Today's reading took me to Ezekiel 28 and 3 Nephi 6. My immediate response was to get overwhelmed with details I was not familiar with in Ezekiel and to be amazed yet again in 3 Nephi at how quickly we humans can get prideful and overconfident after miraculously recovering from despair or impending doom. Once again I turned to my friends, the course manuals of the Institute of Religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for additional guidance from the words of apostles and prophets.
Chapter 27 of the student manual on the second half of the Old Testament (click on http://institute.lds.org/manuals/old-testament-institute-student-manual-2/ot-in2-08-jer-ez-27.asp), notes that beginning in Ezekiel 25 the prophet Ezekiel switches from warning his fellow Jews of their impending captivity if they do not repent to prophecies of their future once they had been conquered. For example, Items 27-6, 27-7, and 27-8 in the Institute manual describe how Ezekiel's prophecies of the future downfall of Tyre and Sidon, cities that had been Israel's past enemies, come to pass three centuries after Ezekiel's time. There is the promise of more prophecies, many pertaining to our day, to come in the remaining chapters of Ezekiel -- I am looking forward to reading these.
The recent chapters I've read in 3 Nephi have also caught my attention. As recently as 3 Nephi 3, beginning in the year 19 AD, Giddianhi makes his invitation to the Nephites to join in the secret (evil) works of the society of Gadianton - with the threat of annihilation to any who turn down the invitation. In 3 Nephi 4, all the Nephite nation gathers in one central place, with enough food and supplies to last seven years, and stripping the surrounding land bare so their enemies have nowhere to get food. They got the idea and ability to do this through inspiration, and when successful, they all acknowledged the Lord's hand in their survival. In the year 26 AD, the Nephites return to their former residences through out the country having successfully eliminated the secret society entirely. 3 Nephi 5 talks about a short period of peace thereafter. Then ... by 30 AD things are as bad as ever. Pride sets in enough that some of the people reestablish the secret society!
Pages 292 and 293 of the Book of Mormon student manual (see https://lds.org/si/bc/seminary/content/library/manuals/institute-student/book-of-mormon-student-manual_eng.pdf) provides some explanation that is quite beneficial ...
1. "President Henry B. Eyring warned about such challenges in our day: 'A little prosperity and peace, or even a turn slightly for the better, can bring us feelings of self-sufficiency. We can feel quickly that we are in control of our lives, that the change for the better is our own doing, not that of a God who communicates to us through the still, small voice of the Spirit. Pride creates a noise within us which makes the quiet voice of the Spirit hard to hear. And soon, in our vanity, we no longer even listen for it. We can come quickly to think we don’t need it' (in Conference Report, Oct. 2001, 16; or Ensign, Nov. 2001, 16)"
2. " Elder M. Russell Ballard further explained the danger of heeding Satan’s temptations: 'In the premortal world before we left the presence of Heavenly Father, He warned and cautioned us about new experiences we would have in mortality. We knew that we each would have a physical body of flesh and bone. Never having been mortal before, we had no experience dealing with the temptations of mortality. But Heavenly Father knew and understood. He charged us to control our mortal bodies and to make them subject to our spirits. Our spirits would have to master the physical temptations that our bodies would encounter in a temporal world. Spiritual power over the influence of Satan comes to us by keeping the commandments of our Lord, Jesus Christ. . . .
'Satan will seek to tempt us at times and in ways that exploit our greatest weaknesses or destroy our strengths. But his promises of pleasure are short-lived deceptions. His evil design is to tempt us into sinning, knowing that when we sin we separate ourselves from our Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ. We begin to move away from Heavenly Father’s promised blessings toward the misery and anguish in which Satan and his followers languish. By sinning we put ourselves in Satan’s power.
'Now, my dear young friends, I understand the struggles you face every day in keeping the commandments of the Lord. The battle for your souls is increasingly fierce. The adversary is strong and cunning. However, you have within your physical body the powerful spirit of a son or daughter of God. Because He loves you and wants you to come home to Him, our Father in Heaven has given you a conscience that tells your spirit when you are keeping the Lord’s commandments and when you are not. If you will pay more attention to your spiritual self, which is eternal, than to your mortal self, which is temporary, you can always resist the temptations of Satan and conquer his efforts to take you into his power' (in Conference Report, Apr. 1993, 5–6; or Ensign, May 1993, 6–7)"
I really enjoyed this reminder of the dangers of pride and how to make positive choices to avoid it. I hope you did as well and invite you to share as a comment here relevant experiences you have had with this personally.
1. "President Henry B. Eyring warned about such challenges in our day: 'A little prosperity and peace, or even a turn slightly for the better, can bring us feelings of self-sufficiency. We can feel quickly that we are in control of our lives, that the change for the better is our own doing, not that of a God who communicates to us through the still, small voice of the Spirit. Pride creates a noise within us which makes the quiet voice of the Spirit hard to hear. And soon, in our vanity, we no longer even listen for it. We can come quickly to think we don’t need it' (in Conference Report, Oct. 2001, 16; or Ensign, Nov. 2001, 16)"
2. " Elder M. Russell Ballard further explained the danger of heeding Satan’s temptations: 'In the premortal world before we left the presence of Heavenly Father, He warned and cautioned us about new experiences we would have in mortality. We knew that we each would have a physical body of flesh and bone. Never having been mortal before, we had no experience dealing with the temptations of mortality. But Heavenly Father knew and understood. He charged us to control our mortal bodies and to make them subject to our spirits. Our spirits would have to master the physical temptations that our bodies would encounter in a temporal world. Spiritual power over the influence of Satan comes to us by keeping the commandments of our Lord, Jesus Christ. . . .
'Satan will seek to tempt us at times and in ways that exploit our greatest weaknesses or destroy our strengths. But his promises of pleasure are short-lived deceptions. His evil design is to tempt us into sinning, knowing that when we sin we separate ourselves from our Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ. We begin to move away from Heavenly Father’s promised blessings toward the misery and anguish in which Satan and his followers languish. By sinning we put ourselves in Satan’s power.
'Now, my dear young friends, I understand the struggles you face every day in keeping the commandments of the Lord. The battle for your souls is increasingly fierce. The adversary is strong and cunning. However, you have within your physical body the powerful spirit of a son or daughter of God. Because He loves you and wants you to come home to Him, our Father in Heaven has given you a conscience that tells your spirit when you are keeping the Lord’s commandments and when you are not. If you will pay more attention to your spiritual self, which is eternal, than to your mortal self, which is temporary, you can always resist the temptations of Satan and conquer his efforts to take you into his power' (in Conference Report, Apr. 1993, 5–6; or Ensign, May 1993, 6–7)"
I really enjoyed this reminder of the dangers of pride and how to make positive choices to avoid it. I hope you did as well and invite you to share as a comment here relevant experiences you have had with this personally.
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