Revelations Without Reasons

May 11, 2018

Elder Anderson cited this quote by President Oaks in his most recent general conference talk: “If you read the scriptures with this question in mind, ‘Why did the Lord command this or why did he command that,’ you find that in less than one in a hundred commands was any reason given. It’s not the pattern of the Lord to give reasons. We [mortals] can put reasons to revelation. We can put reasons to commandments. When we do, we’re on our own….  The reasons turn out to be man-made to a great extent. The revelations are what we sustain as the will of the Lord and that’s where safety lies.”  We see this principle right in the beginning of the Book of Mormon in the story of the brass plates—Lehi gave his sons no reason for the commandment from the Lord.  His sole explanation was that “it is a commandment of the Lord,” and Laman and Lemuel murmured because of it (1 Nephi 3:5).  In Nephi’s famous statement accepting to accomplish the command, he made no mention of needing a reason to do it—that the Lord had commanded was reason enough to obey. 

               I do believe, though, that as we obey commandments and revelations, we gain understanding as to the purposes of the Lord.  But the obedience usually has to come first.  In Nephi’s case, he started to understand why the plates were needed only after he had proved his obedience and was about to slay Laban.  As he struggled with the thought of having to kill Laban, he said, “I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.  Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law.  And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass” (1 Nephi 4:14-16).  The Spirit helped him understand that the plates were needed to be able to teach the commandments to his children in the promised land.  He surely didn’t know all the reasons that the plates of brass were needed, but the Lord did help him understand at least one reason why.  Adam had a similar experience when the Lord commanded him to make an offering of his flocks.  The angel came to him and said, “Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.”  Adam was obedient to the command even though he did not understand the reason.  But after he had already obeyed the command, the angel gave him at least one reason for the commandment: “This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth” (Moses 5:6-7).  Because of his obedience the Lord helped him to learn truths of the gospel that the commandment was meant to teach.  Like as it was for Adam and Nephi, our best path to understanding commandments is to obey them.  Faith is required to trust in the commands the Lord gives us; we should say as Mormon did when he didn’t understand the reasons: “I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will” (Words of Mormon 1:7).