Sending Messengers

During my family's scripture study tonight, someone pointed out that King Benjamin couldn't teach all his people in the temple at the same time, and even as they all listened outside, not everyone could hear him, so he needed to send messengers with written copies of his speech as he was giving it, so if people couldn't hear his voice directly, they could at least hear his messengers. At first, I didn't think there was anything particularly noteworthy about this, but then I thought about the parallels that could (and could not) be made between King Benjamin and God.

King Benjamin was subject to certain physical limitations. His voice could only carry so far. God, however, doesn't have that limitation. He can speak to anyone at any time, or everyone at once. God's voice can reach the four corners of the Earth and everyone on it. Yet, that's where we come in and things get tricky.

Even while God's voice, through His Spirit, can reach everyone, that doesn't mean that everyone can and will hear or listen to Him. Some people have trouble hearing the voice of the Spirit. Sure, God could speak loudly enough to shake the Earth and reach the ears of everyone on it, but He doesn't typically do that. Instead, He speaks most often through His Spirit, and His Spirit whispers. It's not called the Still, Small Voice for nothing.

So, to hear the voice of God, we need to listen carefully, and not everyone is good at that, or is even trying to. Yet, God wants to get His messages out to everyone, preferably without busting their eardrums. So, what does God do? He sends messengers.

In addition to the Holy Spirit, God sends Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists (Missionaries) to take His message to the four quarters of the Earth. We humans can't always hear God very clearly, but barring certain physical limitations, we can generally hear each other just fine. As long as there is at least one person who can listen to the Spirit reasonably well, they can relay God's message to everyone else. That's what prophets and other religious teachers are for.

Unlike King Benjamin, God can speak to everyone directly, but for various reasons, He doesn't usually do that, so instead, He does what King Benjamin did: He has His Words written down, and He sends them out via messengers.