The 116 Pages

In reading chapters 3 and 5 of the Doctrine and Covenants, I was struck by the intricacy of God's preparations to counteract the errors of men. It's amazing how much God loves us. He respects our agency so much that He's willing to let us not do things the easy way. He uses our mistakes as a chance to let us learn and grow while still directing everything towards building the kingdom. I love the first verse of section 3: "The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught". This reminded me ov D&C 121:33: "As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints." God allowed knowledge of the Nephites during the time period that was lost to still be shared with the saints through the extra set of records that Nephi made. Nobody, not Joseph, not Martin Harris or any of the men he showed the pages to could remove a record of Nephi from us. The analogy of the Missouri river especially speaks to me because I live in St. Louis, not far from this river. It would be futile for man to try to change the course of it with his bare strength, just as it would for anyone to stop the Lord.

Despite the immense importance of written records (Mosiah 1:5), God allowed them to be lost so that Joseph and Martin could both learn important lessons. They needed to learn not to "fear man more than God". Much of the persecution that Joseph faced was because of going against social norms by following God's commands. I believe that because God allowed the pages to be lost, Joseph understood better the importance of fearing God more than man, and was more prepared to face things like the introduction of polygamy. After chastizing Joseph Smith and Martin Harris about the severity of what they had done in losing the pages, He ends chapter 5 by saying: "And if thou art faithful in keeping my commandments, thou shalt be lifted up at the last day, Amen." He ends with a message of hope. There's always a way to return. He loves us and never wants us to feel like there's no way back.