3.271 The Voice Crieth

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Are you familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf? The scenario: this young boy who cries wolf, and the town comes running to help, and he laughs. Then he cries wolf again, and the town comes to help, and he laughs.

The Wolf. Let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 40 here and see if I can connect this just a little bit. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3.

I picked this one, verses 3 through 5, actually. Just kind of a fun little side note: Isaiah chapter 40, verses 3 through 5, are all those verses, are the only verses from Isaiah that occur in all four of the Gospels in the New Testament. So, it might be like a, "Hey everybody, pay attention to this message here," as we get that.

Verse 3 says this: The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Now, this one usually is reference to John the Baptist preparing the way of Jesus Christ before he comes. But we also see a modern day, a latter day view of this in terms of the preparation of the coming of the Lord for the second time.

Now, here comes the kind of the concept of this voice crying wolf. What's come to mind for me is, today I hear sometimes, just casually, whether it's necessarily at church or just amongst members of the Church, that kind of hear the words of the prophets or General Conference, and yet just allow them to kind of say, "Yeah, that was, that was good." And then just kind of move on with life. And yet I hope that you're hearing and doing something about this.

The difference for me is that the people of Noah's time watched him start building an ark and he was calling for repentance and they listened and just kind of, "Yeah, whatever." And they listened for a hundred years while he's building this ark, not ever believing that the day is actually going to come. And so that to me is a little bit different than the cry wolf, and this is kind of where I was wrestling with this. I hope this is going to attach together here.

But the cry wolf scenario is a false herring, right? It's a boy that's just trying to play with the village a little bit and then ends up in his own demise. Noah calling people to repentance and reminding them the day of the Lord is coming was ultimately right in that the flood came and cleansed the earth.

If that's the case, what's happening with our current calls from our prophets? Let me just give you just a couple of these to finish off our thoughts here. These are all, I won't put links into these necessarily, but these are all from President Nelson and President Oaks here as of recent kind of General Conference. "The Lord is indeed hastening His work." And another one: "These blessings also help to prepare a people who will help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord." Another one: "The best is yet to come because the Savior is coming again." Another one from President Nelson: "We do not know the day or the hour of his coming, but I do know that the Lord is prompting me to urge us to get ready for that great and dreadful day." Finally, from President Nelson: "He is preparing to come again.

May we likewise prepare to receive him." Certainly sounding like the Noah side of things. And then we get President Oaks continuing this idea. He says: "I think the Lord has reserved a choice generation to face the challenges of this generation and to prepare all of us for the return of the Savior whenever that is programmed to occur." Another one, he says: "As we read the prophecies and feel the signs of the times, we cannot doubt that the future holds great sacrifices and challenges." Another one, from a little bit older from President Oaks: "When the elect shall see the signs of his coming, they shall know that he is near, even at the doors." My friends, may this not be a scenario where we believe the prophets are the boy crying wolf.

Rather, may we take them to word, perhaps even to the extent of Noah calling his people to repentance. We don't know if it's the next one year or hundred years, but we do know that the prophets are calling us and reminding us that the time of the Lord is near. May we heed the voice that crieth unto us.

That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.