Chapter 8—Three Nets to Catch His People
Great danger comes from Satan’s ever-present nets that lure us by deceptively masquerading as anything except what they really are. These nets, or veils of darkness, bind us and blind us, causing us to not see or understand. The Damascus Document describes how Satan (Belial or Beliar) ensnares us: Satan convinces us to justify our variances from God as acts “of righteousness.”
[There are] three nets of Belial with which Levi son of Jacob said that he catches Israel by setting them up as three kinds of righteousness. The first is fornication, the second is riches, and the third is profanation of the temple. Whoever escapes the first is caught in the second, and whoever saves himself from the second is caught in the third.
This verse may relate to Isaiah’s record: “Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare” (Isaiah 24:17–18). Isaiah calls attention to the three sins or nets that ensnare the temple’s priesthood. When viewed in parallel to the Dead Sea Scrolls, fear (lacking faith in the Lord) ties to fornication, or setting our heart on something besides Him; the pit ties to loving riches or the world; and snares profane the temple by altering His word and way.
The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of evil’s nets with great interest because Israel’s modification to temple rites and revealed laws, corruption in the priesthood, and Jerusalem’s growing tolerance for compromise were major reasons Qumran’s community left Jerusalem to await “the restoration of the true temple.”
Net One—Fornication and Fear
Hard hearts coincide with fornication of flesh or spirit. Although sexual impurity increases in times of apostasy, spiritual fornication is far more subtle, grievous, and prevalent. Our spirit and “body is not for fornication but for the Lord” (1 Corinthians 6:13).
Fornication is a sin of the heart, a longing for the enticements of the flesh or the harlot Babylon. Because a harlot’s charm, beauty, and appeal can capture our attention and divert us from our higher purpose, she “is like a deep pit” who “increases the unfaithful among men” (Proverbs 23:27–28, Net Bible). “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her,” including the harlot Babylon, “hath committed adultery already in his heart” (3 Nephi 12:28). Lusts are desires that are not needful or congruent with God’s will. Lusting for Babylon brings severe penalties: “They shall not have the Spirit but shall deny the faith” (D&C 63:16). A wisdom text says, “I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare” (Ecclesiastes 7:26, NIV). The Hebrew words for ‘holy ones and anointed ones’ can also mean ‘harlots and abominations,’ so we must discern well.
The Dead Sea Scrolls describe persuasive but erring leaders (‘Scoffer’ and ‘Wicked Priest’) who oppose a true ‘Teacher of Righteousness’. There is “a strong argument for recognizing ‘the Wicked Priest’ as a ruling High Priest in Jerusalem.” He was “called by the name of truth when he first arose. But when he ruled over Israel his heart became proud and he forsook God and betrayed His precepts for the sake of riches . . . heaping sinful iniquity upon himself” and all who followed him. He built up “his city of vanity,” committed “abominable deeds in Jerusalem, and defiled the Temple of God.” As a ‘spouter of lies,’ he spoke error and masterfully rebranded his worship reforms as progress so many followed him.
When they were unfaithful and forsook Him, [God] hid His face from Israel and His Sanctuary . . . [God] raised up a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart. And he made known . . . that which God had done to the latter generation, the congregation of traitors, to those who departed from the way.
This was the time of which it is written, Like a stubborn heifer thus was Israel stubborn when the Scoffer arose who shed over Israel the water of lies. He caused them to wander in a pathless wilderness, laying low the everlasting heights, abolishing the ways of righteousness and removing the boundary with which the forefathers had marked out their inheritance . . . They sought smooth things and preferred illusions . . . They transgressed the Covenant and violated the Precept.In the last days another ruling priest will arise and empty “the cup of wrath of God” because of his extreme iniquity. He and his followers are “builders of the wall.” Levi saw the future with “all men corrupting their way, and that unrighteousness had built for itself walls and lawlessness sat upon towers” (Testament of Levi 2:3). Ezekiel describes this metaphorical wall as one that offers no protection, being built on foolishness and error. Its foundation is compromised but instead of repairing it, the peoples’ prophets cover it with whitewash. God “hated the builders of the wall . . . Those who daub it with [whitewash] have not understood . . . and rained down lies.” A targum links whitewash to those who are “prophesying according to their own wishful thinking.”
Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. (Ezekiel 22:28, NASB)Many priesthood leaders quote each other as if it is scripture, but God has not spoken to them. He is “against those prophets who speak their own words and claim they came from me” (Jeremiah 23:30, Good News). “Those prophets lie by claiming they speak for me, but I have not even chosen them to be my prophets. And they still think their words will come true” (Ezekiel 13:6, CEV).
Jesus rebuked priesthood leaders who themselves are like a whitewashed wall: You are “whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of the bones of the dead and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (JST Matthew 23:24–25). Paul knew that even the highest priesthood leader is not immune: “God shall smite thee, thou whited wall!” So “judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
His people “have been led astray by teachers of lies and have rebelled . . . [Thou] didst command them to mend their ways by walking in the way of holiness . . . They have staggered aside from the way” and “wallow in sin.” Foolish prophets “seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace” (Ezekiel 13:10). They spout lies, saying, “disgrace will not overtake us” (Micah 2:6, NIV), “disasters will never come our way!” (NLT). “All is well in Zion!” they assure their followers (2 Nephi 28:21).
“For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak” (Psalm 59:12). They lie by perpetuating a perverted gospel and claiming priesthood power, but “their hands are defiled” with iniquity. “Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell” (2 Nephi 9:34).
Prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ . . . Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!
Your prophets . . . have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say, ‘The Lord declares,’ and expect him to fulfill their words. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, ‘The Lord declares,’ though I have not spoken?
I am against you. Because they lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash . . . It is going to fall . . . I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord. So I will pour out my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. (Ezekiel 13:2–8, 10–11, 14–15, NIV)
God permits a “lying spirit” (1 Kings 22:23) to deceive those who “receive not the love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Not long after the modern Restoration, “a false and lying spirit seemed to be creeping into the Church.” So powerful was the deception that “nearly all [the brethren] believed that the manifestations were of God.” Concerned that continued deception would cause their fall, Joseph said, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also had its false spirits” that “cause the Spirit of God to be withdrawn, and to uproot and destroy those glorious principles which had been developed for the salvation of the human family.” He warned, “No quorum in the Church was entirely exempt from the influence of those false spirits.”
As anciently, covenant makers today “have been treacherous” (Isaiah 24:16, Gileadi). Treachery acts with unfaithfulness, deceit, or transgression, departing from His way, having spiritual infidelity to God. Jacob’s son Simeon knew future generations “shall be corrupted in fornication” and issued a strong warning to all potential heirs of the covenant: “Beware, therefore, of fornication, for fornication is the mother of all evils, separating from God and bringing near to Belial.” The solution? “Two years therefore I afflicted my soul with fasting in the fear of the Lord, and I learnt that deliverance . . . cometh by the fear of God. For if a man flee to the Lord, the evil spirit runneth away from him and his mind is lightened” (Testament of Simeon 3:3–5).
Levi also taught his children to “fear the Lord your God with your whole heart and walk in simplicity according to His law” (Testament of Levi 13:1). Man’s “own counsel shall cast him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet and he walketh upon a snare” (Job 18:7–8). “By transgression an evil man is ensnared . . . The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted” (Proverbs 29:6, 25, NASB). “Fear of the Lord is a life-giving fountain; it offers escape from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27, NLT).
Satan seeks to seduce and ensnare us. Because Satan, who is “prince of the kingdom of wickedness,” can only rule if God’s spirit departs, the faithful declare, “I will not keep Belial within my heart and in my mouth shall be heard no folly or sinful deceit, no cunning or lies shall be found on my tongue and no abominations shall be found upon it.” All who are proud, in error, or believe their own works are righteousness, are caught in Satan’s net. He “leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever” (2 Nephi 26:22).
Net Two—The Pit of Riches
A wandering heart is a precursor to being ensnared by riches. Seeking wealth is a temptation that appeals to almost everyone. In the world’s eyes, accumulating wealth is a worthy (and expected) endeavor. This deterrent can easily consume our life because we are led to believe that we can do or become nothing in this world without money. Even if we have sufficient for our needs, Babylon boldly declares it is still not enough. For most, the desire to obtain more profit, product, position, or power makes the pursuit of riches a never-satiated quest, but to have our needs met—and not be content—is sin. God rebukes all whose “hearts are not satisfied” and who “obey not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness” (D&C 56:15).
When chasing wealth becomes the focus of our heart and mind, it jeopardizes faith. “Flee these things” (1 Timothy 6:11) because they keep us ensnared in the pit.
Men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. (1 Timothy 6:5–7, 9)Jesus began His ministry by declaring that the poor are the intended recipients of His gospel: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18). The poor in spirit humbly “look unto the Lord” (Micah 7:7), having no power in and of themselves, knowing they must rely on God to sustain them. A poor man “has an utter sense of his own abject destitution in the sight of God . . . [being] certain that in God, and in God alone, that need can be supplied . . . [He] puts his utter and complete trust in God.” A “poor man cried out and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6). We cannot become rich with eternal life until we become poor in spirit, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
The Book of Mormon defines the poor as “ye who have not and yet have sufficient that ye remain from day to day” (Mosiah 4:24). This implies that all who have more than a day’s food or shelter are rich, having sufficient for their needs. We deceive ourselves by thinking we can truly be rich and independent of God, for “are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have . . . for all the riches which we have of every kind?” (Mosiah 4:19). Both rich and poor are cautioned about desiring riches:
Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!
Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands! (D&C 56:16–17)Riches are such a strong temptation that God reserves them as a blessing only after our hearts are fixed on Him and our faith is proven. There is only one justification for seeking wealth and that is ‘to do good.’ Any other motive is sin.
But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. (Jacob 2:18–19)Worldly riches have no influence on one who “obtains a hope in Christ,” but seeking riches before we obtain this hope ensnares us. Premature pursuit of riches comes “by the cunning plans” and “power of the devil . . . which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men” (Alma 28:13). “The Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the world that . . . they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another” (Helaman 6:17).
Riches come with serious responsibility. God’s riches come only to those who have a sincere willingness to depart with their possessions at any time to do good. This tremendous obligation to be in tune with the Lord’s will, to know how (and be willing) to use wealth according to His desires, requires that we separate from materialistic snares and “put away iniquity.”
“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9, NASB)—and even the priesthood takes part. “Many who loved the vain things of the world . . . went forth preaching false doctrines, and this they did for the sake of riches and honor” (Alma 1:16). These abominations are “among those who professed to belong to the church of God” (Helaman 4:11).
They profess God’s name, but their inward love of riches is exposed by their fixation on business ventures or material acquisitions. Priestcraft thrives when we set our “hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world” (Helaman 7:21). Pursuing riches will cause us to “lay aside” Christ’s gospel “and trample the Holy One under” our feet (Alma 5:53).
Ancients are not the only offenders: “Ye do love money and your substance,” Moroni rebuked latter-day Gentiles (Mormon 8:37). Their kingdom is “not a kingdom of glory” (D&C 88:24). It is the tragic but repetitive pattern of history.
For the sake of riches and gain, [they] have not kept apart from the people. They are all of them rebels, for they have not turned from the way of traitors but have wallowed in the ways of whoredom and wicked wealth [and] . . . acted arrogantly for the sake of riches and gain.Warning comes: “Beware of covetousness” (Luke 12:15), which the Amplified Bible defines as an “immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more than you need.” Coveting provokes God and brought death to the wandering Israelites. Riches “profit not in the day of wrath” (Proverbs 11:4).
Joseph warned that all who are “covetous will be taken in a snare.” That they prosper for a time only feeds their delusion. They are only “rich in their own eyes” (Alma 45:24). To God, they are lacking. You “say ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17, NIV).
Recognizing the trap, the awake faithfully petition God: “Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate? They will worship their nets . . . These nets are the gods who have made us rich! they will claim. Will you let them get away with this forever?” (Habakkuk 1:15–17, NLT). The answer is ‘no.’ For a period of time, however, “they that provoke God are secure,” or so they think (Job 12:6). Delusion about their true standing with the Lord tightens the net’s hold.
God wants us to obtain a different type of riches, not the wealth of this world. “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” (James 2:5). Those who are truly rich receive His mysteries.
Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and, behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich. (D&C 11:7)
Levi admonishes all who seek eternal life to “work righteousness . . . that ye may have it as a treasure in heaven,” for eternal life and wisdom are only taken away by “the blindness of ungodliness and the callousness that comes of sin” (Testament of Levi 13:5–8).
“See that all things are preserved,” the Lord commands. “And if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, you shall be the richest of all people, for ye shall have the riches of eternity; and it must needs be that the riches of the earth are mine to give; but beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old” (D&C 38:38–39) who were caught in snares then destroyed.
Net Three—Profaning the Temple
The Dead Sea Scrolls contrast “men of the Pit” with those who “have chosen the Way” to “true knowledge and righteous judgment.”
The faithful “act according to the exact interpretation of the Law during the age of wickedness. They shall separate from the sons of the Pit, and shall keep away from the unclean riches of wickedness acquired by vow or anathema or from the Temple treasure.” Qumran was adamant that holiness be exuded in their community. All must not “enter the Temple to light His altar in vain . . . They shall keep the Sabbath day according to its exact interpretation and the feasts and day of fasting.”
They were to “distinguish between clean and unclean, and . . . proclaim the difference between holy and profane.” To profane is to desecrate, violate, or render something unholy. It is to pollute, irreverence, or not use as intended. Its etymology suggests being unworthy of initiation in the temple. The holy separate from the world, not become like it.
Having or attending a temple is no guarantee we will not stray. A temple is profaned when compromise or inventions creep in, keys of knowledge are removed, or ordinances are given to the unworthy so using outward indicators to determine spiritual worthiness is risky. “None which was unclean in anything should enter in” (2 Chronicles 23:19), so obtaining a divine remission of sins before we participate in higher ordinances is crucial. We defile a physical temple—and ourselves as a spiritual temple—by making covenants that we do not understand or fulfill.
Shortly after His ministry began, Jesus performed His first miracle in Cana. He then went to Jerusalem’s temple and “found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the moneychangers sitting there. And, making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables [and seats] . . . ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade’ [‘place of business,’ NASB]. His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for [God’s] house will consume me’,” (John 2:14–17, ESV). And it did. For the next three years Jesus relentlessly proclaimed the only gospel capable of sanctifying the people so there could be a house wherein God could dwell.
Clearly, profaning the temple could not be tolerated. Only unblemished lambs from their own flock were to be offered. Simply buying their sacrifice was not what He commanded. Sacrifice, not money, was the acceptable offering the Lord sought but priests turned worship into matters of convenience, compromise, and commercialization. They turned the temple and its treasury into a business.
The priests were enriched by the commerce of temple attendance. Moneychangers were exchangers who profited from the temple, trading keys of knowledge or spiritual tokens for gain, masking their sins and self-righteousness. “It is the doctrine of the devil to retard the human mind and hinder our progress by filling us with self-righteousness.”
“O ye workers of iniquity . . . Ye that are puffed up in the vain things of the world, ye have professed to have known the ways of righteousness, nevertheless have gone astray” (Alma 5:37). Only for a time will “the tabernacles of robbers prosper” (Job 12:6). “I am not pleased with you, says the mighty Lord; I will not receive an offering from you.”
Although the awaited Messiah was expected to purify Jerusalem and its temple in the last days, when Jesus rebuked their polluted temple, priesthood leaders were offended most. “The chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23, ESV). When Jesus confounded them, “the chief priests, and the scribes, and the chief of the people sought to destroy him” (JST Luke 19:46). Pride, greed, and thirst for power drove their animosity, for the chief priests’ families controlled the treasury and “sinful greed characterized their dealings.” Rabbinic sources say priests had attitudes of “luxuriousness, wastefulness, gluttony, and general dissoluteness.”
Those who criticize Jesus for cleansing the temple do not realize He was fulfilling His legal duty as a descendant of David. Jesus’s righteous indignation in clearing out the profane from what was ordained to be holy was a legal obligation.
[In Israel] it is still customary today, if a man’s ancestor has dedicated a portion of land for a religious purpose, and then as time passes on, they take this land and turn it into a buying and selling place, or anything but what it was originally intended for, this man has the right to come and throw them out and assert his authority.
You must know that Jesus was the lineal descendant of David and Solomon and that property of the temple belonged to Him, every inch of that property was His by the law of land tenure, never to be changed. Why? Because David had bought it with his own money—not with the money of the people, but with his own money. He paid silver for that place and built there an altar to God forever.Several years later during the last week of His ministry, Jesus again “approached Jerusalem and saw the city, [and] he wept over it” because they had refused what He offered. Though He was among them in the flesh, they “did not recognize the time of God’s coming” (Luke 19:41, 44, NIV). Again Jesus found the temple in disorder, priests and people still consumed by commercialism and greed. He “went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12–13).
The eternal impact of such foolishness cannot be underestimated. In “Jesus’s demonstration in the temple . . . he quoted the Hebrew prophets who had harsh words for those who were punctilious in their devotions but ignored the plight of the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed.” The modern parallels cannot be ignored.
If, when beginning to do the ‘business’ of His Father, and for the first time publicly presenting Himself with Messianic claim, it was fitting He should take such authority, and first ‘cleanse the Temple’ of the nefarious intruders who, under the guise of being God’s chief priests, made His House one of traffic, [how] much more was this appropriate now, at the close of His work, when, as King, He had entered His City, and publicly claimed authority. At the first it had been for teaching and warning, now it was symbolic judgment . . . [a] final judicial sentence.Considering the powerful pull of snares that masquerade as righteousness, we understand the seriousness of Micah’s lament:
Faithful men have disappeared from the land; there are no godly men left. (Micah 7:2, NET Bible)