2 Nephi 28:30 says: “I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.”
I enjoy this scripture. I have read it before but this time a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants came to mind as I pondered on verse 30. It seems unrelated in any way except that the two scriptures pop into my head every now and then. I’ve just never thought of them together before.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-28 says: “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.”
I have been thinking about how much we learn when we open ourselves up to the guidance of the Holy Ghost and how much more we can do with our lives. I have been feeling that Heavenly Father has so much He wants me to learn. He wants to help me with all aspects of my life, and I am grateful for that. Yet, I wonder about how D&C 58:26 comes into play. I feel like, in the past, I have ventured to do things on my own without praying as often as I should partly because I don’t want to be an unwise servant, needing to be compelled in all things. This has been rattling around in my brain for days as I’ve rushed about and gotten only short bits of scripture studying in. I have many reasons and excuses, some better than others, for letting my hour of scripture study reduce to mere minutes but the truth is I have felt the difference in my life. I am happy things have calmed down, and the internet is working again, so this morning I determined to study and pray a little more diligently about this question so I could write a post about it.
The answer I got is this: There is a difference between the word “counsel” and the word “command.” As I read Doctrine and Covenants 58, I could see that in verse 25, right before the Lord says it is “not meet that I should command in all things,” he instructs those to whom he is speaking to “counsel between themselves and me (meaning the Lord).” It seems to me that in section 58 the Lord is saying that he shouldn’t need to give an official “commandment” about everything. A commandment, received through the prophet and given to the people as something to strictly follow, is not needed in all cases. However, to counsel with the Lord and ask for personal revelation to guide us as we strive to be anxiously engaged in a good cause is what our Heavenly Father would have us do. He wants us to learn "line upon line…and lend an ear unto [his] counsel.” (2 Nephi 28:30) He wants us to take the instructions and commandments he has given us through the scriptures and seek to receive more. Not just in the sense that every General Conference address adds to the word of God or that the Doctrine and Covenants added to the standard works, or even that there are more scriptures out there that we have not yet been given. He wants to “give more” to us now as we seek to counsel with Him day by day, hour by hour. How grateful I feel to Him for helping me understand so very quickly something that I could not “logic” through, even when I thought about it for days.
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