Abraham
was ordained to be the father of the faithful,—that is, he was ordained to come
forth at a certain period; and when he had proved himself faithful to his God,
and would resist the worship of idols, and trample them under his feet in the
presence of their king, and set up the worship of the true God, he obtained the
appellation of "father of the faithful." "For whom he did
foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son." He knew, millions of years before this world was framed, that
Pharaoh would be a wicked man. He saw—he understood; his work was before him,
and he could see it from the beginning to the end. And so scrutinizing,
penetrating, and expanded are his visions and knowledge, that not even a hair
of our head can fall to the ground unnoticed by him. He foreknow what Joseph,
who was sold into Egypt, would do. Joseph was foreordained to be the temporal
Saviour of his father's house, and the seed of Joseph are ordained to be the
spiritual and temporal saviours of all the house of Israel in the latter days.
Joseph's seed has mixed itself with all the seed of man upon the face of the
whole earth. The great majority of those who are now before me are the
descendants of that Joseph who was sold. Joseph Smith, junior, was foreordained
to come through the loins of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and so on down
through the Prophets and Apostles; and thus he came forth in the last days to
be a minister of salvation, and to hold the keys of the last dispensation of
the fulness of times (JOD 7:290 | October 9, 1859)
