“What Is It That Ye Desire of Me?”

Brant Gardner

“These words” are Jesus’s charge that the twelve will be judges in Israel (3 Ne. 27:27). After giving them this eternal responsibility, the Messiah now offers them a personal reward. Jesus had asked an apparently similar question at the beginning of this visit: “And Jesus again showed himself unto them, for they were praying unto the Father in his name; and Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said unto them: What will ye that I shall give unto you?” (3 Ne. 27:2). What they wanted then was an answer to an institutional question, but now Jesus’s question, “What is it that ye desire of me?” asked of each one individually, is an invitation to share a heartfelt desire.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 5

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