Patterns and Precedents

Our four-year-old daughter loves to sing and dance to a song called Through Heaven's Eyes from the movie Prince of Egypt. It's a high-energy, hand-clapping kind of song, and lately, as I've watched Lucy twirling round our living room like a middle eastern princess, I've had a chance to consider the song's lyrics:

A single thread in a tapestry
Though its color brightly shine
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design

It's the word choice at the end there that catches my attention: In the pattern of the grand design.

I like that phrase because of some specific truths I believe about an eternal and truly grand pattern - a pattern of God's merciful and loving interaction with mankind that can be traced, clear and visible, from our modern day back to antiquity. Back past Moses and the princes of Egypt. Back to the beginning.

While beautiful, the pattern is not complicated. It is, simply, the picture of a loving Heavenly Father who desires the immortality and eternal life of His children. It is the picture of that loving Father reaching out time and again over the course of human history to communicate the only "way [and] means whereby mankind can be saved": the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith, repentance, baptism, receipt of the Holy Ghost, and endurance to the end of life's trials and tests.

I believe that God revealed this plan for our salvation - the gospel of Jesus Christ - to Adam and Eve after their transgression in the Garden of Eden:

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.

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. Moses 5: 4-9

But, after much time and temptation, most of Adam's children fell into sin and forgot their chance to choose eternal salvation through the the atonement of Jesus Christ. So God found a man who was faithful and made him into a prophet.

And the Lord said unto Noah:...mine anger is kindled against the sons of men, for they will not hearken to my voice.

And it came to pass that Noah prophesied, and taught the things of God, even as it was in the beginning. Moses 8: 13, 16

And so the pattern proceeded. Each time mankind fell into general sin and abandoned God, He revealed his plan of salvation anew through another prophet. Abraham was taught of sacrifice and redemption in a vivid, personal way. Moses received God's law on Sinai.

Eventually, God the Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to earth to teach the plan of salvation in person and to make eternally effective, by His death and resurrection, its glorious promises. During His mortal ministry, Jesus taught a parable describing the pattern of prophets that preceded him:

A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.

And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty.

And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.

And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.
Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. Luke 20: 9-13

History records the sad reality that the husbandmen did not reverence the Son. Rather, he was "despised and rejected."

There were a faithful few who followed Christ during His ministry and who continued to teach His gospel with authority after His crucifixion. But eventually, as one in their ranks had prophesied, there came another general "falling away" from the pure and complete gospel of Jesus Christ. Following the death of Christ's authorized apostles, the doctrines of salvation became cloudy and convoluted. Over time, controversy and confusion grew, and although many pure hearted people maintained faith in Christ, the authority to act in His name was lost from the earth. Again.

However. In keeping with His ancient pattern, God did not allow the darkness to reign indefinitely. In 1820, He again found a faithful man - a faithful boy, really, like Samuel of old - and turned him into a prophet. Joseph Smith, born in a burgeoning country that taught a new kind of religious tolerance, was properly positioned to carry on God's pattern of revelation. Joseph was given the priesthood authority held by all previous prophets, and proceeded, under the direction of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A long story?
Yes. Long, ancient, unchanging (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, Mormon 9:19, D&C 20: 17).

A grand design.
A tapestry woven with merciful care and consistent stitches. A predictable pattern that bears witness of an eternal, loving, and truly gracious God.

And although many of our posts will focus on individual threads of this gospel tapestry, we hope to occasionally revisit the idea of patterns and precedents. Because it is truly persistent - in all of our beliefs and practices.