Scripture of the Day: “O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?” —Alma 33:21
In this verse, Alma is talking about a time in the Old Testament when some of the Israelites were bitten by poisonous snakes!
Under the Lord’s direction, Moses made a snake out of brass. He held it up and told the people they would be healed if they looked at it. Easy enough, right? But some people were so stubborn and unbelieving that they refused to look! And they died.
(By the way, we know that last part—the fact that some people refused to look—from the Book of Mormon! That detail wasn’t in the Bible. Another example of how both books work together.)
Anyway, the story sounds ridiculous when it’s summarized like that. Imagine you’re dying but you won’t accept the cure because … it’s too easy? What kind of sense does that make??
But... then again... we’re all guilty of doing that spiritually sometimes, aren’t we? The Savior offers us joy and eternal life if we follow His example, and yet how often do we make things harder for ourselves by not “looking” to Him?
Choose to look to the Savior and live!
To Think About
Notes
See Numbers 21.