Day 71 Nephi Speaks Plainly of Christ

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me and know that I am cheering for your every success. That's such a fun introduction.

I love saying that every time I record this podcast episode. It's so fun and it's fun to hear listeners out there say, hey, I can recite that because it means that you also are cheering for others' every success as well. Welcome to day 71.

Boy, we are moving along. We have gotten through the vast majority of the Isaiah chapters. And today we're going to move into Nephi talking a little bit about those Isaiah chapters and kind of say goodbye to the Isaiah chapters for a little bit.

There's one more coming up, but for the sake of this Savory Salt episode and most of the Isaiah chapters that we've been talking about, we're going to say goodbye to those. Today on your 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon, you're going to read 2 Nephi 24:23. That is the formal end of the big mass of the Isaiah chapters.

And you're going to read 2 Nephi 25:1-8. And that's where our verse for today is going to come from. We're going to read from 25:4.

And Nephi is going to talk actually about these Isaiah chapters and he's going to explain. He understands that we're not going to get them. He understands that in the last days, we're going to start to understand them.

But he tells us it's all right. You're not learned the way that the Jews are learned. You don't know all of their places and all of their history.

So Isaiah is going to make way more sense to the Jews than it is outside of that. And he even explains that his own family is not going to understand it as well as he understands it. But then we get to verse 4.

I think verse 4's got some interesting telling for it. So let's dive into it here. It says, verse 4: Wherefore hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear unto my words.

For because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy. And Nephi is saying that inside of here, that Isaiah's words are plain to those filled with the spirit of prophecy, but that's not actually the direction I wanted to go. Where I wanted to go was Nephi saying, you know what, you might not understand Isaiah, but that's okay.

I'm going to speak so plainly of my testimony that nobody can misunderstand what I have to say. So today, for our podcast episode, I actually have a challenge to you personally. Here's the challenge.

We're almost to the tail end of Nephi's writings here. It's going to transition after Nephi into his brother's writings. He's even had his brother write a few things here and there.

But what I want you to do is I want you to go through First and Second Nephi and maybe just kind of a quick glance chapter by chapter, maybe even spend time in the chapter headings and just review some of the plainness that Nephi has had in his testimony. And I'm going to take a moment to just go through those chapters and see just how plain Nephi has been in his testifying of Christ. I even challenge you to go beyond chapter 25, maybe just to the end of 2 Nephi here and check those chapter headings out.

And maybe it will even lead you to a couple of verses; could be some verses from our Savory Salt episodes, or some verses that we haven't covered, where Nephi is going to make sure that even those of us that are reading from the scriptures today. And that's all for today, my friends. Friends, remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow. I hope you are too.