The Beatitudes seem to take place in a temple/ritual setting with significant temple imagery. Lehi's Dream is compared.
but going through this type of a filter
understanding that the temple is a part
of the Scriptures helps us understand
that the doctrine that is being drawn
from the by the prophets and given to
the people is doctrine that is drawn
from the temple and oftentimes we may go
to the temple we go through the
ordinances we sit and listen we know
we're serving we are serving those on
the other side of the veil but there is
an immense amount of doctrine that we
get specifically in the temple that is
something that has really helped me a
lot to understand the Scriptures more
and to understand principles of the
gospel more is just really focusing on
what I learn as I go through the temple
and the doctrine that is presented there
that helps me understand more what I
find in the scriptures and we look then
at the Beatitudes which are found in
verses 3 through 11 and each of these
verses begins with blessed are they or
blessed are ye but blessed are is how
they all begin these are called the
Beatitudes because they come from the
Latin term Beatus or beatus which
means fortunate or happy or joy one
thing I think about when thinking about
the meaning of the that term Beatitudes
is number one thinking of a temple again
is oil the anointing oil was known as
the oil of joy and so that is a
temple term that is used right there the
other would be the Tree of Life itself
is known as a tree of joy and a tree
of happiness and we think about the
terminology now we used to call God's
plan more the plan of salvation now from
the brethren we usually hear the term
plan of happiness and I think that we
can think of the plan of happiness also
not just in a sense of what brings us
joy because it does but if we put it
into a temple setting
we realize that as we get through the
temple to our end in the temple that the
plan of happiness is the plan of
progression toward the Tree of Life
which represents joy where he represents
happiness think of Lehigh's vision where
he had he's filled with joy as he gets
to the tree of life and partakes of the
fruit there and so that's what you
know that's what the Beatitudes mean it
means it means joy and so it puts us
a little bit more into a temple type of
terminology and setting one thing I
learned recently going down to verse
five where it is blessed are the meek
from Le Grand Baker and Stephen Rex in
their book who shall ascend into the
hill of the Lord one thing they bring up
is that for them the research that they
did that meek really means
covenant-keeping so that was something
very interesting to me that the meek
would inherit the earth but it is the
covenant keepers that would inherit the
earth or the obedient that are going to
inherit the earth so I thought that was
pretty interesting
going down to verse eight pure in heart
this is something that's kind of
interesting to me john welch talks about
this being completely in Aaronic
priesthood type of a chapter here as we
go through the Beatitudes but I I'm not
sure that's totally true verse eight is
the one where we hear about being pure
and heart and this seems much more like
a higher law in Melchizedek law the type
of a verse it's a requirement to reach
the Holy of Holies and to see the face
of God and we see this in a number of
other scriptures especially in the
Doctrine Covenants section 67 sections
ninety three sections 95 all talk about
being pure in heart as a requirement to
get to see the face of God and again
when we talk about seeing the face of
God we're talking about the temple also
that is a temple reference it is getting
through the veil to see the face of God
and so think of that and when we talk
in that filter that temple filter in the
scriptures well we whenever you see
the face of God think of the temple
think of going through the veil and as
you see the Beatitudes here the way
these apparently seem to be set up is
that these are requirements to be able
to get into the temple or to progress
through the temple we see this as
blessed are they blessed are thee Jesus
here obviously is talking or at least
he's speaking to his disciples
through his followers here but he's
referring third person to somebody else
blessed are the meek blessed are they
who and then all of a sudden he changes
that in verse 11 Jesus changes where he
says blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall
say all manner of evil against you
falsely for my sake so he's been in the
third person they've gone through the
requirements here of everything that you
need to progress or to even get in
possibly to the temple and now he's
addressing them directly as if maybe
they now that you've gone through those
requirements and agreed to these
requirements
now we're addressing you directly as
initiates here this verse 11
makes me think about shame and again
referring back to Lehigh's vision which
could very well be a temple text a lot
of the verbiage there and the principles
there are a temple type of a text
but it makes me think about Lehi’s
vision and the great and spacious
building it is shame that is being cast
from the Great and spacious building to
those that are partaking of the fruit
that are having this joy so it's almost
as if it's a known thing being that this
is ritual and maybe something scripted
that Jesus is saying okay now that
you've gone through all of these
requirements understand that you may be
persecuted and that you may have shame
at you because of the way that you're
going to live because of the agreements
that you've made here in verse 13 we
talked about the salt of the earth and
again all I'm going to say on this is
this is we've heard perhaps the
idea of salt being part of a covenant
because it's used with sacrifices on an
altar all true but I would I would add
to that that we're talking about the
altar at the temple in the temple so
again it's another it's another
reference to the temple and then
fourteen ye are verse fourteen ye are
the light of the world this would be
tied directly to the menorah or even the
tree of life that we would have there or
the light that comes in at the very
beginning of the creation story so this
is that this is another temple reference
that we have
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