Reading and Expounding

Today in our attempt to have family scripture study with our children we read the first part of Jacob 3.  We read Jacob’s words to his people encouraging them to focus on their own sins instead of the Lamanites, “Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers” (Jacob 3:9).  Often as we read scriptures I get so focused on just making it through the verses despite children who can’t sit still that I fail to take the time explain the verses we read to them.  But my wife took a minute to talk about Jacob’s message here, explaining that Jacob was encouraging us to not worry so much about what other people do but rather focus on our own actions.  After the brief explanation we prodded my oldest daughter to continue reading but she hesitated and said she had something she wanted to talk about.  We thought she was just stalling until she insisted that what she wanted to say was about the scriptures.  She proceeded to tell us that what we had just explained was the same thing she tried to tell a boy in her class at school who kept bothering her and apparently always tries to do things for her.  My daughter explained that she wants him to just worry about himself and not try to control her, and in the ensuing conversation we learned that he was in some ways bullying her.  I’m not sure why she hadn’t told us this before, but I was very grateful that our reading and explanation of the scriptures had opened up a conversation and allowed us to try to help her.

               This experience helped me realize that I need to focus less on “getting through” some set amount of verses with my kids and more on trying to help them understand something in them.  Thinking about this experience reminds me of the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.  The Ethiopian was reading the book of Isaiah when Philip passed by, and Philip stopped and asked him, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” The man replied, “How can I, except some man should guide me?”  He asked Philip to join him, and Philip was able to show him that the scripture was a prophecy of Christ.  The man was then baptized and “went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:30-31, 39).  The scriptures alone weren’t enough to help the Ethiopian; he needed someone to help him understand them.  The same thing happened when the resurrected Christ joined the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  They didn’t understand how the events they had just witnessed were a part of the scriptural prophecies, and Jesus “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” and “opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:27, 45).  Again, they had needed someone to explain the scriptures to them.  Jesus showed the importance of both reading and explaining the scriptures when He visited the Nephites.  He read many words of the scriptures to them, and after giving them the words of Malachi, “He expounded them unto the multitude; and he did expound all things unto them, both great and small” (3 Nephi 26:1).  Reading the words of the scriptures was clearly important to the Lord, but He also wanted to make sure that those words were understood properly.  I think this is the example we should strive to follow as we read scriptures in families or in classes—we need both reading and understanding; experiencing the words themselves and expounding their meaning with the help of the Spirit.