God Is My Friend, In Him I Shall Find Comfort

Well, 2014 is over.

This past year, combined with my opportunity to teach a D&C course at BYU this semester, have caused me to spend some time thinking about years of our lives, including years that we would not always wish to repeat.  In my study of the Doctrine and Covenants for this upcoming course, I came across just one such year in the Prophet's life:  1832.  That probably isn't the year most of you would think about.  Most of us would say something like 1834 and Zion's Camp, 1837 and the Kirkland Apostasy, 1838-1839 and the imprisonment in Liberty Jail, or 1844 and the Martyrdom.  It's true, he went through more years that none of us would wish upon our worst enemies, let alone wish to live through ourselves.  But as I've been studying, I have found 1832 to be especially difficult and especially applicable for a number of reasons.

1832 got off to a remarkable beginning.  At a January conference, Joseph Smith was sustained as the President of the High Priesthood, the first step in creating the Church's original First Presidency.  The Church's presiding quorum was further strengthened on March 8, 1832 when Jesse Gause and Sidney Rigdon were called to serve as counselors in the First Presidency, providing the Prophet with duly called and ordained counselors to assist him with the growing administrative burdens of the Church.  These must have been significant moments for the Prophet, who had long felt as though he had had to bear too much of the burden of the Church on his own shoulders.  Further, in February, the Prophet and Sidney Rigdon had received the vaulting visions of the degrees of glory, including moving visions of the Father and the Son and those who would inherit the Celestial glory.  Around March 1, the Prophet received another grand revelation instructing the leaders of the Church on how they could begin to prepare for Celestial glory.  At the end of this revelation came the comforting words, "Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.  The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.  And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more" (D&C 78:18-19).  This was a period of intense revelation, with Joseph even receiving a revelation teaching him a few words from the pure language of Adam ("Sample of the Pure Language of Adam, circa March 4-20, 1832, Joseph Smith Papers Documents, 2:213-215).

Placing myself in the Prophet's shoes, I know how I would have felt after the beginning of this year.  I would have thought to myself, "Everything is coming together.  The dark and difficult times of earlier days are finally in the past."  With this kind of a beginning to a year, how could things possibly go poorly?  But beginning at the end of March, the Prophet began to experience some difficult days.  On the evening of March 24-25, Joseph and Sidney were dragged from their homes and tarred and feathered and nearly killed by a violent mob.  This incident made it a perfect time for the new First Presidency to fulfill a commandment from the Lord to visit the Saints in Independence, Missouri, a trip of nearly a thousand miles.  But when Joseph arrived in Missouri, all was not right.  Being members of a new church, and being separated by a thousand miles from the Prophet, some of the leaders in Missouri had begun making decisions that ran contrary to revelation, creating contention.  The First Presidency had arrived just in time.  Meeting with the Saints, "All differences [were] settled and the hearts of all [ran] together in love" (Minutes, April 26-27, 1832, Joseph Smith Papers Documents, 2:232).  The conference was capped by a revelation that encouraged the Saints to forgive one another and to henceforth "refrain from sin" that they might receive the promises of the Lord (D&C 82:2).

After resolving the difficulties in Missouri and receiving one more short revelation (now D&C 83), Joseph and the First Presidency started back home toward Ohio.  In Indiana, a stage coach accident resulted in Newel K. Whitney breaking his leg.  While other leaders continued on home to Ohio, Joseph stayed behind with Brother Whitney for several weeks.  During this time he learned that the difficulties he thought had been resolved in Missouri had continued, and he went through a period of intense loneliness, anxiety, and reflection.  Unlike the period from January through April, wherein he had received many revelations (including one of his most significant to date), beginning in May, the summer of 1832 appears to have been a time when the Prophet was not receiving many revelations (or at least does not appear to have recorded them).  He wrote a letter to Emma that gives us some insights into what he felt.

"My situation here is a very unpleasant one although I will endeavor to be contented, the Lord assisting me.  I have visited a grove which is Just back of the town almost every day where I can be secluded from the eyes of any mortal and there give vent to all the feelings of my heart in meditation and prayer.  I have called to mind all the past moments of my life and am left to mourn and shed tears of sorrow for my folly in suffering the adversary of my soul to have so much power over me as he has had in times past.  But God is merciful and has forgiven my sins and I rejoice that he sendeth forth the Comforter unto as many as believe and humble themselves before him.  I was grieved to hear that Hyrum had lost his little child.  I think we can in some degree sympathize with him, but we must all be reconciled to our lots and say the will of the Lord be done. . . . Sister Whitney wrote a letter to her husband which was very cheering [to him].  Being unwell at that time and filled with much anxiety, it would have been very consoling to me to have received a few lines from you, but as you did not take the trouble, I will try to be contented with my lot, knowing that God is my friend, and in Him I shall find comfort.  I have given my life into His hands.  I am prepared to go at His call. I desire to be with Christ.  I count not my life dear to me, only to do His will" (Joseph Smith to Emma Smith, June 6, 1832, Joseph Smith Papers Documents, 2:249-251).

After a period where things had seemed so promising and so grand, with friends finally there to help him bear his burdens, Joseph had suddenly found himself in a place of loneliness, sorrow, and discouragement.  Further, silence seemed to have replaced the grand revelations of early 1832, the last revelation having warned that where much was given "much is required" and those who sinned "against the greater light" would "receive the greater condemnation" (D&C 82:3).  And so Joseph was left to wonder and to ponder, to mourn and to shed tears of sorrow for his past follies.  In his place, I know I would have wondered if perhaps God's silence was an indication that He had forsaken me because of my sins.  Even after he returned home, Joseph continued to ponder over his past sins and the Lord's forgiveness, a fact borne out in his 1832 Account of the First Vision.

But after a summer of repentance and contemplation upon the calling to which he had been called, the revelations again began to flow.  On August 29, he received a revelation for John Murdock (now D&C 99), whose twins Joseph and Emma had adopted following the death of Murdock's wife.  And then in late September, eight years to the day that Joseph had first been visited by Moroni, came the revelation containing the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood and a witness that contained within that higher priesthood, of which Joseph was the President, was "the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God" (D&C 84:19).  October brought another trip, this time to New York City, while November brought somewhat less stressful administrative meetings and communications with the Saints in Missouri.  And finally, December brought a flurry of revelations, including one that the Prophet referred to as "an olive leaf which we have plucked from the tree of Paradise" and "the Lord's message of peace to us" (Joseph Smith to W. W. Phelps, January 11, 1833, Joseph Smith Papers Documents, 2:365).  This revelation seemed to sum up the Prophet's summer, in the words, "Ye shall call upon me while I am near--Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.  Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name it shall be given unto you, that is expedient for you" (D&C 88:62-64).

Looking at this history, we begin to see that 1832 was a year where the Prophet was tutored about how to draw near to the Lord, especially in the moments when (for no apparent reason), He seems to be distant from us.  Although Joseph had gone through periods of repentance and silence from heaven before (such as the period between the First Vision and Moroni's first visit, or the Summer and Fall of 1828 when the plates had been taken from him due to the lost manuscript), it does not seem that he had gone through moments like this when he had experienced God's temporary distance having not withdrawn himself from God's presence.  In 1832, Joseph had to learn that sometimes as we seek to draw near to the Lord, He will withdraw Himself just a distance so that we can learn to seek His presence with greater fervency and enjoy the comfort of His voice and presence with greater pleasure.  Sometimes He will withdraw a measure, just to see if we will do as the Prophet did and redouble our efforts and diligence to find Him.  As the Prophet found, there are always more opportunities for us to repent than we readily see, and God is indeed a merciful Friend and Father.

In these moments when it seems that God has withdrawn Himself a measure from us, we can be encouraged by the Prophet's example of repentance.  But we can also be cheered by the knowledge that as we seek Him diligently, these summers of silence will turn into autumns of revelation, divine direction, and ultimately divine companionship.  "Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will" (D&C 88:68).  So it was for the Prophet of the Restoration in 1832, and so it will be for you and me.

Brett