Messages From God

Reading through the Book of Mormon at such a rapid pace provides different experiences than I normally have while reading the scriptures. One of the consequences of reading so quickly is that I notice and remember different things.

I always love to read this verse in 1 Nephi 9:5

Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not.

But it was interesting this time to notice that Nephi talks about this again, and (much) later so does Mormon.

1 Nephi 19:3 says:

And after I had made these plates by way of commandment, I, Nephi, received a commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain and precious parts of them, should be written upon these plates; and that the things which were written should be kept for the instruction of my people, who should possess the land, and also for other purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord.

And in Words of Mormon 1:7 Mormon says:

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.

Now all of this was only moderately interesting until I factored in the question I try to apply often to my Book of Mormon study.

Why?

I try to remind myself frequently of the difficulty of writing the Book of Mormon. I've written a lot since I started blogging. Some of the posts I write come easily and require little editing. (Mostly those with 10 words or less!) But most of them require real thought and effort and lots of rewriting. I'm always grateful for the ease of writing on the computer. I can type pretty fast and so I am able to keep up with my thoughts pretty well, and then go back and edit and re-work later.

But not Nephi or Mormon. They were engraving characters into metal plates. I have no idea what the process entailed but it can't have been quick/easy/uncomplicated. This makes me think that they were probably not likely to write random or less meaningful things.

It is completely possible and plausible that Nephi could have received the inspiration from the Lord that he needed to make another set of plates and never mentioned it. Or only mentioned that he had been instructed to do it. Instead he tells us about it twice, and both times includes the information that he knows that the Lord has a purpose in doing this. Mormon says the same thing; he doesn't know why the spirit has told him to include the small plates of Nephi with his record, but he knows that the Lord has a reason.

Of course we all know what the effect of the inclusion of these verses is; we are reminded each time that we read of the loss of the first part of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon, and the later substitution of the translation of the small plates of Nephi.

I've been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks. All of that would have still happened the way it did whether or not Nephi or Mormon had recorded their promptings. The manuscript would still have been lost, Joseph would still have needed to translate the small plates to take it's place. So why did they go to the effort of saying this — not once, but three times.

And then it occurred to me. Maybe it's a message to us from God. Maybe they were impressed to record their inspirations in exactly that way so that each time we read those verses we remember the story of the lost manuscript — and then we remember that some 2400 years before Joseph would be translating the manuscript and Martin Harris would want to borrow those first 116 pages, the Lord knew what was going to happen. He knew, and he set in motion a plan to provide what was needed.

Maybe he wants us to know that he also knows about us; about our lives and our challenges. And that he has already set in motion his plans to provide us what we need.

Thank you, Nephi and Mormon. Because I don't know about the rest of you, but I really need that reminder.