Obedience in the Creation

 One of the interesting themes in the Creation account in the book of Abraham that is not found in the other two accounts is that of obedience.  After “the Gods pronounced the dry land Earth” and had called “the gathering together of the waters… Great Waters” then we read that “the Gods saw that they were obeyed” (Abraham 4:10).  Next they “organized the earth to bring forth grass from its own seed” and again “the Gods saw that they were obeyed” (Abraham 4:12).  They then organized the sun, moon, and stars in the sky and “the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed” (Abraham 4:18).  After this the water animals were organized and put in their place, and we read that “the Gods saw that they would be obeyed” (Abraham 4:21).  After organizing the beasts and cattle, again their obedience was noted: “and the Gods saw they would obey” (Abraham 4:25).  After the creation of everything the summary reads this way: “And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said, and organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient” (Abraham 4:31).  I’m not sure why this emphasis is placed on the obedience of the creations to respond to the voice of the Creator right away, but perhaps one of the lessons is that only the last creation—man and woman—choose to sometimes not obey their Creator. 

                These passages in Abraham 4 remind me of Mormon’s lamentation about the disobedience of man.  He wrote, “O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth” and then discussed why that is the case.  He explained, “For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God” (Helaman 12:7-8).  In other words, the dust will listen and be obedient when commanded by the Lord to do something, and yet we as mortals will often disobey the Lord even when we know what we are supposed to do.  Mormon lamented that the only way to get the people to actually repent is to chasten them with “many afflictions” (Helaman 12:3).  So I guess the point is that we should all strive to be like the inanimate objects that always obey God’s plan perfectly.  Obeying the voice of the Lord should be like second nature to us so that we move when He says to move and do as He commands.  The Lord said at the end of the creation, as mentioned above, that “they shall be very obedient.”  That is the Lord’s hope for all of His creations, especially man.