Casey Griffiths: The Lord addresses commandments when people aren’t keeping them. That’s caused a lot of problems today, and it seems like anciently as well.

Scott Woodward: One of the ways you can tell who God’s covenant people are is those who are keeping the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It’s a day to help us become unspotted from the world, not a day for us to judge our neighbors more harshly. Use wisdom, use judgment. Hello, Casey.

Casey Griffiths: Hello, Scott. Here we are, part 2, part 2 of Section 58 and 59, which we’re going to use to address Section 59 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Scott Woodward: So much good material in here. An introduction of a brand new law that the Church has not yet been commanded to live. Actually a couple, but one biggie. So some exciting things to dive into here. So drop us, Casey, into the context of what’s going on in Section 59. Help us situate this historically.

Casey Griffiths: Section 58 is kind of addressed to the vanguard company, the first arrivals in Zion. But Section 59 is addressed to the people that start to come, the really first people that are going to settle in Zion. And that chiefly concerns the Colesville Branch, which the heart of the Colesville Branch is the Knight family. So during the first week of August 1831, the members of this branch start to arrive in and around independence. And Polly Knight, who’s the matriarch, she’s the mother of the Knight family, is deeply involved in the context here. She’s sick the entire journey to Missouri. In fact, Newel Knight, who’s kind of leading the Colesville Branch during the journey, was so concerned over his mother’s health that he purchases lumber while they’re traveling just in case he needs to make a coffin for her during the journey. But he also notes, and this is from his own record. He said, “But the Lord gave her the desire of her heart, for she’d lived to stand upon that land,” meaning Missouri. And then he later writes, “On the sixth of August, my mother died. She quietly fell asleep in death, rejoicing in the new and everlasting covenant of the gospel, and praising God that she had lived to see the land of Zion, and that her body would rest in peace after suffering as she had done from the persecution of the wicked and journeying to this place.”

Casey Griffiths: We’re not sure if Joseph Smith was aware of Polly Knight’s death when this revelation is received, but it seems like the first two verses acknowledge her death because it directly says, quote, “Those that shall die and rest from their labors.” It talks about those that die in Zion will receive a blessing. The other big concern, again, addressing the Colesville Saints that have arrived, is the people that are already there in Jackson County.

Scott Woodward: Meaning like the local settlers, like the people that were not LDS?

Casey Griffiths: Yeah, the locals who are kind of an eclectic mix of trappers and there’s slavery, there’s Southern settlers. It’s a unique place that’s right on the edge of the American nation at this time. The members of the Church that get there don’t have a lot of positive things to say. W. W. Phelps later noted that most of the residents of Jackson County were, in his words, “immigrants from Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and the Carolinas.” And he adds, “with customs, manners, modes of living, and a climate entirely different from the Northerners.” So there’s a cultural gap. Joseph Smith, in his own history, later notes, “We could not associate with our neighbors who were many of them the basest of men and had fled the face of civilized society to the frontier country to escape the hand of justice in their midnight revels, their Sabbath-breaking, horse racing, and gambling.”

Scott Woodward: They’re out there on the edge of the United States, fleeing from civilized society, he says. And others have pointed out that if the law came for them, they could just hop the border. The border is a couple of miles away outside US jurisdiction. It does kind of gather this eclectic group of riffraff, “the basest of men,” as Joseph says.

Casey Griffiths: It’s a rough bunch. And I think we’ve mentioned before that asking them to build Zion in this location is really challenging, but it brings together a couple threads, chief of which being they’re right by the Native Americans, and they feel a keen desire to bring the Book of Mormon to the Native Americans. However, it appears that Christian living, particularly the Sabbath and Sabbath worship, were kind of a low priority for the local settlers. So in response to this lifestyle, the members of the Church who are settling into this region in Section 59 are given instructions, particularly about the Sabbath day and how to make it an important part of their lives. These basic instructions added to the earlier commandments given in the Articles and Covenants and the law of the Church of Christ. So this is sort of like specific instruction for life in Zion, what life in Zion is supposed to look like and what the Saints are supposed to do.

Scott Woodward: In pretty stark contrast to the locals who are already there, the Lord saying, All right, let’s talk about how to live in a Zion way, which is not the way your neighbors are living. Now, here we go. You’re saying this is added to Section 20, the Articles and Covenants, and Section 42, the laws of the Church, almost as a third piece, a third pillar to understanding the Lord’s expectations for his people, essentially.

Casey Griffiths: Yeah. And not just people that are going to live in Zion, but the Church in general. There’s a number of important commandments in this section that either reiterate earlier commandments that are found in scripture, like going all the way back to the Ten commandments in the Old Testament, which is repeated here, but also further commandments for how they’re going to live a life that’s set apart from most people.

Scott Woodward: Okay, so the content of this revelation begins this way, “Behold, blessed, saith the Lord, are they who have come up unto this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments.’ At this point, this again is primarily the Colesville branch, about 60 or so. He says, “For those that live shall inherit the earth, and those that die shall rest from all their labors, and their works shall follow them; and they shall receive a crown in the mansions of my Father, which I have prepared for them.” Inheriting the earth, that’s a familiar phrase from the Sermon on the Mount. He’s going to elaborate on that at the end of this section with some really flowery, beautiful language. He’ll keep that thought in mind. What will it look like to inherit the earth? And speaking of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord begins in verse three with the phrase, Blessed are, “Yea, blessed are,” which you recognize from the Sermon on the Mount, “they whose feet stand upon the land of Zion, who have obeyed my gospel; for they shall receive for their reward the good things of the earth, and it shall bring forth in its strength.”

Scott Woodward: Again, blessings for the gospel connected to the earth. That’s going to be a theme here. Verse 4, “And they shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time, they that are faithful and diligent before me.” Verse 4, when read slowly, might strike you as an interesting insight. He says that you will be crowned with blessings from above. And then he articulates, too. Number one, more commandments, commandments not a few. Number two, revelations in your time. I don’t know if everybody would immediately acknowledge that getting more commandments from God would be a good thing, would be considered a blessing.

Casey Griffiths: Sometimes people do get caught up in commandments, and it seems like the feeling of our time is basically like, don’t get too caught up in all the commandments. But commandments are meant to be a blessing, right? They’re meant to give us guidance and help. Lord is walking this line between, I’m telling you what to do and figure things out on your own. Honestly, most commandments that we follow are for our benefit. They bless us. I know that it’s probably more complicated to be a Latter-day Saint than it is to be a member of a lot of religions. But I’m grateful for the commandments. I mean, when it comes right down to it, things like the Word of Wisdom, I think, prevent a lot of problems that people struggle with from day to day when they don’t follow those commandments or they’re not aware that the Lord has given that commandment in particular. Again, I’m pro-commandment, I guess you would say, even though maybe it’s not fashionable to talk in that manner of speaking, I think the Lord gives us commandments because he’s trying to help. When we obey them, we receive blessings. It’s a fairly straightforward formula.

Scott Woodward: Perfect. Yeah. He is unmistakably characterizing commandments as a blessing here in verse 4. In the next several verses, the Lord builds upon the laws he had outlined back in Section 42, verses 18 through 29, which talks about the laws of building up a covenant community. And a question could be raised, why wasn’t Section 42 sufficient? Why did the Lord just say, Live the law and be done? In fact, he did say that back in Section 58, didn’t he? He said, Those who come to this land need to live my law, meaning Section 42. But here he’s going to add to that. And I just want to highlight, again, that back in Section 42, the Lord made allowance for this. In fact, he said in verse 66 and 67, quote, “Ye shall observe the laws which you have received and be faithful.” Keep the laws of Section 42. “And ye shall hereafter receive church covenants,” meaning laws, “such as shall be sufficient to establish you, both here,” in Ohio, “and in the New Jerusalem.” So now here we are in the New Jerusalem area, and this section is now a partial fulfillment of that promise given back in Section 42, of receiving more laws to establish them in the New Jerusalem.

Casey Griffiths: Let’s walk through some of these laws, starting in verse 5. “I give unto them a commandment, saying thus: thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy might, mind, and strength, and in the name of Jesus Christ, thou shalt serve him.” Again, he’s reiterating the two most basic commandments, and the second one shouldn’t be a surprise. Verse 6, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Their neighbors might be a little rough around the edges, but their job is to love them and help them. Then he goes on to, again, mix together this interesting fusion of the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments. He says, “Thou shalt not steal, neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it, and thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” This is one of the most direct commandments to be grateful in all of scripture, which is a huge component in being happy, to just recognize the things that we have and to be grateful for what we have and what we’ve been given.

Scott Woodward: Yeah, I always like to test the value of a commandment by just asking the question, Would you like to live in a society where people lived like that? Would you rather live in a society where people live like that or not? Would you rather, for instance, live in a society, verse seven, where people are really grateful to God for all that they have? That’s a new one, by the way. That one was not in Section 42. That’s a new commandment. And what’s the value of that? I don’t know. Would you like to live in a society where people are grateful to God for what they have? To me, that unlocks the beauty of that and why this would be included in a description of how to live in Zion.

Casey Griffiths: I don’t think we have to search very far to find objective social science that talks about how gratitude is a major part of being a happy person. That if you want to be happy, finding ways to express gratitude and see the good in your life is a major component to it. If the Lord is trying to show them how to live after the manner of happiness, to borrow that phrase from the Book of Mormon, it’s clear that being thankful is one of those things. This is a commandment that I think we still need to follow today.

Scott Woodward: 100%. Then in verse 8, the Lord says, “Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” This is a commandment the Lord gave back in the Book of Mormon, and it’s associated with the new covenant, which was implemented about the time of the Lord’s atoning sacrifice. Remember that in his old covenant, which is recorded in the Old Testament, that’s what Old Testament means, the old covenant time period with Israel, he required the offering of animal sacrifices, which was implemented through kind of a complex system of rituals. But then in the new covenant, after his atoning sacrifice, the Lord said, I now only ask that you give unto me your broken heart and your contrite spirit. Offer that When you seek to come unto me, give me that. Give me that part of you, your innermost part. What Elder Neal A. Maxwell called the submission of your will. He said it like this. He said, “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. When you and I finally submit ourselves by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to him. It’s the only possession which is truly ours to give.”

Scott Woodward: That’s amazing. That’s bringing in a Book of Mormon passage and highlighting it as central to Zion. Give me your heart, a broken heart, your contrite spirit, your will. Beautiful. What’s the next one?

Casey Griffiths: The next one is maybe the most extensive passage we can find that talks about the Sabbath day, which has always been a topic of debate among people of faith, regardless of your background. But the Lord says some wise things here. Okay, starting in verse 9, “That thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up my sacraments upon my holy day. For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; nevertheless, thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times; but remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.” An oblation, when you pull out your handy dandy 1828 Dictionary, was just defined as anything offered or presented in worship or sacred service, an offering a sacrifice. That can be your will, like you just talked about, Scott. It could be your time. It could be tithing, fast offerings, the expertise that comes along with serving in a calling within the Church.

Casey Griffiths: All those things are offerings that the Lord asks us to make as part of our Sabbath day worship.

Scott Woodward: And then the Lord says in verse 13 and 14, “And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart, that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.” Is he equating fasting with joy? Okay, hold on a second. Verse 14, “Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.” For a long time, Casey, these verses confused me. As I read more carefully, he’s talking about preparing your food with singleness of heart so that your fasting could be perfect. And I thought fasting meant you don’t eat food. And so how is he doing fasting in the same sentence as preparing your food with singleness of heart? Then, like you said, if you go and check the handy-dandy 1829 Dictionary, fasting means a little more than that back in that day. So it did mean to go without food. That’s one of the definitions. But it also means, quote, “Subduing the passions and appetites,” close quote. So that was illuminating to me. The Sabbath Day is a day of deliberately subduing your passions and appetites. It’s a day of voluntary simplicity, if I can say it like that, to develop our temperance and increase our self control.

Scott Woodward: In that way, every Sunday could be considered a fast Sunday, if you catch what the Lord is saying here, right? Sunday is a day of voluntary simplicity, where you’re offering your oblations, you’re trying to be unspotted from the world. All of this, so you can draw closer to God. Self control and temperance are a huge part of that. That’s part of what this day is all about.

Casey Griffiths: Yeah. Continuing on, verse 15 is one that I see come up a lot among my students and in sort of online debates among Latter-day Saints. Let me read it, and then we’ll talk a little bit about it. “Inasmuch as ye do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful hearts and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is a sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance.” And I’ve had a ton of people come up to me and say, Wait, is laughing a sin? Is it bad if I laugh? Let’s take this in context, okay? First of all, I’m just going to state, I don’t think the Lord is opposed to happiness, cheerfulness, or laughter. I don’t want people to take this verse out of context and use it that way. Now, while humor can sometimes be inappropriate, and sometimes blasphemous, this verse does not constitute a ban on humor among the Saints. There are at least three places in the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord gives commandments concerning laughter. In this one, Section 59:15 commands his disciples to avoid much laughter. In Section 88, he says to cast away an excess of laughter, and in Section 88, to cease from all laughter.

Casey Griffiths: I just want to point out a couple of things. First, I don’t think this is a ban on laughter. In Section 88, for instance, the cease from all laughter is specifically addressed to passages dealing with the School of the Prophets, which was almost a sort of proto-temple, a more serious environment. I would agree that sharing a real knee-slapper in the temple while people are engaged in sacred and solemn ceremonies might not be appropriate. And there can be times when we get too out of control when it comes to our humor and our laughter. But let me point this out. Joseph Smith was well known for his propensity towards laughter and merriment. In fact, this is a quote from Benjamin Johnson, who was a close friend of Joseph Smith. He said that Joseph, quote, “Took great delight in his society and friendship, when with us there was no lack of amusement, for with jokes, games, et cetera, he was always ready to provoke merriment. One phrase of which was matching couplets and rhyme, by which we were at times in rivalry. And his fraternal feeling in great degree did a way with the disparity of age or greatness of his calling.”

Casey Griffiths: So Joseph Smith relaxed people with humor. I’m interested to hear this couplets in rhyme. Was he like, Hey, stop that rhyming, and I mean it. Does anybody want a peanut? Kind of situation.

Scott Woodward: I think matching couplets in a rhyme is what today we call rap battles.

Casey Griffiths: Yeah.

Scott Woodward: So let’s try one, Casey. Here we go. Let’s just do this on the spot. Hey there, Casey, how are you doing?

Casey Griffiths: My gum in my mouth, I’m chewing. Scott, how has your day been?

Scott Woodward: It has been as good as a hen. Oh, shoot. You got me.

Casey Griffiths: Okay.

Scott Woodward: One of the rules is you can never use the word orange, right?

Casey Griffiths: Yeah, because nothing rhymes with orange.

Scott Woodward: Nothing rhymes with orange. But Joseph liked this because we know that he liked to pull sticks and that kind of thing. But he also liked mental engagement like that, just having fun, matching couplets in a rhyme. Okay, so what you’re saying is Joseph was not opposed to humor himself. He wasn’t a solemn guy. In fact, we just saw back in Section 58, that one of the beefs that Ezra Booth had with Joseph is that he was prone to frivolity and laughter. He liked to joke. He like to joke around, and so…

Casey Griffiths: Look at this verse in the larger context. It’s at the end of a series of verses that are talking about fasting, prayer, and Sabbath worship. Yes, I love it when someone cracks a good joke in sacrament meeting, but there are times and places for that humor. Again, a sacrament service might not be the best place to try out your stand-up act or anything like that. In Section 88, like I mentioned, where the Lord says no laughter, he’s speaking of ordinances that take place in the temple. Again, it has to do with time and place and where things like laughter might be inappropriate. We’re not saying laughter or humor are bad. We’re just saying know the time and place and know when and how to be respectful and be appropriate in those situations. But again, it’s fun to be a Latter-day Saint. My bishop is a funny guy. I go to Church because of the good humor of the people that are there, that I genuinely enjoy their company.

Scott Woodward: Perhaps a fair application in our day, speaking of the Sabbath day, could be to not seek out entertainment in excess. It’s always a good idea to not seek out entertainment in excess. But especially on the Sabbath. Think about the occasion and think about what’s appropriate for that occasion and act accordingly. Keep the spirit of the Sabbath is what I hear him saying. And you’ll know when you cross the line, there’s no way anyone could write a handbook says, Here’s all the ways you can cross the line. But you kind of know it when you’ve done it, right? Yeah, you sense it when you’ve violated the spirit. I don’t know why, Casey, but everything in prayer with my kids is way more funny than when we’re not praying. They have such a hard time not chuckling during prayer. Just the slightest little sound, they’ll just like, and they start to laugh. Sometimes we all bust up laughing. It’s like in the moment of when it’s supposed to be serious is sometimes the moment when you are tempted to laugh the most.

Casey Griffiths: I’ll just add, too, that the Sabbath day is one of those things that people tend to get really strange over. Sometimes an experiment I’ll do in my class is I’ll say, What are some rules that your family has for the Sabbath that maybe other families don’t? There’s all kinds of stuff that just comes out of the woodwork where it seems like there’s some specificity associated with this. People sometimes get really intent on sort of locking down exactly what you can do or you shouldn’t do or anything like that. My family is really giggly, too, especially when it comes to things like family prayer, and it feels like on the Sabbath. But I also cherish those times that we spend together on the Sabbath, where we get time to just be a family and have everybody at home because we’re so busy during the rest of the week. We just don’t always get those moments to connect like we’d always like.

Scott Woodward: He says cheerful twice in that same verse. He wants us to be a happy. It’s a wonderful day. It’s not a day to just show the obedience of the gospel. It’s a day to show the joy of gospel living. Whatever you do in creating an environment in your own family, that just seems to be a crucial thought to keep in mind. When he says not much laughter, just decide what that’s going to mean for you and your family. You’ll know when you’ve crossed the line. Nobody can ever make a rule that’s going to dictate exactly how to do it, but just get the spirit of verse 15, I think, and I think we’re going to be all right. Now we get the breathtaking promises of this section. Verse 16, he’s talking about the fullness of the earth will be yours inasmuch as you do this. I believe he’s talking about all the laws in this section, not just the Sabbath day, all of them together that he’s giving here. If you will do this, he says in verse 16, then “the fulness of the earth is yours.” What does he mean? The beasts of the field, the fowels of the air, things that climb on trees and walk on the earth, herbs, good things from the earth, things that are good for arraignment, for clothing, for houses, for barns, for orchards, for gardens, for vineyards.

Scott Woodward: “All things that come of the earth,” verse 18, “in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart. Yea, things for food, for raiment, for taste, for smell, to strengthen your body, to enliven your soul. It pleases God that he has given all these things unto man, for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.” But here the Lord just kind of describing in some beautiful language here, the wholeness of the earth is yours. What does that mean? It’s like, Everything I made, you will have in abundance. I made it for you, and it pleases me to give it to you. As you keep my commandments, you will thrive on this earth. That’s beautiful. Then in verse 21, the Lord gives a little cautionary warning. He says, quote, “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.” That’s how you can offend God. This section has already mentioned a couple of times that we are to thank God in all that we have.

Scott Woodward: We are to do things in thanksgiving. All that we’ve received from God, our commandment keeping, to be done with cheerful hearts, with thanksgiving, with gladness. One of the only ways we can really offend God is when we don’t confess his hand in this amazing world that he’s given us, and we don’t obey those commands he’s given us, which will lead us to thrive in this creation. And so that’s another fine point the Lord is putting on this really crucial and maybe this underemphasized skill, attribute of being grateful.

Casey Griffiths: I think he kind of brings it back together in that statement in verse 23, where he says, “Who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” The Colesville Saints are facing the loss of their beloved matriarch, Polly Knight, and he brings it back. He’s sort of bringing together this unique fusion of Old Testament, New Testament, and then just new ideas as to what they’re supposed to do. This kind of sums up the Savior’s counsel, according to the law and the prophets, he says in verse 22, by declaring that the root of a lot of our problems is sometimes not seeing the Lord’s hand in our lives, getting angry, and not appreciating the blessings that he’s given to us. As the Saints in Missouri are getting ready to enter into this big experiment to practice the law of consecration, he goes back to what I think is the central idea of consecration is that you’re not really consecrating. You’re acknowledging that what you have really belongs to God. We make our blessings holy by recognizing where our blessings come from, the holy source of all blessings. That’s good advice for us today because we live in a world filled with complexity and challenges.

Casey Griffiths: President Nelson said this. He said, “There is no medication or operation that can fix the many spiritual woes or maladies that we face. There is, however,” he added, “a remedy, one that may seem surprising because it flies in the face of our natural intuitions. Nevertheless, the effects have been validated by scientists as well as men and women of faith. I’m referring to the healing power of gratitude. Counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems.” That’s a statement by President Nelson. So let’s talk controversies.

Scott Woodward: Maybe a small one is just a question is why was Sabbath observance never mentioned in Section 20, the Articles and Covenants of the Church, or in Section 42, the law of the Church? Why does he only mention it once ever? Right here in Section 59, and he never brings it up again, and he never brought it up before.

Casey Griffiths: I don’t know if I know a specific answer, except to say that the Sabbath appears to be a commandment that is lengthily discussed in prior scripture. I mean, there’s a lot in the Old Testament and the New Testament about the Sabbath back and forth, and these are people that would have been well-versed in that, and also that just grew up in a society where the Sabbath was sort of built into things. Now, they do talk about how their neighbors aren’t living the Sabbath, and that may have caused it to be reiterated. But the Lord is tactical, right? He addresses the biggest problems first. I’m guessing that he’s not addressing the Sabbath very much to this point because they’re living the Sabbath. They’re keeping that commandment, and the records we have from the time seem to indicate that this was a commandment that they saw as important. The Lord addresses commandments when people aren’t keeping them. We’ve got sources that indicate when Joseph and Oliver were translating the Book of Mormon, they paused to observe the Sabbath. It feels like translating an inspired book of God is an appropriate Sabbath Day activity as far as I’m concerned, but they still saw it as work, and so they pause when they’re doing it.

Casey Griffiths: It doesn’t seem like the Saints to this point have had that big of an issue, so the Lord is prescriptive, and he addresses problems that they have, concerns that they’re bringing up. Until they run into the other settlers in Jackson County who aren’t keeping the Sabbath, it doesn’t seem like it needs to be addressed very much. The other concern I would bring up is that the Sabbath Day is one of those commandments that people sometimes tend to fixate on. So the Lord does give us a lot of trust when it comes to how we observe the Sabbath, where he says, Fast, pray, offer your oblations, gather to the holy house. But if he starts to get too specific, then people start to go off in weird directions, as is illustrated with the struggles Jesus has with the Sadducees and Pharisees in the New Testament. They’re having constant conversations about whether or not it’s okay to heal a person on the Sabbath, which to me seems completely fine, right? But they’re saying, Oh, healing someone is work. That’s not okay for the Sabbath day.

Scott Woodward: Yeah. So now we’re getting into applications of the Sabbath here. So let me throw out some questions that sometimes students over the years have brought up. For instance, is any entertainment on the Sabbath okay or is all entertainment bad? Can we watch a Disney movie with our family or not or shopping on the Sabbath? It makes sense back in the day when you had to go to a store and there had to be people behind the cashier’s desk taking your money. But now you could just go to Amazon.com and you can order without ever interacting with a human. So can’t we grow closer to God on the Sabbath? And also just click a few buttons on our phones to buy those cute shoes we’ve always wanted. Is that a violation of the Sabbath? These kinds of questions tend to come up a lot, especially in February, around Super Bowl Sunday. There’s other sporting events that tend to cause ask some members to pause and other members to not pause at all. They’re like, What’s your problem? Don’t be so prudish. Others are like, Why are you being so flippant about the Sabbath? We have kind of these cultural tensions around what’s appropriate on the Sabbath and what’s not.

Scott Woodward: Then the frustration of when you’re trying to raise your kids in a certain way with certain Sabbath culture in your family. But the people across the street who also go to church with you don’t have those same cultural rules in their own family. And so they do things opposite or different than your family does. And so then your kids are… There’s a tension between, why do we do it like this? But they don’t. Ooh, Casey.

Casey Griffiths: It’s tough, right? I’ve had someone come to me once and say, It’s okay to order stuff online if you do it after 3:00 PM, because they don’t ship after 3:00 PM. You’re not making the guy in the warehouse pull something off the shelf and wrap it up and ship it out if you do it after 3:00 PM. I remember when I was a brand new seminary teacher and I was really naive, actually drawing a line down my white and writing, Sabbath day do’s and Sabbath Day don’ts, and then leading a discussion with my class. In the middle of the discussion, somebody brought up TV. I was raised in a family where we would watch movies together on the Sabbath Day. I said, Well, I think that’s okay. I put it under the do column, and then somebody was like, Yeah, General Conference is on TV. I put it up there. Then a couple of days later, I walked into my office, and I remember there was this huge Samoan guy sitting there, and I was like, Hi, can I help you? He said, Did you tell my daughter it was okay to watch television on the Sabbath?

Casey Griffiths: I remember going, Oh, you’re looking for Brother Griffis. He’s down the hall from here. Then I got out of the building as fast as I can. It’s such a touchy subject for people, and it’s something that I wrestle with on a regular basis. Again, the rules can be sometimes fluid from family to family. There’s not a universal standard, and that’s caused a lot of problems today, and it seems like anciently as well.

Scott Woodward: Yeah. And I think if we go back through Section 59, a lot of our answers are there. We should pay as much attention to what the Lord is not saying as to what he is saying. If we go back to these principles in Section 59, we hear the Lord saying this. Here are some things that he says, Go to the house of prayer on this day. That’s a specific to-do. Offer up your sacraments to God. It’s a day to rest from your labors. Okay, that’s a principle. What might that look like for you? That might be different than it looks like for me, but the principle is you rest from your labors. What are your labors? Think through it. Think through that and be honest in your heart. Be pure in your heart with God, what that might look like for you. Pay your devotions to the Most High God. That’s what this day is for. The Lord explicitly states what the overarching principle is of this law. He says that you might more fully keep yourselves unspotted from the world. I think that’s the principle right there, right? What does it mean to be more fully unspotted from the world?

Scott Woodward: How does the world influence you on a day to day? Is there anything you could do with deliberate intentional simplicity on this day to pull back from some of that stuff? You’re going to have to decide what that stuff is, right? Boats in sea water will oftentimes get barnacles that attach to the boat, and they can become really tightly attached. And sea turtles also get barnacles on them. Sometimes I think about this when I think of this verse, is this idea of the world being like barnacles on our souls. Do you know, Casey, how you get barnacles off of sea turtles or off of saltwater boats? Do you know how to do it?

Casey Griffiths: Other than a lot of scraping, right? You have to remove them from the saltwater, don’t you?

Scott Woodward: Yeah. If you take them out of the saltwater and you just scrape and scrape and scrape, it’s really hard to get them off. From what I understand, by the way, I’m not an expert on this, but I heard this, and I thought of the Sabbath when I heard this. So just go with it for a second. If you take that boat out of the saltwater and scrape it. You can get them off, but it’s going to be really difficult. But the fastest way, the easiest way, is you get the boat and you put it in fresh water. You get the turtles, the sea turtles, you put them in fresh water, and then the barnacles will fall off. And going with the analogy, you can see the Lord saying, I want to give you one day of fresh water every week in the midst of all the saltwater you’re going to be swimming in, that you might more fully be unspotted or unbarnacled from the world. Have a day fresh water. Here’s the principles that he then outlines. Go to the house of prayer, for instance. That’s specific. That’s a to-do. Offer up your sacraments on that day.

Scott Woodward: Rest from your labors. Now, your labors might be different than my labors. What does that mean? That’s a principle. That’s a principle you can think about and apply. That’s a general principle that we each need to kind of think about how that applies. Then pay your devotions to the Most High God. What do you have to offer to God on that day? Is there something you could offer him on that day? Something you could do with your time, with your talents, with your money, with your… There’s this list of principles, right? Offer your oblations, confess your sins, he said, to each other and to God. Fast and pray. Remember, fasting isn’t just about food. This is every Sunday. We’re voluntarily entering into simplicity, preparing simple meals, for instance, et cetera. He gives some general principles here, but I don’t hear him laying down any line on the whiteboard with do’s and do nots outside of some pretty general principles. Is that fair?

Casey Griffiths: That’s fair. Again, it’s becoming too obsessed with this sort of letter of the law that causes us to miss the spirit of the law, as the Savior would say. I usually share this quote from Russell M. Nelson, where he says this. He said, “In my much younger years, I studied the works of others who had compiled a list of things to do and things not to do on the Sabbath. It wasn’t until later that I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father. With that understanding, I no longer needed a list of do’s and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, What sign do I want to give to God? That question made my choices about the Sabbath Day crystal clear.” Again, going back to the language in Section 59, offer your oblation. What does that mean? What is that going to look like for you? Asking yourself, what’s the sign that you want to give to God? With my daughters, maybe setting up the pool and running through the sprinklers isn’t an appropriate Sabbath day activity.

Casey Griffiths: But if their friend wants to come over and spend some time with us, we’ve even had them over for dinner on the Sabbath day and eat food and participate in conversation and be part of those, Hey, what’d you talk about at church today kind of things. I think that could be inappropriate if the sign I want to give to God is that I want my kids to know that we love our neighbors and we take care of them. That’s the sort of thing we do on the Sabbath day. It’s one of those easy commandments to get to obsess with and trip up on. But the counsel in Section 59 is really solid about what a good Sabbath day looks like to the Lord.

Scott Woodward: The scripture, I think President Nelson is riffing off of is Exodus 31:16-17, where the Lord says, “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me me and the children of Israel forever.” One of the ways you can tell who God’s covenant people are, in other words, is those who are keeping the Sabbath day. It’s a sign of God’s covenant people. Another way of thinking about it is, do I live the Sabbath in such a way that it makes me distinct as one of God’s covenant people? Am I doing the kind of things on that day that if somebody observed, they would say, there’s something different about the way you live this day, and that seems to signify your devotion to God in some way. The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It’s a day to help us become unspotted from the world. Not a day for us to judge our neighbors more harshly. Our Latter-day Saint neighbors, particularly. Use wisdom, use judgment. To quote a verse from Section 58, a little out of context here.

Scott Woodward: It’s not meet for God to have to compel us in all things regarding the Sabbath. Let’s get the general principle of it, and then let’s bring to pass much righteousness of our own free will and choice. The power is in us to do good on this day and to figure out the best way to use it to help us and our family draw closer to God.

Casey Griffiths: Well said. Let’s talk consequences. Let’s talk about one major consequence is this is where Latter-day Saints are commanded to keep and hallow the Sabbath day. Scott, you and I probably ran into people when we were missionaries or in other settings that have said things like, Hey, why don’t you keep the Sabbath on Saturday? That’s what they did anciently or anything like that. The answer is, We don’t really keep the Sabbath because any ancient people did. We keep the Sabbath because we were commanded to do it in a modern setting when Section 59 was given. I want to emphasize, too, this idea of what day should be the Sabbath the Lord doesn’t specify. In places like Jerusalem, the branch that meets in Jerusalem meets on Saturday. In most places, we meet on Sunday, but the principle is set aside a holy day so that you can observe the Sabbath. This is the commandment to keep a Sabbath day renewed in our time and also given renewed flexibility, I guess you’d say, as we go on here.

Scott Woodward: Yeah, and in Joseph Smith’s day, he calls it the Lord’s day, was always on Sunday in the culture and context of Joseph Smith’s day. I think ever since then, Sunday has been the day that Latter-day Saints have observed that, except, like you said, a couple exceptions, like in Jerusalem. But I understand those exceptions have been approved by the First Presidency. Is that your understanding?

Casey Griffiths: Right. And those exceptions to me, just illustrate this idea that it’s not the day of the week that’s really significant. It’s the concept and idea that there is a day of the week that’s a holy day, that you take one day out of seven, pull yourself out of the world, dive into fresh water, whatever analogy we want to use to cleanse ourselves. That’s the language the Lord is using here. He says, The purpose of the Sabbath day is to help us stay unspotted from the world by doing things like going to the house of prayer, offering up sacraments, resting from your labors, paying your devotions to the Most High, offering oblations, which can mean time or talents or money in service to God and man, confessing our sins, fasting and praying, preparing simple meals. I mean, even the idea of having a meal with your family is a beautiful part of the Sabbath day. Everything from preparation to eating the meal to cleaning up the meal can be part of that togetherness that the Savior wants us to experience with the people that we love.

Scott Woodward: I confess, Casey, as a young man, as a boy, I did not like the Sabbath because I thought about it as a day when I don’t do X, Y, or Z, or when I can’t do X, Y, and Z. It’s a day where I’m forbidden to do certain things. I don’t get that spirit at all from Section 59. In fact, one of the major outcomes for me, as you’re talking through this, is how often the Lord uses words like cheerful, glad, grateful. This is a day of rejoicing. I have slowly over time come to see the Sabbath like that, Casey, and it’s been a game changer for my own personal development and my relationship with God, because this is not about just the obedience of the gospel. This is about a day to cultivate the joy of the gospel and my relationship to God. Anyway, that’s a major outcome for me. Those principles, as you just were outlining them, I thought, Those are so good, and they’ve made such an impact.

Casey Griffiths: One overlying principle that you can find in this whole section is to do things with thanksgiving, to be grateful. I mean, that’s been a transformational principle in my life, is to take a little bit of time each day, but especially on the Sabbath day, to sit back and reflect on how grateful you are and express gratitude for the things that you’ve been blessed with. That makes it a lot easier to consecrate when you realize how good you have it and how blessed you are.

Scott Woodward: Yeah. What a great Sabbath activity, by the way. Let’s make a list of what we’re grateful for. I’m getting more and more ideas as we walk through this. This is good. Well, thank you, Casey. That’s been fun to study through Section 59 in our part 2 of this week’s Come, Follow Me. Really, really good stuff. Next week, we join a group of these that are in Missouri on their return trip back to Ohio. So stay tuned for that.

Casey Griffiths: See you then, Scott.