Ways to obey

Lucile Johnson, an LDS family therapist and writer, was in Tacoma a couple of times, years ago, for a BYU Know Your Religion program (I miss those) and for local women's conferences.  One talk about the principle of obedience I would like to think about today.

She said that there is always a lot of talk about blind obedience vs. informed obedience.  We can see that issue on people's minds now, under the surface, with the push-and-pull between those who label the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a cult and those who protest that declaration.  The common person's definition of a "cult" would be a religious group which follows a charismatic  leader (probably a charlatan), has a system of beliefs which are outside the mainstream (in other words, weird and strange) and demands blind obedience from its followers.  Actually, the common person's definition of a cult might not be that particular--just a group they think of as "a bunch of nuts!"  But the blind obedience angle still is part of their assumption.

Sister Johnson said that we talk a lot in the Church about the teaching that we are to know for ourselves, and will never be told we have to fall into lockstep without seeking the Lord's confirmation.  The promise that we can seek and receive that confirmation about a calling, a teaching, a point of counsel, is very important.  But, even given that, she said, (and this was what was riveting) "Any form of obedience is better than disobedience."  True obedience doesn't always understand 'why', but is certain of 'from whom.'

She used the example of Adam and Eve, removed from the Garden of Eden.  They had walked and talked with God in that Garden, and knew his voice; once removed from face to face conversation because of their fallen condition they still knew his counsel and Spirit.  In the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, chapter 5, she quoted:

4 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.

5 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.

6 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.

7 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.

8 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.

9 And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.

Adam had been commanded to offer sacrifices to God in a prescribed manner, a requirement which he did not yet understand, but he obeyed.  Why did he obey something he couldn't explain?  Because, though he did not comprehend the purpose, he did know it was coming from God. After demonstrating his faithful acceptance of that commandment to offer sacrifice, he was rewarded with the knowledge of what it meant.  It meant the promise of the coming Savior, as a symbol of the sacrifice which he would make for every living soul.  It was a symbolic act which continued until Jesus, the promised Messiah, had fulfilled his mission in full, living a pure and perfect life, laying that life down while carrying the infinite and incomprehensible burden of all our sins and pain, and taking it up again through the power of the Resurrection.  Adam was then filled with the Holy Ghost and the next verse describes him filled with the spirit of prophecy.  Was he ready to understand all that when he first obeyed and started to offer sacrifices?  Faithful action helped make him ready for fuller understanding.

The other paramount example was Abraham.  Through the more complete record in the Pearl of Great Price, in the Book of Abraham, we learn that Abraham left Chaldea, the land of his fathers, because he refused to forswear the knowledge of the true God taught from the time of Adam and was seized to become a human sacrifice.  Saved from death by an angel of God (Abraham 1:15), he was directed to a whole new life in Canaan.

God made a covenant with him and promised him a posterity as numberless as the dust of the earth or the stars, and all the people of the earth would be blessed, both through his literal seed (descendants) and through his priesthood.  Abraham marries and the years pass, and still she is childless.  Sarah tries giving Hagar to her husband to find some way to fulfill the promise, but that wasn't the answer.  Sarah is past childbearing and yet the promise is reiterated and then fulfilled.  She bears Isaac, a miracle.

After all this, Abraham is commanded to take Isaac up to the mountain and offer him up as a burnt offering.  Abraham understands the symbolism of the true sacrifice, Abraham knows that the human sacrifices of the Chaldeans were an abomination from which he himself had been saved.  Abraham knows without question that the voice he hears giving this command, this incomprehensible command, is the voice of God.  There is no way to understand this.  But his obedience is absolute.  He cannot find any sense of 'why' but he knows there is no possible mistake in 'from whom', so he binds his precious son, his son who is his only chance of all that God has promised him, and raises the knife.

We know that he was stopped, and a ram provided in a thicket.  When Abraham raised that knife, he didn't know he would be stopped.  He didn't know about any ram in any thicket.  He knew only that he must obey and trust God.  Is it any wonder that Abraham epitomizes faith and obedience for all generations?

It is my experience that when our Father in Heaven speaks, we should follow.  We may not understand the reason right now, but we will someday.  If we were obedient, we will understand with gratitude; if we were not, then we will understand with sorrow.  Any form of obedience is better than disobedience--our task is to know the touch of the Holy Ghost so well that we can recognize it without doubt.  We can then truly trust that answers will come when God judges us ready.