D&C 112: Forgiven in Verse 3 and Sent in Verse 4

The thing I notice in D&C 112 is how little time passes between verse 3 and verse 4. Marsh is forgiven, and the very next sentence tells him to be of good cheer because he is going to carry the Lord's name to the Gentiles and the Jews and to the ends of the earth. There's no probation in between. No waiting period. I think most of what the chapter says afterward, about admonishing, about keys, about a door, about vengeance beginning at the house of the Lord, is easier to follow once you've seen that the man being addressed has just been handed his job and his pardon in the same breath.

It was given in Kirtland on July 23, 1837, and Joseph Smith dictated it to Marsh, who was president of the Quorum of the Twelve. Marsh had come over from Far West, Missouri, with David W. Patten and William Smith to deal with dissent and to pull the Twelve back together. When he got there, Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde were already on their way to England, sent in June, while several of the other Apostles were somewhere between disaffected and openly opposed. The Joseph Smith Papers lay all that out if you want the names and the sequence. Marsh had walked into a mess, and this is what the Lord said to him on arrival.

What verses 1 through 4 say, and what they leave out

In verse 1 the Lord says he has heard Marsh's prayers and that his alms "have come up as a memorial before me," given on behalf of his brethren. Then comes verse 2.

Verily I say unto you, there have been some few things in thine heart and with thee with which I, the Lord, was not well pleased.

D&C 112:2

That's all we get, and it would be easy to fill in the blank, and plenty of people have, but the chapter doesn't, so I won't. "Some few things" is a phrase that tells you the Lord knew exactly what they were and that Marsh did too. It also tells you the list was short.

Then verse 3.

Nevertheless, inasmuch as thou hast abased thyself thou shalt be exalted; therefore, all thy sins are forgiven thee.

D&C 112:3

"Abased thyself" is the condition and it's in the past tense. The humbling has already happened by the time the sentence is spoken. Nothing is set out as a goal to work toward first, and forgiveness is the first thing Marsh hears. Then verse 4, "Let thy heart be of good cheer before my face," and the assignment.

Marsh had a revelation of his own years earlier, and I wrote about that one in the post on Thomas B. Marsh in D&C 31. I won't go back over it. The only reason to mention it is that in section 31 the call was new and in section 112 it's being renewed, with something said first about what stood in the way.

Pray for them first, then admonish them

Verse 12 is the one that would have been hardest to hear if you were Marsh. He is told to pray for his brethren of the Twelve, and in the next sentence to admonish them sharply for the Lord’s name’s sake. The order matters to me. Pray, then admonish. Verse 11 had already told him that the Lord knew his heart and had heard his prayers for these men, and had also told him not to be partial toward them in love above many others, but to let his love be for them as for himself, and to let it abound toward all men.

I'm a software person, so my picture of "admonish sharply" comes from code review. A few years ago I'd written a change to how our service retries a failed charge. It looked fine. Tests passed. It was a Thursday afternoon in March and I wanted it out before the weekend. Ted Pruett, who'd been on that system longer than I'd been at the company, wrote one line under my pull request. It said that on a timeout this would charge the card twice, and it told me which line. He didn't soften it and he didn't add a smiley. I was irritated for about twenty minutes, then opened the file and he was right, and by the following Tuesday I had heard that Ted was the man who'd stayed late two weeks before to help a new hire with her first deploy.

In verse 12 the prayer comes first, and the love of verse 11 sits right behind it. Then verse 13.

And after their temptations, and much tribulation, behold, I, the Lord, will feel after them, and if they harden not their hearts, and stiffen not their necks against me, they shall be converted, and I will heal them.

D&C 112:13

"Feel after them" is the Lord's own verb, and he is the one doing the feeling. What's coming is described as temptations and much tribulation, and the offer of healing rests on a single condition, that they don't harden their hearts. We know how the history went for Marsh. The chapter never says it would, and the word it uses is "if."

In verse 14 the circle widens, and whatever is said to Marsh is said "unto all the Twelve." Arise, gird up your loins, take up your cross, follow me, feed my sheep. And verse 15 opens with "Exalt not yourselves" and goes on to a hard limit given the summer of 1837: "rebel not against my servant Joseph."

Keys are a door, and the verse says so

For years I heard the keys of the kingdom as a title, like a plaque on an office door. Verses 16 and 17 describe a job.

That thou mayest be my servant to unlock the door of the kingdom in all places where my servant Joseph, and my servant Sidney, and my servant Hyrum, cannot come;

D&C 112:17

The keys here do a specific job, which is to open a door, and the doors in question are in places where Joseph, Sidney and Hyrum cannot come. Verse 18 gives the reason: the burden of all the churches has been laid on them "for a little season." If you're curious how keys were restored in the first place, the D&C 110 post goes through the vision in the Kirtland Temple. Here the point is smaller and more practical. Verse 19 says "whithersoever they shall send you, go ye, and I will be with you," and promises that "an effectual door shall be opened unto you."

Then verse 21 does something I'd pass over if I weren't reading slowly. The Twelve can send others, but they must be "duly recommended and authorized by you." The door doesn't open for just anybody who feels called to open it. There's a process, and it runs through the quorum. And verse 22 attaches the condition to the ones sent: they must humble themselves and abide in the word and hearken to the Spirit. Verse 10 had the same word for Marsh: "Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand."

Vengeance begins at the house, and then verse 27 changes the subject

Verse 23 is a dark one, with darkness covering the earth, gross darkness the minds of the people, all flesh corrupt. Verse 24 is vengeance coming speedily, "a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation." Then verse 25.

And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;

D&C 112:25

Who goes first is spelled out in verse 26: "those among you ... who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house." I've sat through lessons that took this and pointed it at somebody outside the room. The text points at the room, since verse 26 says "among you" to the Twelve, and I think that's worth being a little bothered by, which I am.

Then verse 27, which is where the chapter surprised me.

Therefore, see to it that ye trouble not yourselves concerning the affairs of my church in this place, saith the Lord.

D&C 112:27

After vengeance starting in the house, you'd expect an instruction to go clean the house. The instruction is the opposite. Don't trouble yourselves about the affairs of the church in this place. Verse 28 follows: "But purify your hearts before me; and then go ye into all the world." Here's my reading, and it's only mine. Marsh arrived in Kirtland to sort out the quarrels, and the Lord tells the Twelve that their work is outside, and that the cleaning they owe is of their own hearts. It fits the order of verses 27 and 28, and it fits the summer.

The close of the chapter comes back around. Verses 30 to 32 say the power of the priesthood is given to the Twelve and the First Presidency "for the last days and for the last time." Verse 33 says "behold how great is your calling" and then, in the next sentence, "Cleanse your hearts and your garments." Verse 34 is "Be faithful until I come."

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Thomas B. Marsh, and why is D&C 112 addressed to him?

He was president of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1837. Joseph Smith dictated the revelation to him in Kirtland on July 23 of that year, and Marsh and Patten had called a council of the whole quorum for the next day. Most of it is personal counsel to Marsh, and from verse 14 on it speaks to all twelve of them.

What were the "few things" the Lord wasn't pleased with in verse 2?

The chapter doesn't say, and every guess I've read is only that. What the text does say is that Marsh humbled himself and that all his sins were forgiven, which is the part that I'd rather people remembered.

Does D&C 112 predict that Marsh will leave the Church?

No, though he did leave in 1838 and was excommunicated the following year. The Church's own accounts say he came back, was received in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1857 and was rebaptized that year. But the revelation forgives him and charges him, and says that if the Twelve harden not their hearts they will be healed.

What does "vengeance" in verse 24 mean?

The verse says a day of wrath, burning, desolation and mourning is coming upon the earth, and the next two verses say it begins in the Lord's own house among those who profess to know him and don't. It doesn't describe the form it will take, and I'd rather not add one. For the larger picture of judgment, Church teaching on the Second Coming is the place to read.

The lunch special at the place near the office switched back to chili on Wednesday. I've had it two days running and I'm not sorry.

— D.