Warren Cowdery, Oliver’s older brother, lodged and fed Joseph and his companions when they were recruiting for the Camp of Israel in the spring of 1834. Warren was sympathetic to the Saints’ suffering in Missouri, and that summer he joined the Church. There were a few dozen other converts in the area, all converted by missionaries who passed through. Warren wrote to Oliver that they could really use a permanent preacher.446 He wrote again a few weeks later saying he “had thoughts of requesting you to enquire what is the will of the Lord concerning me.”447 Joseph asked, and the Lord answered with section 106.
The revelation says the Lord wants Warren to devote all of his time to the high and holy calling of presiding over the Saints in and around Freedom, New York, and preaching the gospel in that area. In verse 3 the Lord promises Warren a living if he obeys the revelation and in verses 4–5 explains that he should serve in order to prepare himself and his neighbors for the Lord’s coming.
Beginning in verse 6, the Lord reveals the joy he experienced when Warren joined the Church and blesses him for it. The language of this verse suggests that what pleased the Lord was Warren’s willing submission to his divine authority, his kingly scepter. The Lord exposes Warren’s vanity and promises to preserve him at the Second Coming on the condition that Warren will choose to be humble. The last verse, too, is a conditional promise, a covenant between the Lord and Warren in which the Lord promises him his own kingly crown in heavenly mansions “if he continue to be a faithful witness and a light unto the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 106:8).
Warren presided over his fellow Saints in New York until he and his family moved to Kirtland early in 1836. There he served the Church as a scribe and recorder, but by 1838 he became one of many in that era who did not “continue to be a faithful witness and a light unto the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 106:8).448
446. Warren Cowdery to Oliver Cowdery, September 1, 1834, in The Evening and the Morning Star 2, no. 24 (September 1834): 189.
447. Warren Cowdery to Oliver Cowdery, October 28, 1834, in Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 1 (November 1834): 22.
448. “Elders’ Journal, August 1838,” p. 59, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-august-1838/11.
