Mountains to Climb

In her recent general conference talk, Sister Joy D. Jones shared a brief exchange between the prophet and a group of Primary children. One of the children asked President Nelson if it was hard to be the prophet, and he responded this way, “Of course it’s hard. Everything to do with becoming more like the Savior is difficult. For example, when God wanted to give the Ten Commandments to Moses, where did He tell Moses to go? Up on top of a mountain, on the top of Mount Sinai. So Moses had to walk all the way up to the top of that mountain to get the Ten Commandments. Now, Heavenly Father could have said, ‘Moses, you start there, and I’ll start here, and I’ll meet you halfway.’ No, the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it…. It takes effort, a lot of hard work, a lot of study, and there’s never an end. That’s good! That’s good, because we’re always progressing. Even in the next life we’re making progress.”  This counsel is in my mind both encouraging and sobering; on the one hand he is promising us progress and blessings as we labor diligently in the Lord’s work, but on the other hand there is no end to the hard work required of us! The fact that he would say that he needs “a lot of study” is a good reminder that even the prophet has to follow the same steps as the rest of us in seeking revelation from the Lord.       

            The image that President Nelson used here is that of climbing a mountain, and the scriptures speak multiple times of prophets who were required to climb mountains to commune with the Lord. Moses, as he mentioned, is one. Another was the brother of Jared who “went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height” and there he had his incredible visit from the Lord (Ether 3:1). It is significant that the mountain was so high—the Lord expected him to put in a great deal of effort in climbing it as he sought to receive answers. After Nephi arrived in the place they called Bountiful, the Lord said to him, “Arise, and get thee into the mountain.” Nephi recorded, “I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things” (1 Nephi 17:7, 18:3). Again, Nephi had to put in significant effort to receive direction from the Lord in building the ship. After Elijah had his experience with the priests of Baal, he fled into the wilderness and an angel came to feed him, saying, “Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.” The account continues, “And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God” (1 Kings 19:7-8). He went up into the mountain and there heard the voice of the Lord. When Peter, James, and John had their divine experience with the Savior we call the Transfiguration, it was upon a mountain: “Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them” (Mark 9:2). They had to climb the high mountain in order to commune with the Father. And even the Savior Himself, when He wanted to pray to His Father, often went into a mountain: “He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone” (Matt. 14:23). The fact that so many prophets have gone into mountains to commune with the Lord is perhaps alluded to in Isaiah’s declaration, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace” (Isaiah 52:7).

            While we may not need to climb physical mountains, the message for us is that the Lord requires great effort as we seek to come unto Him. We have our own spiritual mountains to climb in our eternal progression, and, as President Nelson said, “that’s good!” We need not fear the journey but rather rejoice in the possibilities in personal progress as we do all we can to commune with the Lord.