Wednesday, September 16, 2009

JOSEPH AND JOSEPH AND JOSEPH AND JOSEPH AND JOSEPH

Lehi is talking to his son Joseph and tells him about Joseph of Egypt who has a vision about the Nephites and also Joseph Smith. Interesting enough this great prophecy is not included in the Old Testament. It is a great chapter but my favorite verse is, "And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation." (2 Nephi 3:15)
Imagine being Joseph Smith as you are translating the plates that will become The Book of Mormon. He is sitting there with his scribe saying the words from the plates and he says, "his name shall be called after me". Do you think he may have thought, "Oh, Joseph is his name." Then he translates that, "it shall be after the name of his father." "Wow! My father's name is Joseph. My name is Joseph." I don't know if that was Joseph Smith's thoughts...but I can only imagine at that moment the great awakening in our Prophet Joseph Smith as he read his name in print from some ancient plates. That is pretty COOL!
Why so many Joseph's in the title? We had Joseph, Lehi's son, Joseph of Egypt, Joseph Smith, Senior, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Joseph Wise who was sitting in class learning all about many important Josephs.

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