#9 We are taught that before the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ created this world from “matter unorganized” -- dust.
1 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest. (Moses 2)
1 And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the , and formed the and the earth. (Abraham 4)
Everything we encounter in mortality was formed of the dust of the earth by Jesus Christ. This is an important fact to keep in mind as we set our priorities.
#8 Our mortal bodies are likewise created from the dust and will inevitably return to the dust after we die.
The name Adam has a connection to the Hebrew word Adamah for “ground/earth/dirt.”
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Genesis 3)
#7 As a consequence for his rebellion, Satan is cursed by God to eat dust -- a symbol of permanent separation from God.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life (Genesis 3).
A snake lives very close to the ground. Satan’s influence over us is limited to mortality, unless we subject ourselves to his will. In other words, he thinks he is the king of the dust, and if we believe his lies, he will have power over us.
#6 The Book of Mormon authors frequently use the metaphor of “A voice from the dust” -- a message from a fallen, forgotten people.
Notice this reference to dust in the final words of Moroni:
Nephi says something very similar in 2 Nephi 33:
27 And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? (Moroni 10)
Nephi says something very similar in 2 Nephi 33:
11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.
12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.
13 And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come. (2 Nephi 33)
The Book of Mormon is the record of a fallen people, who were once favored of the Lord, a covenant people. They were led to a promised land, where they eventually turned away from God and rejected Him, and as a result they were destroyed, in other words, they were returned to dust. Mormon famously laments the destruction of the Nephites with a passage that repeats “O ye fair ones” three times. (Interestingly “Fair one” is a reasonable translation of the name “Nephi” according to scholars.) Notice the description Mormon gives us when all but a few of the Nephites are wiped out:
15 And it came to pass that … all my people, save it were [a few], had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.
16 And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:
17 O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.
19 O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! (Mormon 6)
#5 What does the voice of an angel do? It shakes the earth under Alma the Younger’s feet, and he falls to the earth, then is commanded to arise.
Notice how beautifully and fittingly Alma later expresses his desire to be an angel:
1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. (Alma 29)
#4 Helaman 12 -- Mormon laments that man is less than the dust (because the dust obeys God's command)
4 O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!
5 Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths!
6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide.
7 O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.
8 For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. (Helaman 12)
#3 Prophets throughout the Book of Mormon invite us to leave the dust behind.
- Lehi implores his sons 3 times to “Arise from the dust.” (2 Nephi 1)
- Jacob invites us to “Shake [ourselves] from the dust.” (2 Nephi 8:25)
- Christ also invites us to “Shake thyself from the dust.” (3 Nephi 20:37)
Moroni mentions dust right at the end of the Book of Mormon, partially quoting Isaiah:
31 And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.
32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; (Moroni 10)
#2 What did Jesus do at the Last Supper?
3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13, NIV)
Just before implementing the "new covenant" of the sacrament, the same Jesus who created this world knelt before each of His disciples and washed the dust from their feet. Verse 3 is very interesting to me. It is offered as the explanation for why He would do such a thing: "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God[.]" Isn't one of the central purposes of the ordinances of the temple to teach us where we came from and where we are going, and by what means we can expect salvation/exaltation?
#1 Alma the Younger's masterful analogy on faith compares our hearts to dust and teaches us how to cultivate the fruit of the tree of life from the dust of our mortal experience.
He likens the word of God to a seed and compares it to planting a seed in our hearts -- we are the dust/dirt in this metaphor, and allowing the word of God to grow up from our dust until it becomes a tree capable of producing fruit, fruit that is white, pure, sweet, and most precious above all other things, the same exact words Lehi used to describe the Tree of Life -- a tree which represents the Love of God as manifested by Jesus Christ condescending to earth to live in a “tabernacle of clay” (see Mosiah 3:5), suffer for our sins, and rise up again as the firstfruits of the resurrection.
To quote Stisa from this previous post:
To quote Stisa from this previous post:
The atonement is the reversal of the fall! The fall came about when Adam took the fruit from the tree. The atonement came about when the firstfruit of God was hanged on the tree. The fall was figuratively a fall to the ground, to the carnal and the captivity of the devil. The atonement enabled mankind to rise, to "cultivate the ground", i.e. to become master of the carnal instead of subject to it. It enables us to eat fruit instead of dust.
