The King of Zion

In his book Heart of the Matter, President Nelson related his interest in the gathering of Israel and his focus on better understanding what that means. He wrote, “So, imagine my delight when I was led just a few years ago to a new insight. With the help of two Hebrew scholars, I learned that one of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is ‘let God prevail.’ The very name of Israel refers to a person who is willing to let God prevail in his or her life. This concept stirs my soul!” He then added for us to consider, “The question for each of us is then, are we willing to let God prevail in our lives? Are we willing to let God be the most important influence in our lives? Will we allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what we do each day? Will we allow His voice to take priority over any other?” To be truly a part of Israel is to make the Lord our number one priority in all that we do. This reminds me of the words that Nephi spoke to his brothers, “He ruleth high in the heavens, for it is his throne, and this earth is his footstool. And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made” (1 Nephi 17:39-40). So perhaps another way to put President Nelson’s questions is this: Will we have Him to be our God? The problem of Cain was described this way: “And Cain loved Satan more than God” (Moses 5:18). It is not enough, apparently, to love God; we must love Him more than anyone or anything else. We must let Him prevail over all others. The Savior put it best when He taught in mortality: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).

               Another word that the scriptures use to describe our relationship of God is King. He is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” as John saw written in his vision (Revelation 19:16). Jacob also gave us these words of the Lord with a similar description: “For he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words” (2 Nephi 10:14). Likewise, King Benjamin referred to God as our “heavenly King” and Alma taught his people that “the King of heaven shall very soon shine forth among all the children of men” (Mosiah 2:19, Alma 5:50). I love these words that the Lord declared to Enoch: “Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith—I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall never fall” (Moses 7:53). He is the King of Zion, meaning He is the Head of the righteous society we are trying to build now and in the millennium. To me one of the saddest verses in the New Testament is this one when the wicked rulers were before Pilate arguing for the death of Jesus: “But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar” (John 19:15). The Savior was perhaps referring to that very statement when He said in a modern revelation of the Jews: “Then shall they know that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God. And then shall they weep because of their iniquities; then shall they lament because they persecuted their king.” He had always been their only true King. The Savior continued with a description of how it should be for us after He comes again: “For the Lord shall be in their midst, and his glory shall be upon them, and he will be their king and their lawgiver” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:52-53, 59). The question we must ask ourselves is simply this: who will we have for our king? Will it be a modern-day Cæsar, or will we choose to let God prevail as our most important priority?