And the Multitude Followed Them

3 Nephi 19:10 And when they had thus prayed they went down unto the water’s edge, and the multitude followed them.

At first glance, this verse seems mostly devoid of meaning. Everyone went down to the river together. Big deal. However, it may be a big deal that the multitude went down to the river, following the disciples in doing so. I pull two messages out of this: one cautionary, one aspirational.

This message is a cautionary one because it demonstrates that people tend to follow other people. Granted, lots of people follow their own path, but even more people follow others, be they their religious and/or political leaders, they friends and family, those who seem to be the most popular and/or successful members of society, or just the rest of the crowd. Following others is a good way for an individual to get to wherever the person they're following is going. If that's a good place, that's a good thing. We're lucky to have religious leaders and the word of God that we can follow. However, we should be careful whom we follow, and we should especially be careful because people may be following us. Even those of us who feel like nobodies may have a guiding influence on others, if only because behavior is infectious, so we should be careful to make sure our behavior is good and that it guides others to do good as well.

Fortunately, the people in this verse definitely seem to be on a good path. At his moment in time, and for a generation of two afterward, the people were definitely following God. Specifically, they were following Jesus' disciples, who were (figuratively) following Jesus, Who had followed God. It's rare for a whole multitude to be on the right path, but here they were, all following the disciples to the waters of baptism. Not a lot of people do that these days. But the good news is that "the multitude" is made of individuals, including us and those within our sphere of influence. As we follow God and encourage others to follow Him as well, that small part of the multitude will be following God. And while we follow God, others may still follow us. It's possible, if unlikely, to get the whole multitude to follow God this way, and that, in my opinion, would certainly be a change for the better.

So, we should be aware of the tendency to follow. We should be careful whom we follow, and we should be careful where we lead others. And if we do, we can end up in a good place, and we may even bring others along with us. So lets try to follow (and be) good guides. So long as we're all following each other, we might as well follow each other to somewhere good.