Have They Not Read the Scriptures?

Brother Hugh Nibley once said, “If you pray for an angel to visit you, you know what he’ll do if he comes.  He’ll just quote the scriptures to you—so you know you’re wasting your time waiting for what we already have.  Though you are amused by my saying this, I’m quite serious about it” (“Gifts.” In Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:87).  Perhaps the most obvious example of this is what the angel Moroni said to the prophet Joseph when he was visited in 1823.  Moroni quoted Malachi, Isaiah, the book of Acts, Joel, and likely others (see JSH 1:36-41).  Angels have certainly come as recorded in the scriptures for all sorts of reasons, and Alma taught in his day that “angels are declaring [the word] unto many at this time in our land,” suggesting that one of the primary purposes of angels is to declare the word of God which is found most notably in the scriptures themselves (Alma 13:24).  I don’t think that Brother Nibley’s point is that angels only quote the scriptures but rather that we shouldn’t expect angels to come and teach us if we don’t read and study the word of God that we already have.   

               When Jesus talked with Nicodemus and the latter questioned what the Savior meant by being born again, Jesus responded with this piercing question: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:10)  Jesus lovingly and patiently taught Nicodemus basic principles, but He also gently let Nicodemus know that he should have already known these principles—and surely the scriptures were the place that should have learned them.  In another exchange with the Jews the Savior told a parable and then asked, “Did ye never read in the scriptures?” before quoting another scripture to them (Matt. 21:42).  When He was among the Nephites and the disciples argued about the name of the Church, He responded, “Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name?” (3 Nephi 27:5)  The Lord expected anciently that the people knew the scriptures, and surely He has that same expectation for us.  The scriptures are a priceless gift from our Father in Heaven, but “what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?” (D&C 88:33)

               When Elder McConkie gave his final (and now famous) conference address entitled The Purifying Power of Gethsemane, he said something about his belief in the scriptures as he introduced his talk.  After introducing his topic of the atonement of Christ, he said, “In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and prophets.  True it is they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine, for the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to me that they are true, and it is now as though the Lord had revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard his voice and know his word.”  For him he had studied and pondered and internalized the words of the scriptures to such an extent that he knew of the surety by the Holy Ghost and could claim them as his own.  That’s the kind of depth of understanding and love and devotion for the scriptures that we should strive for, so that the Lord will never have to say about us, “Have they not read the scriptures?”