Day 102 Without Records: Lost Language, Lost God

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'm cheering for your every success. Welcome to day 102 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon.

Today, we're going to be reading Omni chapter 1, verses 15 through 30. We're going to finish Omni. Tomorrow, we've got the words of Mormon and then we get to dive into Mosiah.

And I am excited for that. But first, the excitement comes in today's reading because we have another connection to Nephi and the earlier stories in the Book of Mormon. Let's look at verse 17 and see what we can learn from it.

Verse 17 says, "Now who in the world is the them in this verse?" These are the people of Zarahemla. We find out that after several hundred years, Mosiah and his connection to Nephi are not the only ones that left Jerusalem. There was another group of people and they come together and meet.

These are the people of Zarahemla and we find out that they left at the time of Zedekiah, which is roughly the time that Nephi and Lehi would have left from their location in Jerusalem as well. But it's interesting, let's look at this. What has changed with these people?

You'll notice that it's because, well, it's partially because they brought no records with them. Now, do you remember Lehi and Nephi getting commanded by the Lord to go back and get the plates of brass so that Nephi could teach his people? And do you remember these people having the plates of brass and talking about the things that they learned from them?

Well, what's happened to the people of Zarahemla over that same amount of time? Here we have a couple of hundred years, several hundred years after. What's happened?

Well, we see that they've had serious wars and contentions. They've fallen by the sword, but something else that's kind of fascinating has happened. Their language has become corrupted.

They had no records, and they denied the being of their Creator. So interesting: language corrupted and denied their Creator because they didn't have the records. This is a cool insight to what happens and something we can absolutely take into our lives.

What happens if we don't keep the records? What are those records? Well, it's easy to see from Nephi's story in terms of the plates of brass that the records that Nephi and his people had and carried on through to Mosiah here are the scriptures.

They're the words of the Lord. And yet here is a people that had no such connection or record with them. And ultimately their language became corrupted and they denied their Creator.

Not out of something that was forced upon them, these people are hundreds of years after the original ones that left Jerusalem. And yet the result of their civilization is one of a corrupted language and one who denied their Creator. It got me thinking about a time in my life where I was having a conversation with a bishop in our ward, and he shared with me that many times when couples come in and are having difficulties together, one of the primary questions he wants to ask the couple is whether they're taking time to read the scriptures together and pray together as a couple.

Now that's not the end-all be-all solution for all marital problems. But I think it was interesting to have that bishop's perspective when it came to this, what we can see inside of Omni. Here is a group of people that were ultimately led to denying their Creator because they simply did not have the records to refer to in their lives.

And Mosiah and his people had those records. Now it's interesting, Mosiah teaches these people and they get the records and they actually decide to unite and become one. And thus begins the record of Mosiah which leads to King Benjamin and then Mosiah again.

I love the reference here and the reminder in my life of the power that scriptures can play. And I would include modern scriptures as well as ancient scriptures. I love that we have recordings from general conference talks.

I love that we have modern prophets and we have entire books published by the Church of Prophets from our dispensation that we can go and reference and learn from so that we can continue to build our testimonies of the Lord and his kingdom. That's all for today, my 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.