Commandments Not A Few

I watched some of the Face2Face event with Elder Holland last night and at one point he referred in passing to a verse of scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that I thought was really interesting.  He mentioned how the Lord has given us “not a few” commandments, and so I looked this up and found that he was referring to D&C 59:4 which reads, “And they shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time—they that are faithful and diligent before me.”  What struck me as I read this was that the fact that the Lord is speaking of commandments as blessings.  The righteous in Zion will be blessed with commandments; certainly we don’t typically think of commandments as something desirable of the Lord to obtain, but I think if we truly understand the gospel then we should. 

                I think there are many ways that commandments are blessings to us, but the one that stands out the most in my mind is protection.  We know that the Word of Wisdom, for example, was given to “warn” and “forewarn” us against the “evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days," and how blessed are those who follow that commandment to avoid the addictive drugs that ruin the life of far too many (D&C 89:4).  In a similar way the law of chastity serves as a protection against the diseases that plague many of those who ignore this crucial commandment.  As Will Durant put it, if we remain “unchecked by custom, morals, or laws”—or as we might put it, if one ignores the Lord’s commandment regarding chastity—one “may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently” and may find that unrestrained desires “will consume in chaos the individual” (as quoted  here).  Other commandments like observing the Sabbath Day and paying our tithing likewise provide great protection for us from becoming lost in the things of the world.  The Lord didn’t create those commandments for Himself because He needs our worship on Sunday or 10% of our money; no, they were given for our benefit.  As the Savior said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath”; in other words, the Sabbath was made to bless us.  Other commandments requiring spiritual action such as prayer and scripture study and attending the temple likewise protect us from evil; for example, the Lord commands, “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:5).  Prayer will protect us from the adversary.  Similarly, the word of God found in the scriptures “shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery” (Helaman 3:29).  All of the commandments are meant to bless and protect us.

                Elder Von Keetch told a story related to keeping the commandments that I think is the perfect example showing how God’s requirements area really blessings.  A group had come to Australia to surf in a bay famous for that, and they were very upset about the fact that a barrier had been stretched across the bay.  This prevented them from surfing, and the group complained that it “totally spoiled” their trip.  They got more and more animated until final a local gave the group binoculars so they could see what was on the other side of the barrier: “large sharks feeding near the reef” (see here).  The man then said to the group, “Don’t be too critical of the barrier.  It’s the only thing that’s keeping you from being devoured.”  And so it is with the commandments that the Lord gives us—they keep us safe and protected from the wiles of the adversary and the deceptions of the world.  Indeed, they are blessings from our Father in Heaven.