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The Resurrection
of the Deep Sleepers
by Taylor
Halverson
Awakening
from a deep sleep is critical for our salvation.
Have you ever
wondered if you would sleep through the sound of the trumpets on
resurrection morning (D&C 45:45-46)? Or have you ever considered
that sleeping patterns of today may adversely affect you tomorrow?
From a spiritual perspective these are essential questions about
our personal salvation. Fortunately, the scriptures provide us with
powerful insights about the symbolic meaning of resurrection that
teach us how to overcome and avoid an "endless sleep"(Moroni 9:13)
that could befall us at any time.
Quite early, the Book of Mormon exposes us to the
idea of spiritual resurrection. Upon arrival to the promised land,
and in preparation for his own death, Lehi gave counsel and blessings
to each one of his children. His sons Laman and Lemuel had experienced
considerable difficulty keeping the commandments, which left them
vulnerable to the full measure of God's justice. Lehi feared for
their eternal welfare, so accordingly he exhorted them to repent
using bold commands and figurative language.
"O that ye would
awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea even from the sleep of hell,
and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are
the chains whichbind the children of men, that they are carried
away captive down to the eternal gulfof misery and woe." (2 Nephi
1:13)
For Lehi, it appeared
that his sons had already fallen asleep spiritually and needed a
good rousing. Lehi expressed "all the feeling of a tender parent"
who desired that his children "would hearken to his words, that
perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them, and not cast them off"
(1 Nephi 8:37) because death was an approaching reality for him.
Lehi understood the final totality of death "from whence no traveler
can return" (2 Nephi 1:14) and knew that spiritual death was just
as binding. So he continued to exhort them saying:
"Awake! and arise from the dust and hear the
words of a trembling parent...arise from the dust...that ye may
not come down into captivity...Awake, my sons; put on thearmor
of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound,
and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." (2
Nephi 1:14, 21, 23).
In essence, Lehi
commanded his sons to spiritually resurrect. He made his message
doubly clear by repeating themes of life such as "awake" and "arise"
juxtaposed to themes of death such as "deep sleep" and "dust." There
is great power in Lehi's approach. This pattern of speaking and
awakening occurs in ancient literature such as the creation accounts
where God speaks and creation responds.
Years later this theme was picked up by Jacob and
developed further, most likely based on his father's teachings.
Referring to the wickedness of the people of his own day, Jacob
cried:
"O my brethren,
hearken unto my words; arouse the faculties of your souls; shake
yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death; and loose
yourselvesfrom the pains of hell that ye may not become angels
to the devil, to be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone
which is the second death." (Jacob 3:11)
Clearly Jacob and Lehi understood that "deep sleep"
was the sleep of death and that one must always be spiritually watchful
and vigilant (1 Thess. 5:6) so as not tosuccumb to the enticings
and flatteries of the devil, for to do so would bring about the
"pains of hell." That Nephi understood this principle of spiritual
resurrection as well is evidentthrough his own writings, which record
his desire to not fall into spiritual sleep, "Awake, my soul! No
longer droop in sin" (2 Nephi 4:28).
It is significant
that the Book of Mormon use of "deep sleep" may derive from the
Hebrew word tardemah. Tardemah is employed in
a variety ofways throughout the Old Testament. For example, Proverbs
19:15 expresses tardemah as a consequence of spiritual
slothfulness and the master poet Isaiah uses tardemah figuratively
in 29:10 to indicate those who are insensible to the Spirit or past
feeling. The Hebrew root word for tardemah is radam
which Psalm 76:6 expresses as that sleep called death. The polar
opposite of "deep sleep" is to be "awake." In their exhortations
to the spiritually sleepy, Lehi and Jacob mayhave used the Hebrew
root word 'ur which means to "rouse oneself to activity."
Yet, how is it
that those with a full understanding of the gospel plancould fall
into spiritual comatose? The nuances of the words tardemah
and radam may provide the answer. They had fallen into
a deep spiritual sleep because they were insensible andpast feeling
to the Spirit of God. As a result of slothfulness, their ears had
been closed to the things of God which prevented them from shaking
off the chains with which they were bound and putting on the armor
of righteousness.
There is only one way to arouse those who sleep
in spiritual death. Call unto the sleepers in a loud voice of admonition
and warning to "awake." Ultimately the responsibility lies with
the deep sleeper to become one who actively responds to the call
of spiritual resurrection. This is most powerfully seen in the conversion
story of Alma the Younger who was stopped in his destructive path
by the voice of God's angel (Mosiah 27). Alma fell and became as
if he were dead; and truly he spiritually was. During those two
days his soul resurrected as he responded to God's call to "awake."
In a later account, Alma tells us that he experiencedthe "pains
of hell" until he remembered what his father had taught concerning
Jesus Christ who would come "to atone for the sins of the world"
(Alma 36:17). Alma records:
"Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought,
I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy
on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about
by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought
this, I could remember my pains no more...and oh, what joy, and
what marvelous light I didbehold." (Alma 36:18-20)
Alma had learned
for himself through his own experience that spiritualdeath was real;
but so was spiritual resurrection. He learned, as we must, that
"now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation
nearer than we believed. The night is farspent, the day is at hand:
let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put
on thearmour of light" (Romans 13:11-12).
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