Search Knowledge

Nephi gave this lament in some of his final words in the Book of Mormon: “I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be” (2 Nephi 32:7).  I’m not sure if he was lamenting the unbelief of his own people in his day, the Lamanites of his time, his future descendants, or perhaps even us in our day who would be reading his words.  Perhaps it was all of the above.  He certainly had lamented this unwillingness to seek and ask in his brothers when they sought spiritual knowledge without any effort.  When they said they couldn’t understand the words of their father, Nephi replied with this simple question, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?”  They responded that they hadn’t (and tried to put the blame on the Lord) to which Nephi lamented, “How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts? Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you” (1 Nephi 15:7-11).  Nephi’s promise was that if we would truly search and ask the Lord, we would receive answers and knowledge—but the Lord won’t simply grant it to us without our searching.          

               Many other scriptural passages similarly invite us to search in order to gain knowledge and understanding.  The Lord prefaced the Doctrine and Covenants in these words: “Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled” (1:37).  He told the Nephites: “The words of Isaiah should be fulfilled—behold they are written, ye have them before you, therefore search them” (3 Nephi 20:11).  In case they missed that He again told them to “search [the words of Isaiah] diligently” and to “search the prophets” (3 Nephi 23:1,5).  Moroni similarly invited us, “Search the prophecies of Isaiah” (Mormon 8:23).  Jacob wrote of how they did “search the prophets” and thus had many revelations and how after Sherem’s visit “they searched the scriptures” (Jacob 4:6, 7:23).  King Benjamin invited his sons in these words: “And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby” (Mosiah 1:7).  Alma invited the Zoramites to “search the scriptures” to understand how to worship God (Alma 33:2).  Mormon in his abridgement invited us, “And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let him search them” (3 Nephi 10:14).  If we search the scriptures we find that the prophets have repeatedly invited us to indeed do just that: search them.  The Lord invited us in these words in our day: “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another” (90:24).  Each day we can “search knowledge” in the words of God, praying to be led to find what He has for us there, and all things will work together for our good.