"I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. Therefore this is thy gift; apply unto it, and blessed art thou, for it shall deliver you out of the hands of your enemies, when, if it were not so, they would slay you and bring your soul to destruction."
I've been pondering for several days on how the spirit of revelation connects to the Biblical episode of God parting the Red Sea in Moses's time. There are so many other more direct scriptural episodes to draw from. The Exodus narrative is a striking miracle, but we don't often think of it as revelatory, or as related to the revelatory process. It's a testimony confirming evidence of God's power, and its action contains messages: I'm God; I am on your side; I'm saving you; No one else could save you; You're about to spend time in the wilderness, so keep following my prophet for safety; etc. But this isn't the moment that Moses receives 10 commandments to convey, or judgments to consider and adjudicate, or doctrines to expound. It's an action shot, not a monologue. The image brought to mind is not one of translation as Cowdery's desires were toward, nor is it one of the peace-speaking Oliver was recently reminded--in the previous Section--that he had received upon inquiry of the Lord to know he was undertaking the right path. Instead, it's bold motion, it's surprising and impossible action, it's confident steps taken through physical barriers trusting in God's power to remove what no human can.
Why not bring up Moses's time, shoes removed, with the burning bush? Why not connect the spirit of revelation to the days-long cloudy encounter with the Lord on Mount Sinai? Why not link the spirit with the still, small voice that whispered to Elijah after the storm, earthquake, and fire? Why not recall the Mount of Transfiguration where both of these deathless prophets reappeared to Jesus, Peter, James, and John and the voice of God announced His Son in whom He was well pleased? Or why not the chapter before, in Matthew, where Peter's name is cause for word-play as the "rock" of heaven's revelation that Jesus is the Christ is given to him--rock on which the Church would be built?
What about Moses's Red Sea scenario is applicable to the Cowdery context here?
I'm not entirely satisfied that I've found the key to this one, but I have a few thoughts that might frame the beginnings of an answer.
Moses had many experiences which prepared him to hear and act on the word of the Lord. His burning bush encounter is one, but can be broken down into steps. 1. He saw the bush burning, but it required that he turn aside from his daily shepherding concern, and take steps to approach something more valuable, more eternally significant going on at the mountain of the Lord in order for him to hear the Lord's voice; 2. After that effort of moving, of dropping less important things, and the effort to remove his shoes, he could face the fear of what his tradition had taught him--that the presence of God was too much for humans--and he could see the face of God and converse with Him; 3. Next, he was called to speak truth to a group who he wasn't sure would accept him as their messenger. Here again, his effort of willingness to face the prospect of rejection is what brought God's confirming revelation--Moses would win their ears by revealing God's name to them; 4. After this, Moses continued to take effort of thought to anticipate challenges, and inquire of the Lord how he could make them listen. This led to a surprising use of means--a rod being transformed into a snake and back again--that Moses could not have predicted, but was a paradigm-shifting revelation made available after effort, both of inquiry and of obedience. In all of these cases, there was a decision point in which he was sort of backed up against a barrier before He could hear the word of the Lord give him ideas beyond his earthly comprehension. He didn't know what to do about a burning bush until he was willing to sacrifice his care for sheep. He didn't know what to do about the doctrinal fear that seeing God's face unprepared would destroy a person until he was willing to approach the veil of fire without his shoes to receive instruction. He didn't know what to do about the Hebrew's skepticism until he was willing to accept ostensibly irrational commands to throw a stick on the ground, put his hand in his bosom, and drop water on the sand. He had no way to know the stick would become a snake, the hand would become leprous, or the water would turn to blood. In a way, the obstacle came first, the faithful action came second, and the miracle and its attendant knowledge and confidence followed on only from there. Seriously! Think about what must have been going on in Moses's mind when God commanded him to put his leprous hand BACK into his bosom!
This pattern--obstacle, faithful act, revelation--leads to Aaron being supplied, each of the ten plagues refuting a specific aspect of Pharaoh's supposed divine control of the natural forces that the Egyptian pantheon supposedly mastered, and then to the details of the Passover meal and rituals. We have to imagine that the pattern holds--Moses was put up against his obstacle, put thought-work into what he could do, and then let God show the way, provide the miracle, issue the revelation.
The Lord led the Israelites to an uncrossable body of water, made them camp, showed them the pursuit of Pharaoh's armies, and let them panic for a bit before he showed Moses His power in dividing the waters. The process of obstacle, faithful action, then revelation--not just in the form of information from on high, but in the form of miraculous protection from enemies--is the process we need to understand and "apply unto" by leaning into our gifts of the Spirit.
Pharaoh's armies drowned. So can our fears when He reveals the way and we let Him act through us for the blessing of others.
There may not have been physical danger immediately threatening Oliver's mortality in the moment of translation, but his failure to trust the revealed process explains his failure to receive revelation, as recorded in the next Section.
"you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me."
In some sense, the "burning in the bosom" we're taught to look for, and the "stupor of thought" we're taught to pay attention to aren't the mere feelings that the surface reading imply. First, they combine the emotional vocabulary of feeling with the language of mental enlightenment--this is not a purely "trust your heart" doctrine. Secondly, the feelings don't make sense except as a response to a process--a repeated, methodical effort rooted in a process of meaning-making, not just aimless, new-age-y openness to suggestion. He was commanded to apply unto a gift, and then took no thought on his own. Perhaps later, as persecution of the Saints gains traction, Oliver's sense of the reality of the obstacles and enemies will congeal into the awareness of obstacle Moses had, and then his efforts to meet the problem with action will generate unmistakably Divine responses to his inquiries. In fact, we know it did--in partnership with Smith, Cowdery felt the impossibility of salvation without Priesthood authority to perform covenant-making rituals, and was present as heavenly messengers restored the keys to the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods within a month of his failure to receive translation revelations.
And therein, perhaps, lies the key--praying with real intent to be led is different in faith outcomes from even honest humility in open-ended requests to be guided. And the lesson is not merely to put thought in first, it's to not lose faith when the obstacle strikes. The spirit of revelation that is best embodied in the Red Sea episode is the spirit of trust even at the critical moment of impending destruction. Stick with the Omnipotent One even when, and perhaps especially when He engages in brinksmanship, and your faith will grow.
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