An Account of This Stewardship

When the November 1831 conference decided to publish the revelations Joseph had received in the Book of Commandments, the Lord instructed certain individuals to take responsibility for doing it. He said, “Hear the word of the Lord which I give unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and also unto my servant Martin Harris, and also unto my servant Oliver Cowdery, and also unto my servant John Whitmer, and also unto my servant Sidney Rigdon, and also unto my servant William W. Phelps, by the way of commandment unto them. For I give unto them a commandment; wherefore hearken and hear, for thus saith the Lord unto them—I, the Lord, have appointed them, and ordained them to be stewards over the revelations and commandments which I have given unto them, and which I shall hereafter give unto them; And an account of this stewardship will I require of them in the day of judgment” (Doctrine and Covenants 70:1-4). They were to be stewards over the revelations, and this was so important that the Lord cautioned them that they would have to give an accounting of this stewardship on their judgment day. We might be tempted to pass over this quickly, thinking it doesn’t apply to us and that certainly we do not have a responsibility of publishing revelations. But I believe that we will all be accountable for how we use and reverence and live by the word of the Lord in the scriptures that we have. The Lord made this clear in an early revelation which began with these words: “Hearken and hear, O ye my people, saith the Lord and your God, ye whom I delight to bless with the greatest of all blessings.” That same revelation, given to His people, ended with these words, “These words are given unto you, and they are pure before me; wherefore, beware how you hold them, for they are to be answered upon your souls in the day of judgment” (Doctrine and Covenants 41:1, 12). Surely that applies to all of the words that the Lord has given us—we must beware how we hold them and remember that they will play a part in our future judgment.

            One of the most important themes throughout the Book of Mormon is the importance of preserving sacred records, and its focus on records likewise reminds us that we must give great care to reverence the word of the Lord in our lives. Like these early Saints designated as stewards over the revelations, many different prophets in the Book of Mormon were responsible to keep and preserve and pass down the sacred records. They started with Nephi who passed them off to Jacob: “Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven. And 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” (Jacob 1:1-2). The record keepers were responsible both to preserve and to continue adding to the records. Jacob passed them on to Enos: “And I, Jacob, saw that I must soon go down to my grave; wherefore, I said unto my son Enos: Take these plates. And I told him the things which my brother Nephi had commanded me, and he promised obedience unto the commands” (Jacob 7:27). From Enos they went to Jarom and then Omni (Jarom 1:1-2, 15). They subsequently passed through the hands of several others—Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, and Amaleki—before being given to King Benjamin (Omni 1:25). King Benjamin passed them to his son Mosiah with this testimony: “O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes” (Mosiah 1:6, 16). Mosiah passed them on to Alma (the Younger) “and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem” (Mosiah 28:20). And thus they continued, going on from Alma to his son Helaman and then to Shiblon and Helaman’s son Helaman (Alma 63:1, 13). Nephi, Helaman’s son, took possession of them next and passed them on to his son Nephi (3 Nephi 1:2-3). He was in charge of the records when the Savior came, and at one point the Lord asked to examine them: “Bring forth the record which ye have kept” (3 Nephi 23:7). From Nephi they went to Amos who passed them on to his son Amos who entrusted them to his brother Ammoron (4 Nephi 1:19, 21, 47). Ammaron gave them to Mormon who used them to abridge the entire Book of Mormon before hiding them up to the Lord and passing off the record we would ultimately get to his son Moroni (Mormon 1:1-4, 6:6). All of these were stewards of the revelations of the Lord, and the book is so conscious of the keepers of the sacred records that we can essentially name them all from Nephi to Moroni. This focus reminds us that we too need to give a special focus in our lives on the word of God passed down to us through prophets of old. Surely all of us who have been given the word of God and gained a testimony of it will give “an account of this stewardship… in the day of judgment.”