133. I AM WHO/WHOM I AM
(The Lord Will Announce Himself)
All of this being truth, then the
day will come when Christ shall announce himself and make it all clear exactly
who it is that he is. There are many evidences of this, who he is, which have
been covered in this text. Perhaps from this last perspective a putting of
some of them together from the perspective of Christ's self announcement of
his person may be enlightening. The Jews knew who he was, they knew that he
was of the linage of David, and yet 'in truth' they did accuse him of being
a Samaritan, that is of a 'mix of Ephraim and other strangers'.
"Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan . . . ?" ~
John 8:48
To that charge Jesus did not answer in the negative. In fact he did not answer
that at all, which is as an admission that that part of the accusation was
indeed correct. David was the son of that Ephrathite/Ephraimite Jesse, who was
in turn the son of Obed whose mother was a Moabite, and who had been raise up
as seed unto the dead, Mahlon and Elimelech, Ephrathites/Ephraimites. Even as
son of David, the ancestry of Jesus was that of the former wife of a Hittite,
Bathsheba. No, in truth the whole of the house of David could not deny such a
charge. It was ironic that Jesus the Son of King David would be so charged by
the Jewish leadership who not only knew well of that which they did speak, but
that they would bring such upon the House of David by their own voice. The
Jews had claim David that he was blood of their blood. But this in the days of
Jesus was not as a claiming of the House of David, but a rebuke against the
Son of David. Thus it is well that we next look to the very blessing of Judah
under the hand of Jacob next for our next thought link.
"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and
unto him shall the gathering of the people
be." ~ Genesis 49:10
It is not to be disputed that so the blood desent from Judah was to be the
holders of the sceptre and/or the ruling lawgivers 'until'
Shiloh, who was and is Jesus Christ should come. And even at that was not
Jesus of the blood line of Judah and the Son of David by way of his mother
Mary? But the key perspective here is that Shiloh, Jesus, had more than one
ancestrial inheritance. Not only was he of the blood of Judah, but he had was
the legal and rightful heir of the birthright covenant as being raised up to
the dead and so by the Law of Moses the heir of that house of Ephraim whereby
the right of the birthright and the Covenant of Abraham did come. And to
Jesus Christ as that heir of Ephraim was the gathering of the people in the
latter days to be. That is the very position of the LDS Church, that they are
the heirs of the birthright of Ephraim and those very promises of the fathers
(D&C 27:10) wherein they as of Ephraim where and are to gather Israel unto
Christ.
"And they shall bring forth their treasures unto the children
of Ephraim, my servants. . . . And there shall they fall down and be crowned
with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the
children of Ephraim. . . . Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting
God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of
Ephraim and his fellows." ~ D&C 133:30, 32, 34
And here now it is well that we revisit Jacob's blessing upon Joseph and his
two sons as recorded in not just Genesis chapter 48, but the JST version of
Genesis 48 which speaks not only of Joseph of Egypt in his day but of
Joseph's posterity's postition and responsibility in the latter days.
"For thou hast prevailed, and thy father's house hath bowed
down unto thee, even as it was shown unto thee, before thou wast sold into
Egypt by the hands of thy brethren; wherefore thy brethren shall bown down
unto thee, from generation to generation, unto the fruit of of thy loins
for ever; For thou shall be a light unto my people, to deliver them in the
days of their captivity, from bondage; and to bring salvation unto them, when
they are altogether bowed down under sin." ~ JST Genesis 48:10-11
Here the Lord by the mouth of Jacob so states that Joseph has prevailed.
And this does last speaks of the latter days and the deliverance unto salvation of
the gospel being preached unto the nations of the earth, by which the nation
of the earth well be blessed under that Covenant of Abraham by Ephraim and
his companions. And the fruit of the loins of Joseph, as well as of Ephriam,
is he who is Messiah ben Joseph/Ephraim and whom all of Israel will bow
down to and worship for ever and ever. And he it is who is the same as Jesus
Christ. Who, upon this text being true, may one day so state:
"I AM THAT I AM,
AND
I AM WHO/WHOM I AM,
AND
I AM OF EPHRAIM,
AS WELL AS BEING OF THE BLOOD OF JUDAH"
And then will Jesus Christ elborate to the people just who it is that he is.
That he is our God and King, so appointed and annointed by the Father to
act in His stead in all things pertaining to this the second estate from
its beginning to its end, he is both Alpha and Omega, our Mediator,
Advocate, Intercessor, Priest and King; he being the only name given under
heaven whereby man miy be saved to receive salvation and exaltation. Amen