“The idea that scripture reading can lead to inspiration and revelation opens the door to the truth that a scripture is not limited to what it meant when it was written but may also include what that scripture means to a reader today. Even more, scripture reading may also lead to current revelation on whatever else the Lord wishes to communicate to the reader at that time. We do not overstate the point when we say that the scriptures can be a Urim and Thummim to assist each of us to receive personal revelation.
“Because we believe that scripture reading can help us receive revelation, we are encouraged to read the scriptures again and again. By this means, we obtain access to what our Heavenly Father would have us know and do in our personal lives today. That is one reason Latter-day Saints believe in daily scripture study” (Dallin H. Oaks, “Scripture Reading and Revelation,” Ensign, Jan. 1995, 8).
How can we make the scriptures a Urim and Thummim in our lives?
The depth of meaning we find in the scriptures as we read them, is certainly not the same depth of meaning the original authors wrote from. They had arrived at a point where their faith was perfect knowledge and their minds were firm. They understood things beyond normal mortal comprehension. They lived in revelation and understood how to receive it. We should aspire to read the scriptures in the same spirit they wrote them and let their words open up new thoughts to us as the Spirit opens our minds.
Over 20 years ago I was able to have a conversation with Cleon Skousen shortly before he passed into the next life. I remember telling him how much I loved his talk on the atonement of Jesus Christ while I was on my mission. A cassette tape of that talk was copied and shared between missionaries like contraband to learn the insights he was sharing that none of us had ever heard of. It opened the mind to new possibilities.
At some point in the conversation, I asked him what he was studying now in his scriptures. He said he was trying to search the scriptures to understand where gender started and if it was at the intelligence level before creation. That is not a surface level idea, but listening to his talk on the atonement, we can see just how careful a reader he became under the tutelage of his mission president Elder John A. Widtsoe, a scientist and apostle.
This is an example where the scriptures do not contain an outright statement on the gender of intelligences, and yet Brother Skousen was using his faith to search the scriptures to see if they might contain a clue that God would reveal to him.
The prophet Jacob wrote:
Jacob 4:6 “Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.”
This is a remarkable verse. Searching the scriptures, in contrast to merely reading them, led the people to obtain many revelations and the spirit of prophecy. The effect of receiving those gifts was to develop unshaken faith and obtain power to control the elements.
I must admit when I read this verse I always think of the Ents in Tolkien’s masterpiece, “The Lord of the Rings.” How do the trees obey them? I’m sure it’s not going to war for the people, but it is easy to believe that they could command the trees to grow rapidly and provide food for the people when they need it. After all, Christ cursed a fig tree and it soon wilted and died. Why not command in the name of Jesus and have the opposite happen to accelerate their development and provide for others of great faith?
The Savior taught (3 Nephi 23):
1. “And now, behold, I say unto you, that
2. For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles.
3. And all things that he spake
Jesus commanded the Nephites (ie. ALL of us), that we must search the words of Isaiah because they will tell us what has been (historical) and what shall be (prophetic future).
We can safely assume that Isaiah saw the history of the world into the last days of this earth’s existence, just as Moses, Enoch, Mormon, and other prophets did. The most important thing he could do was write in inspired fashion, the things his people saw as a parallel to future events.
The fact that the Savior told the Nephites to search Isaiah’s words hundreds of years after he wrote them, indicates they have a timeless quality and lessons apply to every nation. Why? The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us:
Ecclesiastes 1:9. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
It’s the same idea the Savior told the Nephites above.
So what happens when we read the inspired words of prophets? It is our privilege to read them as though we were the one writing them.
“Do you read the scriptures, my brethren and sisters, as though you were writing them a thousand, two thousand, or five thousand years ago? Do you read them as though you stood in the place of the men who wrote them? If you do not feel thus, it is your privilege to do so, that you may be as familiar with the spirit and meaning of the written word of God as you are with your daily walk and conversation.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 128)
If a prophet writes by the inspiration of God thousands of years ago, if we partake of those words in the same spirit in which he wrote them, why would they not have an effect upon our minds such as the spirit in which he wrote? We can feel and know the things he felt and knew through what I’ll call a spiritual quantum entanglement – separated by thousands of years we can be there from a distance knowing their state. Our minds open and expand as if we were seeing through the lens of a Urim and Thummim, receiving revelations and understanding beyond what we were looking for.
The prophet Joseph Smith actually had a Urim and Thummim and was given the blessing of using them to translate the Book of Mormon, but also more than that.
From Robert J. Matthews book, “A Plainer Translation: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, a History and Commentary,” page 25:
“In this respect the testimony of Lorenzo Brown about the preparation the Prophet made for his translation of the Bible may be instructive. He records the Prophet as saying: ‘After I got through translating the Book of Mormon, I took up the Bible to read with the Urim and Thummim. I read the first chapter of Genesis and I saw the things as they were done. I turned over the next and the next, and the whole passed before me like a grand panorama; and so on chapter after chapter until I read the whole of it. I saw it all!’”
What an amazing experience. If only we had the same tool to experience that! And yet, by our faith and the Spirit of the Lord, we can experience this from time to time. It may not always be an open vision, but our spiritual vision can be opened to great effect by going deeper into the scriptures with the guidance of the Spirit.
One key, however, is not just in the reading of the scriptures. Reading is of course a critical component of study, but the Savior’s command was to search the scriptures and not just read or study.
Why is that?
Because even though there are masterful sermons in the scriptures, a single sermon can’t teach us everything about a principle of the gospel. We have to search across the scriptures to find all the different aspects of a principle.
If we want to understand faith, we have to see it from many different angles. How does faith look when it’s bumping up against mental limitations and unbelief such as we see Laman and Lemuel exhibit? What does faith look like when it’s tested by obedience to sacrifice such as Abraham’s command to sacrifice Isaac? What does it look like when moving a mountain, turning a river out of course, or piercing the veil of heaven?
My indispensable tool for searching the scriptures to obtain cross-sectional insight and revelation is Scripture Notes. I cannot imagine studying the gospel without it. The flexible interface lets you open as many panels of content as you want. You can be reading a chapter in one panel, open a search panel next to it to go deeper on something, click a link to see the Hebrew or Greek meaning behind words, access nearly 30 translations of that verse, and then save the search results to a collection note that contains a master note for all the insights you’ve gained.
As we search the scriptures, putting ourselves in the place of the writers, feeling what they felt, being inspired by what they experienced, the scriptures will open up to us with tremendous insights. It is our privilege to experience this. Moreover, it is our duty and a command of heaven to do so.
