This is the first reference to the state of Missouri in the revelations of Joseph Smith. The Lord revealed the location for the city of Zion line upon line, and this revelation demonstrates that the time was near for the Church to know at last where the city would be built. A revelation given in September 1830 had indicated that the city would be built “on the borders by the Lamanites” (D&C 28:9). In the months following, Oliver Cowdery had led a mission to the boundaries of the United States and, while in the area, had brought most of the new coverts in Kirtland into the Church. Because of Oliver’s efforts, the geographic center of the Church shifted westward to Kirtland, but Ohio was not the location of Zion. The Lord now commanded Joseph to travel to the frontier himself to know the final location of the city.

The Lord promises to consecrate the land there to the “remnant of Jacob” (D&C 52:2), a term that typically refers to the twelve tribes of Israel. The descendants of Lehi were “among the ancestors of the American Indians” (Book of Mormon Introduction) and therefore heirs to the covenants made to Abraham. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Holy Bible were familiar to Joseph Smith and his contemporaries. A few years after this revelation, Joseph translated the book of Abraham, which reiterated the blessings of the covenant. The Lord told Abraham, “I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal” (Abraham 2:11).

The Lord assigned fourteen companionships to travel to Missouri for the next conference. The journey was challenging, and as the Lord indicates, it brought blessings to the faithful and also resulted in several of the missionaries leaving the Church (D&C 52:5–6). Ezra Booth was commanded to travel along with Isaac Morley (D&C 52:23). Ezra had been a Methodist minister and had converted after he witnessed Joseph Smith heal Elsa Johnson’s arm (see commentary for D&C 42:19–20). During the journey to Missouri, he became disillusioned with Joseph, and he disparaged the land the Lord chose, seeing it as dreary and underdeveloped (Saints, 1:129).

When Ezra returned from Missouri he apostatized from the Church and wrote a series of nine letters in the Ohio Star, a local newspaper. He said, “A journey of one thousand miles to the west, has taught me far more abundantly, than I should have probably learned from any other source. It has taught me . . . the imbecility of human nature, and especially my own weakness. . . . But thanks be to God! The spell is dissipated” (E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, letter I). Apostle George A. Smith later commented on the reason for Booth’s apostasy, saying, “He had formerly been a Methodist minister, commenced preaching the Gospel without purse or scrip, and he did so until he found, (using a common expression,) it did not pay” (Journal of Discourses, 11:5).

Others who left on the journey to Missouri experienced miracles and saw their faith strengthened. John Murdock, assigned as a companion to Hyrum Smith (D&C 52:8–9), left Kirtland under extremely trying circumstances. Only a month before he was called on his mission, his wife, Julia, died just six hours after giving birth to twins. Overcome with grief, John asked Joseph and Emma Smith if they would raise the twins for him. He then left Kirtland with the rest of the elders bound for Missouri, placing the rest of his five children in the care of other families in the area.

John struggled with his health during the journey. He later recorded, “I was so weak I fell from the horse and lay till the brethren came and picked me up.” When he arrived in Jackson County he was still ill and was taken to the home of a local member. “I lay sick two or three months, so much so that 2 or 3 days was lost time to me. Although I was so very sick that I could not pray vocally, yet my belief was so firm that it could not be moved. I believe[d] that I could not die because my work was not yet done.” During another bout of sickness he wrote,

I lay and thought on our mission and our calling of God. We had but very little money and while sick we were continually on expense. I saw we could not stand it, so I determined in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to arise and pursue my journey. I called Bro. P. [Brother Pratt] to the bed and told him my determination, and requested him to lay hands on me in the name of the Lord. I arose from my bed, we took dinner and gave the widow a Book of Mormon for her kindness and started on our journey.

Strengthened by continual blessings from Parley P. Pratt, John was able to make his way home to Kirtland and reunite with his children. Unfortunately, upon his return he found that one of the twins born before his departure, Joseph, had died in part because of a mob attack made on Joseph Smith at the John Johnson home. He noted the baby’s death, and he also wrote, “But my daughter was still doing well with Bro. Joseph, the Prophet” (John Murdock Journal, familysearch.org). During the winter of 1832–33 he saw a vision of the Savior. John later served several missions for the Church, including the first to Australia. He maintained his faith in the gospel and later wrote, “I would that I could thunder it loud enough to be heard through the world . . . that the mountains might tremble, and the inhabitants thereof with those on the valleys and everywhere else, give heed, and in truth and righteousness, and a candid upright step, act accordingly” (John Murdock Journal, familysearch.org). John Murdock died in 1871, firm in the faith (Black,Who’s Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, 201–204).

The instructions given to the missionaries in these verses constitute an early missionary guide. Echoing the early commandments given in Doctrine and Covenants 46 and 50, the Lord warns the elders of opposition from the adversary during their mission and gives them a formula for avoiding deception. The Lord asks the missionaries to pray contritely and obey the commandments. Those who represent the Lord must sincerely commit to a course of obedience. Ordinances as used here refers to all of the Lord’s commandments. Earlier, the Lord gave a strong warning about the avoidance of hypocrisy (D&C 50:7–8), and this warning was re-emphasized for this select group, who had been asked to seek out and identify the land of Zion.

The Lord provided these instructions to assist the missionaries in knowing the honest and sincere in heart during their journey to Missouri. He also intended for them to know the honest and sincere among their own number by the actions and dedication they showed to the teachings of the gospel along the way.

Following the Lord’s instructions, the missionaries took different paths on their way to Missouri in order to preach to as many people as possible. According John Corrill, who was one of the elders called on the journey, the missionaries were commanded “two by two; no two were to travel in the track of the others, and they were to preach the gospel by the way” (A Brief History, 18). Their destination lay more than eight hundred miles away and would require them to travel great distances by wagon, stage coach, and steamboat. After arriving in St. Louis, Missouri, Joseph and a few other men crossed the state on foot, traversing a distance of 240 miles, and arrived in Independence on July 14, 1831 (Griffiths, Black, Woodger, The 100 Most Important Events in Church History, 46). It was the first of four journeys Joseph Smith made to Missouri over the next six years (Joseph Smith’s Kirtland, 63–64).

In the revelation, the Lord provides an ominous warning, calling Missouri the “land of your inheritance, which is now the land of your enemies” (D&C 52:42). The journey was perhaps the most consequential that Joseph Smith undertook in his life. Throughout the remainder of Joseph Smith’s life, his fate was tied to the state of Missouri. The sacred land promised to the Saints as the place where a city of peace would be built would become the site of more strife, sorrow, and blood spilt among the Saints than any other place in the history of the Church. At the same time, the Prophet’s journey to Missouri in the summer of 1831 was key to unlocking the role of the land of Missouri in the last days and the promise it held for the Saints to one day become “a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God” (D&C 45:66).