for food, electricity, computers, cell phones, our easy 21st century life
In our faith, for many decades we have been asked to be self-sufficient and to prepare in advance for uncertain events that come to everyone and uncertain times that may yet be to come.
One of our previous prophets said in our General Conference many years ago:
The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah. Ezra Taft Benson, 1980 (Ironically from a talk entitled, Prepare for the Day of Tribulation)
I've been intrigued by the word prepare in the Book of Mormon. The thought that the Lord has many times "prepared a way" in advance of events. So, this morning I thought I'd do a word study of the word prepare. WOW.
First off, when you consider that the atonement was prepared from the foundation of the world, and you think of the Great Plan of HAPPINESS, you discover that Heavenly Father really is the Master Planner/Preparer. He knew in advance what it would take to get the most of us home.
As I searched the scriptures through my LDS app, I noticed something I had not before. There is a small number next to every search result. I realized that the small number tells how many times that word or a variation of it occurs in the chapter you are about to click on. COOL!
So, with that in mind, I wanted to find the chapters of scripture that had the most references to preparedness and what they say. Many chapters have 1 or 2. Several chapters have 3 or more. But very few have more than 5 or 6. So, I wanted to see what the most prevalent usages of the word prepare had to say. Here they are.
Old Testament
Ezekial 46, 8 uses, ordinance of worship and sacrifice
2 Chronicles 35, 7 uses, Passover preparation
1 Chronicles 22, 6 uses, David prepares the temple
New Testament
John 19 is the only chapter with more than 2.
Preparing the body of Christ before Passover.
P of GP
Abraham 4, 4 uses, Earth prepared for Creation.
D and C
Section 88, 10 uses, Obedience prepares man for the appropriate kingdom, angels prepare the way for the coming of the Lord
Section 133, 8 uses, note the double usage in verse 4. Preparation for the Second Coming.
Section 78, 7 uses, preparation to inherit all things
And the ULTIMATE preppers manual of the scriptures
Book of Mormon
Alma, 1, 2 Nephi, and Ether have the most combined references with Alma leading the way 3 and 4 to 1. I supposed if we want to understand preparedness, we should understand Alma.
Top chapters
Alma 49, 11 uses, Nephites prepare themselves against the Lamanites for war.
Ether 12, 7 uses, Faith and the Lord's preparations for US
Alma 13, 6 uses, things that were prepared from the beginning
Alma 5, 5 uses, What you need to be prepared to meet God.
The Book of Mormon truly is a preparedness manual. How to prepare for war, escape, gathering. How to prepare our hearts to meet God. How the Lord has prepared places, peoples, his Son for our welfare, blessings for after this life and places for the wicked. While I DON'T think God is this kind of prepper:
I do believe He has prepared a way for us, will continue to prepare a way for us when we follow Him, and expects us to be prepared so that we can fully receive the blessings He has promised us.
Don't leave word studies out. They're awesome!
If you like this post, please share or comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment