Their Houses and Their Barns Shall Perish

D&C 121 & 123 contains pretty strong language against those who persecuted, killed, and kicked out the Saints in Missouri.  Joseph spoke of the “diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions that have been practiced upon this people” and suggested that the Lord would one day come “forth from his hiding place” to bring judgment against them (D&C 123:5-6).  We have an even more direct prophecy from the Lord in D&C 121:“And not many years hence, that they and their posterity shall be swept from under heaven, saith God, that not one of them is left to stand by the wall.  Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord” (v15-16).  One of the cross references here goes to a similar verse in D&C 124 in which the Lord says, “Therefore, for this cause have I accepted the offerings of those whom I commanded to build up a city and a house unto my name, in Jackson county, Missouri, and were hindered by their enemies, saith the Lord your God.  And I will answer judgment, wrath, and indignation, wailing, and anguish, and gnashing of teeth upon their heads” (D&C 124:51-52).  This is quite the condemnation against those who fought the Saints, and I’ve wondered about the fulfilment of these prophecies.  The most likely candidate for a fulfilment of it is what happened during the Civil War. 

                In his book The Lincoln Hypothesis, Timothy Ballard documented some of the terrible destruction that came to Missouri and in particular to Jackson County where the Saints had been driven out.  He referred to General Order 11 in which the residents of Jackson County were forced to leave their homes and property.  According to the Wikipedia article, in 1863 Jackson County and three others “became a devastated ‘no man's land,’ with only charred chimneys and burnt stubble showing where homes and thriving communities had once stood, earning the sobriquet ‘The Burnt District.’”  This certainly seems to resemble the prophecy that “their basket shall not be full, their houses and their barns shall perish” that came to the Prophet as he was confined in Liberty Jail in 1839 (D&C 121:20).  To me this shows that the Lord is indeed in charge, His prophecies will be fulfilled, and it will be in His own time.  As He said in the same revelation, “For there is a time appointed for every man, according as his works shall be” (D&C 121:25).  The message for us is that the Lord knows our deeds and our thoughts, and we will surely stand accountable to Him at some future day.  Some judgments will come upon the wicked in this life, and all of us must “prepare to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ” in the life to come (Mormon 3:22).  There is no wickedness that goes unnoticed by the Lord, and all will one day stand before Him.