Understanding the Scriptures

I noticed that the Lord and the prophets are often concerned about understanding when it comes to the scriptures.  The scriptures aren’t there just be to read and forgotten; they are to give us understanding about God and His great plan for us.  A common scriptural phrase is this injunction: “Whoso readeth, let him understand” (Matt. 24:15, Mark 13:14, 3 Nephi 10:14, D&C 57:9, 71:5, 91:4, JSM 1:12).  Our most important focus in the scriptures, then, should not be to get through some large quantity of pages but to come to greater understanding of the things of God. 

                Joseph Smith was one who focused on gaining a true understanding of the scriptures.  It was at the core of the search that led him to the First Vision.  Because “the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently” he could not know what the scriptures really meant without divine revelation (JSH 1:12).  He received that revelation, and after his baptism with Oliver Cowdery, he described this: “Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of” (JSH 1:74).  After his baptism and reception of the Holy Ghost he searched the scriptures and began to understand the “true meaning and intention” of them.  This continued throughout his life, and we see this in the questions he asked about Biblical passages.  He made inquiries of the Lord such as: “What are we to understand by Zion loosing herself from the bands of her neck?” (D&C 113:9)  Section 77 of the Doctrine and Covenants is full of these types of questions, such as, “What are we to understand by the four and twenty elders, spoken of by John?” (D&C 77:5)  Joseph’s focus was on true understanding of what was intended by the Lord in the scriptural passages.   

                Other scriptural passages also speak to the importance of seeking true understanding when it comes to the word of God.  King Benjamin taught his three sons “in all the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers” (Mosiah 1:2). He knew that his sons needed to be “men of understanding” in order to truly appreciate the scriptural prophecies that had been given.  When the resurrected Lord visited His twelve apostles He taught them from the scriptures and “then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45).  He wanted them to understand in particular the prophecies of His suffering and death that they had failed to grasp while He was alive.  President Joseph F. Smith spent time “pondering over the scriptures” and the atonement of Christ until, as he recorded, “the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great” (D&C 138:11).  He wanted more than a cursory knowledge of what was written—he searched for true understanding of the epistle of Peter, and because of that we are blessed with the great revelation that he received.  Surely the pattern is the same for us: as we seek that same kind of understanding about the scriptures, the Lord will open our eyes to teach us what He really wants us to learn.