What Beholdest Thou?

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What Beholdest Thou (1 Nephi 11:14) Ann Madsen October 8, 2002 During the concluding moments of the Nauvoo Temple Dedication, I remember President Gordon B. Hinckley saying something like this, Walk with me down Parley's Street. I want to paint a picture. A family walking near a wagon, snow swirling in the wind, an icy river in front of them. A little girl walking beside her mother shivers and cries, "Mama, I'm cold. Why can't we go home? This was the picture that I saw. Can you see it too, the little family facing the icy river? Can you feel it? It is a beautiful, tender picture of sacrifice, trust, faith, and love. President Hinckley invited those present to walk into the picture, and though it was a sticky hot June day, to imagine that frigid day in February. And they did. As the session concluded more than 1000 members poured out of the Temple heading for Parley's St. and the river. They were joined by hundreds more, who had heard President Hinckley's invitation in other locations. The Church News reported: What unfolded on June 30, 2002, was like a spiritual snapshot, the capturing of a moment to remember forever: Members of the Church heeded a prophet's voice. The distance covered, approximately a mile, wasn't significant, but the walk itself was. The crowd thinned as people took different routes. Some went through a grove of trees, some kept to the dusty footpaths . . . They eventually merged on Parley St. and continued their walk to the river's edge. . . The reason so many took the walk was summed up by four year old Anna Jensen, who said she sings "Follow the Prophet" in Primary.⁽¹⁾ I've come today to speak with you about the beautiful pictures prophets paint and to contrast them with the ugliness of so much we see around us every day in our technological Telestial world. The question is: "When do we look and when do we look away?" "What beholdest thou?" Our world is crowded with pictures. Many are grotesque and ugly. They intrude into the serenity of our lives in living color and with sound effects that boom and echo in our minds. They rival reality, they are sinful, devilish realities. Some are labeled "virtual reality." The apparent variety is endless. So often we are shown the sordid, the destructive. Some of these images are wrapped beautifully. I remember seeing a dazzling snow scene set in the wilds of a stunning, white Russian winter in the movie, Dr. Zhivago. There is a world of difference between this frigid scene and the one President Hinckley described. The handsome couple speeds across the elegant, frozen wastes in a storybook sleigh toward an idyllic, ice-cycled house. The photography is exquisite, taken through a foggy lens, which adds to the romantic setting. But the picture is of a man and his mistress-his wife is at home but is not shown-this was a picture of two people hurrying to commit adultery. That scene was mild compared to the startling images now produced. We're plunging downward, this year is worse than last. How many of you returned missionaries noticed the visible decline in morals on TV, movies and videos when you returned home? When our son returned from his mission some 25 years ago he was appalled. He put a sign on our TV screen, "That which doth not edify is not of God!" It was his brief message to us. But let's read the rest of it. ...that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness. That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day (Doctrine and Covenants 50:23-24). It is that Light we are commanded to seek and thus chase darkness from our minds and hearts. Satan is using every means at his disposal to peddle his menu of sins. News reporting is not exempt. When a few evil men plot to kill thousands of innocent people the catastrophe is replayed over and over and over and over again on prime time. First Lady Laura Bush spoke out just before the anniversary of September 11, asking parents to turn off the television on that day and instead read to their children. She said: Don't let your children see the images, the planes hitting the buildings or the buildings falling. . . Children need assurance they are safe. We saw a handful of people do something so horrible, but then we saw so many other people do good things. The firemen, the policemen, the rescue workers, the children themselves. New heroes emerge. Recently I heard of a little boy asking a policeman for his autograph. When the policeman asked him why he wanted his autograph he answered, "Because you save the world." When children are kidnaped it is instantly televised causing millions of children across America and perhaps even the world, to be full of fear. To be sure, prompt action might help find a kidnaped child. In the meantime, our youngest grandchildren now fear to sleep alone. Satan deals in fear. The prophet Isaiah saw our time. He paints a picture of the wicked "swimming in dung."^{(2) The vivid Satanic images we see remain in our minds. We are swimming in them. The sin, the violence, the profane use of sacred words; the brain stores all of them. Unlike your computer, which asks you regularly if you wish to save what you have imaged on the screen, your mind automatically saves everything you have seen, the beautiful and the ugly. It is all "backed up" in living color and stereophonic sound. It becomes your virtual reality.} This is one of the reasons looking at pornography is so crippling. The addicted viewer fills his memory with the sordid and ugly, crowding out the beautiful until his senses are dulled and he cannot even recognize the beautiful. We must learn to look away, to never look at all, to discriminate in advance, putting DO NOT ENTER signs on our minds and hearts. The prophet has been specific: No R rated movies. Are all PG-13 movies worth watching? We must each decide for ourselves. It might help to ask three simple questions I heard at a BYU Devotional last year^(3): Is it right or wrong? Is it true or false? Is it beautiful or ugly? The apostle Paul described our time and told Timothy, who was about your age, exactly what we should do. ...in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy... [the list goes on]...despisers of those that are good...lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [and what should we do?] . . from such turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-7, emphasis added). Look away. Turn away. Become passers by. In a polar opposite way, Prophets paint word pictures for our minds to treasure and return to again and again. These are the kinds of images we can use to combat and replace the ugly that is all around us. I have come to replay some of these pictures for you today. Happily, you can only have one image at a time on the center stage of your mind. In 1 Nephi 11:8 & 12 and many other places in the scripture there is a simple but profound exchange, a formula, if you will. ...the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked [and beheld a tree] (1 Nephi 11:8) Look and I looked. Often the Spirit will whisper to you, "Look!" The question will always be, "Will you glance, really look, refuse to look or look away?" There is always an agentive moment when you make that choice. What did Nephi see? As we read his words what will you see? You will need to fire up your imagination to truly see. I often say to my Isaiah students, "Let the metaphor speak to you." Let the picture form in your mind with as many details as you can manage, including color, texture, odor, stereophonic sound. When I was a little girl we only had radio. Every Saturday morning I would jump out of bed the moment I heard the music that meant my favorite radio program, "Let's Pretend" was about to begin. My mind filled with images as I listened to the program each week. There were Princes, white horses, castles, gorgeous princesses and happily ever after. The words and sound effects helped me see it all. I'm so grateful for those innocent exciting images of my childhood. I exercised my imagination every Saturday morning and lots of other times, too. Sometimes I feel like you have been robbed because your childhood included a TV, a computer and video images. Violent video games that are built around killing and destruction frighten me when I think what is being taught. Why are so many children acting out what they have seen? But more than that, these things are someone else's inane idea technologically produced for your consumption. I'm sorry you've had to settle for that. I hope you haven't let your own imagination atrophy from little use. Everyone has an imagination. Exercise yours with me today! Let's look at Nephi's words to create some pictures in your mind. He describes images in living color. I also saw gold, and silver, and silks, and scarlets [reds], and fine twined linen [white] (1 Nephi 13:7). It was not just something to watch but something to hear and feel as well. . . .I saw lightnings, and I HEARD thunderings and earthquakes and all manner of tumultuous noises. . . (1 Nephi 12:4, emphasis added. ) Read with me 1 Nephi 11:12-24, 28. Let Nephi's descriptions and your own imagination help you paint your own picture of what he saw. You will recall that he had prayed to see what his father, Lehi, had seen and for the interpretation of his dream of the tree of life. ...he said unto me: Look! And I looked... ...and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. [He recognized this city because he had lived there. Most of you haven't lived there but I have, so try to imagine with me that walled city on a hill with its white stone buildings reflecting the bright sunlight.]...I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white. ...an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou? And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh. [This helps us understand how God, the Father was not only the father of Jesus' spirit but also the father of his mortal body.] And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit;... for the space of a time and the angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I...beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms. [Try to imagine that tiny, soft baby cradled in her arms.] And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!. . .[Imagine what he might have looked like, human and divine, and beautiful, innocent, like all tiny babies.] And...he said unto me: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men;... ...I beheld that he went forth ministering unto the people, in power and great glory;... (1 Nephi 11:12-24, 28, emphasis added). Imagine with me what "power and great glory" means. That picture will help you as we look at another picture together. Nephi has painted word pictures that help us glimpse the birth and life of Jesus Christ, just as he saw it. Joseph Smith gave us a similar opportunity to share his experience. He also saw and heard the Son of God. But he was not an onlooker like Nephi. This is something different. He was in the picture. Remember the command, "Look!" Let us look with Joseph. Let the picture speak to you. Let your imagination paint this prophet's picture. Please turn to Joseph Smith-History 1:16 -17. He was only a few years younger than most of you. Remember how you felt at that age? He had been enveloped in thick darkness and felt as if he were "doomed to destruction," when ...I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name [Joseph] and said, pointing to the other - This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him! (Joseph Smith-History 1:16 -17, emphasis added.) Many times on my mission I repeated the words that painted that prophet's picture. I remember the impact on me and those I taught as I recounted Joseph's experience. I learned then, for certain, that the Holy Ghost delivers truth directly to our spirits. Each time I repeated those familiar words, I saw the picture. I knew that our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus, had indeed, appeared to Joseph. I saw those whom I taught feel the confirming spirit of the Holy Ghost as well. It was one of the most powerful and memorable lessons of my life. Why does this image touch me so deeply? Many of you know these feelings. Now let's turn to Isaiah. Oh, oh! Isaiah paints a unique picture for us. In Isaiah 51:17-23 New Inspired Version please read with me verses 17, 22. He is teaching us of Christ's Atonement in a very fundamental way. He is speaking of a cup and of appearing to be drunk, but not with wine, rather with the effects of sin. The cup is filled to the brim with the "wrath of God." Or perhaps we could call the wine the just judgment for our sins. I will be reading partly from the New Inspired Version translation. Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. This is what the LORD [Jehovah] says, your God who [pleadeth the cause of his people King James Version] See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, even the dregs of the cup of my fury [judgment], you will never drink again. Then remember with me what Jesus prayed in Gethsemane in his own extremity of suffering: ...Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42) Then as he leaves the garden after his agony he says to Peter. ...Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18:11) In Jeremiah we read: This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said to me: Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath [judgment] and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it (Jeremiah 25:15 New Inspired Version). Leviticus 23:13 speaks of a drink offering of wine, after sacrificing a young male lamb unblemished. Part of making things right with God in the Law of Moses included a drink or wine offering, an offering for sins. This is a perfect symbol for the sins of the world which Jesus "drank to the dregs," to the very bottom, every drop. Add to these pictures, the one Isaiah paints in Isaiah 53:12 New Inspired Version as Jesus "...poured out his [soul King James Version] unto death and was numbered with the transgressors..." "...though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." (Isaiah. 53:9) And "though the LORD [Jehovah] makes his life a guilt offering, [or as the King James Version says, "an offering for sin"] he will see his seed." (Isaiah 53:10, emphasis added.) Isaiah adds another compelling image to the picture of the Atonement, the Lord's outstretched hand. ...his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 9:12) God paints the boundaries precisely where they are. There is no way he can deny justice. Yet, with justice one day to be paid, he everlastingly extends his hand, stretching to reach us. The Sistine Chapel ceiling comes to mind, where Michaelangelo painted the hand of the Creator-God reaching through the clouds to the first man. So soaringly real is the painting that in studying it over time, one is led to feel that one of them must surely move the little distance to connect those outstretched hands, touching graceful index fingers. Who will move? What will justice require? The Lord began his "reaching out" with the first man. But we are the ones who must close the distance. His hand is eternally extended, reaching through a veil to his children to lead them to a place apart, the holy Temple, if they will only answer his call. In that sacred, silent spot he will teach them of the path to his glory. His prophets have left glimpses of the Light, records of brief encounters with glory. They witnessed majesty, the sound of rushing waters, whiteness above all earthly whiteness, light brighter than noonday sun, a voice of thunder and a still, small voice. Yet all this was only a shadow of his full reality. One more glimpse from Isaiah for those of us who steadfastly seek the blessings of the Atonement. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31) I have offered you pictures prophets have painted, in the hope that you would look again and again and then search, find and collect many more. They painted their pictures with words so you have to put forth effort to look, like Nephi you can affirm, "I looked." And the more you look the more you will see. I have invited you to look away from the ugly which surrounds you, to turn it off, to never enter the theater or rent the video or if you have by some error, to walk out of the theater or rewind the video and return it before adding more ugly images to your mind. Instead, the Savior pleads: Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36-37). Our hearts and minds can store beauty, which we can revisit again and again. Our own experiences can be perfectly recalled for us by the Holy Ghost. I know this is true. Let me conclude with some of my own sacred, personal glimpses. I can see again a full moon in Jerusalem shining over the Mount of Olives, as I walked near the same path Jesus had walked toward Gethsemane. He also walked by the light of a full moon. A clearing in the sacred grove, a break in the trees through which I could see the Palmyra Temple and vice versa, a Sacred grove I could glimpse from one of the Temple windows. An eternal connection! Isaiah's description of a towering Temple built in the tops of the mountains. Often in my mind and heart I revisit our sacred sealing day nearly fifty years ago in the very Temple I believe Isaiah saw. Sometimes the Lord has pictures waiting for us and we don't come for them. We leave the scriptures unopened or hurriedly read when one phrase might jump from the page and paint a glorious picture in our minds, writing it forever on our hearts. In my heart I have a precious picture of the Lord painted by Isaiah in some of the words I have shared with you today, Jesus, with outstretched hand or drinking a bitter cup on my behalf. A modern prophet's words have helped me in addition, to see a resplendent, resurrected personage. All these images are enhanced by regular encounters kneeling before the Lord in a place that has become holy to me because of the many prayers I have spoken there. It is there I know him best. I know He lives! Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him AS HE IS. [In all his glory.] (1 John 3:2, emphasis added.) Crawford Gates, in his Visions of Eternity, put music to the words that frame this ultimate picture. Please imagine yourself in this picture. And we beheld the glory of the Son
on the right hand of the Father,
And received of his fullness. How will we arrive at that place? Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am. (Doctrine and Covenants 93:1, emphasis added.) We will be there because of our Savior's love. In a moment we'll sing together these words: Our Savior's love
Shines like the sun with perfect light
As from above
It breaks through clouds of strife.
Lighting our way,
It leads us back into his sight
Where we may stay
To share eternal life. ("Our Savior's Love," Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985, #113)
This picture is real and awaits us all. I pray that this picture will be engraved on your hearts. In the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
1 Gerry Avant, "Members Walk 1846 Trail of Hope," Church News, July 6, 2002, p. 4
2 Isaiah 25:10-11 New Inspired Version
3 Elder Cecil Samuelson, BYU Devotional, Nov. 13, 2001