Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face, as one man talketh with
another; and he told me of the works which his hands had made;
And he said unto
me: My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out), behold I will show you all
these. And he put his hand upon mine eyes, and I saw those things which his
hands had made, which were many; and they multiplied before mine eyes, and I
could not see the end thereof.
And it was in the
night time when the Lord spoke these words unto me: I will multiply thee, and thy seed
after thee, like unto these; and if thou canst count the number of
sands, so shall be the number of thy seeds.
And the Lord said
unto me: Abraham, I show these things
unto thee before ye go into Egypt, that ye may declare all these words.
If two things exist, and there be one above the other, there
shall be greater things above them; therefore Kolob is the greatest of all the Kokaubeam that thou hast
seen, because it is nearest unto me. (Abraham 3: 11-16)
These are very comforting thoughts as I ponder them. God is showing Abraham that there is order in the Universe and He, God, is in control. Man has his agency, but the ultimate victory will be God's. We live in a time of great confusion, a time of "wars and rumors of wars," a time of terror. The time of Newtonian physics which described and orderly set of laws has mostly been sidelined in favor of Einstein-based relativity, it is good to know that the universe, both known and unknown, has order and purpose.
The Books of Genesis and Moses teach us that when God created the heaven's and the earth, He said such things as "let there be light." The elements obeyed God. The universe obeys God. Only man disobeys! By the power of God's Word, the heavens and the earth were created. Then God watched as all nature obeyed Him, and then pronounced that it was "good." John tells us that Jesus Christ, Jehovah, is the Word when he wrote: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. (John 1:1) How can I not feel safe when this is the power the supports my world and universe
[1] The word 'kokob', which appears in this verse is the Hebrew word for star. 'kokaubeam' is one possible legitimate Hebrew plural for 'stars'. Now, what about the others? 'shinehah' is interesting. It is very close to the Hebrew word for 'two', which is 'shenayim'. (Remember that Hebrew had no written vowels, so the two words are actually closer together than they appear [this reinforces what I wrote about yesterday in terms of KLB being pronounced KoLoB]). 'olea' is also very interesting. It is close to a Hebrew word that means 'night'. (The word in question is 'layil'. One possible variant is 'layolah'.)
Why is this all interesting? Because all three of these word appear in the same Old Testament verse - Genesis 1:16: 'And God made two (shenayim) great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night (layil): he made the stars (kowkab) also. (http://www.lds-mormon.com/boanames.shtml)
This source states that it is unfortunate for the Latter-day Saints because the words are Hebrew and not Egyptian and Joseph Smith was studying Hebrew. I, personally, think that is beside the point. Abraham was Hebrew (a descendant of Eber) and thus spoke an ancient form of Hebrew. Also, the way Joseph translated is as much revelation as inspiration. In the Book of Mormon, he did not translated Mayan-type characters or reformed Egyptian characters. He look at the plates through the Urim and Thummim and read aloud what he saw. His scribe then wrote word for word what he read. I believe it is safe to assume that when he translated the Book of Abraham he also wrote what he saw or what was put into his mind by the Spirit. He certainly couldn't translate hieroglyphics - no one in America could until after 1850 - so what he wrote had to be both inspiration and revelation, not a stepwise translation. I find no problem with his using Hebrew names, particularly since he was studying the language at the time. What non-Mormon scholars have seen as deficits in Joseph's works, after time, are often proven to be strengths instead.
Professor Michael Rhodes of BYU Dept. of Ancient Scripture once used the word pronoia in describing God. Noia is the root that means knowing or thinking. It is found in the word paranoia as in thinking something is threatening when it is not and in the word metanoia which means the ability to think about one's ones own thinking. Pronoia, therefore, means what one would expect: the ability to think, see, or know in advance of the event. Dr. Rhodes says that it is God's ability to foresee that allows Him to make all things happen in accordance with His will. Because God's will is always benevolent and not malevolent, pronoia also means that there are things working in our favor in the universe; they are not "out to get me" so to speak.
Paul and Nephi both addressed this idea when they wrote:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngxj_4MTK-Y
This is an interesting rendition of the hymn "How Firm a Foundation" which is taken from Isaiah 41)
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