Likening Chess unto the Priesthood of God

Likening Chess Unto the Priesthood of God:

Today in Priesthood Meeting, we talked about the Blessings of the Priesthood, the Spiritual Blessings and the Temporal Blessings. We listed both sides of it on the chalk board.

Before giving the Israelites the Priesthood, God revealed to Moses His intent:

Exodus 19: 5-6:

5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

This was, and always is, the Lord's intent regarding His Priesthood. He wants to create a nation of Priests, not Priestesses, but Priests.

Why? To answer this, we first have to ask did God achieve His goal in regards to Moses and the Camp of Israel? It is estimated that there were between 1 million and 2 million males at Mount Sinai; and, how many of those males ended up receiving the High Priesthood and becoming True Priests or High Priests in that Priesthood? The number is between two and seventy-two males who received all of the Spiritual Blessings that the Lord had to offer in respect to His Priesthood. That's it. Only 72, not 2 million.

Did the Lord get a nation of Priests out of the House of Israel? No. Instead, the Lord eventually got a nation of Soldiers. Soldiers are good, but Priests are better. (In the game of Chess, the Bishops or Priests are of more value than the Soldiers or the Pawns.)

Ask yourself what would have happened if the Lord (and Moses) had gotten 144,000 High Priests, and one million Priests or Elders, from the House of Israel. How would things have gone then? Would the Israelites have gone into Canaan as Soldiers, or would they have gone into Canaan as Missionaries? I love to imagine or visualize the other possible outcomes, because I learn truths by doing so.

Only a comparative handful of Latter-day Saints are truly interested in receiving the Spiritual Blessings of the Priesthood, so I won't go into that any further here, because they don't want that. Instead, I will talk about the Temporal Blessings of the Priesthood. That's what the world at-large wants from the Priesthood, the Temporal Blessings; they want to GOVERN as has been so aptly described on this LDS Freedom Forum. So, let's talk about that, because that's what people want to talk about here.

Those of you who know or love the game of Chess will know that Chess has often been described as the perfect game. It's a game of strategy, warfare, defense, and life. It's supposed to be a model for life. In the game of Chess, the goal is to protect the King or to save the King. God save the King. There's only one flaw in the game of Chess that prevents it from becoming the perfect analogy for life and the temporal blessings of the Priesthood. In the game of Chess, the King is stationary, and the Queen goes out and fights his battles for him. The way that the Priesthood of God was designed in respect to Temporal Affairs is in fact the exact opposite of this.

In the Kingdom of God, within God's Holy Priesthood, the Queen is supposed to be the stationary piece that stays at home with the supplies and the children; and, the King or the Ordained Priesthood Holder is supposed to be the highly mobile piece that goes out and fights the Battles of the Lord. That's the way that God designed the Priesthood in respect to Temporal Affairs and Temporal Blessings. In real life and within the Priesthood of God, the whole goal, the whole purpose of the game, and the whole purpose of the Priesthood is to protect and serve the Queens.

First, the argument from nature. It's not a perfect one, but it will have to do. PLEASE DON'T GO NUTS OR READ MORE INTO THIS ANALOGY, because it is an argument from nature which are automatically suspect. So, if you want to destroy an ant colony or destroy an ant nation, what do you do? What's the strategy? You kill the Queen! If you kill the Queen, then you win the game, and the ant colony is destroyed. So, how is the Priesthood of the ant colony set up? What is its Role? It is set up to protect and serve the Queen. The Priesthood and Priesthood Auxiliaries in the ant colony exist for only one purpose, to protect and serve the Queen. It has no other purpose. The whole of the ant colony, male and female, worker and soldier, functions under the Priesthood Role of protecting and serving the Queen. All the auxiliaries of the Priesthood, male and female auxiliaries, are designed to protect and serve the Queen, because if you kill the Queen then you win the game.

Okay, now, let's go back to the House of Israel and human beings, and watch what happens when the House of Israel enters into the Land of Caanan. Let's see what the Lord Himself ordained. The Lord told Joshua that if Joshua did it His way, then Joshua would win. It was a covenant. Do it the Lord's way, and you win.

So, how did the Lord command Joshua to do this? The Lord commanded Joshua and the priesthood to leave the women, children, and supplies back at camp; take the men or the priesthood, and go fight the Battles of the Lord. Over and over again, that was the command. Leave the Queens at home in safety, and take the men to battle, under the leadership or governorship of the Prophet Joshua. Whenever they did as the Lord commanded, they won. In respect to Temporal Affairs, they always won if they did it the Lord's way. If you want Temporal Blessings, then you do everything the Lord's way.

So, how does this apply here? Well, once again during the Restoration of the Gospel of Christ, Christ Jehovah restored His Priesthood to the earth. What is the purpose of this Priesthood? The Priesthood is meant to provide Spiritual and Temporal Blessings from the Lord by doing it all the Lord's way. What's the Lord's way in regards to Modern-day Israel, or the Latter-day Saints, who currently hold His Priesthood? Well, the Spiritual Goal is to create a nation of Priests or a nation of High Priests. That goal is coming along. So, what is the Temporal Goal of the Priesthood of God in our day and age? It is to protect and serve the Queens. That's what the Priesthood is all about! If we lose the Queens, then we lose the battle, and eventually we lose the game. So, in Temporal Affairs, the Priesthood of God is all about protecting and serving the Queens. If the Priesthood fails to do that, then they lose the game.

So what are the women, who want to be ordained into the Priesthood of God, really telling the Lord whenever they make such a request or demand? These women are telling the Lord that they don't want to be Queens; instead, they want to be Soldiers in the Army of the Lord. These women are telling the Lord that they want to be the King or the Bishop or the Knight and to go out and fight the Battles of the Lord. But, the Lord has already revealed to us over and over again that that is not the way He wants His Priesthood to be used in respect to Temporal Affairs (and Spiritual Affairs). Instead, the Lord wants the males to use His Priesthood to protect and serve the Queens. That's how we are going to win.

The Priesthood Holders of God are called upon to do Battle. They are called upon to go to war, whether it is a Spiritual Battle or a Temporal Battle. The Priesthood was meant to fight the Battles of God. The Priesthood was meant to protect and serve the Queens. That's the whole reason for its existence. If the Priesthood fails to protect and serve the Queens, then it fails in its purpose and its ultimate mission. Even in Heaven, the Priesthood is designed and meant to protect and serve the Queens. It's an Eternal Principle.

In the game of Chess, the battles are fought the World's Way. The King stays at home protected, and he sends out the Queen, the soldiers, and the peasants to fight his battles for him. They all go out and fight to protect and serve the King. That's the way the World does it.

What happened to King David when he chose to do it the World's Way and chose to stay home in Jerusalem, instead of going out at the head of his armies to fight the Battles of the Lord? What happened to King David when he chose to do it his way, rather than doing it the Lord's way? It's a very interesting analogy. David fell and failed because he eventually chose to do it his way, rather than doing it all the Lord's way. Yes, David continued to win some battles, but in the end, he personally lost the war. David started by rejecting the counsel of his Bishop or Priests. David stayed safe at home, and he ended up exploiting a Queen instead of protecting and serving her. Then David went out and murdered his Rook or his Knight. You can't win a war by doing those kinds of things.

What would happen to the Camp of Israel and the House of Israel if the Lord changed His mind and reversed His process or His Way? What if the Lord made the Kings the ones who stayed home with the children, and then gave the Queens the Priesthood, charged the Queens with the protection of the Camp of Israel, and sent the Queens out to do battle for the House of the Lord? How long would such an arrangement last before the Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist? Think about it. If you kill off all the Queens, then what happens to the Kingdom of God, either back then, or here and now?

Do we choose to do things the Lord's way, or do we fight to have things our way? If we do it the Lord's way then we are promised that we will win. If we choose to do it our way or demand to do it our way, the World's Way, then we have no guarantees whatsoever that we will actually win in the end.

This was a very interesting Priesthood Lesson.

The Lord does things for a reason. Whenever we figure out why the Lord does what He does, then we always find the answers to the questions that we are asking and seeking. It all becomes very simple to see and understand, once we figure out why the Lord is doing what He is doing.