Meat In Due Season

Part of the message of Joseph Smith-Matthew in the Pearl of Great Price is the need for us to be prepared for the Second Coming of the Lord. The Savior invited us, “Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.” We are told that in the days preceding the Lord’s coming, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (JSM 1:29, 48).  We know that there will be “the abomination of desolation” a second time that will presumably be on the level of catastrophe that the first one when in around 70 AD the Romans killed over one million inhabitants of Jerusalem.  Clearly from even these brief descriptions the times preceding the coming of Jesus will be filled with difficulty.  

                In that context, the question of verse 49 struck me today: “Who, then, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” Surely the major thrust of the chapter is one of being prepared spiritually, but this verse suggests perhaps a call for temporal preparation as well.  To the ruler of each household—which certainly includes the bearers of the Priesthood—we should remember that to be “faithful and wise” we have to be able to “give [our household] meat in due season.”  Part of my responsibility as a father and husband is to “to provide the necessities of life and protection for [my family].”  Knowing these prophecies of famine and war and destruction in the last days, surely I will be shirking in my responsibility if I don’t prepare food storage to “give meat” to my household during times of difficultly.  While circumstances certainly differ across the world for the various Saints, the prophets have made it clear that if we can, we should be storing food for the future.  For example, President Benson said, “The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.” 

                I thought it was rather timely that while writing this I tuned in to the kids music playing for my children in the other room—one of the songs from Scripture Scouts that is a constant around our house—and I heard this chorus right after finishing the above paragraph, “Everybody get ready for the coming of the Lord!  Get up! Get ready, for the coming of the Lord.”  Surely part of getting ready for the coming of the Lord is indeed to temporally prepare food and supplies.  We don’t know what lies ahead for us, but certainly when great trials come I want to be able to go to the Lord in prayer with a clear conscience that I did what I was asked to be prepared.  I don’t what His words to me then to be those of D&C 101:8: “In the day of their peace they esteemed lightly my counsel; but, in the day of their trouble, of necessity they feel after me.”  I must prepare now so that I can give meat in due season to all of my own household no matter what the catastrophes that happen around us.