Get to Know Joseph Smith Part 8: He Receives the Gold Plates
The long-anticipated day had finally arrived for Joseph Smith to take possession of the plates. Word had spread that Joseph would be obtaining them, and tensions were high. In the early hours of September 22, 1827, Joseph set out for the Hill Cumorah. His new wife, Emma, accompanied him, waiting in the wagon while Joseph climbed the hill.
At the sacred site of the plates, the Angel Moroni appeared once again and issued another warning:
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 previously tried to obtain a lockbox for safely transporting the plates but was unsuccessful. With no secure container, he temporarily hid the plates in a hollowed-out log until he could find a proper box.
Meanwhile, back at the Smith home, Lucy Mack Smith fretted over Joseph’s task as she served breakfast to Joseph Smith Sr., Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell. When Joseph and Emma arrived, Lucy had to leave the room when she saw Joseph was empty-handed. Joseph followed, reassuring her that he had indeed retrieved the plates. He handed her a cloth-wrapped bundle that contained the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim were seer stones the Lord prepared for the translation of the plates.
The very next day, Joseph Smith took a job repairing a well to earn some money for a lockbox. That same day, Joseph Smith Sr. overheard a group of men plotting to steal the plates. Alarmed, Joseph Sr. rushed home to share what he’d overheard. Joseph Jr. was an hour’s drive away working on the well, so Emma went at once to find Joseph and warn him.
After receiving the warning, Joseph hurried home and set off to recover the hidden plates. He wrapped the plates in a shirt and headed for home.
According to Lucy Mack Smith:
“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).
Despite the danger, Joseph arrived home safely with the plates. Knowing he still needed to protect them, he sent his youngest brother, Don Carlos, down the road to the home of his older brother Hyrum to fetch a box in which to store the plates. Only once the plates were securely stored in the box did Joseph finally relax.
Continue reading in Get to Know Joseph Smith Part 9:Pennsylvania
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Joseph Smith Receives the Gold Plates – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
