Obedience

I was reading my scriptures today and came across the following verses:

“And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence.

“And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord.

“And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.

“And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.

“Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore” (Moses 5:4–8).

 

I learned a couple of things from those verses.  First, Adam obeyed.  He didn't obey because it fit his lifestyle.  He obeyed because he believed in God and it was a commandment from God.  He didn't argue about it, he didn't even know the purpose behind the commandment.  And yet he obeyed willingly. 

 

Second, as I read those verses I felt impressed that we can all follow Adam's example and willingly obey because we have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Ghost impresses upon our minds an assurance and a peace that the commandment comes from our Heavenly Father.  As we sustain and support our church leaders, the Holy Ghost will offer us the assurance that the commandment is right.

 

I've studied up on the early practices of polygamy in the church.  This commandment would have been so difficult for me to follow, and I wondered how so many members were able to obey this commandment.  How could something so difficult and so strange be widely followed and accepted?  I came to the conclusion for myself (as I read individual accounts) that these women (and men) had had their own personal revelation that the commandment was from God.  Personal revelation, through the Holy Ghost, distilled peace to their minds concerning the matter, and they were able to do all that the Lord commanded of them.  Was it still difficult?  I'm sure it was.  But they obeyed, like Adam, because they knew the source from whence the commandment came. 

 

In the media, church members are often bombarded with claims that we follow our church leaders blindly.  It's not blind obedience.  Blind obedience seems to take away the aspect of the influence of the Holy Ghost and the spirit of Christ.  All people are invited to pray and receive their own personal revelations and it is my faith that we will be given the answers we seek when we pray intently.  I found the following paragraphs which seems to illustrate this point well.  It's by, Harold Glen Clark (1973 BYU address):

 

We learn in the modern temples of Israel that the main reason any of us is on this earth is to see if we will do “all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God [will] command [us]” (Abraham 3:25). Now note, the scripture doesn’t say “Do only the things that God first explains to you.” Thousands of Latter-day Saints are living their lives on the principle that doing God’s will first is the thing to do. All the understanding, believing heart wants to know is, What does God want? Then finding it, he goes and does it. This is not authoritarian. It is not a military order or blind faith. It’s the highest form of intelligence, for the temple story tells us that God created us. He is our Father. Literally, he conceived our spirit bodies in love and with great expectations. He brought us to this earth and gave us the opportunity to choose him or some other way. We see that he made the heavens, and that he made the earth on which we stand. It was he who said of us: They are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency; . . . and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father. [Moses 7:32–33] Who has greater love, or who has a greater interest, or who has a greater right in commanding us, guiding us, and reigning over us? Why should he mince words or be permissive or sound anything but a certain note about going the way he has outlined? He set up the stairway, not a stairway; he gave us the iron rod on that stairway to take us to the precious fruit of this life. Who else, as Peter said, has words of eternal life? Where else should we go to find them (John 6:68)?

Once we know whose we are, it only makes sense to follow him.  He knows us and loves us.  He has given us the spirit to guide us.  His ways are higher than our ways.  Men are only blind when they are blinded by the foolish precepts of men.  We obey our Father in Heaven even when the reason for doing so is unknown, because we trust him, and that is reason enough.