Lights and Perfections

Reading:   Ether 3

The tool by which Joseph Smith translated the plates, was the Urim and Thummim.  In preparation for today's blog, I did a little digging on the Urim and Thummim and discovered that the Hebrew translation for Urim and Thummim is, "Lights and Perfections."  Also, the term is not just used to describe stones of translation but also as a place...

D&C 130:8 The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim. 

So the place where God resides is of great Light and Perfection!  The Urim and Thummim, as a tool, gave Joseph Smith "light and perfection" in order to translate the record.  Light and perfection means Joseph gained a perfect understanding of languages and a light of knowledge brought forth, out of darkness, those things which would confound most men.  

Understanding the Urim and Thummim as light and perfection really helps me contextualize the item as not just a tool but a celestial opening, a key of sorts, to gain light and perfection a portion of the mortal veil would have to be lifted and the presence of God palpable.

So with the understanding of Urim and Thummim as light and perfection, we can now read about God introducing the interpreters to the brother of Jared... 

ETHER 3:23-24

23    And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write. 

24    For behold, the language which ye shall write I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write. 

Light and perfection was bestowed upon these two stones and sealed up unto The Lord's own due time.  This knowledge, for me, makes these two stones the most precious and valuable items on this Earth.  No other item can unlock knowledge and open a window to the celestial perfection of God - two stones, Urim and Thummim, light and perfection, I will never view them as just a tool again.

~Kipling