Abraham Rejoiced to See His Day

When the Savior stood before the scribes and Pharisees at the temple, he boldly declared unto them that He did the works of His Father.  When they countered that they were of Abraham’s seed, He said to them, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.”  He continued, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:40, 56).  They were literally descended from Abraham but in rejecting Christ they were of necessity rejecting Abraham as well.  They too were seeing His day, but instead of rejoicing in it like Abraham they chose to reject Him along with all of the prophets.

               The statement that “Abraham rejoiced to see my day: he saw it, and was glad” is particularly interesting because, to my knowledge, we don’t have recorded when this happened.  The Book of Mormon made the same statement: "Yea, and behold, Abraham saw of his coming, and was filled with gladness and did rejoice" (Helaman 8:17).  But there is nowhere else in scripture that tells of Abraham having a vision of the time of Christ and His life on the earth.  We certainly have that for other prophets.  For example, Nephi recorded this of his vision: “I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him” (1 Nephi 11:24).  He saw the baptism of the Savior, His miraculous healings, and His death upon the cross.  And surely he did “rejoice” to see His day.  Enoch was another who specifically saw the time of the Savior and His death: “And it came to pass that Enoch cried unto the Lord, saying: When the Son of Man cometh in the flesh, shall the earth rest? I pray thee, show me these things.  And the Lord said unto Enoch: Look, and he looked and beheld the Son of Man lifted up on the cross, after the manner of men; And he heard a loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the creations of God mourned” (Moses 7:54-56).  He likewise rejoiced in seeing the Lord’s day and knowing that through Christ the earth would eventually rest.  Other prophets who saw visions of the entire history of the world—such as Moses and the brother of Jared—surely also saw the time of the Savior and rejoiced in it.

But when did Abraham get this same vision of the Savior’s day?  We know that he was shown a vision of the premortal realm and saw Jehovah declare, “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27).  He also received some kind of vision of the creation for he left us his own account of the story in Abraham 4-5.  This vision of the meridian of time could have been in conjunction with either of those visions.  Abraham also was visited by Jehovah and received promises regarding his seed in the last days as recorded in Abraham 2.  A vision of the time of the Savior could have been a part of that.  I’d like to think, though, that it came right after offering Isaac.  For His willingness to obey an angel said to him, “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” (Genesis 22:17).  Perhaps at that same moment he was shown the sacrifice of the Savior in real time—thus enabling him to fully understand the symbolism behind what he had just done.   At any rate, he did see the Lord’s day and surely rejoiced as we should at the coming of the Savior.