This past Sunday (3/17) I taught on 2nd Nephi 26-30 and had some few things I wanted to share that I learned in my study with some assistance from an institute teacher.
In 2 Nephi 27, which is also Isaiah there is much mentioning about a sealed book.
“And behold the book shall be sealed” v.7
“The things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the book shall be kept from them” v.8
“But the words which are sealed he shall not deliver” v.10
“And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops” v.11
“I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed.” v.17
“Touch not the things which are sealed, for I will bring them forth in mine own due time” v.21
“thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me” v.22
As I said that chapter talks a lot about it. For the most part everyone I know understands this to be the sealed book to be the book of Mormon. But *insert Morpheus meme* what if I told you that this sealed book is not the Book of Mormon?
If we look at the whole of the chapter, we can see this is the case. We see that the person who has the record is instructed not to touch the seal word, that the Lord will bring them forth in His own time, that they did not bring the words of the sealed book to the learned man. But the real clincher is verse 7
“And behold the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof.”
Is this in the Book of Mormon? The answer is no. we get from 600 B.C. to 400 A.D. but that is not the beginning to the end of the world. What then is this sealed record?
I submit that the seal book is the record of the Brother of Jared. Let look at Ether chapter 3:25
“And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth.”
Then in the start of chapter 4 verse 1 we see him write these things that cover from the beginning of time to the end of the world.
“And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men until after that he should be lifted up upon the cross.”
From here we can then tract these Jaredite plates though the book of Mormon to see what they are. We can start with the rest of verse one of Ether 4
“and for this cause did king Mosiah keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people”
So clearly king Mosiah gets them but let’s go a little bit further back and see where he got this record. In fact, if we jump back to the beginning of the Book of Mosiah we will find just that.
As you will recall there was a group of homies that went up from the Nephites who were in the land of Zarahemla. We will call them the people of Zeniff because that is who they are. They got on up to the land of Lehi-Nephi and things got almost immediately not great for them and they kinda sorta got enslaved by the Lamanites. After a time as you will recall a cool dude named Abinadi came about and was like “you need to stop sucking” and frankly that didn’t go over well and only one dude listened and he GTFOed (got the fudge out you heathen). From there our good old buddy king Noah, who sucked in every way, got himself killed after running away from the Laminate armies leaving our home-boi Limhi as king of the people of Zeniff. And because Lemhi is not a natural born idget he understands that his people are in an untenable sort of life and is looking to get out. He sends out a number of dudes to find their way back to Zarahemla but they get lost in the woods.
Mosiah 8:8-9
“And they were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.
And for a testimony that the things that they had said are true they have brought twenty-four plates which are filled with engravings, and they are of pure gold.”
And this starts the record of those sealed plates. Limhi then starts in a conversation with Ammon that we all know so well:
Limhi: you home-boi can you translate these records. They got things to know and I gotsa know ‘em.
Ammon: I cannot but bro chill I know a guy who can look at things and translate them and he is called a seer.
Limhi: Word! A seer is totes greater than a prophet.
Ammon: Not so home slice but a prophet is a seer and a revelator too.
(This is a basic approximation of Mosiah 8:11-17… very approximate)
From here we see them taken with the people of Zeniff and delivered to Mosiah who sets about translating them in Mosiah 28:17-18:
“Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam.
Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice.”
Now we know Mosiah did not send the full record out to the people but gave them a summary of it as it says in Ether 4 verse 1.
From there Mosiah takes the records and gives them to Alma the son of Alma. (v 20 of that same chapter) and the 24 plates fall out of the limelight again for 18 or so years. We see them show up again in Alma 37 at the time Alma son of Alma is giving them to his son Helaman. In these verses we see Alma basically say there is a lot of good to be had in this record but if the people are not prepared for it, they were become worse off because of it.
After this we do not see this record until 3rd Nephi but we can follow the line of people who have been in charge of the records as a whole. Conveniently this follows a father-to-son line making it easy to track. In 3rd Nephi they are in the possession of Nephi son of Nephi son of Helaman son of Helaman son of Alma son of Alma… this is a fun family tree.
So it is we see this record at the time Jesus has them brought forth in 3rd Nephi 23 when Jesus commands Nephi (son of Nephi…) to “bring forth the record which ye have kept” this is attested to by Ether 4: 2
“And after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should be made manifest.”
We are going to segway for a second here. Joseph Smith describes the gold plates as being 6 inches by 8 inches and not so thick as hammered tin for the individual leaves. And a portion of them were sealed. And the total thickness was about 6 inches as well. Joseph didn’t say much more than that on what the plates looked like but given accounts from the witnesses it is estimated that one third to two thirds of them were the sealed section, ie the sealed book. Meaning that the sealed section at the smallest is half the lengthy of the Book of Mormon and at most twice the length. Basically, what I’m getting at is that there is more in that sealed section than 24 plates written by the Brother of Jared. Luckily Moroni tells us what else is in the sealed section. As he in fact sealed them himself.
Ether 4:4-5
“Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared.
Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord.”
So, this record is what the Brother of Jared saw and interpretation. But who were these interpretations made by? At this point it may not surprise you to learn scripture also tells us this.
3rd Nephi 26:1-3
“And now it came to pass that when Jesus had told these things he expounded them unto the multitude; and he did expound all things unto them, both great and small.
And he saith: These scriptures, which ye had not with you, the Father commanded that I should give unto you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations.
And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory—yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the heavens and the earth should pass away.”
The sealed section is the vision of the Brother of Jared, a thing that greater than nothing is, with authoritative interpretations by Jesus Christ himself. That is what the sealed book is.
Interestingly enough Mormon was commanded that he should not write them. But he has written a hundredth the part of the things Jesus taught but the plates of Nephi contain the more part of what Jesus taught during this expounding of scripture until the end of the world.
At this point we know what is in the sealed book, how it got there, why it was held back from the Nephites, and who wrote complied and sealed it. The only questions left is why we don’t have this sealed book and when will we get it.
Why we didn’t originally get it is pretty clear from scripture:
3rd Nephi 26:11
“Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people.”
Ok, that is in fact pretty clear. We need to have our faith tried. But how will the Lord do this?
3rd Nephi 26:9
“And when they shall have received this (the Book of Mormon, that portion which Mormon was allowed to write), which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things (the sealed booked, no greater thing remember?) be made manifest unto them.”
So we can see that the Book of Mormon is in fact a test we have, that if we pass we will be rewarded with the sealed book. The question then comes to mind which answers the last remaining question. How are we doing on this test?
Given we do not have the sealed book the answer seems to be not well.
Ether 4: 6
“For the Lord said unto me: They (the sealed book) shall not go forth unto the Gentiles (us) until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord”
It is notable that the word here is iniquity not iniquities. There seems to be a thing that our people have done that is preventing this sealed book from going forth. I submit that scripture tells us what this great iniquity is:
3rd Nephi 26:10
“And if it so be that they (the gentiles, us) will not believe these things (the book of Mormon), then shall the greater things (The Sealed Book) be withheld from them, unto their condemnation.”
D&C 84:54, 57
“And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received.
And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even The Book of Mormon and the former commandments (The Bible) which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written.”
We, at various times, have showed though word and action, or more likely through lack or word and lack of action that we have taken the Holy Scriptures that we have received lightly, that don’t believe them, that we are unwilling to share them.
The week before last we read 2nd Nephi 29 which contains that line “A bible a bible, we have a bible, we need no more bible” how many of us when we read that thought the thought of the Pharisees in Luke 18
“God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are”
How many of us have thought as those on the Rameumptom in Alma 31
“O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren.”
We read those word and are so often filled with a sense that we are better off but by our very word and action we say to God A Book of Mormon, a Book of Mormon, we have a Book of Mormon and need No more Book of Mormon. Scriptures, Scriptures, we have Scriptures, we need no more Scriptures.
We are under a worse condemnation than the lay Christian who knows not the greater light we have and we consistently reject.
The Lord reveals Himself through scripture and if we refuse to love them, to read them, to search them, to say the, to do them, and to ever desire that greater part which we yet lack, then we will never receive more. And thus, we will never receive the blessing that is promised with the opening of that sealed book.
2nd Nephi 30:17-18
“There is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed.
Wherefore, all things which have been revealed unto the children of men shall at that day be revealed; and Satan shall have power over the hearts of the children of men no more.”
The promise we have hear is that if we will remember the New Covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the Old covenant even the Bible and that we say and do the things that we learn in them we can be even as Captain Moroni
Alma 48:17
“Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.”
What more can you do to show the Lord your love for His scripture. Is there someone who you should share it with? Is there more you should be reading? Is there more you could be doing?
The day is not yet done, there is still time. I challenge you to find what more you could do.
As always, I’m praying for thee; please pray for me.