Jacob on Resurrection and the Tree

He Saw God Face to Face

Moses saw God.

This is one of the promises made to those entering the Worship of the Shalems, and one of the blessings they received in the actual ordinance.  Nephi tells us that he, Jacob, and Isaiah all had this experience.  So did the Brother of Jared.

Awake, and Arise from the Dust, O Jerusalem

Mormon's final exhortation to us is pure shalem imagery: come unto Christ, laying hold upon every good gift (take Christ's hand and come through the veil); awake, arise, and put on our garments (Lehi made the same exhortations to his wayward sons); be "perfected" (i.e., a shalem) in Christ.

Moroni himself goes to "rest" in "paradise" (temple imagery).  How can he meet us at the judgment?  Is it because he is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and his role is to stand in the Lord's stead at the veil where each shalem is judged?

Helaman 5

Here is my outline for today's Sunday School lesson on Helaman 5.

Temple:

·       3 rooms: ulam, hekal (great and spacious building), debir (place of speaking)

·       incense altar, table/bread, lamp/tree – confusion about tables and tree

·       veil, ark, stone, 2 x 2 cherubim

·       Temple is UP

Temple Visions:

·       Isaiah 6: throne, seraphim, glory, smoke

·       Ezekiel 1-2: four living creatures, firmament, throne, voice of the Lord

·       Daniel 7: four great beasts, ancient of days sitting on a throne of fire, the Son of Man comes on clouds of heaven

·       1 Enoch 14: three rooms (outside, great house, greater house), God on a fiery throne

·       1 Nephi 1... twice: pillar on the rock; then, heavens open, throne of God, singing angels, one and twelve descending

Controversy:

·       Hezekiah removed Nehushtan

·       Josiah removed “grove,” killed and burned priests

·       1 Nephi 13: temple visions, “precious above all,” “plain and precious things” removed

·       WHAT IS LEFT IS FRAGMENTED, HARD TO UNDERSTAND OR IN CODE.  THIS IS WHAT NEPHI MEANS BY SAYING ISAIAH’S WORDS ARE PLAIN TO THOSE WH ARE FILLED WITH A SPIRIT OF PROPHECY, AND NEPHI WILL ALSO PROPHESY PLAINLY (2 N. 25:4)

Sermon on the Mount:

·       not a Sermon.  Luther thought it was Satanic.  scholars think a collection of sayings.

·       ORDINANCE: 3 chapters = 3 rooms

·       priests = angels: Mal 2:7, Alma 12-13 (called, foundation of the world, teach Christ’s redemption), Alma 29 wants to “go forth” as an angel teaching the plan of redemption, but God in his “wisdom” lets people know what he sees fit

·       WALK THROUGH ORDINANCE WITH MODEL, note: blessings (seeing God, children of God, kingdom of heaven) / prison break / shalems / dress / kingdom of heaven / rock / authority and astonishment

·       1 Nephi 8, Gen. 14 shalem king, Ps. 23, Lev. 7 and Exodus 24 worship of the shalems, Peace

Shalem Imagery in Scripture:

·       Nephi 4:30-35 shows rock, prison escape by redemption, straight path and gate of heaven, encircled in robe

Helaman 5:

·       vv. 5-13, endowment from the father: private, many things not written (cf. 1 N. 1:16, 8:29)

·       v. 18-19 authority (not in 3 Nephi... ??)

·       vv. 21 ff.:

o       jail (21-22)

o       encircled (23)

o       pillar of fire (24)

o       cloud of darkness (28)

o       voice (29) (cf. 3 Nephi 11:36 – hear the voice three times)

o       kingdom of heaven (32)

o       good tidings and fear (29, 34; cf. Luke 2:9-10)

o       Aminadab (vv. 35, 37-39ff) = “John”, angel priest guide

o       faces shine (36) (cf. Alma 40:25, Matthew 13:43)

o       repent, are encircled (41-43)

o       Nephi and Lehi come to them (44), they are dressed and feel joy (1 N. 8:12)

o       “peace” (47)

o       heavens open (48)

o       JAILBREAK STORY IS TOLD IN TERMS OF AN IRONY: THE PRISONERS ARE REALLY THE HIGH PRIESTS, AND THE JAILORS ARE REALLY THE INITIATES IN THE MIST, UNTIL THEY REPENT, AND BECOME CLOTHED, HAVE PEACE, SEE THE HEAVENS OPEN

Why Is Helaman Awesome?

·       It’s at the heart of the BoM theme – visionary men vs. Gadiantons

·       It’s genre fiction

In My Name, In Mighty Prayer

This sounds like an ordinance, because Christ lays his hands on his disciples and calls them by name.  What is "mighty prayer"?  It's what the children of God do together in private.  It's how Nephi prays in the presence of the Lord, drawing down ministering angels.  It's how Enos prayed.  It's how Alma prayed for the people of Ammonihah.  And it's what the disciples were engaged in after Christ's ministry among the Nephites that drew his return.

Behold, I Am Fair

The daughter of Jared, whose ambition and twisted filial piety launch the false mysteries among the Jaredites, is "fair," like the Virgin.  Where the Virgin will give birth to the king, the daughter of Jared desires the king's head.  Moroni must have seen her as the Virgin's antitype, the whore of Babylon.

Broke Down the Door of the Prison

In the sequel, Corihor's son Noah imprisons Shule and plans to execute him, but Shule's sons rescue and re-enthrone him.

Shule's name and the enthronement motif are provocative.  I am reminded of Lehi and Nephi's jailbreak; they are rescued by the temple, as it were, "encircled" by fire, with mists, and a voice that comes down from above the mist.  Peter and John are similarly rescued from prison by an angel, who immediately sends them into the temple to teach.

I note also that in the oldest Isaiah materials, preserved by Nephi, the Son of the Morning, before he is cast down (into the "pit," like the Azazel-goat on the Day of Atonement), will not release his prisoners.

Why all these prison-escape stories?  Did the Worship of the Shalems include a symbolic-spiritual deliverance from captivity?

The King of Heaven Shall Very Soon Shine Forth

In the Worship of the Shalems, the Lord comes forth from the Holy of Holies to clothe the shalems and administer the feast of bread and wine.  He is Melchizedek, the king of rightenousness and the shalem king, and the shalems have come through the valley of the shadow of death to reach him.  The moment of his coming is the light seen by those in darkness, in the shadow of death.  It is the shining forth of the King of Heaven.

This was the moment when the veil parted and the high priest came out in his robes.  The light from the Holy of Holies (which is where the evidence of the visionary men consistently places the light and the tree) shines forth behind him.  This was the visionary men's ritual prophecy of the Lord's earthly birth, when Yahweh would come in person to administer the feast of bread and wine to his followers.  This is the imagery John uses to report that the prophecy was fulfilled... and the people in darkness and the shadow of death didn't understand what they had witnessed.

Ye Shall Be Brought to See Your Nakedness

The wicked are unprepared to meet God because they are naked.

This must mean that the righteous are clothed.

It Shall Be Brought out of Darkness Unto Light

The image of a light shining into the darkness comes from the Worship of the Shalems; the temple veil parted, shining light into the darkness of the Hekal where the initiates stood as the high priest / Lord / Melchizedek came from the Holy of Holies to join them.

Isaiah shows us this image.

John uses the image of the light shining into the darkness to identify Jesus as the high priest, i.e., as Melchizedek and Yahweh who was to come.

Lehi exhorts his errant sons to come out of that darkness and into the light.

Moroni uses the light image to describe the coming forth of the BoM.

Therefore Repent

Mormon's final admonition echoes Nephi's, and the doctrine of Christ.  Repent, be baptized with fire and water, "lay hold upon the gospel of Christ" and follow "the example of our Savior."  Doing what we've seen the Lord do is equivalent to standing in the strait and narrow path and speaking with the tongues of angels in 2 Nephi 31-32.  3 Nephi 27 shows us that the "gospel" is the same thing as the "rock."

So Mormon, at the end, tells us to repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and approach the Lord in his temple.

This Is the Gospel Which I Have Given unto You

Christ summarizes the "gospel" for his disciples, and does so entirely in terms of the Worship of the Shalems and the Day of Atonement.  Christ is lifted up and draws others to follow him (the doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31 climaxes in temple worship, described as speaking with the tongues of angels, standing in the strait and narrow path and doing what you have seen the Lord do; to go up is to ascend into the temple).  You must be washed and dressed to enter into the kingdom.  The "commandment" is the same as the "doctrine of Christ": repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and "stand spotless before me" (this last is a temple image; one passes through the veil and meets the Lord).  The end of the process is the Day of Atonement's judgment, with the wicked hewn down and burned.

Men Are That They Might Have Joy

So once we realize that eating the fruit = eating the bread in the temple feast of the shalems, and that afterwards the participants break forth in singing that is described as "joy," we can see that this famous passage is a temple text.  Is Lehi inventing this association, or when the shalems ate the fruit did they BOTH remember Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit AND ALSO look forward to the Lord as the fruit of the tree of life?

They Did Cry Out with One Voice

After they have eaten the shalem feast, the multitude sings.  "With one voice" means that they knew in advance what they were to sing, either because they were conducted by someone or because they were participating in an ordinance they already knew, which included this song.

This should not surprise us.  Isaiah tells us of singing in the temple, and Job, and Luke, and Nephi.

They Saw the Heavens Open

Chapter 17 begins a curious echo of the Sermon at the Temple.  The infirm and the children are brought forward (the poor in spirit, etc.).  Jesus conducts a group prayer (might these have been the words?).  Then we get a perfect vignette or summary of the Worship of the Shalems: the heavens open, angels descend in glory ("fire"), and they minister to the children by encircling them.  In particular, we know from 2 Nephi that "encircling" is an image of being clothed in heavenly garments.

I don't know why we have the apparent doubling.  Curiously, double visions are a characteristic of apocalyptic literature: the visionary has one vision, and then a second vision to explain the first.  This is exactly what we're given in 1 Nephi (8 and 11-14), and I wonder if we have the same phenomenon here.

Ye Have Both Heard My Voice, and Seen Me

Having conducted them through the Worship of the Shalems, Christ tells his disciples that they have heard his voice, and seen him.  This reminds me of what I pointed out the other day about Nephi's take on the Isaiah chapters: that he knows them as things that are spoken and witnessed, and not just as words on a page.  Nephi also tells us that he and Jacob both saw "the Redeemer," as Isaiah did, in the context of introducing the arc of Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi.  Of course, in the climax of the Worship of the Shalems, the participants entered the strait gate and narrow way and met the Lord in person.