Three Lessons from the Rich Young Ruler

The Rich Young Ruler by Liz Lemon Swindle

The gospel of Matthew includes an account of a rich young ruler who approached the Savior for counsel. Their short conversation is of such value to all of us that it was recorded by Matthew and has been preserved over thousands of years. At least three lessons in this account are of particular emphasis.

First, the young man was seeking what he desired. Matthew records, "And, behold, one came and said unto [Christ], Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Sincere desire is a first step in following Christ. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness," the Savior promised, "for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Do we seek after the blessings we want from God as actively and as often as we seek for a sandwich or a cup of water? This is the first lesson.

The Savior responded to the young man's inquiry:

And he said unto him... if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and they mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Many of us would be content with this answer. The young man, evaluating himself, pressed for more, "All these things have I kept from my youth up," he continued, "What lack I yet?"

How often do we forfeit blessings because we stop asking for them? Are we satisfied with a surface-level answer or do we dig for how we can be better? And are we willing to sacrifice to make up for what we lack? This is the second lesson.

Again, the Lord, who knows all of our hearts, responded to the young man's inquiry:

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect,go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:16-23).

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven," the Savior taught on another occasion, "but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). The apostle James, a half-brother of Jesus', added, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26).

We must ask a question to receive an answer. We have to actively seek for blessings to find them. If we desire to enter into heaven, we must learn how to knock on the door and enter in by the way (see Matthew 7:7).

The need for faith and works to obtain the blessings we desire is frequently demonstrated in scripture.  When his steel bow broke, leaving his family without a way to find food, Nephi prayed for the Lord's help and then started crafting a wooden bow. When he had done all he could, the Lord showed him where to find game in the desert (see 1 Nephi 16).

Moses was commanded to free his people and wanted to obey. Facing the pharaoh was a perilous task, but he had trust in God and acted on the direction he received. His faith and works contributed to parting the Red Sea and other mighty miracles.

For those seeking blessings of health, the Lord instructs, "And whosoever among you are sick, and... believe, shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food... And the elders of the church, two or more, shall be called, and shall pray for and lay their hands upon them in my name" (D&C 42:43). Blessings of healing include asking God and pursuing medical treatment.

Knowledge and learning requires faith and works. "Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom," the Lord commands, "yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (D&C 88:118). When we do all we can, the Lord will multiply our efforts. This is the lesson the rich young ruler missed.

With the advantage of hindsight, we can learn from the Savior's encounter with the rich young ruler. We can remember that we find the things we seek most diligently, so we should seek the kingdom of God like a starving person seeks a meal; We can learn to ask probing questions of ourselves and the Lord in order to find where we can improve and better qualify ourselves for salvation; And we can learn to follow through on the knowledge we receive from God by doing all we can to receive the blessings we desire.

Receiving the Blessings We Desire Most

For about a week each February, a waterfall in Yosemite National Park turns into a cascade of fire. It's a rare sight that only happens when it's wet enough, warm enough and clear enough to have winter waterfalls and a view of the setting sun. The Yosemite Firefall is, of course, an optical illusion, but people travel from all over the world to see the wonder of Horsetail Fall appearing like a pillar of fire.

We all have things we want to see with our own eyes. For some of us it may be natural wonders; for others, it might be an incredible feat or a rare collectors item or a prayed-for event.

For Martin Harris in March of 1829, the thing he wanted to see most was the gold plates Joseph Smith was translating into what we now call The Book of Mormon. He had invested considerable time and money in the translation and his wife was increasingly upset with his involvement. Lucy Harris thought her husband had been deceived and even filed a legal complaint against Joseph Smith and gathered a number of people willing to testify that he had lied about the plates. She told Martin he would join Joseph in jail if he did not also testify of Joseph Smith's deception and fraud.

Martin believed the plates were real, but he decided to travel from his home in upstate New York to Harmony, Pennsylvania, to ask Joseph if he could see the plates. Perhaps he thought that seeing the plates would justify his involvement with the work of translation and avoid further conflict with Lucy.

When Martin arrived in Pennsylvania, Joseph took Martin's question to the Lord and received a revelation now canonized as Doctrine and Covenants Section 5. In this revelation, the Lord gives two answers to Martin's question. First, he directs Joseph:

And now, behold, this shall you say unto him...: I, the Lord, am God, and have given these things [the plates] unto you, my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and have commanded you that you should stand as a witness of these things; And I have caused you that you should enter into a covenant with me, that you should not show them except to those persons to whom I commanded you; and you have no power over them except I grant it unto you (v. 2-3).

Martin was not allowed to see the plates at that time. Instead, the Lord affirmed that it was Joseph Smith's role to witness the plates were real. Martin would be required to walk by faith a little longer, even and perhaps especially in face of opposition to his belief.

More than 120 years later, President Joseph Fielding Smith shared that he had often observed similar inquiries:

Frequently when [people] … hear the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, they ask if the plates are in some museum where they may be seen. Some of them with some scientific training, [suggest] that if the scholars could see and examine the plates and learn to read them, they would then bear witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the veracity of Joseph Smith, and the whole world would then be converted (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:40).

The Lord's ways are not our ways however, and on this occasion there is more to the explanation. The Lord continued the revelation:

If they will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, if it were possible that you should show them all these things which I have committed unto you... I have reserved those things which I have entrusted unto you, my servant Joseph, for a wise purpose in me, and it shall be made known unto future generations; But this generation shall have my word through you (v. 7, 9-10).

Had Martin Harris, or anyone else, seen the plates; or if we could see the plates in a museum somewhere; he or she or we still may not believe. Certainly those inclined not to believe could dispute the translation and origins even with the plates right before their eyes. So the Lord reserved the plates to emphasize Joseph Smith's unique calling and for "a wise purpose" he didn't immediately elaborate.

Rather than relying on our senses alone, the Lord teaches that it is crucial for each of us, as it was important for Martin Harris, to have a testimony of his gospel and the great work of restoration. A testimony is a divine witness or evidence that is impressed upon our hearts and minds. Its effects are often deeper and more profound than what we learn from our senses.

When we come to really believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to translate the Book of Mormon and restore the priesthood and organization of Christ's church upon the earth, we can know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church upon the earth today. This testimony guides us to the covenant blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ordinances that can be performed by proper authority and ultimately, if we are faithful, salvation from sin and death through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and eternal life in the celestial kingdom of God.

Of course, none of us need take the word of Joseph Smith alone. We have the testimony of the Book of Mormon. We can read it, ponder the words it teaches and ask God if they are true. He has promised that if we "ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost" (Moroni 10:4). Millions of people have had this experience and can add their testimonies to the witness of Joseph Smith.

Among the millions, three men in addition to Joseph Smith were called to be witnesses of the plates themselves. The Lord taught Joseph Smith on that day in March 1829:

And in addition to [the testimony of Joseph Smith], the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things, and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you. Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them. I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are; And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation.... And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word (v. 11-15).

Each copy of the Book of Mormon begins with a title page, introduction and a copy of the written testimony of Three Witnesses, which stands as another evidence of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The Lord continued:

And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit... And their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them (v. 16, 18).

President Ezra Taft Benson taught that "we each need to get our own testimony of the Book of Mormon through the Holy Ghost. Then our testimony, coupled with the Book of Mormon, should be shared with others so that they, too, can know through the Holy Ghost of its truthfulness" (“The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants,” Ensign, May 1987, 84).

After admonishing Joseph Smith to "walk more uprightly" and "yield to the persuasions of men no more", the Lord provides the second answer to Martin Harris' question:

And now, again, I speak unto you, my servant Joseph, concerning the man that desires the witness-- Behold, I say unto him, he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me; but if he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see (v. 23-24).

Through a multi-step process, the Lord offered Martin Harris the opportunity to become one of the Three Witnesses. As with the first answer, the Lord provided more explanation of this promise, including an admonition to testify to the world of what he saw and a warning that failure to be sufficiently humble and obedient would result in not seeing the plates and Martin's condemnation and destruction.

Often the Lord responds to us the way he responded here to Martin Harris. He doesn't usually give us what we want outright, but he provides a way for us to receive the blessings we desire. We don't usually have to travel the world to find them, but the Lord does require us to pursue our desires with humble and sincere prayers and acts of faith. Along the way, he provides guidance and commandments that protect us from the obstacles, including sometimes those we love, who would take us off the path and lead us another way toward worldly approval and the destruction of our souls.

Three months after the Lord's responses to Martin's question, Martin Harris was one of three men who saw the plates and testified to the world of their reality. Likewise, if we walk the path the Lord lays out for us, he will send the proverbial rain and part the clouds so we can receive the blessings we desire.

The Gardens of Our Hearts

There are many times in scripture when you and I are compared in metaphor to the trees of an orchard or the grain of the field. One such occasion is in the third chapter of Matthew when John the Baptist preaches in the wilderness of Judea. John's growing popularity had become a concern for the ruling classes who had gained power and wealth by subjecting the people to often ridiculous additional rules and regulations cloaked as inspired additions to the Law of Moses.

Speaking to these ruling classes, but also to all of us, John declared: "If ye receive not [the preaching of him whom God hath sent] in your hearts, ye receive not me; and if ye receive not me, ye receive not him of whom I am sent to bear record; and for your sins ye have no cloak. Repent, therefore, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance" (JST Matthew 3:34-36).

Like a tree or a staff of grain, each of us bears the fruit of our labor. Worthy actions and desires are equivalent to good fruit in the metaphor. John reminds us that true repentance includes receiving God's word in our hearts and then changing our actions so that we may again be worthy of the Lord's harvest. Lest we think we can repent half-heartedly or offer impure fruits to the Lord, John reminds his listeners that "the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (Matthew 3:10).

A lot can be and has been said about how we can change our actions, but John's repentance flowchart dictates that we focus first on planting the right seeds in good ground or, in other words, cultivating righteous desires in our pure, receptive hearts. This is also the focus of another agrarian metaphor, the Parable of the Sower, which Christ shared with an audience similar to John's. In the parable, which could also be called the Parable of the Soils, a sower goes out to plant seed in his field. Some of the seed falls into the road, some onto rocks, some into patches of weeds and some onto good ground where it can grow strong and bear fruit.

Two of the soils in this parable-- the rock and the road-- are hard and impenetrable. People with similarly hardened hearts may appear do everything right on the surface, but ultimately are unable to produce good fruit because they lack the depth of conviction and the ongoing spiritual nourishment to support their testimonies through tough questions or a difficult season in life.

Likewise, if we plant desires in our hearts that are not consistent with the word of God, even if they seem to be good at the time, we may find one day that the fruit we hoped to grow has been suffocated by other plants. The Savior taught that "where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also" (Matthew 6:21). We cannot plant our fields with corn and then be surprised when there's no wheat to harvest.

Elder Ardern recently reminded us that planting the right seeds in our hearts requires our attention and intention. "With the demands made of us," he said, "we must learn to prioritize our choices to match our goals or risk being exposed to the winds of procrastination and being blown from one time-wasting activity to another" (A Time to Prepare, October 2011). If we truly desire the things of God, we may find it necessary to do a little weeding from time to time to keep our growth on track.

Finally, the prophet Alma expounded how to plant the right desires in our softened hearts. "If ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart," he taught, "behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves-- It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me" (Alma 32:28).

He continues, "If ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst" (Alma 32:41-42).

In the words of Elder Oaks, our "desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming" (Desire, April 2011). The desires we plant in our hearts determine the fruit we will eat now and in eternity.

Each of us has many desires competing for our attention each day. Some, such as desires to meet physical needs, may be strong without much effort from us. Others depend more heavily on our nurturing. In all cases, the desires we consider most important are most likely to be transferred into action. This includes overriding compelling physical desires to go camping, to fast or to work through the night; or allowing unrighteous desires to overcome our want of health, honesty or virtue.

Of course, ultimately we decide what desires are allowed to take root in our hearts; but the Lord has promised that we will yield the fruits of what we plant. "A just God," Alma taught, "granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life" (Alma 29:4).

From the farmer's point of view it may seem obvious that planting the right seeds in good ground is essential to yielding a profitable crop, but very few inherit such conditions. What do we do when we find patches of rocky or weed-filled ground in our garden? How can a person change what they treasure or have already planted in order to eventually harvest that field of wheat or orchard of delicious fruit?

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Robert Butchart moved from Ontario to Vancouver Island, Canada. He was among the first to develop and sell cement that could be packaged in sacks rather than barrels and Vancouver Island's rich limestone deposits were an integral part of his formula. He constructed his first quarry and cement plant in 1904 and would soon become a primary supplier of cement to rapidly developing cities from San Francisco to Seattle.

Robert's wife, Jennie, was the company's chemist. She was also a homemaker who cared very much for the sweet peas and roses planted at her family home near the quarry. As the limestone deposits were exhausted, Jennie determined to create something of beauty from the enormous pit that mining had left behind. She had tons of topsoil carted in to line the bottom of the abandoned quarry. Then she began to plant.

Jennie Butchart planted terraced flowers, white poplars and Persian plums. As more deposits were exhausted, she planted a Japanese garden and ivy that climbed up the quarry walls. She planted Tibetan blue poppies, California Redwoods, a private garden, a rose garden and two Italian gardens. Robert collected ornamental birds for the gardens and began assigning cement plant staff to help with weeding and maintenance. Little by little the garden grew and with growth came notoriety.

Today, Butchart Gardens is one of the five most renowned gardens in the world. 550 staff care for the 55-acre garden that receives more than a million visitors annually from around the world. Tourists come to tour the gardens, to take in an outdoor symphony concert or fireworks show, to ride the carousel with their kids and to enjoy the wonderful and awe-inspiring natural scenes unique to Butchart Gardens.

We may feel at times like our hearts, in whole or in part, are as hard and empty as an exhausted mining quarry. It may seem impossible to grow anything good or that all or part of us is just destined to be an empty limestone pit. While these feelings may be very real for us and even duly justified, they are tragically limited in their scope. We too often see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today; but our Heavenly Father, Elder Wirthlin has taught, sees us in terms of forever. Like Jennie Butchart, He looks at the empty hole in our hearts, sees the majestic gardens we can grow and then makes it possible for us to start planting.

Inevitably, we will all have to lay down some new soil from time to time. We do this as we decide we want to want to. In Alma's words, "behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words" (Alma 32:27). We break apart the stony ground and prepare it for planting as we set aside our cynicism in order to hear and feel the testimonies of the faithful.

The scriptures speak about this change in terms of what we seek. "When people [in the scriptures] are described as 'having lost their desire for sin,'" Elder Oaks has taught, "it is they, and they only, who deliberately decided to lose those wrong desires by being willing to 'give away all [their] sins' in order to know God." The Lord has taught that we should seek earnestly the best gifts (D&C 46:8) and that we will find what we diligently seek (1 Nephi 10:19) and consistently pursue.

When we have prepared our hearts and aroused our faculties to live the teaching of the gospel the best we can, our desires will sprout and begin to grow. We will begin to see how paying tithing, serving others and living the commandments beautifies our lives. We will defend time dedicated to studying the scriptures, serving others and building family relationships against even the most appealing intrusions and continue to nourish righteous desires through our faith and persistent effort.

"What we insistently desire over time is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity," Elder Maxwell has taught. "Only by educating and training our desires can they become our allies instead of our enemies" (According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts, October 1996). Every day the world will try to influence our desires to buy something, click on something, play something, read or watch something. We must consistently seek to refine, purify and elevate our desires; to train them to be wheat instead of turning to corn.

As we plant more of the word of God in our hearts, we will be increasingly able to see what the completed garden will look like. The vision of what we can become will increase our desire and power to act enormously. Like Jennie Butchart, we will want to plant more gardens and to share what we have found with others. The transformation in our hearts will be as if we had been born again.

Along the way, we will learn a simple formula that will help us receive the blessings we seek from the Lord. The formula is recorded by Enos, among many others, who prayed "with many long strugglings" for his cousins, the Lamanites, "and labored with all diligence" to that end. The Lord recognized Enos' desires and efforts. "I will grant unto thee according to thy desires," the Lord responded to Enos' prayers, "because of thy faith" (Enos 1:11-12).

It is by grace we are saved after all we can do; and it is the faithful combination of our righteous desires and diligent efforts that will yield the blessings of the Lord, including the fruits of repentance, peace and prosperity that will enrich our lives on earth and forever after. "Let us remember," Elder Oaks taught, "that desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. In addition, it is our actions and our desires that cause us to become something, whether a true friend, a gifted teacher, or one who is qualified for eternal life."

The Glory of God is Intelligence

"The glory of God is intelligence," the Lord has declared, "or, in other words, light and truth" (D&C 93:36). If it is our goal to be admitted into his presence and thereby obtain his glory, we must pursue light and truth with the decisions that we make.

We will not always be successful in our pursuits, individually or collectively. The Lord taught Joseph Smith that "the wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers" (D&C 93:39). As a missionary in Germany I often spoke with people who were unwilling to hear about the restored gospel because of their ingrained family traditions, regardless of whether they were active in those traditions or spiritually uplifted by them. Likewise, most of us have experienced the absence of light in our lives that follows when we fail to study the scriptures or pray regularly.

There are more ways that we could disobey than would be worthwhile to list, but it is particularly germane here to consider those things that have become habit or tradition. Are there traditions in your life that take away light and truth rather than helping you or your family to grow in light and truth? This might include the movies and television shows we choose to watch, when and what types of activities we choose to do as a family, our Sabbath-day worship, the social and political causes we support, and how we fill our spare time.

Of course, each of us has agency and many of these decisions are between us and the Lord; but that doesn't mean that what we're comfortable doing is what the Lord would have us do. Abraham grew up in a family that worshiped idols and may have become an influential man in that society had he followed in the footsteps of his father. Yet, he decided to break the tradition to seek after "greater happiness and peace and rest" through the priesthood covenant (Abraham 1:2). We do well when we use our agency as Abraham did: to break the traditions that separate us from God and replace them with those that bring greater light and truth into our lives.

The Lord explains how this can be done:

Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you... And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light and comprehendeth all things. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will (D&C 88:53, 67-68).

As we seek to sanctify our lives of those traditions that may be robbing us of the light and truth God desires to send into our lives-- including those that may be good but are not better or best-- the Lord will prepare us to see his face and abide his glory.

A Covenant Example

When Abram was around the tender young age of 75, and that really isn't so old when you live to be 175, it's safe to say that he began to have a few family troubles. The root of the trouble was his father, Terah, and possibly others in his family, who had turned against the gospel taught by Adam, Enoch, and Noah to instead worship the wood and stone idols of the Egyptians.

A part of Egyptian idol worship included sacrificing men, women and children on an altar to their idol gods. As the scriptures begin their account of Abram's life, idol priests had just sacrificed three virgins because they were virtuous and refused to bow down to the idols. Abram had spoken out against the atrocities being committed, but writes that his fathers 'utterly refused to hearken to my voice' and 'laid violence upon me, that they might slay me also, as they did those virgins upon this altar'. At the last moment, as the priests were about to sacrifice Abram, an angel appeared, untied him from the altar and helped him escape.

This context sheds some light into one of the greatest understatements in all of scripture as Abram wrote of his circumstance that he, 'saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence; And finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers'. The sought-after blessings included great knowledge, increased capacity to obey the commandments, to be a father of many nations, and ultimately the priesthood (Abraham 1:1-2).

With this background in mind, the story of the man who would become Abraham, the great patriarch, shows us how we can live in an evil world yet remain steadfast and loyal to the one true God. The scriptures are filled with stories that provide similar examples, yet Abraham's account is unique because of the clarity and detail given to the covenant process as he attains the blessings he desired.

Like Abram, our hearts may yearn for greater happiness and peace and rest. We may long to be reunited with relatives who have passed on, to have greater spiritual strength for the trials we face, or to better understand the Lord and His love for us collectively and individually. Abram, more than anything, wanted posterity. With Abram, as with us, desire for the blessings that come from covenants with God is a first step toward finding what we seek.

The next step is to prepare to receive the Lord's blessings. Abram was taught about the blessings of the covenant he would make on at least four separate occasions over the next 24 years (see Genesis 12:2-3, 13:14-16, 15:5, 15:18). Along the way he made smaller covenants and his faith was tested. He moved his family several times, risked his life in Egypt, experienced famines, knew prosperity, resisted Sodom and Gomorrah, rescued his nephew from a foreign army, paid tithing, experienced frustration at continued infertility and dealt with all the emotional and relationship challenges of taking a plural wife who bore a son while his first wife remained childless. Through it all, Abram 'believed in the Lord; and the Lord counted it unto him for righteousness' (JST Genesis 15:12).

When Abram had acted on his desires, learned about the covenant he would make, trusted in the Lord and proved his faith and obedience through all manner of difficulties, he was finally prepared enough to covenant with the Lord. This sacred occasion is differentiated from his previous encounters with divinity by the presence of the Lord himself. Though Abram had talked with God several times previously, this is first time the Lord appeared to Abram. It is also the first time the Lord predicated covenant blessings on specific requirements.

'Walk before me,' the Lord said, 'and be thou perfect' (Gen 17:1). The commandment to be perfect has been a covenant requirement to the faithful in all ages. Among other places, the command to be perfect is repeated each week as we renew our covenants through the sacrament. The presence of this requirement is evidence of the covenant nature of Abram's conversation with the Lord. Covenants are two-way promises with God-- it's not a covenant if we don't have to do anything-- so we can understand that earlier mentions of covenant blessings must have been made as instruction and encouragement preparatory to the time when Abram would be ready to enter into the covenant with the Lord.

Another evidence of Abraham's covenant is the new name he received. Names are often associated with covenants. We take the name of Christ upon ourselves when we are baptized, for example, and wives often take the surnames of their husbands when they are married. Similarly, Abram was told that he would now be called Abraham, which means 'father of many nations', reflecting his greatest desires and the nature of the covenant he was making with the Lord.

The Lord also repeats the blessings of the covenant. Abraham is to become the father of many nations, heir of the chosen land of Canaan, and the head of God's covenant people. He is also promised that these blessings would be everlasting, providing access for Abraham's posterity to receive the covenant and blessings of Abraham while also admonishing Abraham and his posterity to keep the covenants given to preceding generations.

In other words, Abraham will not only have so many posterity that they are as difficult to count as stars in the sky, but this covenant allows those unending generations of posterity to be linked together with all previous generations retroactively back to Adam, being bound by the same requirements and receiving the same blessings. Fittingly, this strong family element that appears to satisfy and exceed Abraham's desires also allows for each new generation to learn and progress upon the last, line upon line, covenant upon covenant, here a little and there a little toward the Lord's requirement for perfection.

Since we're responsible for keeping all of the covenants given through the Lord's prophets, it's worth knowing what those covenants are. Three significant covenants predating Abraham include the covenants made with Enoch, Noah, and Adam. Interestingly, these great men are also seen as fathers in the covenants they made with God-- Enoch as the father of Zion or of the righteous, and Noah and Adam, whose experiences are remarkably similar, as the fathers of all people that came to Earth after them.

The Lord covenanted with Enoch that when men should keep all of God's commandments, Zion should again come on the earth. Noah covenanted that when all of his posterity (all people everywhere) embrace the truth, and look upward, 'then shall Zion look downward, heaven and earth shall tremble with joy, and the general assembly of the church of the firstborn shall come down out of heaven and possess the earth until the end come'. Adam's covenant is revealed to us through temple ordinances.

In each case, covenants are accompanied by tokens or signs. For example, Noah was given the rainbow as a token or sign (reminding us to 'look upward') that the earth would not be destroyed by flood again until his covenant was fulfilled.

The Lord introduced circumcision as the token of Abraham's covenant. This was a particularly appropriate sign given the sins of Abraham's generation, most notably infant baptisms and false teachings of Abel as a Savior rather than the coming Christ. Circumcision performed at eight days old was a reminder that a child was not old enough for baptism, nor accountable before the Lord because of the Atonement of Christ, until they were eight years old. The number eight in Hebrew importantly symbolizes the first in a new series, such as the first day of a new week, or more relevant to baptism, resurrection or rebirth. Baptismal covenants are likewise renewed through the sacrament ordinance administered on the eighth day of the week.

Circumcision was also a fitting token for Abraham's covenant because of the covenant's strong family focus. Abraham lived close enough to Sodom and Gomorrah that he could see them, so circumcision may have been a relevant reminder of sexual purity and the law of chastity. More importantly, Abraham's covenant includes both the promise of posterity and the ability for that posterity to be born into that covenant. Thus, the organ of the body that produces posterity and brings about physical birth is the organ on which the token was made. Later on, when Christ fulfilled the Law of Moses, the token is changed to a 'circumcision of heart', which references the organ of spiritual rebirth. Though the token changed, the covenant remains the same.

In keeping with that strong family focus, it is important to note that Abraham's covenant was not made in isolation. Genesis 17 clearly shows that Abraham's wife also covenanted with the Lord. She too was given a new name-- now Sarah instead of Sarai-- and with it a similar promise that she would be the mother of nations and kings. She also received the very personal promise that, though she had been barren 100 years, she would yet give birth to a son.

Sarah's covenant also explains why it is Abraham's second son, Isaac, that is chosen to carry forward the Lord's covenant. Ishmael was Abraham's oldest son, but he did not inherit the right to the covenant because his parents had not yet entered into that covenant themselves. Though Abraham later would, there is no indication that Hagar, his mother, ever did. Isaac, on the other hand, was born fourteen years after Ishmael to a mother and father who had entered the Abrahamic covenant with the Lord.

Even after desiring the Lord's blessings, preparing for them, and entering into a covenant with the Lord, the blessings of the covenant are not certain. Covenants provide a vehicle by which desired blessings can be achieved, but we, as Abraham, still have to live up to the terms of the agreement we have made to reach our final destination.

For Abraham, filling the terms of his covenant required more than thirty years of additional tests and trials. He fought an uphill battle to save the wicked city of Sodom, had family members die, and was compelled to exile his second wife and oldest son. Then Abraham, who had nearly been sacrificed to idols by his own father, who wanted posterity most of all, was asked to do the unthinkable and sacrifice Isaac, his son of miraculous birth, the symbol of his covenant posterity and the son Abraham called his 'beloved'.

There can be no doubt that the command to sacrifice his son was heartbreaking for the 'father of many nations'. He had received promises from God that may have confused him or made this commandment seem like it did not make sense. Yet, this experience would be the climax of Abraham's life and the capstone on the covenant the Lord gave his posterity through him. It is no coincidence that so many details of this account foreshadow the Atonement of Christ, also an only son miraculously born to a father of many nations and who put the capstone on the covenants of salvation with his sacrifice.

Despite the sorrow that must have been in Abraham's heart, the scriptures say that he rose early in the morning to obey the Lord's command. Traveling three days to the place the Lord had appointed, Abraham took his son to Mount Moriah, a major hill now located in the city of Jerusalem where Solomon's temple would later stand and on the same range of hills as Golgotha, the place where Christ was crucified.

For the last part of the journey, Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice on his back. Noticing they did not have an animal to sacrifice, Isaac inquired of Abraham, who could only reply, 'My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering'.

Isaac was to be that lamb, and he submitted to his father with the meekness of that gentle animal. Now in his thirties, as the Savior was at the time of his crucifixion, Isaac was certainly capable of overpowering or escaping Abraham, now more than 130 years old, but instead he laid on the altar to be sacrificed. At the last moment, an angel of the Lord stopped Abraham and a ram was offered in Isaac's place.

It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of Abraham's relief and joy at the angel's interference or Sarah's delight when she learned her only son would be allowed to live. Family was the most important thing in their lives. They had been separated from their parents by apostasy and struggled for multiple decades to have children of their own. So it was only after Abraham was willing to do the Lord's will in all things, even giving up the thing he had righteously desired most all of his life, that the Lord pronounces the blessings of the covenant they had made upon him.

'Because thou has done this thing,' the Lord says of Abraham's perfect obedience in the way of the Lord, 'I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven... And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.'

As we desire the blessings of the gospel, we must also prepare to enter and keep covenants with the Lord. We will also be tested and tried to help us learn to trust in the Lord and become perfectly obedient to his commands.

President John Taylor taught these words he heard from the Prophet Joseph Smith:

You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God... If God had known any other way whereby he could have touched Abraham's feelings more acutely and more keenly he would have done so (Journal of Discourses, 24:197; 24:264).

When we are ready to give up our own will and the things that we desire most, the Lord is prepared to bless us with the greater happiness, peace, and rest that we seek, and all the blessings of exaltation promised by covenant to the great patriarchs of the scriptures.

This Is Your Work

The work of God is glorious. Joseph Smith famously told John Wentworth of the Chicago Democrat that "the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

It is natural for a believing heart to want to be a part of this great work. Without a doubt, all of us have opportunities to share the gospel, sometimes on a daily basis. Yet, at times, we may wonder why we aren't asked to take on what we see as a greater work-- to be something significant in our wards, branches, stakes, or districts-- with a call to be the ward mission leader or the relief society president or the bishop. Are we not faithful enough? Missionaries may similarly wonder why, despite their faithfulness, they are not called to be trainers, district leaders, zone leaders, etc.

In the earliest days of the Church, there was a great need for the faithful to bring about the work of the Restoration. Hyrum Smith, brother to the prophet Joseph, was among those yearning to participate. Though he was among the first to learn about and believe in the Restoration of the gospel, the early work of the Church was carried out in large part by other, newer converts: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Emma Hale Smith and the Whitmer family all appear to have more 'prestigious' or 'significant' roles in the work of God on earth.

To Hyrum Smith, the Lord said: "Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength." He was further admonished to study the scriptures, seek the Spirit and have good desires.

Hyrum Smith obeyed the Lord. His humble willingness to follow the Lord's counsel-- to participate in the Lord's work the Lord's way-- allowed him to build a testimony that was strong and sure. As troubled times came and even the friends and many early witnesses of the Restoration fell away for a time, Hyrum remained faithful to the very end. He died a martyr for the faith along with his brother Joseph in the Carthage jail.

Sometimes the Lord asks us to do things that seem significant; more often, he asks us to work salvation among ourselves and our families by keeping the commandments with all our hearts, might, mind and strength. This necessary work precedes our ability to effectively teach others; as with Hyrum, the Lord asks us to, "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed."

We do not know what is ahead, but the Lord knows and is eager to prepare us for the struggles ahead. If we will put away our aspirations and humbly seek to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way, he will fortify us against the temptations and trials that will come. And then, when the time is right, our righteous desires to serve will be granted:

Seek the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added according to that which is just... Therefore, treasure up in your heart until the time which is in my wisdom that you shall go forth. Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap... As many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name (D&C 11:23, 26, 30).