These powerful verses are centered on the latter-day gathering of Israel and the tribe of Joseph. The Lord’s latter-day gatherer, Joseph Smith, is prophesied of, and an allusion to Jacob’s allegory can be seen.
Commenting on the gathering in the last days, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said: “In the early years of this last dispensation, a gathering to Zion involved various locations in the United States: to Kirtland, to Missouri, to Nauvoo, and to the tops of the mountains. Always these were gatherings to prospective temples. With the creation of stakes and the construction of temples in most nations with sizeable populations of the faithful, the current commandment is not to gather to one place but to gather in stakes in our own homelands. There the faithful can enjoy the full blessings of eternity in a house of the Lord. There, in their own homelands, they can obey the Lord’s command to enlarge the borders of His people and strengthen her stakes (see D&C 101:21; 133:9, 14). In this way, the stakes of Zion are ‘for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth’ (D&C 115:6).”4
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf reemphasized the counsel for members of the Lord’s Church to stay in their homelands: “As the members will stay in their countries and build the Church, despite economic challenges and hardships, future generations will be grateful to those courageous modern-day pioneers. They abide by the loving invitation of the First Presidency given in 1999:
“‘In our day, the Lord has seen fit to provide the blessings of the gospel, including an increased number of temples, in many parts of the world. Therefore, we wish to reiterate the long-standing counsel to members of the Church to remain in their homelands rather than immigrate to the United States… .
“‘As members throughout the world remain in their homelands, working to build the Church in their native countries, great blessings will come to them personally and to the Church collectively’ (First Presidency letter, Dec. 1, 1999).”5
Why Does God Have a Covenant People?
Mormon spoke of the covenant the Lord made with the house of Jacob, or Israel (3 Nephi 5:25; see also “Israel and Zion in Latter-day Saint Usage” in commentary at 2 Nephi 8:9–10). Actually, we often speak of the “Abrahamic covenant,” named after Jacob’s grandfather, the great patriarch Abraham, but did the covenant begin with Jacob, or even with Abraham?
The scriptures indicate that the covenant has been on the earth beginning with Adam (Moses 5:58–59) and was then passed on through—
• Enoch (Genesis 6:18, footnote a, quoting JST, Genesis 8:23; Moses 7:50–52),
• Methuselah and Noah (Genesis 9:9, footnote a, quoting JST, Genesis 9:15; 9:11, footnote c, quoting JST, Genesis 9:17; Moses 8:2–3),
• Melchizedek and Abraham (Genesis 13:14, footnote a, quoting JST, Genesis 13:13),
• Isaac (Genesis 26:3–5), and
• Jacob (Genesis 28:13–15).
The covenant then became part of the mission of all the house of Jacob, or Israel.
It is a practice in scriptural history to name various powers and privileges after specific individuals who were exceptional examples of the use of those powers and privileges. For instance, we speak of the Adamic language, the Order of Enoch, the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Aaronic Priesthood, the law of Moses, the Spirit of Elijah, the Book of Mormon, and the Abrahamic covenant. To be sure, none of those things belongs to any of those individuals; they all belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. But to avoid too frequent repetition of his holy name, we label many things in his gospel after outstanding mortal models or prototypes. The special covenant relationship of God with his people Israel has been called after Abraham because he was a classic exemplar of its use, even though it is truly the covenant of Jesus Christ.
What does the covenant of Jesus Christ with his people consist of? Marvelous blessings are promised as his disciples comply with his eternal laws. To illustrate, we have blessings promised to Abraham and his descendants (Abraham 2:9–11; Galatians 3:26–29; D&C 132:29–37, 49–50; see also LDS Bible Dictionary, “Abraham, Covenant of,” and Topical Guide, “Abrahamic Covenant”):
1. Become a great nation through whom all the families of the earth will be blessed
2. Everlasting covenant of celestial marriage
3. A prolific posterity
4. Blessings of the gospel and the priesthood
5. Blessings on those who bless; curses on those who curse
6. Land inheritance
7. Kings
8. The Messiah
9. The great latter-day Prophet Joseph Smith (D&C 124:58)
10. Adoption into the covenant lineage of those born outside the covenant.
That sounds remarkable, to be on the receiving end of all those promised blessings! Why wouldn’t everyone on earth want to accept and enjoy all those blessings? Because there is something more to the covenant. It entails not only blessings but also responsibilities. The covenant also includes serious expectations of duties to perform as God’s elect or chosen lineage. His people are chosen not only to have blessings poured down on them but to fulfill the covenant responsibilities of disseminating the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the rest of the world. Moses wrote about God’s covenant people as a “holy people, … a peculiar people … above all the nations” (Deuteronomy 14:2), and Isaiah wrote about them being “a light to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 49:6). Jesus himself taught: “I give unto you to be the light of this people… . Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (3 Nephi 12:14, 16). Covenant people are obligated to “bear this ministry and Priesthood” (Abraham 2:9) to all others and invite them to join in—to be “grafted in” or “adopted” into God’s family. What they had to bear is often referred to in the Old Testament as a “burden,” because they recognized that to be a covenant person carried weighty responsibilities.
“Take my yoke upon you,” Jesus said (Matthew 11:29). Animals were yoked together to harness their energy and strength and increase their productivity. Though a yoke was, in a sense, a weight or a burden, it was a useful, positive, desirable thing—as is the yoke of submission and obedience to God and its consequent freedom from the burden of sin. “My yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30). The Savior’s burden, carrying the responsibility of a covenant person, is certainly easier than carrying the heavy burden of the sinner. “My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). “Light” is the opposite of heavy, and it is the opposite of dark. Those who emulate Christ discover that the work of God is not so much wearisome as it is joyous to the soul, and their reward is “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23).