[00:00:16] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekly Deep Dive podcast on the Add On Education Network. The podcast where we explore the weekly Come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. I’m your host, Jason Lloyd, here with my friend and this show’s producer, Nate Pyfer.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: What is up?
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Hey.
So this episode probably gonna be a little bit different. Usually we’re trying to sit here and explain things and teach things, but this is gonna be a little bit more asking questions, right? We don’t always have the answers. And I think this is gonna be a little bit more exploratory than what we have done in the past.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: This is my kind of episode because I don’t know any of the answers, but I have a lot of questions. And I do like parts of the Old Testament that talk about genealogy and lines like that begats you and your begatting.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: All right, so we’re going to look.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: At talking about any of that today.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Or no, no, no begetting. So in this episode, we’re going to look at another.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Can we maybe talk about some of the begetting?
I know you know about this stuff, Jason.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: No, no, no begetting. No begetting on this show. All right. We’ll begat another day.
Another day.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Live to begat another day.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Live to beget another day.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: That’s my motto on this show from now on. Would you like to get into any of the information?
What are you waiting for, Jason?
[00:01:29] Speaker A: In this episode, we’re looking at another instance of the field being white and ready to harvest. I know we’ve hit that a few times.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: We have.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: It’s repeated eight times in the Doctrine and Covenants. So we’re going to take another perspective.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Seven more.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: We’re going to swing again, and then we’re going to ask the question, why? Why Aaron?
To restore the Aaronic priesthood.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Why Aaron or why not Aaron?
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Excuse me. Thank you. Why John the Baptist? Why not Aaron? If we’re talking about the Aaronic priesthood, which is named after Aaron, the Melchizedek priesthood, which is named after Melchizedek, why not have Aaron and Melchizedek come back and restore the priesthood? Why? Why have John the Baptist and Peter, James and John?
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Can I ask a question right up front? This just came to me.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Is it begetting?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: No, it’s no begatting. All right, let’s see a real one.
Why was the priesthood named after Aaron and Melchizedek in the first place?
[00:02:21] Speaker A: That’s a great question.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: I’m just wondering because it’s like those Weren’t like the first two dudes around.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: But the, the priesthood of Aaron was the first dude in the order of the Aaronic priesthood, as far as we know. Because before Aaron, it’s Melchizedek priesthood only. Only we’ve got the patriarchal order and we’ve got a father that’s presiding over the home and he’s offering sacrifices. And you’ve got Melchizedek, as far as I can see, in the Old Testament. Now, I don’t know because there’s a lot we don’t know back in that time, but as far as I can see, the Aaronic priesthood isn’t exercised until you get to Aaron. He is the first priest. And so from here it goes.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Okay, so then maybe you’ll know the answer to this question. Why isn’t it called the. Why isn’t the Melchizedek priesthood called the Adamic priesthood, like, after Adam? You know what I mean? I guess I’m just saying, like, was Adam exercising the Melchizedek priesthood?
[00:03:16] Speaker A: It’s a great question. I imagine he was. He did offer sacrifice.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: I agree. I’ve always wondered that. And I mean, I look to you because you’re the smart one here. Between the two of us, I’m just. I was. It’s something I’ve always wondered if Adam was exercising the Melchizedek priesthood. What did he call it?
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Well, Doctrine and Covenants gives us that answer a little bit later.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Of the Order of the Holy Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: Okay, so that’s what he called it. And so God gave us, just did us a favor saying, hey, Melchizedek is a really great high priest, so we’re going to name it after him.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: And maybe one of the crazy things about naming it after Melchizedek is we have to take their word for it because they say that he was such a great high priest, but. But almost nothing is said about him. We don’t know.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Totally taking their word for it. I don’t even know who they are, but we’re totally taking their word for it. Is this Moses, in this case in.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Doctrine and Covenants, when it says Melchizedek was such a great high priest?
[00:04:12] Speaker B: That’s right. It’s not even in the Old Testament, right?
[00:04:14] Speaker A: No, Melchizedek, Yeah, he does not show up a lot in the Old Testament, but he does show up a lot in Jewish legend. In apocryphal pseudepigraphal text, Melchizedek. It does play out that he is a bigger player than what the Old Testament’s leading onto. So you do see that confirming value with what Doctrine and Covenants is saying.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: It’s awesome.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So. But honestly, yeah, I couldn’t tell you exactly why it’s named that way. But let’s.
We’ll dive into that first. Let’s get to our field as white and ready to harvest before we forget poor Joseph.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: It’s my favorite thing, if I ever told you that it’s my favorite thing to talk about in the Scriptures is the field.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: It’s even better than begatting.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Totally. Who likes begatting?
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Okay. The field is white and all ready to harvest. In here, Joseph Knight steps in to fill a void, a role that was very critical. Martin Harris had lost the 116 pages up until this point. He was financing the translation of the Scriptures, which was causing a lot of angst for his wife. Right. We’ve talked about this in previous episodes. He kind of fades into the background and takes a backseat. Oliver Cowdery stepping in and. And he’s filling the role of scribe, but he’s not financing it. You need somebody to help with a few things. And if I remember right, Joseph Knight even buys Joseph Smith a pair of shoes. He helps him out. He buys him ink for translating, he buys him paper for translating. He’ll give them rides, load them up in the wagon, and take them from place to place. Just what we would maybe consider small things. But it was a huge deal in keeping that work moving forward. And as we talked about in the last episode, the field being white and ready to harvest isn’t always referring to missionary work, but it’s referring more to gathering, unifying, and helping the Lord’s work move forward. And sometimes, as Joseph Smith says later in the Doctrine and Covenants, you know, dearly beloved brethren, a very large ship is oftentimes benefited by a very small helm and keeping it work ways with the storm.
Gathering can be very small things that we feel inspired to do that help that work move along as we’re looking for ideas and how we can minister or how we can better serve in our callings or what we can do to lift someone’s day or somebody’s feeling sick and we put a little extra love and trying to cook a meal or help them out or those little things that we’re doing are really participating in the Lord’s work. And it’s kind of a redeeming. I mean, for me, reading that scripture apply to Joseph Knight and all of the things that he is trying to do to please the Lord makes it come together for me.
And as we’re talking about, the field is white and ready to harvest.
This scripture shows up at least a little bit in John, the New Testament, John chapter 4, verse 35, in a way that I think we should bring up here as we’re talking about this. It says, say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.
And so many times today I think that we are waiting like, well, when Christ comes and the millennium happens, or this happens, then I’m going to do it. Then I’m going to change. Then I’ll quit doing this, or then I’ll start doing that, or maybe when I get a different calling, because I’m kind of burnt out on this, maybe I’ll just wait a little bit until I get something that’s going to work better for me and then I’ll start harvesting. But really, I think the key is, don’t say there’s four more months. Don’t say it’s going to happen. Down the road, the field is already white. Find those little things, even if it’s not a big thing. Find something now that helps you feel like you’re engaged in contributing.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Are we going to pretend like that we haven’t all, at least at one point, thought, as soon as two apostles get killed over in Jerusalem, we have three days left to do all the repenting?
[00:08:24] Speaker A: When I see Christ dressed in red and the whole world has turned against Jerusalem. And he says, where did you get those wounds? I received it in the house of my friends. That’s what I’m cleaning my bedroom. That’s what.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: That’s what I’m saying. It’s going to be me in the bedroom, on my knees, like, look, I tried, you know, I tried.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: I’m ready now.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: I’m ready now.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: I’m going to take a good go at it.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: I’m going to. I’m going to amplify my calling. I’m going to do all those things.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Well, it’s just like it says in Alma. You cannot say in that day that I will repent. You cannot say. Because the same spirit that possesses us, it’s going to be. We’re the same. We. We are ingraining ourselves. And the big thing to understand about repentance and this idea is not that all of a sudden we can Change like a flip of a light. It is a work in progress. We are constantly trying to be somebody else. We’re trying to be like Christ. Not that we lose our identity or our personality, but that we become more Christ, like in how we behave. And that process doesn’t happen overnight. Let’s not wait. Let’s engage in that now.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, but you did think of that at least once or twice as a child, right?
[00:09:28] Speaker A: I’m sure everyone has.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: I still think of that sometimes.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: All right.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: I’m trying to be better, Jason.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Hey, at least you’re honest, right? At least you’re honest.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Trying.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: There you go. That’s a good start.
All right, let’s dive into the unknown a little bit. And the question asked, at least the question I think about when I read this, why John the Baptist? Why not Aaron? Why not Melchizedek? And I think it’s a good question. And I’m not here to tell you I have an answer, but here’s a few thoughts anyways.
The Aaronic priesthood, in order to understand what’s going on here, the Aaronic priesthood is considered a preparatory priesthood. It’s preparatory for what? In a lot of our minds, we think, okay, it’s preparatory for the Melchizedek because the Melchizedek priesthood got removed with Moses and they had the Aaronic to prepare them for when they could have the Melchizedek priesthood again.
And if that’s the case, then what’s the Melchizedek priesthood for? So the Melchizedek priesthood, according to Doctrine and Covenants, Section 84, it says that the ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood are there to bring us into the presence of God.
So if that’s the case, the Aaronic priesthood is to prepare us to meet God, and the Melchizedek priesthood is to bring us into the presence of God. And it says in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 84. Now, this Moses plainly understood and taught because he was trying to prepare Israel to enter into God’s presence. And he told him, wash yourselves, prepare yourselves, for God is going to come down and he’s going to be in your midst.
And they said, no, no thanks. You do the talking with God and we will do the whatever you say afterwards. But we would rather not be in his presence. They kind of rejected that. And for that, Moses and the priesthood was pulled from his presence.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Wasn’t God even, like, upset about that? I don’t know. I might be misremembering this, but when they basically said, no, no thanks, I mean, does it talk about how God felt about this?
[00:11:35] Speaker A: It does. Doctrine, covenant, section 84. Right. He was a little bit miffed. In fact. In fact, if you, if you want the Hebrew.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, no, wait, hold on. I don’t want the Hebrew because miffed, I feel like, actually sums it up pretty well.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Well, you can give me the Hebrew.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: If you want to, but what’s the Hebrew?
[00:11:54] Speaker A: For instance, Hebrew makes him out to be like Pinocchio, like his nose was length. Like anger is all associated with your nose. If your nose gets bigger, then you’re mad.
And I shouldn’t have said Pinocchio because now you’ve got the wrong image. And I don’t want you thinking God with this nose that’s just extending out there every time he looks at his people because he’s lying in his mind. No, it has more like your nostrils are flaring. So your nose is getting bigger because you’re breathing heavy. Right. The anger of the Lord is kindled. Yeah, he wasn’t too happy. We’ll just look at that.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: What’s the Hebrew for miffed?
[00:12:28] Speaker A: Large nosed.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Fantastic.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: All right, so.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: The children of Israel rejecting God.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. Going back to this idea, then, if the Aaronic priesthood is to prepare us to the presence of God, let’s just take a look at how the Aaronic priesthood does that. The ordinances of the Aaronic priesthood is entering into a covenant with them through baptism. It’s the sacrament. It’s this covenant making and this cleansing process to prepare us so that we’re clean. Right. And then the ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood, those are, those are found in the temple. And the ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood are the ordinances that take us back into his presence, that passes through the veil in the presence of the Lord.
If we’re talking about two priesthoods with the role of preparing us for the coming of the Lord and the other one for entering into the presence of the Lord, then in my mind, who better to restore those ordinances than John the Baptist, who was the forerunner who prepared the world for the Lord’s actual physical entrance into the world. And Peter, James and John, who were ordained in the presence of the Lord himself.
As they entered his presence, he laid his hand on their heads and ordained them into the Melchizedek priesthood.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: So Peter, James and John were the first people given the Melchizedek priesthood after it had been removed from Moses.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: No, no, no, you still had. Ooh, that’s a great question. Because I have to believe that Elijah had Keys for that. He came back and restored. Right. I still think there were some prophets that had it. I don’t. I don’t know that I want to say that he was the last, especially in consideration that.
Look at the Book of Mormon.
Lehi and his family are not, are not from Levi. They don’t have the priesthood, at least not the Aaronic priesthood or the Levitical priesthood. The priesthood that’s exercised throughout the Book of Mormon is from a different order, different. The Melchizedek priesthood. So if we go back to. Going back to your question about Moses and Aaron, Moses did have the Melchizedek priesthood, but he received it from Jethro, whose father in law, which came through a whole different line outside of Israel. So there were people that had Melchizedek priesthood outside of Israel, Melchizedek before him. Right. And Abraham. And so that’s one of those questions. What role did the Melchizedek priesthood play in Old Testament prophets and the Old Testament gospel? That I don’t know that I have a great answer for. But it is a good question. And I have to suspect that there are some instances where you see that priesthood play out. But I could be wrong.
Great question.
But going back to this imagery, I find it interesting that we see this preparing for Christ to come here and Christ being here playing out through John the Baptist and then Peter, James and John bringing the priesthood in this time. That, to me, is why it makes sense.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: I like it. That does make sense. So just to kind of like put a bow on that, I feel like it’s always kind of made sense that John the Baptist would bring back the Aaronic priesthood again as the one who baptized Christ himself. And like you said, was, was kind of foreordained as the forerunner, you know, to, to Jesus.
I think that I was always confused about Peter, James and John being the ones again, like not only part of the, the restoration, but again, like, like when we see their role, like in, in kind of like, you know, other various ceremonies and things in the church. I’ve always kind of wondered why those three. But it makes sense if it’s because in the presence of God, they were given the priesthood by the hands of God himself.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is entering that presence of God, I think.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: So then, as they’re restoring the Melchizedek priesthood, I’m just saying that’s a very short lineage tree back to God.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: And that’s the cool thing when you look at your priesthood line. I mean, from your dad. From his dad, or for whoever it goes all the way back to Peter, James, and John. And then right up on the top, Jesus Christ himself.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Okay, next up, there’s in Doctrine and covenants, section 13, when John the Baptist ordains Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowgill to the Aaronic priesthood, he lays his hand on both of their heads, one hand on each, upon you, my fellow servants, in the name of the Messiah. Now, there’s a few things that are interesting to me in how he does this. One is he’s ordaining him to the Aaronic priesthood, but he tells them that this priesthood shall never again be taken from the earth until the word until makes me think that this priesthood might not have a purpose here anymore, or at least might not be here at some point in time in the future until the sons of Levi offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness. At which point you have to wonder, what then, if that happens, does the Aaronic priesthood go?
It just puts a couple questions in my mind. And if the sons of Levi are offering an offering unto the Lord in righteousness, do they need to be ordained to that priesthood to do it? Or do they already have that priesthood? I mean, can they just offer an offering tomorrow in Israel and that fulfills the prophecy? Or do they have to be ordained through the restoration of the priesthood in today’s day for that to happen?
When I look at this passage, there’s a few things that kind of pique my interest, because notice that John does not say in the name of Jesus Christ. He says, in the name of Messiah. Hamasia. That’s the Hebrew term for who the Jews are worshiping the Lord.
And In Exodus, chapter 29, verse 9, it says, and the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute, meaning it’s their birthright. They’re born into it. They don’t have to necessarily be ordained. They just have to be born and they have it.
So if they have it and they’re offering it not in the name of Jesus Christ necessarily per se, but in the name of the Messiah who they already worship, could they offer an offering today in righteousness outside of the restoration of the priesthood as we know it, and could that count to fulfill that prophecy?
That is a question I have.
And as I have looked into this a little bit, There are over 500 trained priests in Israel.
They’ve established a school. There’s a group of Israelites who can trace their lineage back to Aaron, who claim priesthood authority, who claim priestly office.
Do they still have it because they’re born with it? Would that count and as I was thinking about this question, I had a few other thoughts. That kind of. That kind of came into my mind.
When I look at Aaron, even though he has this priesthood, the reason why he has it is because it was conferred onto him by Moses. And you look at Moses, Moses isn’t a descendant of Aaron. He’s not holding the Aaronic priesthood. He was ordained, as we said, just a second ago, by Jethro, his father in law. A different line and a different authority. This going back through, you know, Melchizedek side, receiving this Melchizedek priesthood, even though Aaron’s line has it, they’re offering, operating under the direction of Moses. And as I think of the organization of the church, it’s kind of cool. And I look back at this time and you’ve got Aaron and his priests, and even the Aaronic priesthood. It’s not all just the same priesthood. There’s really two different orders. You’ve got the order of Aaron, which is your priests, which are offering these sacrifices, but then you also have your Levites. They’re the ones that are descendants of Levi, but not descendants of Aaron. They still have the priesthood. But the Levitical priesthood is even lesser than the Aaronic in that these guys are the clerks, the ones that are keeping the records, the ones that are cleaning the temple, the ones that are doing a lot of these administrative roles while the priests are officiating. The high priest has to be a descendant of Aaron. He can go into the holy of holies once a year. So there’s even the separation of duties within the Aaronic priesthood itself. But as I look at the organization of the church and that they’re working under direction.
Jesus Christ, when he came here, he didn’t just invent a new organization, but look at Moses, who worked closely with two counselors, and he had the two hold up his arms on either side of him while he prayed with his hands lifted up towards the heaven while the Israelites fought. He had these two counselors, but he also had a council of 12, one from each tribe of Israel, a prince of each tribe that would report to him. And then he also had 70 elders that he called up out of here. So you’ve got this presidency, you’ve got this 12, this quorum of 12, and you’ve got these 70 that had the Spirit fall upon them, that could prophesy. And you have this organization that existed even in the Old Testament. And before Moses, you had the patriarchals. You had Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who stand almost as a head of the Three families, or excuse me. Well, I guess you do have these three families. The head of these three families, but under Jacob, then you have 12 sons. So you have these three presiding over the 12. And this idea that this patriarchal order, what it started at, kind of naturally evolved into this order in the Melchizedek priesthood and the Aaronic priesthood, that kind of plays out with Christ in the New Testament and which we see restored now even today. It’s the same church, the same organization, but always at the head. You, you had one person that presided or had those keys that worked in close concert that I would think that any sacrifice that would be offered, if it’s going to be offered in righteousness, would have to be under the direction of that person. And to me, that person today is President Nielsen.
It’s kind of a long way of going around explaining that, but that’s just a few thoughts on how I see that and a couple interesting things as we see development in Israel.
But it does. I do not know if I could leave you with anything.
It is to be open minded.
You have brought this question up, Nate, a while ago when we were talking what is the purpose of the Aaronic priesthood if Christ is already here on the earth, do we still need to prepare for him to come? If he is here, if it is fulfilled, is that why the revelation says until the sons? Because at that point, the Aaronic priesthood is no longer. We don’t need to be preparing for that. It’s fulfilled its purpose, it’s met its role. Now we live in the presence of God.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: So love it.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: All right, thanks for listening to the show. Next week’s episode, we’re going to be talking about what a great and marvelous work means. When we’re saying that the field is white and ready to harvest, it always prefaces, a great and marvelous work is about to come forth amongst the children of man. We’ll explore that along with the powerful statement that Christ makes about who he is and what his work is in the last days.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: All right, until next week.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: See you.
0 responses on "D&C 12 – 13; JS-H 1:66 – 75 (2025 repost)"