*NOTE TO THE READER: This particular post is not a required one for my Book of Mormon class - I've decided that I kinda like blogging. So I said to myself: "Sam, you are your own man - it's your blog, you can write a post whenevs you want to." And so that's what I've decided to do. Be warned, though: Another blog will be coming later this week in conjunction with my religion class.
This blog has additional import: It is a copy of a term paper I had to write for a religion class. It will be longer than all of the other posts that I have put here. I do hope that you might get a chance to read it, and I hope that you will enjoy it :)
But, like I said, it is LONG.
Don't say I didn't warn you.....
THE PARABLE OF THE SHOPPERS: The
Gathering of Israel and Redemption of Zion
In latter days as well as in times
of old, the House of Israel has been the chosen vessel of the Lord, the people
by whom He enlightens the rest of mankind with His knowledge, power, and
blessings. And yet, through her own choice of disobedience, Israel in ancient
days forsook her God and worshipped “the work of their own hands, that which
their own fingers had made” (Isaiah 2:8). However, God’s covenant still
remained, and the Restoration of His Gospel through Joseph Smith became the
“ensign for the nations, [to] assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah” (Isaiah 11:12). We now live in the time of the
gathering of Israel and the redemption of God’s Zion.
Perhaps
this principle is best illustrated in what I like to call ‘The Parable of the
Shoppers’. Imagine, for a moment, that a mother and father went to a large
store, and brought with them their young children. The parents repeatedly told
the children that if they would stay by them, they (the parents) would buy
their kids candy or some sort of goodie at the end of the trip. As they walked
around the store, the kids became distracted by various toys that seemed to
pull them away from their parents; repeatedly Mom and Dad would call for their
children to come back or else the treat at the end of the trip would be
forfeited.
Several
times the kids returned to walk beside their parents, but inevitably they
wandered off again, this time straying far beyond the sound of their parents’
voice. For a time these children wandered around the store, lost and allured by
innumerable distractions and devices.
At
long last one older child sought out his parents, who had been frantically
searching for their lost kids. They quickly decided upon a meeting place and
time for the family to reunite, and then they sent their child who returned to
help them search for the other children. In due course of time, the parents and
their children (who had been found and gathered together through the help of
the older child) met at the foreordained place, and, after a quick rebuke and a
swift outpouring of love and gratitude for their reunion, the family went about
their business.
Hopefully
this parable helps illustrate the broad history—past, present, and future—of
the House of Israel, God’s covenant people. Throughout this course of this
essay, we can liken those parents in this parable to the God of the Old
Testament, Jehovah, and the Savior of the New, Jesus Christ, who are the same
Being. The children are, of course, the House of Israel.
As
has been stated, the House of Israel was God’s chosen nation, His
covenant-making and –keeping people. But what covenant established this
peculiar and pivotal relationship with God? And to whom was it given?
The
answer to these questions can be found in Genesis 12-22, and in Abraham 2:6-13,
in which the Lord made a covenant with Father Abraham in days of yore. In
essence, this covenant, according to Abraham’s worthiness and faithfulness,
would yield to him “land which I [Jehovah] will give unto thy seed after thee
[Abraham] for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice”
(Abraham 2:6). The Lord God promised Abraham seed beyond number, a Priesthood
beyond earthly power, and deliverance from carnal devices; in addition, He
revealed to Abraham the truths, principles, ordinances, and covenants of the
everlasting Gospel.
The
knowledge and blessings were passed down through Abraham’s birthright son,
Isaac, and then on to his second-born, Jacob, who ‘bought’ the birthright and
the blessings of the covenant from his elder brother Esau. Jacob—whose name was
changed to Israel by God Himself (see
Genesis 35:9-13)—became the father and patriarch of the House of Israel, the
covenant people of the Lord, who had the knowledge and blessings of the
Abrahamic Covenant above discussed.
It
is through the writings of Isaiah that we learn many great and wonderful
details about the consequences of both breaking and keeping this covenant. In
keeping this covenant, we are given the opportunity to “go up to the mountain
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his
ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). This beautiful and
highly poetic passage of Hebraic writing demonstrates the love that God has for
His chosen people, and the willingness He displays in order to teach them of
His mysteries.
But
God will not be mocked, and once His chosen have forsaken Him and turned to
false gods and idols, His wrath cannot be stayed. “For they shall be visited of
the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with
storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire” (JST Isaiah 29:6).
Throughout
the history of the Israelites, they often wandered from the encircling arms of
Jehovah to participate in the crude and wicked ceremonies of Ba’al, Ashteroth,
Molech, and other heathen gods of the indigenous Canaanites. This tendency to
wander can be equated with the frequent distractions that the little children
of the Parable of the Shoppers had; they too left the side of their parents,
eager to be enthralled by interesting toys and frivolities. It was only when
their parents called that they returned.
But
the day was soon coming when these children—both in the store, and of the House
of Israel—would wander completely away from their parents’ warning voices.
The
kingdom of Israel (governed chiefly by the tribe of Ephraim, a son of Joseph
son of Jacob/Israel, and populated by ten of the Twelve Tribes of the House of
Israel) was the first of the two Israelite kingdoms to turn completely from God
and follow after the groves of Ashteroth and Ba’al. In approximately 720 B.C.
the Lord allowed the Assyrian Empire to conquer Israel and disperse the Ten
Tribes throughout the ancient world. As told to Isaiah by the Lord, the
Assyrians came close to conquering the other Israelite kingdom, Judah, but did
not succeed: “Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them [the
kingdom of Judah] the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of
Assyria, and all his glory…he shall pass through Judah; he shall overthrow and
go over, he shall reach even to the neck” (Isaiah 8:7-8).
In
other words, Judah would be nearly completely overrun by the Assyrian armies,
but would eventually be saved by the might of God, as demonstrated in Isaiah
37:36—“Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the
Assyrians [185,000 soldiers]: and when they arose early in the morning, behold,
they were all dead corpses.”
However,
God knew, and through His Spirit Isaiah could foresee, that even the kingdom of
Judah—whose capitol was Jerusalem, in which stood the Holy Temple—would one day
apostatize just like her northern counterpart, the kingdom of Israel. He
alerted the kingdom of Judah to this fact by preaching of the might of Babylon,
at that time now more than a minor city in Assyria that would one day grow to
become the superpower of the ancient world. One day (in approximately one
hundred and fifty years), Babylon would overthrow the apostate city of
Jerusalem and would carry the remainder of the House of Israel into captivity.
If
we recall the Parable of the Shoppers, we can now see that this
Diaspora—spurred by wickedness and disobedience on the part of the children of
Israel—can be correlated to the children finally wandering away from the sound
of their parents’ voices. Because the children of Israel were unwilling to keep
the commandments of God and walk in the ways of the Abrahamic Covenant, they
were forced into exile and scattered all throughout the four corners of the
world. And yet they still bore the title of God’s covenant children; He would
still keep the promise that He had made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so many
of the prophets and leaders of that people.
This
meant that a gathering of the House
of Israel had to occur.
We
must keep in mind the fact that all mankind is an enormous family, spiritually
and physically. The House of Israel is the chosen branch of the human family to
bring the light of the Lord’s Gospel to the rest of the world, in order to
bring them Home to that God who gave them life. But with Israel scattered and
lost, who will gather that House so that the rest of the world may be saved?
And where will Israel gather?
Through
a series of events that culminated in the tribe of Reuben losing the birthright
of the Abrahamic Covenant—that is, to head the House of Israel—Ephraim was
given that honor. Ephraim, as we must recall, was the chief tribe of the
kingdom of Israel. Judah and Ephraim, the two largest tribes of the House of
Israel, were often at odds with each other; there are many historical reasons
for their separation into opposing kingdoms.
Because
the tribe of Ephraim bears the birthright of Israel, it must be that tribe that
begins to gather the House of Israel, as guided and directed by the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At that time, the “envy...of Ephraim shall depart,
and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not vex Ephraim” (Isaiah 11:13).
Today
we now know of the tribe of Judah as the Jewish people, whose gathering back to
the Holy Land of their forefathers is in accordance with the prophecies of old.
And Ephraim? This tribe is symbolized by the older child of the parable, who
returned to his parents and helped to seek out the other lost children. We
learn of Ephraim’s mission, and of the latter-day leader of that tribe, in the
words of the Book of Mormon: “For Joseph [the son of Jacob, who was sold into
slavery in Egypt] truly testified, saying: A seer shall the Lord my God raise
up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins...And unto him will I
[the Lord God] give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy
loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the
bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy
fathers...And out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work
shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring thee, O house of Israel,
saith the Lord” (2 Nephi 3:6-7, 13).
This
is a reference to Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration, who was blessed
and foreordained by God to bring about a restoration not only of the Abrahamic
Covenant to the House of Israel, but also of the new and everlasting covenant
of the principles and ordinances of this Gospel to the earth. There have been
times when the tribe of Ephraim has been equated to the Latter-day Saints, and the
tribe of Judah of course to the Jews. Together these two chief tribes shall
bring about the gathering of the rest of the children of Israel, and with them
the entire human family.
Recall
now, from the Parable of the Shoppers, that the parents designated a
meeting-place for the family. In scriptures, this meeting-place is known as Zion. Throughout the ancient writ, Zion
and Jerusalem are considered the same location; in latter-day revelation and
scripture we learn of a New Jerusalem, to be built on the American continent. For
the most part, Judah shall gather at Old Jerusalem, and Ephraim at the New
Jerusalem (according to scripture, to be built in Missouri): both are
equivalent to Zion.
But
Zion is more than a physical place. “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and
one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses
7:18). When we speak of redeeming Zion, we could literally be referring to the
physical location, the ‘meeting-place’ for our shopping family. We could also
be referring to the spiritual redemption of Zion, the return of the House of
Israel to the covenants given by Jehovah to Father Abraham. For the purpose of
time and length, we shall discuss the spiritual redemption of Zion.
Even
though Judah and Ephraim and the rest of Israel abandoned their God, even
though the children wandered beyond the voices of the parents in the
store—Jehovah will still have mercy on His chosen people, and upon all those
who will listen and heed the message that they bring. “For a small moment have
I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I
hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:7-8).
To
be redeemed is to be bought back; Jehovah bought His people, and all peoples,
back from death and sin through the power of His infinite Atonement when He
condescended to earth. Christ has redeemed us all, and it is through the power
of this spiritual redemption that we can not only go to the physical locale of
Zion, but we can become “of one heart and one mind”. Through the power of His
Atonement, we can go forth as emissaries of Ephraim and help gather in the rest
of the House of Israel, as well as the Gentiles with whom they’ve mixed.
Through the power of His Atonement our family, spiritual and physical, can be
brought back to the meeting-place of redeemed Zion, and be given a chance to
become ONE with our Savior Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Parents. Through the
power of His Atonement, Zion is redeemed, Israel is gathered, and we as
individuals and a collective are brought to become more like He who redeemed
and redeems us: Jesus Christ, the Savior of all
mankind.
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