Does Nephi still labor in vain? Do his words get rejected? Certainly Nephi’s words ultimately proved futile for Laman and Lemuel, but do they also prove futile for us? He speaks as plainly as he knows how, and yet we rationalize away the meaning.
This lament is typical of every prophet’s frustration. Audiences have always had the uncanny ability to apply prophetic counsel to everyone else. It certainly applies to Nephi’s message. When working with his hard-hearted brothers, Nephi’s satisfaction grew from knowing the Lord, and not from the repentance of his audience. In our own day, similarly hard-hearted and distracted people choose the honors of this world over the things of God. Nephi’s message to us is all but lost. We twist their meaning, ignore their warning, and massage them into flattery when they were intended as a rebuke.
If they measure success from their audience, all the Lord’s servants become discouraged ministering to the hard-hearted. Elijah did so. Nephi and Isaiah use the same words to describe the same syndrome. Will we accept the truth when it is sent to us, no matter how unlikely a source? Will we let Nephi’s stern words of warning carry their real meaning to our own hard hearts? When the 19-year-old missionaries sent from the Lord come knocking on doors today, is the audience skeptical because of their age, lack of education and formal training? Or do they instead listen to the message? If they listen, they can hear the Lord through these young messengers. We know this, because we are sending those 19-year-olds out and many of us have joined the Church because of their service.
That same test applies to all of us inside the Church. It is not just the “outsider” who must come in humility to hear God’s voice, but also those who claim to be following Him. When we hear the General Authorities speak in our day, do we listen with the ear of the Spirit, or simply defer to them because of their status? Since “no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned” (D&C 121: 41), we have a burden to listen for the Spirit. If we simply defer without regard to the obligation imposed on us to hear the Lord, we are idolaters.
The Lord has never asked us to follow a man or men. He has asked us only to follow Him. If you do not know the difference, then you do not know Him and you are not saved. Nephi warned us elsewhere in words borrowed from Isaiah: “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?” (2 Ne. 12: 22.)
Men are nothing, as Moses reminded us. If Moses’ observation can be trusted, then even our greatest, most inspired men are nothing. Nephi wanted us to reserve our trust to the Lord alone, and not His messengers. Have you ever heard the Master’s voice? If so, you have a living faith, based upon the Living God. Or does your religious commitment stem from traditions handed down to you? If it stems from traditions, then what difference is there between you and others who follow Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Presbyterianism, or atheism? Clearly, there is none. Therefore, you should expect the same kind of result from your generic worship as these others should expect from theirs.