Today's Favorite Verse: Nehemiah 8:8

Today's Favorite Verse: Nehemiah 8:8

"So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."

I liked the footnotes in this verse. There were three of them, law, distinctly, and gave the sense.

Law leads to the topical guide for "Study of Scriptures".

Distinctly lead to Jacob 4:13-14

"Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old.

But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God"

I actually had a conversation today with someone on this. We discussed how simple the gospel really is. That when you stray from its simplicity and try to over intellectualize the scriptures and gospel that there is a risk of losing your way. The plainness of the gospel is taken away from their understanding because they have become unbalanced. You can no longer see the connections on how things fit so simply and you try to make of it hard things. There is so much to learn with faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. That is the plainness and beauty of the gospel.

The last footnote was "gave the sense" and that has "IE gave a commentary by the power of the Holy Ghost." Mosiah 1:2-5. It is only through the Holy Ghost that you can expound scriptures to the understanding of others. There was some foundational work the king Benjamin needed to prepare his sons to understand the scriptures, like knowing the language they were written in. Then to appreciate and treasure the true purpose of them. How without them they would have suffered in ignorance and not known the mysteries of God.

Day 2580