Tossed Their Pipes Into the Fire

This week’s Come, Follow Me lesson gives this description of what happened when Joseph Smith received the revelation we now know as the Word of Wisdom: “When the elders in the School of the Prophets first heard Joseph Smith read the Word of Wisdom, they immediately ‘tossed their pipes and plugs of chewing tobacco into the fire’ (Saints, 1:168).” I love that image of some of these men choosing to follow the revelations of a prophet immediately. Their actions implicitly invite each of us to follow earnestly and obediently the prophet we sustain today. How long does it take us to apply his invitations? I am reminded of this quote from Elder Holland as he encouraged parents to not let their children wonder about their faith: “But no child in this Church should be left with uncertainty about his or her parents’ devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His Church, and the reality of living prophets and apostles who, now as in earlier days, lead that Church according to ‘the will of the Lord, … the mind of the Lord, … the word of the Lord, … and the power of God unto salvation.’ In such basic matters of faith, prophets do not apologize for requesting unity, indeed conformity…. In any case, as Elder Neal Maxwell once said to me in a hallway conversation, ‘There didn’t seem to be any problem with conformity the day the Red Sea opened.’” If there is anything we should eagerly conform to, it is the counsel of our prophet.

                I love the story of Naaman in the Old Testament who went to the prophet Elisha to be healed of his leprosy. When he came to the prophet’s house, Elisha didn’t even come out to great him but “sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” We read that “Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” Naaman assumed he knew better than the prophet and rejected the counsel at first because of his pride and “turned and went away in a rage.” I love the words of his servants who said to him, “My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” This struck a chord with Naaman who realized that he could follow the words of prophet even if they were simple. This he did an was miraculously healed: “Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” (2 Kings 5:8-14). We each must decide if we will seek with all our hearts to accept and live by the words of our modern prophets, figuratively throwing in our pipes into the fire when we required. As we do, we have this powerful promise from the Lord: “For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 21:6). We receive these incredible blessings not by proudly exerting our independence but by humbly conforming our lives to meet the counsel of the Lord’s servants.