Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 29. This section mostly deals with the second coming and what to expect but it also mostly a repeat of what the Savior himself tells his apostles what to look for in the book of Matthew. However I had some interesting thoughts about this section as I read it.
As I was reading this section I came across the verse where the Lord talks about man being agents unto themselves. And it says that the Lord allowed the devil to tempt man otherwise mankind could not be agents unto themselves because they could not know the sweet if they did not know the bitter. And then the thought hit me, the Lord had planned on there being a devil all along, which means He knew that one of His children, at least one, would rebel against Him. I suppose that is really a no brainer since all things are present before the Lord, but I had still never thought of it like that.
What must that have been like for him? I can't even imagine what that must feel like. If the Lord, today, were to tell me that I would have a certain number of children, but one of them would rebel against me so completely that he would fight against everything I stand for and he would never repent and come back to me, I'm not sure how I would handle that kind of pain! Could you imagine having that kind of knowledge, wondering at each subsequent child, is this the one? Watching them through the innocence of childhood and looking at those sweet faces knowing one day one of them would turn on you and try and take down his siblings? What kind of pain our Heavenly Father must have felt. It gives me a whole new appreciation for our Heavenly Father that's for sure.
The other part of this section that stood out to me is the part about the Lord not giving us temporal commandments ever but all commandments are spiritual. If you think about it, God is not a temporal being but rather a spiritual being so it makes sense, but then again, it is hard to think in those terms because to us mortals, so many commandments seem temporal in nature such as do not commit adultery. To most people that would be a completely temporal commandment since it has to do with sex. However, the true purpose of that commandment is to be true and faithful to your spouse. And as we have discussed before, if we truly become exalted one day, we will have all things before US which means we better have progressed past the point of lusting after women because nothing will be hid from you anymore and I do mean nothing.
All commandments have a spiritual aspect to them and a temporal aspect. Because we live in a temporal existence it can be challenging to see what the spiritual aspect of the commandment is. Some are easier than others, not having any gods before our God is an easy one. Not stealing is a little harder. But if you really think about these commandments, if nothing else about them, you can know that not obeying them will drive away the Spirit. That is true of every commandment, but most of them go deeper than that I think. Of course, as we have mentioned before, when you realize that the commandments are actually guidelines for how God lives HIS life then it is easy to see how all the commandments are spiritual in nature.
As we strive to align ourselves to His will and ponder on the commandments it will become clear to us what the spiritual aspect of each commandment is and I think it will become just a little bit easier to live those commandments. One thing is clear, we will become closer to our Heavenly Father and that is ALWAYS a good thing and should be our ultimate goal in this life. Until tomorrow.
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