Get to Know Joseph Smith Part 8: Joseph Receives the Plates
The time finally arrived for Joseph to take possession of the plates. It was known that Joseph would be receiving the plates, so in the early hours of September 22, 1827, Joseph went to the Hill Cumorah to receive the plates. Emma accompanied Joseph and waited in the wagon for Joseph while he climbed the hill.
At the location of the plates the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph and gave him another warning, he said, “You will have to be watchful and faithful to your trust or you will be overpowered by wicked men, for they will lay every plan and scheme that is possible to get them away from you. And if you do not take heed continually, they will succeed.” (Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–45, book 6, [1])
Joseph had tried to get hold of a lockbox before he retrieved the plates but was unsuccessful, so before Joseph returned home with the plates he hid the plates in a hollowed-out log until he could find a box to store the plates.
Back at the Smith home, Lucy was fretting over Joseph’s task as she served breakfast to Joseph Sr., Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell. When Joseph and Emma entered the house Lucy had to leave the room when she saw that Joseph was empty-handed. Joseph followed Lucy and reassured her that he had gotten the plates and handed her a cloth that contained the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim were seer stones the Lord prepared for the translation of the plates.
The day after receiving the plates, Joseph Smith took a job repairing a well in order to earn some money to get a lockbox. That same day Joseph Sr. overheard a group of men plotting to steal the plates. Joseph rushed home to share what he’d overheard. Joseph Jr. was an hour’s drive away working on the well, so Emma traveled to see him.
Joseph returned home and then went to recover the hidden plates. He wrapped the plates in a shirt and headed for home.
Lucy Smith writes about Joseph’s trip back home with the plates, “After proceeding a short distance, he thought it would be safe to leave the road and through the woods. Traveling some distance after he left the road, he came to a large windfall, and as he was jumping over a log, a man sprang up from behind it and gave him a heavy blow with a gun. Joseph turned around and knocked him down, then ran at the top of his speed. About half a mile farther he was attacked again in the same manner as the former and ran on again; and before he reached home he was assaulted the third time. In striking the last one, he dislocated his thumb, which, however, he did not notice until he came within sight of the house, when he threw himself down in the corner of the fence in order to recover his breath. As soon as he was able, he arose and came to the house. He was still altogether speechless from fright and fatigue of running” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, 107-8).
Joseph had successfully made it home with the plates! Joseph needed a place to keep the plates so he sent his youngest brother Don Carlos down the road to the home of his older brother Hyrum to get a box in which to store the plates. It wasn’t until the plates were safe in the box that Joseph relaxed.
Continue reading in Part 9
Image Credit: David A. Baird/Historical Arts and Castings -Creative Commons –
