Tuesday, October 4, 2016

3 Nephi 23:1 -- On Searching the Scriptures

"And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah."
3 Nephi 23:1


This is Christ speaking to the people in Bountiful, right after he quotes a prophecy of Isaiah to them.  I like that he tells them, and us, to search.  Isaiah is hard to understand sometimes, so maybe we've skimmed or skipped it in the past, but really... we've gotten good at searching, right?  That is what Google and Firefox and Bing and Chrome and Safari and the rest of these Internet browsers are teaching us.  So, instead of Googling kittens or some random celebrity, let's take the challenge and search Isaiah.  Let's find out what other people think of the verses, what they think they mean.  Let's search and see if we can pick the words apart and see what they mean to us.  Let's dig into it and learn.  And then, when we think we might know, let's pray and see if God has anything to clarify or add. :)

Isaiah is awesome anyway, but even more so if we figure out some of those tricky passages for ourselves.  It's kind of like a parable, or really any other scripture or gospel message.  There are often symbols in there that help us understand the overall story, and searching for and understanding those symbols is the key to unlocking the overall meaning.  Searching is something that we know how to do, and it gives a sense of satisfaction when we find what we are looking for.  God is just asking us to do a little bit more of it.  Let's find out more about gospel things, just like we look up our favorite things.  Let's read up on cool spiritual things the same way we look for the latest on the news, or dig up funny videos. :)

Today, let's search the scriptures the way we search the internet.  We can even use a search box online if we want to: https://www.lds.org/scriptures).  But online or hard copy, let's take Christ's challenge and figure them out.

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