On the morning after Christmas Day in 1835, , one of the presidents of the , asked JS to petition God for a revelation that “should make known [his] duty.” In response, JS dictated this revelation.

, then thirty-one years old, had distinguished himself as a faithful prior to his request. He joined the church in western in January 1832 and relocated his family 120 miles west to , Ohio, sometime around June 1833. Sherman marched to in May 1834 with about two hundred others as part of the expedition. In February 1835, he was called as one of seven presidents over the Seventy, a newly established office. In his ordination blessing, Sherman was told, “Your ministry shall be great and you shall proclaim to various nations. Your faith shall be unshaken and you shall be delivered from great afflictions.” At a May 1835 conference, church leaders voted that Sherman, along with the other presidents of the Seventy, should “hold himself in readiness to go at the call of the , when the Lord opens the way.” Sherman likely left Kirtland during summer 1835 to preach in local communities, though he may have remained in Kirtland and prepared himself to preach as he had been instructed.

On 26 December, called on JS as he was studying Hebrew with and . According to JS’s journal, Sherman entered the room in which they were studying and asked “to have the word of the lord” through JS. “I have been wrought upon to make known to you my feelings and desires,” he told JS, adding that he had been promised by the Lord that “I should have a revelation which should make known my duty.” Sometime before the end of the day, JS dictated a revelation—presumably to Williams, who was acting temporarily as JS’s scribe—that addressed Sherman’s concerns. Williams later copied the revelation into JS’s journal. That copy, which is the earliest extant version, is featured here.