Day 170 Don't Wrest the Scriptures

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. My friends, how we read the scriptures may just be as important as reading the scriptures in and of itself.

Welcome to day 170 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today you're going to be reading Alma Chapter 13, verses 1 through 12. In verses 5-21, you're going to get a great discourse on the Priesthood and those that become high priests in the Priesthood, and Alma is going to give some great insight there.

But that's not the direction we're going to take a look at today. We're going to go after his discourse there into Alma 13, verse 20 and see if we can maybe understand this a little differently than it's often interpreted as. Verse 20 says, "Now I need not rehearse the matter; what I have said may suffice.

Behold, the scriptures are before you; if ye will wrest them, it shall be to your own destruction." Now this one, it's interesting because I read it this time and I typically read it the same way each time. Although this time it stuck out to me because I noticed a footnote that I needed to dive into a little bit further. Most of the times, the interpretation that I've heard, "if you will rest them, it shall be to your own destruction," I've heard that that means if you'll put them down or if you'll not pay attention to them or if you'll put them away, right?

If you put the scriptures away, it's going to be your own destruction. And as I looked into the definition of rest, and there's some footnotes you can follow around here, and then different interpretations you can look at. It's interesting where it took me because in the very nature of interpreting this, I could possibly be resting the scriptures.

So I'm very aware of this as I do this, but to my understanding, "wrest," as it says here, "If ye will wrest them, it shall be to your own destruction." What Alma is actually saying here is if you use the scriptures to distort their meaning or distort their interpretations, especially if you use them to distort it in a way that suits your own interests or makes you feel more comfortable when that's not what the scriptures are being used for, then it shall be to your own destruction. I think it helps to see this in the context of what Alma was talking about because "suffice I have preached unto you that you need to repent." And then any other way that you interpret this, if you interpret it differently, that may just be to your own destruction. And so interestingly enough, in the very definition that I've kind of heard generally spoken of when using the scripture, I've heard it interpreted differently.

And this time I kind of dove into it and thought, well, that's kind of weird. Do I do a Savory Salt episode where I might accidentally be interpreting this wrong? Because that's what I understand this is saying.

Don't use the scriptures to try to make your case. Use the scriptures to understand that the Lord is making his case. Learn what the Lord would have you learn as you dive into the scriptures.

Make sure that you seek the Spirit of the Lord as you read the scriptures, rather than using the scriptures as some sort of personal interpretation or justification of your own interests in order to further your own desires and pursuits. That's a little bit of a twist inside of our thoughts today, but that's the message I wanted to leave with you: Keep the Spirit with you as you read the scriptures, and you can find the will of the Lord. And then when Alma and others say, "Hey, Allen, you go repent," then I can read it and I can say, "Hey, I need to repent." Rather than read it and go, "Oh, I'm so glad Alma was telling everyone in my neighborhood to repent except for me," because I think sometimes even I find myself in a situation where I'm interpreting scriptures to serve my own needs rather than making sure that I'm interpreting them through the lens the Lord would have me understand the message.

I hope that makes sense for you today. I tried to clarify it as best as I could. But either way, how we read the scriptures is important.

Read them through the lens of the Lord giving us direct messaging. It is our DM of the day. Use the scriptures to receive direct messages from the Lord and the teachings He would teach you this day.

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, and I hope you are too.