Hel 3:31-37
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
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The Book of Mormon > Helaman > Chapter 3
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Questions
Verse 33
- Verse 33 seems to draw a distinction between pride entering into the church of God and pride entering into the hearts of the people who profess to belong to the church of God. What is the significance of this distinction? Is it possible for pride to enter into the church of God?
Verse 35
- What does it mean to "fast oft"? Does fasting once a month constitute fasting "oft"?
- How does fasting and praying increase our humility and faith?
- How does humility and faith fill our souls with joy and consolation?
- How does humility and faith lead to the purification and sanctification of our hearts?
- What is the relationship between fasting and sanctification?
- What does it mean to yield our hearts unto God?
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Lexical notes
- To sanctify means to make holy. We could understand the phrase "even to the ... sanctification of their hearts" (verse 35) to mean "even to making of their hearts holy."
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Exegesis
- Verse 35 seems to describe how we can become sanctified by humbling ourself in frequent fasting and prayer. The sacrifice of food and water associated with fasting apparently helps us change our spiritual, emotional, and physical nature--giving us a softened heart and willingness to submit to the will of the Lord.
- The association of firmness with faith seems to be unique to the Book of Mormon, occurring 9 times (Jacob 3:1, Alma 27:27, Alma 48:13, Alma 57:27, Hel 3:35, Hel 6:1, Hel 15:8, 3 Ne 6:14, Moro 7:30). Here we see that this firmness may be derived from much fasting and prayer--a theme which is also associated with firm faith in the case of the Sons of Mosiah (see Alma 17:3,9).
- Fasting is mentioned 39 times in the Old Testament (list here and here), eight times in the New Testament (list here) and 20 times in the Book of Mormon (list here). The Book of Mormon seems to fit the Old Testament pattern of more frequent fasting mentions. However, the Book of Mormon gives us a more complete view of fasting as a method for sanctifying our hearts and obtaining knowledge (see again Alma 17:3,9) than we get from the bible. In contrast to the Old Testament view of fasting as infrequent or ceremonial (as in the annual fast on the Day of Atonement), we also see from the Book of Mormon that fasting was a regular and frequent practice when the people were righteous.
- When we yield ourselves unto God, we are humbling ourselves and submitting ourselves to his will, whatever that may be. In order to yield ourselves unto God, we must not be prideful.
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Related links
- A good non-LDS review of instances of fasting in the Old Testament is here.
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