us and wants us to turn toward Him in all of our thoughts and actions.  He also wants us to learn to love one another.  It is of the utmost importance.

The Lord works in patterns every time He reaches out to reclaim His people.   In the post-deluvian (after the flood) world, the human catalyst for change has come from obscurity. What am I talking about?  From the time of Adam through Noah the leadership of the Lord’s people has come through an obvious uninterrupted patriarchal line and there were at least a percentage of His children that were obedient to His commandments.  However, after the flood we see a recurring pattern of apostasy then restoration.  Each time the Lord redirected His people after a time of apostasy, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through a prophet/servant who came out of obscurity.

The first major change (New Dispensation) came with Abraham.  Abraham was a descendent of Shem/Melchizedek although nine generations removed.  The vast majority of the descendents of Shem/Melchizedek had become idol worshipers, save for those few in the city of Salem.  The main religion of the time was Idolatry and it was almost 300 years before Abram (his name was later changed to Abraham by the Lord) was born.  Abram was 75 yrs old when the Lord commanded him to Leave Haran and travel to Canaan.  It was at that time the Lord covenanted with Abram (which we now know as the Abrahamic Covenant) “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get yourself out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto a land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you. And in you shall the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 7:1 RE, Gen. 12:1-3 LE)  The Gospel of Jesus Christ had been abandoned by the majority of the descendants of Noah after the flood. It was not long before Abram that Nimrod, a descendent of Ham, and his people built the tower of Babel to reach unto heaven and as a result of their conspiracy to prevent heaven from destroying mankind again the Lord corrupted the speech of the whole world.

The next major change came at the time of Moses.  Moses was also not from the current ruling body of the Lords people, the tribes of Israel. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had gone to Egypt to obtain food, were in captivity by Pharaoh.  The ruling body of the Israelites was a council of the tribal leaders.  Both of Moses’ birth parents were of the tribe of Levi, so Moses had  priestly birthright. When Moses was born, the Pharaoh had commanded that all male children born to the Hebrews should be thrown into the river: “And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives…And he said, When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the birth stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, Why have you done this thing and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively and are delivered before the midwives come in unto them. Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty…And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born to you (the Hebrews) shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” (Exodus 1:3 RE, Exodus 1:15-22 LE)

Moses’ mother conceived and bore a male child: “And when she saw that he was a peculiar child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of papyrus, and smeared it with tar and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the reeds by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him.  And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children…And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 1:4-5 RE, Exodus 2:2-10 LE)  Moses was raised in the household of Pharaoh as his grandson. 

When the Lord called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, he was tending the flocks of the priest of Midian.  Of course you all know the story of the Lord calling upon Moses from a bush. I find it interesting in the account in Exodus the narration says the “and again the presence of the Lord (Joseph Smith changed “angel” to “presence”) appeared unto him.” (Exodus 2:2 RE, Exodus 3:2 LE) So it seems that this was not the first time Moses had some interaction with the Lord. He was obviously being prepared for what the Lord would ask of him.

John the Baptist was also someone who came out of obscurity.  Like Moses, he had the birthright to do what he did but he was not part of the mainstream leadership of the time.  Also like Moses, both his father and mother were of the tribe of Levi, descendents of Aaron.  John’s father Zacharias was performing his duties in the temple when an angel appeared to him to inform him of his wife’s coming expectancy.  His wife Elizabeth had been barren and was now past the child baring years. “And while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his priesthood, according to the law…there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw the angel, he was troubled and fear fell upon him; but the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” (Luke 1:3 RE, Luke 1: 8-13 LE)  John was sent out of obscurity to prepare the way of the Lord, his roll was that of an Elias (a for-runner): “And in those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, for I am he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.” (Matt 2:1 RE, Matt 3:1-3 LE)  “The next day, John sees Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And John bore record of him unto the people, saying, This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him, and that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore have I come baptizing with water.” (John 1:5 RE, John 1:29-31 LE) It was not long after that John was executed by Herod.

The Lord Himself is another example of how God brings about change through obscurity.  Before His ministry began John was given the responsibility to identify Christ as the long awaited Messiah: “And John bore record…I saw the spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abided upon him…And I saw and bore record that this is the Son of God. (John 1:5 RE, John 1:32-34 LE)  Jesus was not of the reigning hierarchy of the time.  He did not come through the Sadducees or the Pharisees, who were the Jewish sects that held the most seats in the Sanhedrin, the primary Jewish leadership council.  The Lord had no credentials or had no bonifides of men: “Yea, even doth not Isaiah say, Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” (Mosiah 8:3 RE, Mosiah 14:1-2 LE)  In chapter 4 of his book “Come Let Us Adore Him”, Denver Snuffer writes “As Isaiah put it: “there is no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isa. 53: 2.) Or, to paraphrase Isaiah: “He was not bonafide. He did not have credentials deserving respect.” He was nobody.”  I agree with Denver in his definition of “beauty that we should desire him”, He began as a nobody in the eyes of the people. When He condescended from the realms of Heaven in the meridian of time He came out of obscurity He had no standing among the people to promote respect.

Joseph Smith was not a leader in any of the many organized religions of his day.  He was not even a licensed or trained preacher.  He was just an obscure boy of 14 when the Lord called him to do a great work: “And though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age or thereabouts, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world…how very strange it was that an obscure boy of a little over fourteen years of age… should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, so as to create in them a spirit of the bitterest persecution and reviling.” (JSH 2:8 RE, JSH 1:22 LE) Where the previously mentioned men could track their birthright to do what they did, we don’t have that information about Joseph, although I would bet that he did have the birthright, remember the Lord works in patterns.

I bring up all of these significant events to identify an established pattern in how the Lord works.  As shown whenever there is a great event about to take place it does not come through the current/traditional leadership of a prominent organization.  The Lord is working to bring about Zion in our day.  My belief is that the first step is establishing the New Jerusalem and building a temple for the Lord to come to.  That work has begun.  You are probably asking “who is going to build it” and that is a question I will address in another post.  But for now keep your eyes and heart open to the work the Lord is currently doing.