D&C 108: Lyman Sherman Is Forgiven for Coming

Corbin messaged me Tuesday afternoon with just "got a few minutes?" and when I called he started talking before I'd said hello. Three weeks ago he'd changed a date range on a settlement export, and a few hundred test transactions had landed in the wrong month of a report nobody outside our team opens. No customer saw it. He'd caught it himself and spent most of the time since working out how to tell me. I said thanks and asked him to put a line in the ticket. It took four minutes, and Wednesday morning the chapter on my list was D&C 108, which opens on a man who came in to ask for counsel.

Who was Lyman Sherman, and why did he ask?

The heading on the section gives the date as December 26, 1835, at Kirtland, Ohio. That's the day after Christmas. It says the revelation came through Joseph Smith at the request of Lyman Sherman, who was already one of the seven presidents of the Seventy and who had asked for a revelation that would make known his duty.

Sherman was born in 1804 in Monkton, Vermont, and he'd gone to Missouri with Zion's Camp in 1834. That march started with the revelation I wrote about in D&C 103, so by the time he walked into the room in Kirtland he'd already done the hard physical thing a lot of people only read about.

The Student Manual quotes Joseph Smith's journal as saying Sherman came in and asked for the word of the Lord, and adds that he'd been promised a revelation about his duty. So he came asking what he should do. What he got first was a sentence about his sins.

He's forgiven in the first verse, and no sin is named

Verily thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Lyman: Your sins are forgiven you, because you have obeyed my voice in coming up hither this morning to receive counsel of him whom I have appointed. (D&C 108:1)

Sins, plural, and none of them listed. There's no confession anywhere in the text and no line where Lyman says what he'd done or feared he'd done. The reason it gives is the coming itself. He obeyed the voice by showing up that morning to receive counsel from the man the Lord had appointed.

The word "because" is the one I keep turning over, since forgiveness in a lot of the stories I grew up on arrives at the end, after the long walk back and the restitution and the year of being good. Here it's the first thing said and the stated cause is a morning errand. It's one man and one revelation, and the Lord knew whatever there was to know, but the verse does tie the forgiveness to going to be counseled and not to anything Lyman had yet proven.

Readers always want to fill the blank, and the Student Manual, drawing on Smith and Sjodahl's commentary, reads verse 2 as an answer to a fear that Sherman had resisted the Lord and lost his standing. That fits "resist no more my voice," and I'd leave the blank where the Lord left it.

Therefore, let your soul be at rest concerning your spiritual standing, and resist no more my voice. (D&C 108:2)

"Concerning your spiritual standing" is a pretty specific thing to be told to stop worrying about, and I can't find a general-purpose reading of it.

Rest first, then "arise up"

Verse 2 says to let your soul be at rest and verse 3 starts with "And arise up," which is a lot to ask of someone in the same breath.

And arise up and be more careful henceforth in observing your vows, which you have made and do make, and you shall be blessed with exceeding great blessings. (D&C 108:3)

"More careful" is a comparison, and it assumes he was already careful and could stand to be more so, which describes most people better than "careless" does. The vows are the ones "which you have made and do make," so the sentence reaches back to the ones behind him and forward to the ones he hasn't made yet.

I've sat through code reviews where the author had clearly decided in advance that he was in trouble. He'd wrapped a retry loop in three layers of try blocks and left a comment that said "should be fine," and the one query he wasn't sure about was down at the bottom of the diff where you had to scroll to find it. Corbin didn't do that. He sent me the ticket number before I asked. The forgiveness in verse 1 doesn't release Lyman from the work in verse 3, but the order means he gets told where he stands before he's asked to do anything.

Waiting for the solemn assembly

Verses 4 through 6 turn to waiting, and the assignment there is mostly to sit still until called.

Wait patiently until the solemn assembly shall be called of my servants, then you shall be remembered with the first of mine elders, and receive right by ordination with the rest of mine elders whom I have chosen. (D&C 108:4)

Nothing in the verse names a date or building. The Student Manual connects the solemn assembly to the meetings in the Kirtland Temple that began on January 13, 1836 (eighteen days after this revelation) and to the anointing of church leaders later that month. I find that sensible. Verse 5 attaches a condition, "if you continue faithful," and verse 6 gives him the right to preach the gospel wherever he's sent.

His life after this is on the Church's record: he was ordained a high priest and placed on the Kirtland high council in 1837. In October 1838 he was at Far West, Missouri, serving on the high council there for a time. In January 1839 he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve, and he died that year at Far West before he was ordained. None of the eight verses mention the Twelve, so I wouldn't read this chapter as a promise about that. The chapter ends in 1835, and he died in 1839, a little over three years later.

Strengthen your brethren

Therefore, strengthen your brethren in all your conversation, in all your prayers, in all your exhortations, and in all your doings. (D&C 108:7)

Four places, running from the ordinary to the formal and back out again, and "conversation" comes first. In the language of the 1830s that word covered how a person carried himself and not only what he said, so I read it as the whole way he went about his days. Then prayers, then exhortations, which is closest to what a president of the Seventy would be expected to do. And then "all your doings," which has no edge on it at all.

Verse 7 opens with "Therefore," so the strengthening comes as a consequence of the verses before it and not a separate assignment tacked on at the end. The sequence on the page is forgiven, at rest, careful, patient, and then strengthening other people. I wrote about Paul sending Timothy to a church that needed steadying, and Paul ending up the one who got comforted. The Timothy story isn't a close parallel, but Sherman had come asking about himself and was told to look out toward the others.

And behold, and lo, I am with you to bless you and deliver you forever. Amen. (D&C 108:8)

"Behold, and lo" is two ways of saying look. It's a strange thing to double up on, and it makes me think somebody wanted him to actually look.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Lyman Sherman?

Born in Monkton, Vermont, in 1804. He went with Zion's Camp in 1834, was appointed a president of the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1835, and was ordained a high priest in 1837. He died at Far West in 1839.

When was D&C 108 given?

December 26, 1835, at Kirtland, Ohio. The section heading says so.

What does "solemn assembly" mean in verse 4?

The verse doesn't define it, and I haven't seen a better candidate than the Student Manual's, which ties it to the Kirtland Temple meetings of January 1836.

Does verse 1 mean you have to confess something to be forgiven?

Don't build a procedure out of eight verses. This one shows a man going to the person the Lord had appointed to counsel him, with the forgiveness stated in the first sentence. If you've got something heavy, talk to your bishop. That's his job and he's better at it than I am.

I owe my team a review of a design doc that was due last Friday. Thursday I'm home with a long quiet stretch, and I'm going to do it before I open anything else.

— D.