The Knowledge of the Lord

Nephi quoted these words of Isaiah concerning the Millennium: “And then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling, together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (2 Nephi 30:12-15). All of these images indicate a world in which there is no contention. The peace amongst the animals represents the peace that will exist among people who will not “learn war any more” (2 Nephi 12:2). I believe that there is a connection between an absence of contention and coming to a knowledge of the things of God. In the Millennium there will be great peace on the earth which will enable a great expansion of the knowledge of God everywhere. But we don’t have to wait for the Millennium to learn the things of God; as we strive to remove contention and be peacemakers, we can then spread more fully the knowledge of God. President Nelson put it this way: “If you are serious about helping to gather Israel and about building relationships that will last throughout the eternities, now is the time to lay aside bitterness. Now is the time to cease insisting that it is your way or no way. Now is the time to stop doing things that make others walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting you. Now is the time to bury your weapons of war. If your verbal arsenal is filled with insults and accusations, now is the time to put them away. You will arise as a spiritually strong man or woman of Christ.”  In other words, if we want to help gather Israel and help fill the world with the knowledge of God, we must shun contention and strive for the kind of peace that we expect to have in the Millennium.

                A couple of other stories in the Book of Mormon highlight how removing contention is a prerequisite to obtaining great spiritual knowledge. King Benjamin reigned at a time when there were wars and serious contentions. Mormon recorded, “This king Benjamin—he had somewhat of contentions among his own people.” There was apparently internal strife as well as problems with the Lamanites, but King Benjamin did all he could to remove the contention: “Wherefore, with the help of these, king Benjamin, by laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did once more establish peace in the land” (Words of Mormon 1:12, 18). The book of Mosiah opens with this statement: “And now there was no more contention in all the land of Zarahemla, among all the people who belonged to king Benjamin, so that king Benjamin had continual peace all the remainder of his days” (Mosiah 1:1). It was with that backdrop that King Benjamin was then able to give his incredible sermon to the people that had such a profound impact and caused them to covenant with the Savior. It was because there was no contention that this spiritual learning could take place. A second story that highlights the importance of removing contention in order to learn the things of God is the visit of the Savior to the Nephites. As He started to teach them, He addressed contention as one of His first topics: “And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been. For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away” (3 Nephi 11:28-30). After helping them to see the importance of ridding themselves of contention, He was able to teach them marvelous things, some so great that they could not even be written: “And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father” (3 Nephi 17:17). Having peace among the people was surely an important part of why He was able to do that. These stories highlight the need for us to strive to rid our own homes and families of contention so that we too can come to know more fully “the knowledge of the Lord.”