'The Greatest, 7 x 70 & The Seventy'
- How to be 'the greatest' in the Kingdom of God
- 7 x 70 and forgiveness in the Spiritual Ecomony
- The Seventy as representatives to the world
I inadvertently said '1st, 2nd or 3rd century AD' in regards to producing the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint was produced in the 3rd century BC, not AD.
Come Follow Me New Testament
LDS Mormon Matthew Luke Bible
in this episode we're going to talk
about the greatest 70 times seven and
the seventy here we go
so we're gonna start in this episode in
Matthew 18 this is happening shortly
after the experience on the Mount of
Transfiguration and here we find Jesus
dispensing wisdom dispensing some of his
teachings to the disciples the disciples
come to him and ask him who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven I
think it's hard to know exactly what
they mean by that so we can't infer a
few different things one is they might
be asking amongst themselves we don't
know that though I don't think but we
they might be asking amongst themselves
here who is the greatest amongst us and
who has the highest level of authority
and Jesus makes it very clear the way
the hierarchical structure works in the
kingdom of heaven it's not necessarily
the same way that it works here on earth
and he says to them that he who is the
least among you who is the most humble
among you is the greatest among you and
he gives the example of a little child
and he brings a little child amongst
them and says if you humble yourself as
a little child then that is what makes
you the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven I think that thinking about who
humbled themselves the most it would be
of course himself Jesus Christ
he definitely lowered himself humbled
himself more than any person who has
ever lived or ever will live on the
earth and therefore he is the greatest
because he bore everybody else's burdens
because he humbled himself more than
anybody else ever will and that makes
him the greatest and so a poignant
lesson here to the disciples and letting
them know how that hierarchical
structure works in the Kingdom of Heaven
whoever is the most humble and again if
we go back to understanding what humble
means this is my understanding
is that it does not mean that you are
passive it does not mean that you are
weak
that is not humility Jesus certainly was
not passive and weak in Gethsemane or on
the cross yes he allowed everything to
happen to him but the point isn't that
he allowed it to happen the point is
that he chose to let it happen he did
not have to do that and he chose to
humble himself by doing the will of the
Father
in other words doing what was right what
was required and so we can humble
ourselves by simply bowing to eternal
principles and to the principles of the
gospel doing what is right bowing to the
Lord and his example and his teachings
that is humility and you can be very
strong at doing that I don't think
people would say that you know captain
Moroni for example was weak but perhaps
he was very humble in a number of ways
he bowed to certain principles and did
what he felt he had to do to preserve
the nation and to preserve the gospel
being taught amongst his people and to
preserve the people so that's how the
hierarchical structure works in the
Kingdom of Heaven and that's obviously a
principle that we should all learn to
bow to eternal principles and to the
principles of the gospel and then he
follows that up with what I think is
support for what he has just taught and
becoming the most humble and he says
here in verse 7 as he has been speaking
about children and becoming like
children he says woe unto the world
because of offences or sin for it must
needs be that offences come but woe to
that man by whom the offence cometh
wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend
thee cut them off and cast them from
thee it is better for thee to enter into
life halt or maimed rather than having
two hands
or two feet to be cast into the
everlasting fire so what would giving
something up that we really need a hand
and arm mean in principle it means
sacrifice I think it means giving
something up it means humbling ourselves
and sacrificing that part of us that
might hold us back from progressing and
from getting into the kingdom of God
obviously if we humble ourselves to the
principles of the gospel that's going to
require a great amount of sacrifice
because we're not built and born in this
world to be perfect and so we're going
to have to figuratively speaking leave a
hand leave an arm leave sometimes very
difficult things for us to give up
behind in order to be able to move
forward and then Jesus says something
interesting in verse 11 and this is a
message that he has given several times
but he words it a little bit differently
here he says for the Son of man has come
to save that which was lost
which seems obvious but aren't we
supposed to be just like him and aren't
we supposed to be working on those that
are lost it's easy I think I've
certainly fallen into this trap before
to feel like you have your comfortable
position in the church you're in the
club and other people that are like you
and have the same you've
accepted a goal in mind that you have
for your future and for your family and
perhaps there are others that are not as
active that don't accept that goal right
now or don't live in a way to pursue
that goal that same goal and it's easy
to just stay with what's comfortable but
here Jesus is saying the reason he's
here is for those that are lost it's
like the parable of the prodigal son
right and the father getting so excited
about this
that was lost coming back or him sitting
with Jesus sitting with the sinners and
saying that the healthy do not need a
physician so the whole purpose of Jesus
Christ is to help the sinners and of
course that's all of us
some of us might be a little bit more
down that road but his whole purpose is
to save those that need saving and I
think the environment here of the
Pharisees Sadducees the Jews in power is
that they've excluded everybody else and
if you're not exactly like them perhaps
that fellowshipping isn't happening that
charity and love is not going across to
those that are not following exactly
what they're supposed to be doing
perhaps in or under the law of Moses and
so he gives the parable of the lost
sheep and here's how it goes in verse 12
how think ye if a man have a hundred
sheep and one of them be gone astray
doth he not leave the ninety and nine
and goeth into the mountains and seeketh
that which has gone astray and if so be
that he find it verily I say unto you he
rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the
ninety and nine which went not astray
again just like the prodigal son so
Jesus’ mission is to go after the one
and of course there's many more than one
where all the one aren't we we're all
lost we're all fallen we are all the one
that is lost out of the mountains and
what a wonderful message to know that
that's what his whole mission is to
save us as individuals to save us which
have strayed and have fallen and then he
delves right into again the spiritual
economy that he loves to talk about we
hear him talk often about payment or
debts or money and he uses this example
of the man-made economy to compare
it to the spiritual economy which is
real and exists and this is how he does
it he says
gives the parable of the man that came
to the Lord who owed the Lord his Lord
is master a lot of money and the servant
begged him for forgiveness and the
master said okay you're forgiven
and he is a large debt was forgiven
because he came to him and begged for
hid for it for help and then that same
servant turned around and somebody owed
him a smaller debt but he would not
forgive the debt of the person that owed
him and so Jesus says look understand
that this is how it works you're going
to ask your Heavenly Father for a lot of
forgiveness throughout your life you
have a massive debt that you have got to
pay or that needs to be forgiven and so
if you go out and do not forgive others
their debt then you're going to have a
hard time in the spiritual economy and
you're gonna have a hard time with the
father and this is what he says and his
Lord was wroth and delivered him to the
tormentors till he should pay all that
was due unto him so likewise shall my
Heavenly Father do also unto you if ye
from your hearts forgive not every one
his brother their trespasses like the
Platinum rule instead of the golden rule
it is do unto others as you would have
God do unto you because that's how this
economy works that's how this debt works
if you're going to ask for forgiveness
from God you're going to need to give
forgiveness to others and if you can't
do that if you can't forgive others
their trespasses then you're not going
to be forgiven and you're going to have
to go through a lot because that that
forgiveness is not going to be there for
you so the spiritual economy here is I
receive
of payment really from the Savior by
proxy and I can be forgiving of my debt
and then I can turn and I need to
forgive the debt of others as well by
proxy and so by sharing each other's
burdens by offering forgiveness then
everybody is made whole but if I receive
in the middle here I receive that
forgiveness and then I turn and I don't
offer the forgiveness then that
forgiveness for those people is not
given to them they are not made whole
and I am not made whole either it's a
two-way street forgiveness is a two-way
street and this discussion about the
spiritual economy was triggered by a
question that Peter had to Jesus he says
up in verse 21 then came Peter to him
and said Lord how oft shall my brother
sin against me and I forgive him till
seven times so what if this heck keeps
happening
how often do I forgive and Jesus saith
unto him I say not unto thee until seven
times but until seventy times seven
times so in other words as much as it
takes and if you think about it as
difficult as that would be right you
don't want to be trampled on and you
don't want to have to forgive a lot of
different people that's a hard
thing to do I mean that's tiring
it's tiring it takes a lot out of you to
forgive people really is difficult think
about what the Lord had to do and has to
do he has to take that burden he has to
forgive everyone and so he's saying
you're going to want forgiveness as many
times as you need it and it's going to
be often you need to turn around and
offer forgiveness as many times as it's
needed seventy times so and so we go
from the seventy times seven in Matthew
18 to the seventy in Luke 10
and this is where the 70 are called
so just like we have the 70 in the
church today the 70 were called in the
Church of the early church by Jesus
Christ now 70 is an interesting number
and this comes up a few different times
but back in the time of Moses there were
70 that were called they were brought
together and they were put together as
part of the priesthood and they were
able to come up to Mount Sinai up to a
certain point but not all the way so
they had a position in the hierarchical
structure of the priesthood why 70 well
possibly it is because there were 70
families that came from Noah and so what
this would represent is all of the
families of the earth would be
represented by the 70 and so you would
have the twelve that we're over you know
the 12 judges of Israel would be
structured on top
you'd have twelve princes of the tribes
you have Twelve Apostles here with Jesus
and then you have the seventy which
would be going out to everyone
eventually and that would make sense
right into the 70 have always been had a
focus based in scripture on missionary
work and so they would be ones going out
to the Gentiles out to the world to
preach the gospel I remember when I was
growing up there was a quorum of 70 in
my ward you know everybody had a quorum
that was I think I think it might have
been centered in the stake but you would
have you know the men would go to the
the men would go to the elders quorum
they would go to the 70s meet with the
70s or they would go with the high
priests now we've brought that all the
way down to one here recently but the
70s were all in charge of missionary
work and then they kind of rolled that
up and made that up into only up into
the seven quorums of the seventy which
are both the general
authorities in the area seventy I think
it's the first and second quorums of
the seventy are in the General
Authorities and the other
quorums of the seventy are area seventy
but seventy is consistent with that
there were also seventy angels that a
lot of the religions in the ancient
times would have and they would have an
angel one of the seventy angels would be
over each one of the peoples and there
were 70 or 72 or 71 there 70 71 the
Sanhedrin has 71 they're not always
always that way maybe there were 70 or
72 but that's 70 71 72 that number is
very consistent as part of a
hierarchical structure both in the
priesthood and in in a secular manner
just like with a Sanhedrin those that
went to Egypt from Jerusalem to
translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek
into the Septuagint in 1st or 2nd
century AD more or less 2nd or 3rd
century AD there were 70 I believe 70 72
of them that when and did that and again
it's going into Greek it's going into
the Gentile language that would go out
to everyone that's why it's called the
Septuagint it's 70 and so the 70 go out
and they preach and they perform
miracles and they heal and they say that
even the Devils are subject to them
these are all practices of the
Melchizedek Priesthood why because the
Melchizedek Priesthood is the priesthood
of the son of God is the priesthood of
Jehovah it's the priesthood of Jesus
Christ and he gives the power over all
of those things and so they all come
back to Jesus just overjoyed because all
of they're able to do all of these
things in his name and Jesus says to
them I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven and I wonder if this was
part of a vision that he had at his
baptism and he says behold I give unto
you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions and
over all the power of the enemy and
nothing shall by any means hurt you and
so this is seems to be a clear allusion
to genesis 3:15 which talks about the
having the power to crush the head of
the serpent and that is through Jesus
Christ of course and then it's through
his priesthood that is given where they
are able to accomplish all of these
things so his church is being built out
so that it can be administered and so
that it can grow and it grows very very
quickly it's really very similar to what
happened in the last days and with
Joseph Smith was line upon line and
precept upon precept office upon office
in the priesthood these things happened
in sequence and eventually started to
build out the kingdom of God
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