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Resting Your Scriptures On The Floor - Page 3

We have to remember the symbolic implications of putting scriptures on the floor to understand the reason it communicates something bad.

First, Feet. Feet are power. If I have power over something, I put my feet on it and it is made under me, my vassal. If I want to defeat an opponent, the way I do it is placing him on the floor (the realm of the foot) and, if I'm feeling especially spunky I put my foot on top of him. He is under me and I am dominant over him--I have power over him.

We see this symbolism in the scriptures. There is the washing of the feet, which is a symbol of call and election being made sure--ergo the assurance of inheritance of power like God's (look at Mosiah 15, where Abinadi quotes Isaiah about 'how beautiful upon the mountains are their feet'--the lowest part of our body is above the highest terrestrial landmark). Along the same line, Earth is "God's footstool", meaning he has power over it. In the celestial kingdom, the white stone regarding the lesser kingdoms is the planet itself and placed below the foot. There's 1 Nephi 19:9 where Nephi says that those that mock God's commandments trample the God of Israel under foot. Then he corrects himself so we know that they aren't really trampling him underfoot, just imagining themselves in power over God. There's the symbolism in Moroni's feet (in Joseph Smith's bedroom) never touching the floor, meaning his power is from somewhere above this world. We humble ourselves by purposefully disarming our feet before God (kneeling), or as did Jesus in Gethsemene, putting ourselves fully on the floor.

So the foot is power over something. The floor or ground is the realm of the foot and thus the place where things that are weaker than ourselves are placed. The scriptures being placed on the floor has the symbolic meaning of the scriptures and the truth they contain being beneath us, or under our powers. We are making ourselves as God over God's own word.

It's this symbolism that makes it undesireable to put the scriptures on the floor, not the literal act of putting them on the floor. Like many have said, the sin is having the wrong attitude (symbolically or in practice) toward the scriptures. It's a great statement of our respect for the power of the scriptures not to put them on the floor. But it needs to be a statement of our respect--we need to love them, pattern our lives after them, and read them often--and is completely hollow if not for that reason.

Edited: arnaen on 23rd Jan, 2009 - 8:49am

Floor The Scriptures Resting

I think that this is a "Law of Moses" quesiton. Should we be respectful with our scriptures? Absolutely. Should we kick them around on the floor? Definitely not. Will we be eternally damned if we set our scriptures on the floor so there is more room on the bench for another family in sacrament meeting? No. If our scriptures accidentally slip out of our hands and touch the floor, will we be cursed? I really don't think so.

This is like how the pharisees were not allowed to put eggs by a fire on the sabbath because it would be considered cooking, and this is strictly forbidden. When Christ came, he overrode the Jewish law. Now, we can eat pork and cook on sunday (not too extravagantly, but certainly, we can and must cook).

After all, they are just the words of God. Should we worship God's words or should we worship God?