Saturday, January 18, 2020

Past/present/future in Moroni 10

When Lord Wilmore introduced the past/present/future topic, I read arguably the most well-known Book of Mormon verses from a new perspective
Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall 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.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
I like the idea of pondering how merciful the Lord has been in the past, praying in the present and receiving the promise of an answer to demonstrate the mercy of the Lord also in the future.

Even though Moroni wrote in reformed Egyptian, there might still have been much of the "learning of the Jews" (1 Nephi 1:2) in the language. In Hebrew, truth - אֶמֶת (ehmeht) – begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, א, continues with one of the two middle letters, מ, and ends with the last letter, ת. This is a reminder that truth is eternal and unchangeable. Consequently, the use of this word in this passage gives additional past/present/future references.