The Lord's Portion - Ephraim

“We are the Lord’s Portion”

In the Pistis Sophia, an ancient document, it says, “There is an appointed place for everything in the Cosmos.” Cosmos means organization, order. And that “there is a numbering of souls for each world: and a dispensation is not completed until the teleos(completed) number has been fulfilled.”

The numbering of this dispensation of total people is linked to the number of the children of Israel. Our lineage is declared in patriarchal blessings to be from Joseph, with the majority from the tribe of Ephraim. We are the Lord’s portion.

In Ephraim:Chosen of the Lord, the authors tell us that, “The Lord has not revealed to mankind the duration of the time we spent in pre-mortal life. The extent of the programs that were made, has also, in His wisdom, been kept from us. However, He has revealed the formula He used when he preplanned the sequencing, the duration, the configuration, the assignments and the promised inheritances of His children upon the earth. He revealed to Moses:

“When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:8-9).” [1]

If Ephraim is the Lord’s portion, then what a huge responsibility we have. Everyone who has every lived must have the opportunity to hear the gospel preached

---

[1] Ephraim, Chosen of the Lord: what it means to be of the tribe of Ephraim, by Wayne R. Shute, Monte S. Nyman and Randy L. Bott, © 1999 Millennial Press, Inc., Riverton, Utah, p. 9

Ephraim's Third Great Opportunity

REVIEW: In my blog entitled Ephraim's Great Blessings and Opportunities for Service posted January 14,  I quoted Erastus Snow in the Journal of Discourses saying, “Such (noble spirits in the pre-existence) were called and chosen and elected of God to perform a certain work at a certain time of the world’s history and in due time he fitted them for that work… and so he elected the seed of Ephraim to be that peculiar people…that holy nation, a kingdom of Priests, a people to receive the covenants and oracles, and to be witnesses to certain nations of the God of Israel.”

MY QUESTION FOR YOU: Are we that holy nation, that kingdom of Priests? 

ISAIAH 41: 4 GIVES US SOME CLUES ABOUT US TODAY

While studying Isaiah 41:4, I found several translations:

 “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first and with the last; I am he.” –Isaiah 41:4 Authorized King James Version of the Bible

“Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.” –Isaiah 41:4 New International Version of the Bible

“Who is at work accomplishing this, foreordaining dynasties? I, the Lord, first and last, am he.” –Isaiah 41:4 The Literary Message of Isaiah, Avraham Gileadi, Hebraeus Press, 1964, NY p351

This last translation caught my attention. So, I looked up the meaning of foreordaining and dynasties:

foreordain: to ordain beforehand

ordain: to ordain (as a priest) 1. orig., to put in order; arrange; prepare; 2. a) to decree; order; establish; enact  b) to predetermine; predestine  3. to invest with the functions or office of a minister, priest, or rabbi.

dynasty: 1. a succession of rulers who are members of the same family  2. the period of their reign

The  Priesthood Today - A Kingdom of Priests

            This little study opened my eyes to the role of the Priesthood today. We live a life that allows us to go to the temple and receive the endowments that the Lord has in store for his people. There we are sealed to our spouses and children; then sealed to our parents; and then back generation by generation each family is linked. Yes, a dynasty, our family; yes, each man in each family receiving his ordination to the Priesthood, thus making us a Kingdom of Priests. As priests and  priestesses we officiate in the holy ordinances in the temple. We set in order our genealogies.

            And the Lord placed us specifically in the family that we were born into for this very purpose. Why? Because every family must be linked back through the generations, ordered or arranged as predetermined,  lest the Lord at his coming will smite the world with a curse. (Malachi 4:6) and we without our dead may not be perfected (D & C 128:16-18). Why would the Lord smite us with a curse? Because we agreed to make sure that every person who ever lived upon the earth had the opportunity to accept or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why we seek our the dead, identify them and then provide vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves because they no longer have a physical body...baptism and other temple ordinances. The curse would be that this opportunity was cut off because of our disobedience. We couldn't progress and neither would our deceased ancestors who accepted the gospel in the spirit world.

Moroni's First Visit

            Moroni in his first visit to the Prophet Joseph Smith quoted prophecies of the Old Testament. First he quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi and also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, with only a little variation in it: “Behold I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

            “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises (as found in your patriarchal blessing) made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.”

Elijah did appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland, Ohio temple during a Sabbath day meeting after passing and receiving the sacrament to the Twelve. The Priesthood was then restored to the earth on that glorious day of  April 3rd 1836.

QUOTE: “It would indeed be a great calamity if we should fail to do the part assigned to us in the accomplishment of the divine purpose as children of Abraham and descendants of Joseph and Ephraim, namely, performing the work for and in behalf of our ancestors who died without a knowledge of the Gospel, the work which they are no longer able to do for themselves, namely baptisms and other ordinances in order that they too may become sons and daughters of God, both in spirit and body.”

–Rulon S. Wells, Conference Report April 1932, p71

 

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

In my next to last post I began talking about Ephraim's other responsibilities and told you that in the New Testament the Greek word translated as “perfect” into English, is the word ‘telios’ and it means ripe, mature, ready, complete or whole. 

I thought about that a lot. Quite frankly, it made sense. Obviously in this life none of us will receive perfection. Enoch's people finally lived so righteously that their whole city was plucked from the earth and removed. So it stands to reason, if we are still here, we ain't so perfect. But, more than that, how discouraging it would be to KNOW we'll never be perfect because right out of the gate we sin. We sin big; we sin small. We repent, fail, repent again. And as we grow older we discover things that we are doing wrong we never dreamed of as wrong or sinful, yet now we become aware of those things. THERE WOULD BE NO HOPE. 

There is a process called perfecting the saints and it is based on learning. Yes, coming into a greater knowledge of truth and God's laws. We learn line upon line, precept upon precept. This is where hope comes in; hope in Christ. But the meaning of telios brings hope.

The word telios and it's meaning of ripe or mature or complete when taken in a spiritual context means that we've gained enough knowledge to go from entering into that gate of baptism and the strait and narrow way, then moving on to receiving our endowment in the temple, next entering into a new and everlasting covenant of marriage there, and finally, returning often to the temple to provide those ordinances for deceased family members. This is what a mature Latter-day Saint does. We then can find hope that when we call upon the Savior He will qualify us and we will receive perfection-in-Christ.

" If They Do the Very Best They Know How"

Brigham Young once explained:

QUOTE: “We all occupy diversified stations in the world and in the Kingdom of God. Those who do right and seek the glory of the Father in heaven, whether their knowledge be little or much, or whether they can do little or much, if they do the very best they know how, they are perfect…Be ye as perfect as ye can, for that is all we can do, though it is written, ‘Be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.’ To be as perfect as we possibly can, according to our knowledge, is to be just as perfect as our Father in heaven is. He cannot be anymore perfect that He knows how, anymore than we. When we are doing as well as we know how in the sphere and station we occupy here, we are justified.” –Journal of Discourses 2:129-130.

            What Brigham is saying is that doing the best we know how is being perfect because it fulfills our part of the covenant and as we do this, Jesus Christ fulfills his part of the covenant and makes us perfect through his merit and mercy. The perfection we receive in this manner is perfection-in-Christ.”

            Joseph Smith taught a sense of urgency to those of use who are Ephraimites:

QUOTE: “I would advise all the saints to go with their might and gather together all their living relatives to this place, that they may be sealed and saved, that they may be prepared against a day that the destroying angel goes forth; and if the whole Church should go to with all their might to save their dead, seal their posterity, and gather their living friends, they would hardly get through before night would come, when no man can work.”                –Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Six 1843-44, p 330

            The way to perfection is a path filled with trials and tribulation. How else are we to understand Christ’s suffering and to truly come to know Him so that we might become like Him. These trials and afflictions are for our own sake, our own perfection, so that when we stand before him on that day of judgment, we can say, “I’ve done all that you asked of me, suffered my trials patiently, and served others diligently.”

            In the process of perfecting ourselves we must help others along this same path. Our lives, our example, our testimonies and our service lift others. In our callings within the different organizations in the Church we give expression to this. Within our homes and families we help our children and relatives to receive their temple endowments and become spiritually complete or perfected.

            We must be found serving diligently each day to perfect the Saints

MY SUGGESTION: Find those phrases in your patriarchal blessing where you interface with others to give service, teach, lead or in other ways help to perfect the Saints.

            List each one of these on a separate piece of paper. The specific phrases may be listed at the top of a page so that you can then write with inspiration as you ponder and pray about how you might improve. Perhaps you might even set a specific goal to achieve this year one one of these topics.

 

I pray that we might be found doing the best we know how in our callings, in our home and family, and in our missionary efforts, and in providing temple ordinances for our kindred dead, because as one of Ephraim’s descendants, we know the Lord loves us, and has chosen us as His. Our reward will be “saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” What greater gift can we receive?

Ephraim's Second Opportunity for Service

SCRIPTURE: “Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”

–Exodus 19:5-6

THOUGHT: Jeremiah, the prophet of the Old Testament, understood Ephraim and his role in the latter days. In Chapter 30 the Lord tells how he will gather Israel and heal their wounds and says: in the latter days ye shall consider it ( a plainer translation in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible says, “in the latter days you shall understand this.)” This translation reminds us of Nephi’s statement about understanding Isaiah, when his prophecies are fulfilled (2 Nephi 25:7.)

            “…nevertheless, in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be filled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass.”

            Jeremiah goes on in Chapter 31 verses 6-9,20,31-34 to clarify what Ephraim will be doing in the last days.

            “For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.” Does this sound like what we hear during each general conference about becoming a Zion people? Isn’t the Ensign a cry unto the nations…well, at least by definition it is a rallying signal.

            “And I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth…” Zion is where the righteous gather, and they are gathered from all the land within the coasts or borders of each country where they live to their own wards and stakes.

            “And thus saith the Lord: shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.”  I thin this means we are to speak of Christ, write or publish of Christ, and praise the Lord or in other words bear testimony of Christ to save his people, a remnant of Israel.

            “I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn.” Elder LeGrand Richards in his book Marvelous Work and a Wonder (pp 224-228) suggests that these verses were a prophecy of the Saints traveling across the plains  and settling in the Rocky Mountains. But in every nation and every land where the saints gather in to Zion, they do so by rivers of refreshing revelation, enter into the straight gate of baptism and do not stumble because of newly revealed scriptures (including the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Proclamation of the Family, General Conference addresses, and your very own Patriarchal Blessing) as well as the published authorized version of correlated scriptures with study guides, bible dictionary, topical guide, and marvelous footnotes. 

The Lord Delights in His Pleasant Child - But He is Troubled 

            But the declaration here that “Ephraim is my firstborn,” brings us joy and lets us know our relationship with the Lord. In verse 20 of Jeremiah , “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child (a child in whom I delight)? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” 

And in verses 31-34 we are told that:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

“For they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

With An Eye Towards the Temple

MY QUESTION FOR YOU: Do these verses hint at what we as Ephraim must do? I think that it does. After we have made our own new covenant, the new and everlasting covenant in the house of the Lord, we have the obligation to see that everyone has this opportunity.

This is called Perfecting the Saints. We must point each newly baptized member, each child in Primary, every one of our youth, towards their own endowments in the temple. It is our responsibility to teach these new members, our children and our youth the basic principles, laws if you will, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must help them to not only understand who is their God, but help them to memorize the scriptures (write them in their hearts.)

In the New Testament the Greek word translated as “perfect” into English, is the word ‘telios’ and it means ripe, mature, ready, complete or whole. In a spiritual sense for a Latter-day Saint to be perfect in this life is to receive ALL of the covenants and blessings of the gospel and receive perfection-in-Christ.