Mosiah 1

(August 22, 2013)
As I read through this chapter, particularly Benjamin’s teachings to his son as to the benefit of the scriptures, I began to think about the benefits that scriptures provided.  After all, was it not possible for the Lord to reveal all His truths to a new prophet among the Nephites or among the Lamanites?  Of course it was.  Then why were the scriptures so important?

As I thought on the subject, my mind was drawn to the concept of the building of society (particularly a righteous society).  Like most types of learning, learning how to live righteously is done line upon line, and is benefitted by the collective wisdom of those who have gone before.  In a sense, their experiences help to guide our experiences and we profit by reading them.  While the doctrine could have easily have been revealed to a new prophet among the Nephites, there would be lost the accompanying stories and examples of the prophets of God, and that loss would have been very harmful to their ability to embrace the truth.

In a sense, that is what we should be doing as well (and what I am trying, in a limited way, to do here).  We should be building up the Kingdom of God through our efforts to learn and study, to apply our learning towards developing righteous experiences, and to pass those experience on to the betterment of the world around us.  Though each of us may be weak, the Lord has the capacity to magnify our attempts in this respect to bless the lives of those we attempt to share with.