Joyful Wells | Sharing Cups of Water

The Order of this Priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed to whom the promises were made. This Order was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage in the following manner: From Adam to Seth, who was ordained by Adam at the age of sixty-nine years, and was blessed by him three years previous to his (Adam’s) death, and received the promise of God, by his father, that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord, and that they should be preserved unto the end of the earth, because he (Seth) was a perfect man. And his likeness was the express likeness of his father’s, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things and could be distinguished from him only by his age. - T&C 154:9-10

The Restoration Edition scriptures (linked in the menu of my blog) include a timeline of the Fathers who held a place among the Holy Order . It's an important visual. The scriptural account of this timeline can be read here . One thing that particularly caught my attention was when Mahalalel was ordained. Notice from the visual that three men—Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah—were ordained to the Holy Order before him [1]. Yet, he appears ahead of them in the timeline as the next-in-line Patriarch.  We do not know why they were ordained before him because more needs to be written about Mahalalel. However, the timeline and scriptures suggest that he was a righteous man who stood as a Father like Adam and to whom we must be sealed.  Was he not worthy to be among the Holy Order until later in life? Was he rebellious, wayward, or disruptive to the community early on? Was he lacking some virtue that needed to be obtained first? We can only guess.  But I can't help but think of Cain...

The Book of Mormon follows the father-to-son pattern of the Holy Order  that was instituted in the beginning. Lehi was the first Patriarch father of that scattered branch ( 1 Nephi 3:4 ). Nephi was Lehi's next oldest and righteous son to occupy that position after him. And so on. But do you notice that the next person to inherit this position after Nephi isn't any of Nephi's children? Instead, it went to Nephi's younger brother, Jacob. Why didn't it continue in the father-to-son Order? Did Nephi not have a righteous son? It went to Nephi's brother instead of any of his children because as long as Lehi had righteous sons who were alive, the father-to-son Order would continue to follow his line, not Nephi's. Jacob was the oldest, righteous, living son of Lehi after Nephi.  Yet, Nephi tells us that his "seed" are the ones who will write on the plates: " Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which ...