We find the following in the words of Malachi, which Jesus gave to the Nephites: “Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (3 Nephi 25:4-5). With this in mind, it is interesting that in 1 Nephi 21:11, Isaiah prophesies that in the last days, the Lord will gather his people to Zion: “And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highway shall be exalted” (Isaiah 49:11). According to Richard Anthony, this “mountain” set up by the Lord is through the tribe of Joseph, and constitutes the “way” God will redeem his people (D&C 133:18:34). The “highway” of the Lord leads to the “mountain of the Lord’s house.” It was Moses (3 Nephi 25:4), of the loins of Joseph, who delivered the keys of this gathering, or the keys of this highway, to Joseph Smith, who was also of the loins of Joseph, on April 3, 1836 in the Kirtland temple (D&C 110:11). It is a subject of great meditation, that this temple in Kirtland was built basically as a house where these keys could be restored, and instruction in their use could take place. The Kirtland temple was different in purpose than other Latter-day temples.
It is in the temple, or “mountain” or “high place,” that sealing powers are exercised. These sealing powers, or the keys of these sealing powers were held anciently by Elijah, the Tishbite, or prophet from Tishbe. The town of Tishbe was located in the lands assigned to and settled by the tribe of Manasseh. It was this same Elijah (3 Nephi 25:5), also a descendant of Joseph, who delivered these keys to Joseph Smith on April 3, 1836 in the “mountain” of the Lord’s house, and made a “way” for the children of Israel, here and in the spirit world, to be “exalted.” [Richard D. Anthony, Isaiah & Joseph, pp. 64-65, unpublished] [See the commentary on 2 Nephi 7; 3 Nephi 24:1]