Bring Forth the Record Which Ye Have Kept

My wife recently bought journals for some of our kids, and my six-year-old daughter who is learning to read and write has taken to writing in her journal. As we tried to get her to bed last night she insisted that she had to write something in her journal. This consists typically of one sentence that she will carefully work out with considerable effort, with someone’s help, about something that happened that day. I read 3 Nephi 23 today, her new commitment to the writing things down reminds me of the Savior’s focus on the written word in this chapter. We read, “And it came to pass that he said unto Nephi: Bring forth the record which ye have kept.” When the prophet did this the Savior found that the fulfillment of Samuel’s prophecy had not been recorded: “How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them?” Nephi remembered indeed that this miracle and fulfillment of the prophetic word hadn’t been recorded, and “Jesus commanded that it should be written” (3 Nephi 23:7-13). Perhaps when we cross the veil and meet the Savior He will ask us as well, “Bring forth the record which ye have kept.” Will we have recorded the most important events of our lives? Will we have written down how His hand has guided us and blessed our families and brought forth miracles for us?

               The importance of writing is emphasized throughout the scriptures. In the beginning Adam and his family focused on writing and recording their history: “And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration; And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled” (Moses 6:5-6).  As Jehovah gave instructions to Moses, He Himself wrote for His people: “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18). The Lord said to the prophet as well, “Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel” (Exodus 34:27). The account tells us that “Moses wrote all the words of the Lord” (Exodus 24:4). Later as the children of Israel were to finally cross over into the promised land, Moses told them as well, “And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee…. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly” (Deuteronomy 27:3,8). Writing was crucial for their posterity to know the Lord with the laws He had given and the miracles He had performed for them. To the prophet Jeremiah the Lord said, “Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book” (Jeremiah 30:2). Jehovah said to Habakkuk, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” (Habakkuk 2:2). To John at the beginning of his great vision was told this: “What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia” (Revelation 1:11).

In the scriptures of the Restoration we also see this emphasis on writing. In the Book of Mormon Nephi told of their commitment to keeping a record: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Jacob subsequently recorded, “He gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious;… And if there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of our people” (Jacob 1:1,4). pp In our dispensation Emma was given this instruction: “For he shall lay his hands upon thee, and thou shalt receive the Holy Ghost, and thy time shall be given to writing, and to learning much” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:8). When Joseph and Sidney received the great vision of the kingdoms of glory, they said that “the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision…. And we heard the voice, saying: Write the vision” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:28, 49). These are only a few of the references that could be named, and all of these highlight the importance of writing down those things of most importance. Ultimately what is written down will be part of our own judgment: “And behold, all things are written by the Father; therefore out of the books which shall be written shall the world be judged” (3 Nephi 27:26). And so we should record the doings of the Lord in our own lives so we can comfortably answer the Lord’s request to us one day: “Bring forth the record which ye have kept.”