I’ve been thinking today about lessons I can learn from the heavenly creatures in Ezekiel’s first vision. One simple lesson comes from the prophet’s description of how they moved:
Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. …
Ezekiel 1:9, 12
And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
Twice, Ezekiel described these beings as moving deliberately and following divine promptings. They moved forward without turning.
This reminds me of the movement of Helaman’s army as they fled from a Lamanite army which was in turn being pursued by another army. Speaking of the Lamanite army, Helaman wrote, “They did not turn to the right nor to the left, but pursued their march in a straight course after us.” He added, “They durst not turn to the right nor to the left lest they should be surrounded; neither would I turn to the right nor to the left lest they should overtake me, and we could not stand against them, but be slain” (Alma 56:37, 40).
For the Lamanite army and for Helaman’s army in this circumstance, straight motion was a matter of safety. Turning was not an option for them.
Four passages in the Book of Mormon refer to the path back to God as “strait and narrow,” as Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 7:14). The word “strait” means tight or constricted.
But there are other passages which use the word “straight,” meaning not turning. For example:
Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him.
2 Nephi 9:41
It is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.
Alma 37:44
Today I will avoid distractions and unnecessary changes of course. I will continue moving forward with my goals.
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