Abraham 3: 22-23

Abraham 3
22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

This scripture is one of my favorites. Mainly because it is very deep. Today, I will do my best to give a good understanding, however, and that is a big however, these verses are a perfect example of a real need for personal revelation to understand what the Lord is really trying to teach by allowing us to have these scriptures, and not simply take it from someone else.

As we read the first verse we come across an interesting statement, "the intelligences that were organized." Joseph Smith taught that the spirit of man can not be created (Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 160), and we learn from Doctrine and Covenants 93:29, that intelligence, or light and truth, was in the beginning with God.  So we can infer that these intelligences that were many of the noble and great ones were the spirits, or organized intelligences.  This is a perfect example of what I mean by deep doctrine.  We are talking about what the very building blocks of our spirits are.  That to me is very deep, primarily because it leaves the foundational beliefs and leaves us to ask God if it is true, on the faith that we will receive an answer.

In the next paragraph we are give a diagram, and I will do my best to illustrate that for you, where brackets are my added words to help us along:

  And God saw that these [the noble and great ones] that they were good [from the Hebrew tov ( מזל ) which would be the same context as the creation, so I infer its use here, actually means functional in Hebrew, so these noble and great ones were 'ready'], and he stood in the midst of them [noble and great ones], and he said: These [noble and great ones] I will make my rulers; for he stood in the among those that were spirits [here is were I really need a diagram to show, but picture the Target logo.  There in the middle is God, and the first ring are the noble and great ones, who he is in the midst of. Then the outer right includes all the other spirits, or all hos other children, who he was among.], and he saw that they [the rest of the spirits] were good [prepared]; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them [the noble and great ones, the Lord would have said 'these' if he was talking about the rest]; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

With all that said, and I hope it was clear we can see several truths.  First, although all are loved by God, not all were/are equal in preparation for this world. The noble and great ones were prepared before the other spirits, and even more, they were chosen for the ruling in this life. Since we live in a world that is all about the populace choosing leaders, I feel it is near impossible for us to understand what it is to be chosen to rule by our Lord. Additionally, I feel that the inclusion of the word 'many' lets us know that upon being a noble and great one, and knowing that in the last days there will be those in this group that will fall, there are those that are prepared to step in and continue the Lord's work.

As I conclude, I have to ask myself, what did I promise to fulfill during my time here? Am I a noble and great one? And, am I fulfilling that for which God chose me to do?