01 There is an important reason that “secret” is singular in Amos 3.7
The
Latter-day
Saints use Amos 3:7 to prove that God will always reveal his word to
us through
the prophets. But is it possible that we have been misunderstanding
that verse?
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he
revealeth
his secret unto his
servants the
prophets.
The word "secret" in this verse is the Hebrew word,
sôd.
Strong's Exhausive Concordance gives us this definition:
assembly, counsel, inward, secret
counsel
From yacad; a session, i.e.
Company of
persons (in close deliberation); by implication, intimacy,
consultation, a
secret -- assembly, consel, inward, secret (counsel).
Amos
3:7 is
talking about a secret council or in this case a heavenly council. We can see other places where the scriptures
refer to this heavenly council.
16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not
unto the
words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they
speak a
vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
17 They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye
shall have
peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination
of his
own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
18 For who hath stood in the counsel [sôd] of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word?
who hath marked his word, and heard it?
. . .
22 But if they had stood in my counsel [sôd], and had caused my people to hear my words, then they
should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of
their doings.
Here the Lord is specifically telling us that we can recognize a true
prophet because he has
stood in the
Heavenly Council the sôd.
The Prophet Isaiah gives a description of being in this Heavenly
Council,
although he doesn't specifically use the word sôd.
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw
also the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled
the
temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he
covered
his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord
of hosts:
the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and
the house
was filled with smoke.
5 ¶Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes
have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts.
This Council is not just for the prophets, but it is shown by the Lord
to
"them that fear him." He will invite such individuals into this
Council so that he may reveal to them his covenant.
The secret [sôd]
of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his
covenant.
Of course the Hebrew word sôd
is not part of our latter-day scriptures, but we can observe the
same
experience of those that are introduced into this Heavenly Council as
Nephi
describes the experience of his father Lehi.
8 And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he
was
carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he
thought he saw God sitting
upon his throne,
surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of
singing and
praising their God.
. . .
14 And it came to pass that when my father had read and seen many
great and
marvelous things, he did exclaim many things unto the Lord; such as:
Great and
marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and
mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth; and, because thou art
merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they
shall perish!
The Expository
Dictionary
of the Bible Words, gives us the following:
Ezek 13:9 refers to the false prophets in
Israel
who are denied a place in the "council" (or "assembly")
of God's people. This "council" is probably a gathered group of God's
people who enjoy the special privilege of gaining access to genuine
divine
revelations. It may in fact refer to the body of genuine prophets in
Israel.
This phenomenon is given more explicit emphasis in Jer. 23:18, 22,
where false
prophets are condemned for proclaiming lies, since they have not
stood in Yahweh's
divine "council" This infers that God has an intimate
circle
of chosen servants gathered around him in order to communicate his
revelation
to his people. It may be argued that this "divine council"
experience is a necessary prerequisite for all genuine prophet
of Yahweh.
A similar perspective is seen in Pss. 89:7; 111:1; Job. 15:8 (p. 214)
The LDS standard interpretation of Amos 3:7 could be described with
the
following words: God's purpose is to reveal his words to the LDS
prophets,
seers and revelators so that they can pass it along to us. But that isn’t what it says!
A better representation of the words of Amos 3:7 would be expressed
this way: God's
purposes are fulfill by revealing to true prophets His Divine
Council. We
can then trust a true prophet
because he will testify of
being
introduced to that Divine Council.
So Amos 3:7 gives us a key to recognize true prophets instead of just
being a
touchstone to prove that anyone with the title "prophet" is
delivering God's words.