Genesis 1 - 3

After completing the Book of Mormon on New Years Eve, I have decided to move my scripture study in the morning to the Old Testament while still reading a chapter or two in the Book of Mormon.

After eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Lord said to Eve -

"...I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee..." (Old Testament Genesis 3:16)

It is the statement of "he shall rule over thee" that caught my attention this morning. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines rule as -

"the exercise of authority or control : Dominion"

The first impulse many may feel with this definition probably derived from experience is that of oppression or force. But we witness in the scriptures both righteous rule and wicked rule.

The Lord said -

"Know ye not that I, the Lord your God....I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?"
(Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 29:7)

For there are some that -

"...do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide." (Book of Mormon Helaman 12:6)

And how does the Lord rule? -

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (New Testament John 15:13)

"He shall rule over thee" becomes more clear as the Paul taught -

"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it..." (New Testament Ephesians 5:23 - 25)

Husbands are to rule even as Christ would. Husbands who have been ordained after the Holy Order of the Son should rule such that -

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—" (Doctrine and Covenants Section 121:41 - 42)

This is how Christ rules such that his -

"...dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 121:46)

For if men rule in any manner as to

"...undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 121:37)

For even with Adam and Eve, the Lord-

"...gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency..." (Pearl of Great Price Moses 7:32)

And to rule with righteousness means we are all -

"...free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life." (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 10:23)

How then are we to rule or -

"...what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." (Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 27:27)