One hundred and fifty seven years ago today an event took place, planned thousands of years before, or at least it had been foreordained. We know that it was prophesied of over 3500 years before it took place.
PATRIARCHAL BLESSING: Let's go back to a time almost 600 years before the birth of Christ. A great patriarch gathered his children together to give them a father's blessing. Just as you brethren, who hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and are heads of families, have the right on special occasions to lay your hands upon the head of a member of your family00a son, a daughter, or your wife--and pronounce a blessing. This is a great privilege and a father that does not do it is not taking advantage of his rights and powers as a Priesthood bearer and father. It is a means by which his family may be blessed.
SPEAKS TO HIS CHILDREN: This great and faithful leader spoke to his children about the things that were close to his heart--the Gospel, and then said: "And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit;
"And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.
"I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my probation (you see, he was about to die); and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls.
"Can you see this father with his sons gathered around him. And then father Lehi--for it was he, the Book of Mormon Prophet--turned and I can just see him taking young Joseph by the hand, or placing his arm around him, as he turned to his youngest son.
"And now I speak unto you, Joseph my last born. thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions. Yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee.
"Then he must have placed his hands upon the boys head in the usual manner and said...(see 2 Nephi 3)
In Sharon township, Vermont, a son was born to a man by the name of Joseph Smith, and the name of his son became Joseph. The birth of Joseph Smith Jr. was in fulfillment of prophecy.
We find the Smith family 15 years later living about two miles outside the town of Palmyra, New York, on a farm.
This was a time when thee was a joint revival in the neighborhood between the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians and they had succeeded in stirring up quite a feeling, and after the meeting the question arose which church should have the converts. Rev. Stockton was the president of the meeting and suggested that it was their meeting and under their care and they had a church there and they ought to join the Presbyterians, but as father did not like Rev. Stockton very well, the Smith family hesitated and the next evening a Rev. McLane of the Methodist preached a sermon on "what church shall I join?"
"And the burden of his discourse was to ask God, using as a text, "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally." Joseph Smith Jr. went home and looked over the text of this sermon and in his own words said: "Never did any passage of Scripture come with more power to the heart of man that this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of Scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible."
Little did he know as he went into the grove on that beautiful May morning in 1820, when only 14 years of age, that he was an instrument in the hands of the Lord, fulfilling the prophecy which his namesake (Joseph who had been sold into Egypt) had made thousands of years before.
"A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins."
Is it any wonder as the young man knelt in the grove and for the first time to pray vocally that he was immediately attacked by "some power which entirely overcame him, and had such an astonishing influence over him as to bind his tongue so that he could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around him, and it seemed to him for a time as if he were doomed to sudden destruction, but, exerting all his powers he called upon God to deliver him from the power of this enemy.
Is it any wonder the Adversary would attempt to stop the great thing that was about to take place, the appearance of God the Eternal Father and His son Jesus Christ to this young man, who was to be the choice Seer raised up and that he would be commanded to do "none other work except that work which the Lord commanded him."
Almost from the time of Joseph Smith's first vision his life was dedicated to the restoration of the Gospel, building the Kingdom of God, and preparing the way for the return or second coming of our Lord and Master in all his glory.
Again in fulfillment of prophesy, "And I will give unto him a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work."
Young Joseph was tested the next few years. In fact he was tested from the time of his first vision until he sealed his testimony with his own blood when he was martyred at 38 years of age. Seldom was there a time when he was not persecuted.
He had to say about his persecution. "It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.
I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two personages and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying so, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.
And Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, further testified as follows:
"But a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins--and not to the bringing forth my word only, said the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them.
"Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; (Judah was Joseph's brother. Both were sons of Jacob, later known as Israel) that that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.
"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.
Again the Prophet Joseph Smith was an instrument in the hands of the Lord in fulfilling this prophesy. A history of the fruit of the loins of Joseph was kept, hidden away about 400 AD by Moroni. These records kept on plates were revealed to the Prophet Joseph by Moroni, and later taken and translated by use of the Urum and Thummin. Here is the result, The Book of Mormon which goes hand in hand with the Bible--or a history of the fruit of the loins of Judah--again fulfilling prophesy.
A man would have to be great in the eyes of God to have been chosen to open the dispensation of the fullness of times, to prepare the way for the second coming of His son in all his glory.
Just as sure as these prophecies have been fulfilled, the Savior will return and those who are his at his coming will be caught up to meet him. As Latter-day Saints we know through the revelations of the prophet Joseph Smith that the birth of the Savior was actually in April 6, although it is celebrated throughout the Christian World on the 24th of December.
The season has become one of materialism. As members of Christ's Church we should especially at this time of year be thankful for all the blessings he has bestowed upon us, for the gift of life, for our understanding of the Gospel, for those things that it brings into our lives. We can best show it by living his commandments.
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