What’s interesting about the scriptures is that they tell us that all things testify of Christ. The Bible and Doctrine and Covenants both talk about things being a type and a shadow of things to come. In one of my religion classes we were taught that types were prophecy that remained to be fulfilled, and shadows were types that had been fulfilled. Whether or not that’s entirely accurate, I’m not sure. What I do believe is that the study of history and scripture can teach us a lot about human nature and ourselves as we see common themes repeated throughout time, despite the changing landscape of when those themes occur.
An article about types and shadows said that “Recognizing the types that foreshadow the fulfillment in Christ is one way of seeing the fulfillment of prophecy. An easy way of thinking about types and shadows is to remember the phrase “promise and fulfillment.” In this regard, types share many similarities with prophecy in the scriptures. We can see, as Elder M. Russell Ballard taught, “the repeating pattern of history in the lives of God’s children as recorded in the Old Testament. Time and again we see the cycle of righteousness followed by wickedness. Similarly, the Book of Mormon records that ancient civilizations of this continent followed exactly the same pattern.” [3]”
The scriptures give us a bird’s eye perspective of individuals and societies as they grapple with pride and humility, selflessness and greed, indifference and discipleship as people seek to follow Christ despite difficulties and struggles. This is why I believe the scriptures are helpful for us in our day. When our removed perspective allows us to more clearly identify correct and incorrect choices in scriptural stories, we can watch from a broad perspective and see how God can take a seemingly hopeless or overwhelming situation and give us better outcomes than we imagined were possible.
We’ve been told that the scriptures were written for our day, so I always try to see how what we read can parallel our lives. We begin in Mosiah 7, learning about Limhi’s people, who were subject to excessive taxation of ½ of everything they made. They said this was grievous to be born, and it was a great affliction. They were in bondage. They were hoping for deliverance from that bondage, but they didn’t know how it could happen. This is a broad story, talking about a whole society of people, but what’s so interesting is that these same lessons that apply in a macro way to groups of people also apply in a micro way to us as individuals.
So in this case, we could look at our own society from a macro perspective and see society’s ills like great wealth inequality, excessive taxes, and a global pandemic as overwhelming and nearly insurmountable. We might look at our own lives from a micro perspective and see whatever we are battling (health, finances, or generalized fear of the future), and be able to apply the lessons we see here.
The scriptures say that we are to “Lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies… Lift up your heads and rejoice, and put your trust in God…” These scriptures in this particular instance are talking about an example of a physical deliverance from bondage, but the same principles apply spiritually, physically, financially, etc. True principles are true. Scriptures can also apply in a broader, sweeping way as well which is what the quote from Elder Ballard said. There are recurring cycles and themes throughout all of human history. In some way or another, all people fight the same battles to overcome the natural man and become refined. All societies struggle with the same issues.
Here the scriptures talk about how the people were contentious and refused to follow the Lord. They even killed a prophet of God. I thought this was interesting because I believe that our current society wouldn’t kill a prophet, but if we take a bit of a more zoomed out perspective we can see that in Joseph Smith’s time the people were contentious (trying to kill and drive out the Mormons), also refused to follow the Lord, and killed a prophet of God.
The scriptures in the reading this week show us what we are supposed to do when we are in bondage (whatever bondage that may be for us). We are supposed to turn to God, put our trust in him, and serve him with all diligence. The irony here is that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” We are advised to trust God and work to improve the lives of those around us, expending our energy to make the world a better place.
When making the world, other’s lives, or our own lives better seems insurmountable for whatever reason, we again turn to the scriptures. Deuteronomy 1:30 teaches us that “The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt. . . “ The Lord has said he’ll go before us, fight our fights, as long as we work to do his will. If we keep the commandments we’ll prosper and he’ll fight the battles for us that we couldn’t otherwise win, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the armor of God, that we’ll be prepared and protected from whatever’s thrown at us.
Preparation is a true principle. It’s incredibly important. Preparation is something that is done in advance, whether it be medically for a pandemic, physically so that we’ll be equal to the tasks that life requires, spiritually so that we can have hope amidst hardship, financially so that when things don’t go well we are protected, etc. We just don't know when things will happen that will deplete us of our reserves. It’s important to work and save, to be prepared as well as we can be for adversity, challenges, and just for life in general. Scriptures teach that if we are prepared we don’t have to fear. We can have more joy and peace and less fear when we have prepared for life as well as we know how.
This is what I think trusting in the Lord means. It means we do what’s right even in the face of insurmountable odds (like the people in the reading going to battle). We do what’s right even when we can’t see a way it can possibly work out. We do what’s right in spite of our doubt and fear, not because we don’t have any. Our power lies in action, not in belief because it’s our actions that show what our values really are. Our actions show who we really are and what we believe. I hope that all of our actions can be beautiful and faithful, in spite of odds that seem overwhelming.
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