Monday, August 22, 2022

D&C 100:9-11 (October 12, 1833) and Sidney Rigdon to be a Spokesman for Joseph Smith

In a revelation dated October 12, 1833, we read the following promise concerning Sidney Rigdon:

 

And it is expedient in me that you, my servant Sidney, should be a spokesman unto this people; yea, verily, I will ordain you unto this calling, even to be a spokesman unto my servant Joseph. And I will give unto him power to be mighty in testimony. And I will give unto thee power to be mighty in expounding all scriptures, that thou mayest be a spokesman unto him, and he shall be a revelator unto thee, that thou mayest know the certainty of all things pertaining to the things of my kingdom on the earth. (D&C 100:9-11)

 

In volume 3 of A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, H. Dean Garrett and Stephen E. Robinson noted the following concerning v. 9:

 

9. Sidney should be a spokesman. Sidney Rigdon was a well-educated man with magnificent talents as a thinker and a writer but particularly as an orator. He had been a Reformed Baptist minister with several congregations in the Kirtland area before joining the Church in 1831. George Q. Cannon said of Elder Rigdon: "Those who knew Sidney Rigdon, know how wonderfully God inspired him, and with what wonderful eloquence he declared the word of God to the people. He was a mighty man in the hands of God, as a spokesman, as long as the prophet lived, or up to a short time before his death."6 The Lord had earlier promised Sidney that he would "preach my gospel and call on the holy prophets [that is, the scriptures] to prove [Joseph's] words" (D&C 35:23).

 

The appointment of Sidney Rigdon as the spokesman for the Prophet Joseph fulfilled an ancient prophecy of that Joseph who was sold into Egypt: "And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses . . . and I will make a spokesman for him" (2 Nephi 3:17). Thus, the relationship between Joseph and Sidney would be that of a modern Moses and Aaron, Joseph as Moses the prophet and Sidney as Aaron his spokesman (see Exodus 4:16). Elder Rigdon served in this capacity until sometime after his imprisonment in Liberty Jail. During the Nauvoo period, this role was gradually assumed by Hyrum Smith.

 

The fulfillment of 2 Nephi 3:17–18 and the role of the modern Aaron cannot be confined to Sidney Rigdon alone. In Doctrine and Covenants 8:6–7, the Lord had previously told Oliver Cowdery that he had the gift of Aaron, while Doctrine and Covenants 28:2–3 explicitly stated that Oliver was to be as Aaron to Joseph, who was to be to him as Moses. When Oliver Cowdery subsequently left the Church, Hyrum Smith received all the blessings, honors, gifts, and positions that Oliver had formerly held (see D&C 124:95). This would include Oliver's former position of an Aaron to Joseph's Moses. And just as Aaron really was Moses' elder brother, so Hyrum really was Joseph's elder brother and died with him at Carthage, a true Aaron and a true brother to the last, after Oliver and Sidney had lost that calling.

 

In a sermon dated April 6, 1884, George Q. Cannon noted the fulfillment of this promise:

 

Another most remarkable prediction is given in this same chapter; showing how plainly the Lord revealed to His ancient servants who wrote this Book, that which should take place in the last times. Lehi in speaking about Moses, said, that the Lord had revealed to Joseph the Patriarch, that He would raise up a mighty prophet named Moses, and that He should raise up for him a spokesman; that Moses would not be mighty in word, but in deed. Here is what the Lord said unto Joseph the Patriarch, as quoted by Lehi:

 

"And the Lord said unto me also" [that is, Joseph the Patriarch], "I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him, that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins, and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it."

 

After the church had been organized some months, Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, and Ziba Petersen were appointed by the prophet of God to visit the western boundaries of Missouri. On their journey westward, they passed through the western part of Ohio, where Parley had formerly lived and labored in connection with the Reformed Baptists. They called upon one of the founders of that sect, Sidney Rigdon. They found him in the town of Kirtland, gave him a book of Mormon, and bore their testimony to him of the restoration of the Gospel. Sidney Rigdon said to them: "You tell me a strange tale. I will examine this book" and he commenced to do so. They were all young men, Sidney Rigdon was many years their senior. Rigdon examined the book, and became convinced that it was the word of God. He was baptized in the town of Kirtland, and the foundation of a great work was laid there. God afterwards revealed that this man was to be a spokesman, and he became the spokesman to this people and to the world for the prophet Joseph. Those who knew Sidney Rigdon, know how wonderfully God inspired him, and with what wonderful eloquence he declared the word of God to the people. He was a mighty man in the hands of God, as a spokesman, as long the prophet lived: or up to a short time before his death. Thus you see that even this which many might look upon as a small matter, was predicted about 1,700 years before the birth of the Savior, and was quoted by Lehi 600 years before the same event, and about 2,400 years before its fulfillment, and was translated by the power of  God, through his servant Joseph, as was predicted should be the case, and at a time, as I have said, when there was not a man upon the earth who was a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church had not yet been organized, and Joseph did not know, unless he knew by the spirit of revelation, whether any man would receive the Gospel. I doubt whether he knew as to how the church would be organized. He had some idea, doubtless; but there were many things which he himself did not know, till he wrote this translation. (JOD 25:126-27)

 

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