Lesson 21: Doctrine and Covenants 10–11

Doctrine and Covenants 10

The Wisdom of God

Following the loss of the 116 manuscript pages, the gold plates, Urim and Thummim, and power to translate were temporarily taken from Joseph Smith. The Lord accepted Joseph’s sincere repentance and explained how He had prepared a way for His work to continue through His wisdom and foreknowledge. This lesson can help students increase their confidence that God will help them overcome Satan’s cunning plans.

Possible Learning Activities

The wisest person you know

This section of the lesson is meant to help students think about God’s infinite wisdom. Feel free to adjust the following suggested subjects.

• Who is the wisest person you know, or who has lived on earth, in each of the following subjects?

Science, History, Religion, Health, Technology

• If you combined the wisdom of every person you thought of, how do you think that wisdom would compare to God’s?

Consider drawing a long vertical line on the board with the top representing God’s wisdom. Invite several students to place marks on the line where they think the combined wisdom of all the smartest people in the world is represented. You might ask students how passages like Mosiah 4:9 and Isaiah 55:8–9 could influence where they place marks on the line.

God is not only wiser than any of us. Read Doctrine and Covenants 10:43 to see what else God’s wisdom exceeds.

• How could it benefit someone to know the truth that the wisdom of God is greater than the cunning of the devil?

• What are some examples in the scriptures or from history in which God’s wisdom overcame a cunning plan of the devil?

Answers to the previous question might include how the Atonement of Christ was prepared to overcome the effects of the Fall, how vicarious temple work was prepared to help those who lived during the Apostasy, or how our sins can be overcome through faith in Christ and repentance.

As you study this lesson, think about Satan’s efforts to stop you from progressing spiritually and doing God’s work. Listen for the Holy Ghost witnessing that God fully understands Satan’s tactics and has already prepared a way for you to overcome them.

“The cunning of the devil”

Consider inviting a volunteer to remind the class of events that led to the loss of the first 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon. (Use the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 3” or the following paragraph if needed.)

Satan had a plan to interrupt the Book of Mormon translation and cause people to doubt the book’s truthfulness. Martin Harris pressured Joseph Smith to let him show the first 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon to his wife and others. Joseph continued to ask God for permission, even after God told him twice not to allow it. Martin ended up losing the pages. The angel Moroni then took the gold plates and the Urim and Thummim from Joseph.

• What concerns do you think Joseph would have had after losing the manuscript?

After a period of humble repentance, Joseph again received the gold plates and the Urim and Thummim. Moroni told him that the Lord had accepted his repentance.

• Why would the Lord’s message in Doctrine and Covenants 10:43 have been especially comforting for Joseph at that time?

In Doctrine and Covenants 10, the Lord taught Joseph that those who stole the pages planned to alter the words of the manuscript. If Joseph retranslated the same material, they would have claimed that he translated it differently and therefore was a false prophet (see Doctrine and Covenants 10:10–19).

The following questions can help students relate Joseph’s experience to their lives. You may want to write some of their answers on the board.

• What are examples of the work God asks youth to accomplish today?

• What cunning plans does Satan use to try to stop us from accomplishing God’s work?

Students might mention that Satan’s plans include addictive behaviors, distraction, or self-doubt. Another answer is that he pressures us to value the opinions or lifestyle of others more than God’s standards.

Record in your study journal the work that you feel God would have you focus on now and accomplish in your future. Pondering this can allow the Holy Ghost to inspire you with some ideas. What methods might Satan be using now in your life to try to keep you from accomplishing God’s work?

The wisdom of God

Help students discover God’s wisdom and foreknowledge by printing and cutting up enough copies of the accompanying handout for each student to have one puzzle piece. Invite them to read their passage and record on the back of their puzzle piece what God taught or inspired someone to do.

Then invite students to form groups of four with others who have different pieces. Invite groups to work together to discover how God prepared a way to overcome the loss of the 116 pages. Then invite groups to share with the class how this account can help increase our faith and trust in God.

The four aids below can be displayed or provided if students need a little more guidance to understand their passages.

The Wisdom of God

Aids:

1. 1 Nephi 19:1–3—God commanded Nephi to make two sets of plates that covered the same time period.

2. Words of Mormon 1:3–7—God inspired Mormon to include Nephi’s small plates with the abridgment of the same time period Mormon had already made from Nephi’s other plates.

3. Doctrine and Covenants 10:30, 40–42—God told Joseph Smith to translate Nephi’s small plates rather than retranslate what Martin had lost from Mormon’s abridgement of the large plates.

4. Doctrine and Covenants 10:43–46—God compared the content of the stolen pages (see verse 44) to what Joseph would translate moving forward (see verses 45–46).

God’s wisdom in our lives

Help students see how the wisdom of God can bless their lives. This could be done by creating a class discussion using questions like the following:

• Why do you think God wants teenagers today to know what He taught Joseph Smith in this section?

• What has God prepared to help us escape Satan’s cunning and continue to do His work?

Encourage learners to share the truths they are learning: For more practice on how to do this, see the training titled “Encourage learners to share the truths they are learning” in Teacher Development Skills: Invite Diligent Learning. This training will help you practice inviting students to share with each other what they are learning.

Invite students to look back at their journal entry. Have them add to it by recording how God has prepared a way for them to overcome the cunning plans of the devil in their lives. They could also include what they feel impressed to do to trust more in God’s wisdom to better accomplish His work.

Assure students that God’s wisdom far surpasses that of the devil. Consider testifying of the comfort that comes from knowing that God has foreseen and prepared a way for those with faith in Him to overcome all of Satan’s cunning plans.

Additional Resources

Did we lose teachings we needed with the loss of the 116 pages?

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that the Lord’s “wise purpose” (1 Nephi 9:5; Words of Mormon 1:7) for commanding the writing and preserving of the small plates of Nephi went beyond compensating for the loss of the 116 manuscript pages:

As the Lord instructs Joseph on the procedure for translating and inserting the material from the small plates into what had been begun as the translation of the abridged large plates, he says, “Behold, there are many things engraven upon the [small] plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel” (emphasis added). …

… We got back more than we lost. And it was known from the beginning that it would be so. It was for a wiser purpose. We do not know exactly what we missed in the 116 pages, but we do know that what we received on the small plates was the personal declarations of three great witnesses, three of the great doctrinal voices of the Book of Mormon, testifying that Jesus is the Christ. …

… As readers of the Book of Mormon, we have Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah to speak to us immediately as personal eye-witnesses of the premortal Savior. They are recipients of marvelous revelations regarding his life and ministry and of God’s covenant relationship with the House of Israel, ancient and modern. …

I think it would be exciting if the 116 pages of manuscript turned up some day, but if they were delivered to my office tomorrow I would never trade them for the material in the small plates of Nephi, for the “greater views” given through the great prophetic sentinels who stand at the gate of the book. (Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Standard unto My People” [address to Church Educational System religious educators, Aug. 9, 1994], 7–9)

What was in the 116 pages?

In the preface to the first edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith explained:

I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which said account, some person or persons have stolen and kept from me, notwithstanding my utmost exertions to recover it again. (“Preface to Book of Mormon, circa August 1829,” iii, josephsmithpapers.org)

Supplemental Learning Activities

Satan’s cunning

Consider beginning the lesson by helping students realize that Satan is cunning and strives to stop us from doing God’s work. You could create a class discussion by displaying a snare or trap and asking these questions:

• How could a snare or trap represent Satan’s intentions toward us?

• What thoughts and questions might go through someone’s mind after falling for one of Satan’s traps?

Continue the lesson by reminding students of the “trap” Satan laid regarding the 116 manuscript pages.

Video presentation

Consider showing the video “The Work of God” (13:35) to help students visualize events leading to the revelations the Lord gave in Doctrine and Covenants 3 and 10. It can also help them understand how Mormon’s inclusion of the small plates of Nephi demonstrates the wisdom of God. Part of this video may have been shown in the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 3.”

Trusting in God’s wisdom can help us obey His instructions

Neither Nephi nor Mormon fully understood the need for the small plates of Nephi to be created or included with Mormon’s record (see 1 Nephi 9:5–6; Words of Mormon 1:6–7). Consider inviting students to read 1 Nephi 9:5–6 and Words of Mormon 1:6–7, looking for why Nephi and Mormon would obey a commandment they didn’t understand. After students share what they found, you might ask them to share things that God has asked us to do for reasons we don’t fully understand. Invite them to share what they know about God that helps them obey Him even before understanding why they should.

Purposes of the Book of Mormon

You might invite students to read Doctrine and Covenants 10:46–50, 57–68, looking for the purposes of the Book of Mormon. For instance, we learn that the Book of Mormon brings to light the true doctrine of the Savior (see verse 62) and establishes His gospel “that there may not be so much contention” (verse 63). Invite students to share times when they have seen some of these purposes of the Book of Mormon realized in their lives or in the lives of people they know.

Pray always

Students could be invited to read Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 looking for blessings the Lord offers to those who pray always. Invite them to share how consistent prayer has helped them “come off conqueror.” Students could then search for the phrase “pray always” in other scriptures and add the promised blessings they find in those passages (examples include 3 Nephi 18:15–21; Doctrine and Covenants 19:38; 93:49).