LeGrand L. Baker

3 Nephi 9:15-18 — LeGrand Baker — The Savior’s eternal biography

I spoke in Sacrament Meeting today. The assigned subject was the Savior’s life, teachings, Atonement, and resurrection. And I had 15 minutes to do it. I chose to quote scriptures that focused on the Savior’s eternal priesthood and his eternal kingship. Several people asked me for a copy, so I thought some of you might like one too.
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(3 Nephi 9:15-18)

The Savior introduced himself to Nephi by saying:

15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.
16 I came unto my own, and my own received me not. And the scriptures concerning my coming are fulfilled.
17 And as many as have received me, to them have I given to become the sons of God; and even so will I to as many as shall believe on my name, for behold, by me redemption cometh, and in me is the law of Moses fulfilled.
18 I am the light and the life of the world. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

In those few verses the Savior gives us a snapshot view of his entire eternal autobiography. I would like to review that biography with you. The Prophet Joseph Smith, in the Inspired Version of the Bible, wrote:

1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made.
4 In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men (JST John 1:1-4).

We learn that at the Council in Heaven, in the beginning,

24… there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them. (Abraham 3:24-25);

1 And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1).

Speaking about the creation, the psalmist sang:

1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! ….
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the gods, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! (Psalms 8:1-9)

Thus Adam and Eve were placed upon the earth and the first thing they were taught after they left the Garden was to understand the Savior’s Atonement. In the book of Moses we read that:

6 …after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.
7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.
8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore (Moses 5:4-8).

That scripture is familiar to most of us, but in a somewhat different context. Thereafter, Adam and Eve taught the gospel to their children, and Jehovah himself taught his prophets. He showed himself to the brother of Jared and said:

14 Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters (Ether 3:11-14).

Many hundreds of years later the Lord comforted Nephi with these words:

13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets (3 Nephi 1:13).

30 [several months before that] the angel [came to Mary and ] said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:26-39).

51 And …his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man (Luke 2:51-52).

Later, John the Baptist testified,

11 …. I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us (D&C 93:11).

15 And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son.
16 And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father;
17 And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, (D&C 93:15-17).

After Jesus organized his church and called the 12 apostles,

1 Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light…
5 … a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him (Matthew 17:1-5).

Peter who was present with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, bore this testimony of the event:

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount (2 Peter 1:16-18).

Nevertheless, as Isaiah testified:

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed…
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no evil, neither was any deceit in his mouth (Mosiah 14:1-12) .

32 [At the conclusion of his ministry, the Savior and the Twelve] came to a place which was named Gethsemane:(Mark 14:22-46).
41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:28-49).

Of that agony, Jesus himself testified: that the

18 … suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men (D&C 19:16-19).

The prayer he spoke at that time is found in section 145 of the D&C:

3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—
4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;
5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life (D&C 45:1-5).

After his death on the cross, he visited the spirit world of the dead:

18 While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful;
19 And there he preached to them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance (D&C 138:18-19).

After 3 days,

11 …Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: —-she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master (John 20:1-17) .

He spent 40 days teaching the apostles and others. Then, “while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9-11).

Paul testified that after that the Savior was crowned king and priest over everything. Paul wrote,

20 [The Father] raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:20-23.).

The Prophet Joseph Smith testified:
And now after all of the proofs made of him,
By witnesses truly, by whom he was known,
This is mine, last of all, that he lives; yea, he lives!
And sits at the right hand of God on his throne.
And I heard a great voice bearing record from heav’n,
He’s the Saviour and only begotten of God;
By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made,
Even all that careen in the heavens so broad.
Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last,
Are sav’d by the very same Saviour of ours;
And, of course, are begotten God’s daughters and sons
By the very same truths and the very same powers.
(“The Vision,” Times and Seasons, Feb. 1, 1843)

That is my testimony also.

 
3 Nephi 11:1– LeGrand Baker — ‘changes’ at the temple

1 And now it came to pass that there were a great multitude gathered together, of the people of Nephi, round about the temple which was in the land Bountiful; and they were marveling and wondering one with another, and were showing one to another the great and marvelous change which had taken place.

Earlier, when the Savior spoke out of the darkness of the storm, he gave this command to the Nephites:

19 And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings.
20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost (3 Nephi 9:19-20)

.Sacrifice does not mean to give something up, it means to make something sacred. Lundquist observed that, “the purpose of the sacrifice is to seal and to sanctify the covenant. ( Lundquist, “Temple, Covenant, and Law,” 300) The Savior’s atoning sacrifice had sealed and sanctified the covenant of his Father (Moroni 10:32-33).

What remained–indeed, what always remains–were the sealing and sanctifying of the covenant on the part of the people. The sacrificing of animals had symbolized the Savior’s act of ratification. Now that act was accomplished, no such symbolism was required. However, the act of ratification on the part of the people remained. That ratification, too, had to be sealed and sanctified by sacrifice–in a manner similar to the way the Savior’s was–with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

For the Saints in the New World, if sacrifices and burnt offerings were to be done away, then that would require that they make significant changes in their temple and the temple grounds. The great sacrificial altar that no doubt dominated the courtyard of the temple had to be dismantled and removed. The temple would have to be cleaned because blood would no longer be sprinkled in the temple and the Holy of Holies, and incense would no longer be burned since those practices were a part of the sacrificial ceremonies. The barns to hold the sacrificial animals would have to be removed, and many of the tools and implements that had been used in the services would have to be put away. If those Saints were like modern-day Saints, they would not have just torn down the old structures, and left the empty places. Rather, they might plant flowers in their place, refurbish the temple, and beautify its grounds.

The second instruction the Savior gave when he spoke in the darkness had to do with making changes in the temple drama. The Feast of Tabernacles temple drama took eight days to complete. Those days were filled with ceremonies and sacrifices. With the animal sacrifices eliminated, it would have required revelation from the Lord for the people to know what changes were to be made and how the ceremonies were to be performed. Then, like now, the temple would have been closed while these changes were made.

In all, it took a full year to make the preparations to open the temple again. Mormon is careful to tell us that. He reports, “in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land” (3 Nephi 8:5). Later, Mormon is just as specific when he tells us that the people gathered at the temple “in the ending of the thirty and fourth year”(3 Nephi 10:18). H writes:

1 And now it came to pass that there were a great multitude gathered together, of the people of Nephi, round about the temple which was in the land Bountiful; and they were marveling and wondering one with another, and were showing one to another the great and marvelous change which had taken place” (3 Nephi 10:18, 11:1).

The remodeling of the temple and temple grounds in Bountiful would have required a rededication. If such were to occur it should have happened at the juncture of the end of one year and the beginning of the next, because that is when temples were dedicated. It would have been during the next New Year’s festival because that was the occasion of the dedication of Solomon’s temple. (2 Chronicles 7:8-10) About that, Snaith claims that “Solomon would have no choice as to the date when the Temple should be dedicated. He was bound to wait until the next annual feast after the completion of the building operations. It was in the proper month and at the proper full moon that the people would appear with their gifts.” (Norman H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival, 53). An important part of the temple drama of the new year festival was to reestablish the legitimacy of the reign of the king, so that would also have been the appropriate time for the Savior to establish the theocracy of 4 Nephi.

When Mormon reports the gathering of the people at the temple, he does not tell us whether the “changes” had to do with the adaptations in the temple drama, or the refurbishing of the building and grounds. Dil Rust wrote an excellent essay a few weeks ago saying he believes it was the former. I think Dil is correct, but I also think that it would probably be safe to believe that both kinds of changes were made.
(Much of the above was quoted or paraphrased from Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord)

3 Nephi 10:3-6 — LeGrand Baker — under the cherubim wings

3 And it came to pass that there came a voice again unto the people, and all the people did hear, and did witness of it, saying:
4 O ye people of these great cities which have fallen, who are descendants of Jacob, yea, who are of the house of Israel, how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and have nourished you.
5 And again, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, who have fallen; yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, ye that dwell at Jerusalem, as ye that have fallen; yea, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not.
6 O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart.

I grew up on a farm where we had chickens and all sorts of other animals. The hens had an interesting relationship with their little ones. When the chicks were old enough to learn to scratch, he would take them to likely place, cluck and then start to scratch the dirt. They would come and pick in the freshly overturned dirt for what bugs and worms they could find there. Those who got behind her at the wrong angle were scooped off the ground by her fast moving feet and tossed head over heels like a little fuzzy ball. It didn’t hurt them and they were soon up and at it again, but they had learned something important about those feet.

One day I heard her squawk loudly, this was not a loving clucking sound. She squatted down, lifted her wings. The chicks, almost as one, fled to the cover of her wings. She settled down protectively over their little bodies and raised all her feathers giving her the appearance of being twice as big as she really was. She was looking toward the sky and my eyes followed hers. There was a hawk making a wide circle around the farm yard. We both watched, the hen and I, until the hawk flew away. Then she made a gentle cluck and the little ones came out from under her wings, scattering themselves about to find whatever bugs looked good to eat.

I was out in the yard one cloudy day when I heard her squawk again. This one was different. It seemed to lack the sense of panic but it was severe and not to be misunderstood. Again the chicks ran to their squatting mother and tucked themselves under her outstretched wings. This time when she settled herself over them, she folded here feathers down flat against her body like a shield and ducked her head under a wing. I was surprised when the hail began to fall all around me. Some hit the chicken and bounced off of her tightened wings. I wasn’t so interested that I wanted to wait and see what happened next, but made a dash to the house to get out of the storm. I did not know that the hail was coming, but that wise mother hen knew just what to expect.

For many years after that, when I read what the Savior said about being invited under the wings, I remembered those scenes and thought that was what he was referring to. Perhaps he was, but now I think that was not the only thing he was trying to say, and it probably was not even the thing the Nephits were thinking about when they heard his words.

In the Holy of Holies of Solomon’s Temple — and since the Nephite temples were patterned after Solomon’s, this would have been true of Nephite temples also — the throne representing the throne of God sat against the back wall. It was overshadowed by the wings of two large cherubim. I think that when he spoke to the Nephites, the Savior was inviting them, as sacral kings and priests, to sit upon that throne under the security of those wings. Stephen and I discussed that in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord. This is what we wrote:

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At the conclusion of the coronation ceremony of the ancient Israelite Feast of Tabernacles temple drama, the veil of the temple was parted the king entered the Holy of Holies, the most sacred of all earthly sacred space. It, like its predecessor in the Tabernacle, was a perfect cube. It contained no furniture except a throne on the back wall.
In the Tabernacle, Moses had built a small prototype of God’s throne on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, with two Cherubim whose wings stretched over the invisible throne, called the Mercy Seat. Below the lid, in the Ark itself, he placed the stone tablets on which the Lord had written the Ten Commandments, the staff of Aaron which was a symbol of his priesthood, and a jar of manna which represented the bread of life—the law (kingship), the staff (priesthood), and the bread of life (power of salvation).
Solomon’s Temple throne was like that, but much larger. In the Temple’s Holy of Holies, on either side of the throne were two great golden cherubim. Their wings touched the sides of the walls and made a kind of canopy that stretched over the throne; over whoever sat upon that throne; and over the Ark of the Covenant which now sat in front of the throne as its footstool (1 Kings 6:24, 8:6-7). The phrases that God “dwellest between the cherubims (Psalm 80:1 and Isaiah 37:16), and “sitteth between the cherubims” (Psalm 99:1), are references to God sitting on his throne, either in his heavenly or in his earthly temple.
The throne was patterned after a chariot (1 Chronicles 28:1-21), representing God’s ability to move among the clouds, and the symbolism of cherubim’s overshadowing wings represented the powerful wings of the celestial cherubim, upon whose majesty God himself is also said to have ridden. For, “he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind” (Psalm 18:10 and 2 Samuel 22:11). And upon whose wings he invites his children to ride also. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
Josephus’s description of the interior of the Temple is the most complete. He writes:

“Now when the king had divided the temple into two parts, he made the inner house of twenty cubits every way, to be the most secret chamber, but he appointed that of forty cubits to be the sanctuary; and when he had cut a door-place out of the wall, he put therein doors of Cedar, and overlaid them with a great deal of gold, that had sculptures upon it. He also had veils of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and the brightest and softest linen, with the most curious flowers wrought upon them, which were to be drawn before those doors. He also dedicated for the most secret place, whose breadth was twenty cubits, and length the same, two cherubim of solid gold; the height of each of them was five cubits they had each of them two wings stretched out as far as five cubits; wherefore Solomon set them up not far from each other, that with one wing they might touch the southern wall of the secret place [the Holy of Holies], and with another the northern: their other wings, which joined to each other, were a covering to the ark, which was set between them; but nobody can tell, or even conjecture, what was the shape of these cherubim. He also laid the floor of the temple with plates of gold; and he added doors to the gate of the temple, agreeable to the measure of the height of the wall, but in breadth twenty cubits, and on them he glued gold plates. And, to say all in one word, he left no part of the temple, neither internal nor external, but what was covered with gold. He also had curtains drawn over these doors in like manner as they were drawn over the inner doors of the most holy place; but the porch of the temple had nothing of that sort” (History of the Jews 8:3).

It was there, in the Holy of Holies, at the throne of God, that the final scenes of the festive drama were conducted.

The cherubim who surround the celestial throne of God are represented as having wings, by Isaiah (6:2), Ezekiel (1:6-11), Daniel (7:4-6), and John (Revelation 4). But we were told by the Prophet Joseph that “wings are a representation of power, to move, to act, etc.” (D&C 77:4). That is also probably a way of describing their priesthood power.
Because the throne and its overshadowing wings were symbolic of the reality and power of priesthood and kingship, they were also symbolic of the invitation to receive the gift of eternal life. The Savior used that symbolism repeatedly, as a lament addressed to those who would not accept the invitation. He said:

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
(Matthew 23:37, see Luke 13:34, 3 Nephi 10:4-6, D&C 43:24).

And also as a promise to those who would:

2 [The Savior] will gather his people even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, even as many as will hearken to my voice and humble themselves before me, and call upon me in mighty prayer (D&C 29:2, see 10:65).

Nephi’s statement, resounding as it does with the clarity of the ancient enthronement ordinances, is a testimony of the validity of those ordinances, and an example of their fulfilment:

25 And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore I was bidden that I should not write them (2 Nephi 4:25).

The wings have a further and expected symbolism. It is the association of the ideas of enthronement with the promise of security and peace, as Nephi prophesied

Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name (2 Nephi 25:13).

After his ordination and anointing, the king was a living messiah—not the “Messiah,” but rather a “messiah,” meaning an anointed one, a king of righteousness, and the legitimate “son” and heir of God. He had been crowned with a “crown of pure gold” and accepted God’s invitation to sit upon his own throne in the earthly Temple. Mowinckel observes,

We know that Solomon had furnished the Temple with an (empty) cherub’s throne, which was certainly understood to be the throne of Yahweh. In the very old Psalm 110 Yahweh is the king, sitting on his throne and offering to his ‘son’, the earthly king, the seat of honor at his right side. In the likewise very old Psalm 68 the worshiper calls Yahweh ‘his king and his god.’ ( Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1:125)

 3 Nephi 9:21-22 — LeGrand Baker– ‘as a little child,’ and also Ether 12:26-39 — meaning of humility

3 Nephi 9:21-22
21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.
22 Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved.

The Savior’s words in these two sentences has much to teach us: “to bring redemption unto the world,” is his primary purpose and “to save the world from sin” is the way the Savior accomplishes that redemption.

The word “therefore” creates the relationship between the Savior’s purposes and our responsibilities described in the second sentence.

“Therefore, whoso repenteth”is the method we must use to enable the redemption: “and cometh unto me as a little child” is the ultimate consequence of true repentance. Those two parallel structures create a one-to-one relationship between redemption and being as a little child.

“Redeem”has different meanings in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and often a still different one in the Book of Mormon. Elsewhere I have shown that, in the Book of Mormon, to be redeemed frequently means to be brought into the presence of the Savior (see Ether 3:10-13, 2 Nephi 2:3-4, 2 Nephi 1:15, Alma 58:41).

It is my observation that the most frequent quoted scripture used to define what it means to “become as a little child is this one:

19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father (Mosiah 3:19-20).

The interesting to me is that King Benjamin’s list of the characteristics of “a little child” map remarkably well to the sequence of the Savior’s Beatitudes (see the chapters in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord). and contain the same ideas as Peter’s sequence of how to make one’s calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:1-11).

In the Mosiah scripture, the emphasis is usually focused on “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” The thing that bothers me is that emphasis also suggests the helplessness of the child to do anything except submit. That problem would be solved if we shifted our thinking from a child who had no other choice to the spiritually mature person described in the Beatitude: “And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”(3 Nephi 12:10).

Another evidence that Benjamin was describing a quality of spiritual maturity is this from the Savior to the brother of Jared:

14 Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters (Ether 3:14).

That asks a question: If we shift the meaning of “childlike” from the helplessly immature to the spiritual mature, then how do we define “as a little child”? The Savior was again talking about the quality of person when he uses a child as an example. He says, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:15 & Luke 18:17, see 3 Nephi 11:37-38).

Matthew reads differently and adds an important criterion: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).

Humble is one of the characteristics mentioned by King Benjamin, and here, in the Savior’s statement, “humble himself as this little child” becomes the key to our understand. The best discussion of humillity that I know is in the Book of Mormon. But before we discuss that, may I tell you a short story.

One day I stopped to visit my daughter and her family. Little two-year-old Chelsea was in the tub having a bath. She heard my voice and came running into the living room to meet me. “Grandpa,” she shouted, all dripping wet, holding out her arms, wanting to be picked up and hugged. As I held her in my arms, wetness and all, I understood what it means to be like a little child in the Kingdom of God. The little girl in my arms was completely, simply, Chelsea. She needed no clothing to define who she was. At that moment she was only herself; trusting, but not noticing she trusted; vulnerable, but unaware of her vulnerability because it did not concern her; loving, and finding fulfillment and identity in the moment of her giving her love. In her unabashed dripping-wetness Chelsea was wholly free to be herself–to express her love–to BE the expression of her love.

I suppose we are all like that. When we are stripped of all the masks and facades of the artificial needs and fears by which we define our Selves, then we may kneel naked, vulnerable, and unashamed before our loving Heavenly Father. When one is childlike in that nakedness, he is free. He knows and loves the voice of Him by whom he walks. Nothing can bribe him because in his Saviour all of his needs are satisfied. Nothing can threaten him because in the arms of his Saviour he can find no fear. He may not have all the information he needs all the time, but his Friend has, and one can always ask when one does not know. When one is naked in that way, one may begin to know as he is known and see as he is seen. Only when one is comfortable with that kind of nakedness may he be clothed in a “robe of righteousness” and become one who may “inherit the kingdom of God.”

The quality of one’s soul that permits him to be humble enough that he can be simply himself matures into the power of celestial glory. In describing his vision, the Prophet Joseph mentioned first humility and then the attribute of knowing and being oneself:

92 And thus we saw the glory of the celestial, which excels in all things—where God, even the Father, reigns upon his throne forever and ever;
93 Before whose throne all things bow in humble reverence, and give him glory forever and ever.
94 They who dwell in his presence are the church of the Firstborn; and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace (D&C 76:92-94).

I suspect when one know one’s Self in term of the Savior’s love, then the question of one’s obedience will become moot because the question of his motive will have no practical meaning. Obedience will simply be one of the fruits of love, and his absolute obedience the simple expression of his absolute freedom to BE.

Now lets read those verses in the in the Book of Mormon that teach us what humility means there. In these passages, Moroni has expressed his concern because of his weakness in writing, and says he fears the Gentiles will mock.

26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace [probably hesed] is sufficient for the meek [those who keep the covenants they made at the Council in Heaven (Psalm 25)], that they [the meek] shall take no advantage of your weakness;

27 And if men come unto me [veil—same meaning as elsewhere in the Book of Mormon] I will show unto them their weakness [singular]. I give unto men weakness [singular] that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me [veil]; for if they humble themselves before me [veil], and have faith [pistis] in me, then will I make weak things [plural] become strong unto them [the covenant of invulnerability]. (Ether 12:26-27)

We get a key to understand what the weakness is in the next verse:

28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness [still singular], and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.

Here, “bringeth unto me” appears to be the source of strength to replace the weakness. That is confirmed a little later on.

37 And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness [singular] thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.

If being “made strong” is “sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father”— that is if strength is being in God’s presence as it says here and implies in verse 28— then our weakness [singular] is being outside of God’s presence.

Moroni continues:

38 And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood.

 39 And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things (Ether 12:25-41)

Now we have the key to understanding what humility means to this prophet. It has to be defined in such a way that it satisfies both his usage in verse 27 (“for all men that humble themselves before me ”), and also his usage in verse 39 where he writes that the Savior spoke to him in “plain humility.”

One cannot imagine the Savior’s talking to Moroni in a subservient way like a child would talk to his father. So if the New Testament and the Book of Mormon are using humility the same way, then being humble as a little child must mean something different from being submissive as we think of a child as submissive.

The key to the meaning is in Moroni’s explanation: “even as a man telleth another in mine own language.” When I envision that conversation, I see two people talking as friends (hesed)— no airs, no facade, no masks— just two friends, with no more pretenses then a naked child, souls exposed as they discuss the most sacred of all things.

If that’s what humility means, then we might read verse 27 this way:

27 And if men come unto me [veil—same meaning as elsewhere in the Book of Mormon] I will show unto them their weakness [the contrast between being in and being outside my presence]. I give unto men weakness [take them out of my presence] that they may be humble [come to know themselves as they really are]; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me [same as Moroni didl]; for if they humble themselves [have no masks] before me [veil], and have faith [pistis] in me, then will I make weak things [plural — all the things that get in the way of our being ourselves] become strong unto them [the covenant of invulnerability]. (Ether 12:27)

It seems to me that is what it means to become as a little child: to just be oneself — to become again as pure as we were before we came here, our soul as naked as a little child.