Bear the Vessels of the Lord

As I’ve thought more about the phrase to “bear the vessels of the Lord”, perhaps there is another way we can interpret this.  In the spirit of Elder Holland’s last address, perhaps we can also interpret the word “bear” as “being a parent to”.  He talked about the fact that many scriptural terms that speak of the Savior’s role to redeem us also apply to mothers.  He said, “Bear, borne, carry, deliver. These are powerful, heartening messianic words. They convey help and hope for safe movement from where we are to where we need to be—but cannot get without assistance….  But can you hear in this language another arena of human endeavor in which we use words like bear and borne, carry and lift, labor and deliver?... No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child” (see here). 

So maybe as we consider the idea that we are to “be clean” if we are to “bear the vessels of the Lord” we can think also of the fact that we should be clean and pure as we seek to raise God’s children that He gives to us.  If the word “vessel” can be used to represent people (such as in D&C 76:33, Alma 7:10, Moroni 7:31, and Acts 9:15), then perhaps that we can think of the children that God sends to us as the “chosen vessels” we are to care for.  And in that act of bearing those vessels, we must have the help of the Spirit which comes from being spiritually clean.

                There is another usage of the word “vessel” in the Old Testament that I think gives us an image of how Christ bears us as His spiritually-begotten children.  We read of a certain Eliakim upon whom “the key of the house of David” will be laid and of whom the Lord said, “And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house” (Isaiah 22:22-23).  As the Old Testament student manual says, “Eliakim is clearly a type for the Savior… it is a powerful description of Jesus Christ” (see here).  With that understanding, verse 24 is particularly interesting: “And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons” (Isaiah 22:24).  If we understand this as Christ hanging for us on the cross, then perhaps we can understand these vessels that hang from him as all of us for whom He suffered and paid the price for our sins.  We are all “vessels” of some sort and figuratively hang on Him, for we would be nothing without the Savior and His sacrifice.