Freedom or Captivity? It's Up to Us - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter Two (2 Nephi 2)

Lehi continues his patriarchal counsel, but now turns his focus to his son Jacob. If you remember, Lehi and Sariah gave birth to sons named Jacob and Joseph during their travels (and travails) in the wilderness. It is not clear exactly how old Jacob is at this point. Nephi’s account told us that his family journeyed eight years through the wilderness, and the time that has gone by since the ocean journey to the promised land could be anywhere from a few short years to a decade or two.

My own assumption is that Jacob is probably at least as old as Joseph Smith was when he had his first vision of the Father and Son, because Lehi reveals to us (in verses 2-3) that Jacob has beheld (presumably in vision) the coming of Jesus in the “fulness of time” and has “beheld in thy youth his [Christ’s] glory.” So if Jacob is 14 (Joseph Smith’s age at the time of the First Vision) or older, and he was born sometime between a year to six years into the wilderness journey, we are probably sometime after 585 B.C.—at least six years since the arrival of Lehi’s family in the Americas.

We haven’t had much detail about their experiences, other than to know that the land is fruitful in supporting the family’s sustenance and prosperity. Remember, Nephi made two different records. This is the shorter one, devoted more to sacred teachings. The longer record (not available yet, but perhaps in a future day) presumably tells us a little more about those first years. But it seems as though Lehi’s family may not have had as difficult a time as the Jamestown settlers or the Pilgrims did on the North American east coast 2,200 years later.

As curious as we may be for the temporal detail of the family’s circumstances in the Americas, this chapter teaches us that, whatever those circumstances may have been, the key thing was that Lehi and those of his children who were receptive to the way of the Lord had ample opportunity to learn and live true Christian doctrines of salvation and eternal life. The richness of this doctrine bursts forth in great abundance through Lehi’s words to Jacob. Note also the parallels between Lehi, as a great patriarch seeking to transfer blessings down the generations, and the patriarchs of the Old Testament. He even names his young sons Jacob and Joseph, presumably after their counterparts who descended directly from Abraham and Isaac and became the fathers of great nations.

And as the sacred words flow, the dominant impression I have is one of immense gratitude for the Book of Mormon. This chapter exemplifies why another testament of Jesus Christ was necessary. Without contradicting the Bible, it clarifies and ties together in a straightforward, powerful way doctrines and principles so important for us to understand in order to know God’s plan for us to be happy and to be reconciled to Him.

Lehi clearly has an expectation and a solid premonition that Jacob will spend his days serving God and sharing divine teachings with the generations of their family who populate their new home. So Lehi uses this opportunity to remind Jacob of the fundamental things for him to emphasize with their beloved family. And the core of it is all there in his first few points in verses 4-7. Adam (and Eve) fell from a state of paradise in the Garden of Eden to a state of temptation and trial in the world. But don’t lose hope, because salvation is freely offered. Even though we fail in keeping the Lord’s law, we still can be saved if we show “a broken heart and contrite spirit” by repenting and following the one who satisfied the demands of the law (Christ) through his “sacrifice for sin.” Here we glimpse the first direct mention in the Book of Mormon of the simply-worded but powerfully profound truth that upon Christ’s death and resurrection, the need for animal sacrifice (found in the Old Testament law of Moses) goes away, and the sacrifice becomes one of forsaking our own sins by holding on tightly to the saving power of Christ’s Atonement.   

Lehi then expounds upon this doctrine, taking care to relate everything he says back to these initial core truths. Freedom of choice, also known as agency, needs to exist for us so that we are not simply forced into following, but so that we find growth in the process of making our choices amid opposites that confront us—good/evil, pleasure/pain, work/idleness. It centers upon the idea that in a world where our imperfect nature is barraged by influences around us, we ultimately either choose to “act”—hopefully moving toward salvation through Christ—or we are “acted upon.”  And if we’re acted upon, it’s probably in a way that hinders our discernment or capacity to choose. As Lehi lays out in verse 27, we either select liberty and eternal life for ourselves, or we find ourselves in captivity and death (separation from God) under the power of the devil (a fallen angel). He doesn’t have to go into his imagination to come up with these concepts. After all, the defining struggle of his life has been to make sure his family followed the Lord’s warning by leaving Jerusalem for an existence free from the captivity and death that would have otherwise come.

It is critically important for us to know what this chapter teaches about the fall of Adam and Eve. Their choice to leave the garden for the challenges of a mortal existence was absolutely necessary for God’s plan to work. Just as necessary as the Atonement of Christ or the creation itself. In fact all of these components of the plan work seamlessly together and are described best by verse 25, which says, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” Although we may not fully comprehend the circumstances and state of being under which Adam and Eve decided to partake of the forbidden fruit (thus leading to their departure from Eden), Lehi makes a very interesting point (in verse 23) when he says that if they had stayed in the garden “they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy.” Lehi makes a distinction here between innocence and joy, and seems to make a direct connection between family life (having children) and the potential for joy. Clearly, as Lehi’s mortal life draws to its close, it’s a poignant time of reflection for Lehi on his own joyful (and sorrowful) experiences with members of his family.

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/2?lang=eng  

A Prophet Yes, but a Father First - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter One (2 Nephi 1)

As we move from the first to the second book of Nephi, Lehi tries to reinforce Nephi’s teaching from the previous chapter. So we have the Lord working through several witnesses—Nephi, Isaiah, Moses, and Lehi—who plead with Laman and Lemuel to hearken to the core message of the gospel: that Jesus Christ has the power to save anyone, no matter where they are. This message is intended to comfort Lehi’s family, having traveled halfway across the world from the first promised land (Israel) to a new one.

Lehi says a lot, but his message boils down to a few basic points:

• Jerusalem has already been destroyed. Lehi tells them he has seen this in a vision, proving that if they stayed in Jerusalem, they’d probably be dead, or at least in captivity.

• The land to which the Lord has led them is a promised land. We learn that the Americas are a special place where all who go there have a promise that they can live in liberty—unmolested by people in other parts of the world—if they follow the Lord’s commandments.

• The flip side to the promise for Lehi’s family and others led by the Lord to America is that if they distance themselves spiritually from the Lord by straying from what they know is His path of righteousness and happiness, the Lord will bring others to the land who will physically displace them. This appears to be a warning that applies even to us as we read Nephi’s record 2,600 years later.

Then, in verse 12, the tone shifts from a general prophecy to a desperately specific plea from a father to his sons. I’m pretty sure Lehi has sensed that Laman and Lemuel are not inclined to stay on the right path, and he’s going to use every ounce of the energy he has left in him to try to win them back. Lehi wants to know in his heart that he has done all he could to warn his older sons of the consequences in store for their stubborn unwillingness to listen to their younger brother Nephi.

Lehi doesn’t hold back. He talks openly of the agony he has felt while contemplating the state of Laman’s and Lemuel’s souls. He refers to chains of captivity and to cursings, leading up to one of the most straightforward explanations in all of scripture of the difference between choosing the right and the wrong path (in verse 20):

Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.

This is not just speculation. It’s a direct quote from the Lord.

Lehi gropes for anything he can say to get through to Laman and Lemuel. “Awake,” “arise,” “shake off the chains,” “put on the armor of righteousness.”

Then he mounts a vigorous defense of Nephi. He leaves no doubt regarding his view that Nephi has been vital to the family’s deliverance and prosperity with his steady virtue and visionary outlook. And he tells them again and again that if they fight against Nephi and reject him, they are fighting against and rejecting God, because Nephi is only trying to do what God wants him to do.

And in case they hadn’t taken his words seriously before, now Lehi really lays down the gauntlet. He tells Laman, Lemuel, Sam and the sons of Ishmael that his “first blessing” or birthright—extremely significant in a society run via patriarchal succession—will only pass to them to the extent they listen to Nephi. If they don’t, this blessing will instead pass to Nephi. Here it is laid out clearly. To be their fathers’ inheritors, they have to humble themselves. Can they do it? Are they willing to pay that price? It becomes reminiscent of the story of Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, where Esau’s misplaced priorities lead him to trade away his birthright to Jacob for a “mess of pottage” (some food given him to satisfy the hunger of a day).

After sharing this unmistakable promise and warning with his sons and the sons of Ishmael, Lehi turns to Zoram, the servant of Laban who had been compelled to join with the family (once he became aware of the sons’ recovery of the brass plates in Jerusalem). We witness the generosity of Lehi’s spirit as he tells this person from outside the family, who has shown great faithfulness as Nephi’s friend, that his descendants will receive the same blessings as Nephi’s descendants, contingent only on their righteousness.

The raising of this contingency is an interesting point to end on, because it reminds us that even though Nephi, Zoram, and others have tremendous personal virtue, their descendants will be subject to temptation like everyone else and remain in danger of falling away from truth and righteousness. Mentioning that blessings are conditional foreshadows many of the challenges these descendants will face in future stories from the book, and once again testifies that the way to overcome personal weakness is through humility before God, repentance, and continuing obedience.

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/1?lang=eng

A Marvelous Work and a Mighty Nation - First Book of Nephi, Chapter Twenty-Two (1 Nephi 22)

Just as it is important to have a scriptural record to testify of eternal truth through the generations, it is important for the people of the current generation to liken those scriptures to their specific place and time. After Nephi reads passages from Isaiah’s writings from the brass plates to his brothers, he explains their meaning. The last verse of this chapter (verse 31) refers back to the visions that Lehi and Nephi directly experienced several years before in Jerusalem and in the family’s first desert campsite (Lehi in 1 Nephi 1 and 8, Nephi in 1 Nephi 12-14), so it seems that Nephi has great fondness for Isaiah’s prophecies about the people of Israel and the Gentiles because he has seen many of the same things himself. But as verse 31 shows, Nephi knows that his brothers have some baggage when it comes to listening to him and to Lehi, so he wants them to get the message from sources they’re more comfortable accepting. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nephi settled on this teaching approach after much pondering and seeking of the Lord’s guidance through prayer. 

It seems Nephi’s approach is working, because after he reads the prophecies from Isaiah, his brothers exhibit curiosity. They ask Nephi questions about whether the prophecies will be literally (temporally) fulfilled or are meant to be understood more symbolically (spiritually). The direct experiences Nephi has had help him know what to emphasize to his brothers. He tells them that the prophecies have both literal and symbolic elements.

From there, he provides a straightforward explanation of key events that will occur for the Lord to gather his people. Note that 1 Nephi 15 records a very similar conversation between Nephi and his brothers years ago (complete with references to Isaiah – 1 Nephi 15:20) alluding to these same events. Just as it is with us, it appears that it’s important for them to hear the same things numerous times over their life’s journeys so they can remember their importance:

• Many of Israel have been scattered already (including themselves) and others will later be scattered upon the “isles of the sea” (verse 4).

• The Gentiles (again, those with no clear ancestral ties to the children of the covenant that passed from Abraham down through his grandson Jacob, also known as Israel) will play an essential role in helping restore these scattered branches of Israel. Two points are of particular importance:

1.      The Lord will raise up a “mighty nation” among the Gentiles (verse 7). As Nephi has already seen (in 1 Nephi 13), this refers to the United States. This nation will scatter the descendants of Lehi’s family (probably a reference to Native Americans), but it will also be the first country with a written constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

2.      Upon this mighty nation, the Lord will do “a marvelous work” among the Gentiles (verses 8-9). Again, going back to 1 Nephi 13 (verses 39-42), this refers to truth and power being revealed among the Gentiles to bless both them and the scattered branches of Israel, including Lehi’s descendants. Specifically, the passage is talking about the discovery of the plates on which Nephi and his descendants will write sacred things, these plates’ translation into the Book of Mormon, and the book’s eventual circulation throughout the world.

Nephi emphasizes that these events will fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy about Israel being nourished by and carried on the shoulders of the Gentiles, and will fulfill the covenant promise to Abraham that all the earth will be blessed through his seed. Those who are familiar with the humble beginnings of Joseph Smith and others who helped him bring forth the Book of Mormon can’t help but marvel at how widely people around the globe have become familiar with the book and the Church. Think of how surreal this promise must have seemed to Joseph while he translated this passage.

As Nephi reviews these promises with his brothers, he emphasizes that the Lord will “make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations” to help bring His people out of captivity. The imagery has been described as one of having authority and power to make the gospel of Jesus Christ known throughout the world. Centuries later, after appearing as a resurrected being to his disciples at the very end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus Himself would charge them (and, by extension, all who follow Him) to do that (Matthew 28:18-20):

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

In the rest of the chapter, Nephi shares things he previously saw (written in 1 Nephi 14) about the end of the world (or at least the end of the world as we know it). As shared, the events evoke a climactic struggle between good and evil. There’s reference to nations who fight against Israel being turned against one another and the Lord destroying the enemies of the righteous by fire. This is in line with what the apostle John shares in the Book of Revelation, though John goes into much more symbolic detail about these last days over several chapters. The idea of cleansing the wicked from the earth is not new. The Old Testament story of Noah involves a different cleansing element (water rather than fire), but shares the same basic principle.

Then Nephi leans on the authority of another prophet—the great Moses—to support his own words about a prophet who will be raised up (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). That prophet is Christ Himself, who will “execute judgment in righteousness” (verse 21). In this context, the prophecy seems to be referring to Christ’s Second Coming, echoing a statement the apostle Peter would make at the temple in Jerusalem (Acts 3:20-24) about 600 years later.

When Jesus comes again, we learn that He will gather his children as a shepherd gathers his sheep, and that Satan will have no power for many years. This evokes the prophecy of the Millennium found in the Book of Revelation (20:2) where Satan is bound for a thousand years and is unable to deceive the people during that time. How is Satan’s power taken away? By the righteousness of the people (verse 26). They don’t allow him into their hearts.

These events are all quite dramatic and sweeping in their consequences for the world, but Nephi brings his brothers (and us) back to the fundamentals at the very end. This reminds us that the main reason Nephi shared these things was not to produce mental and emotional excitement, but to show that “a man must be obedient to the commandments of God.” The whole tale of scattering and gathering through sacred records and prophets is one of simple accountability, promising that safety (defined more in terms of eternal salvation and inner peace than in terms of complete protection from physical harm) comes through repentance and in following Jesus (verses 28 and 31).

You can read the entire chapter at this link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/22?lang=eng

Scattering, Gathering and Restoration - First Book of Nephi, Chapter Twenty-One (1 Nephi 21, see also Isaiah 49)

In this chapter from Isaiah that Nephi inserts into his record, Isaiah is writing specifically to the people of Israel who have been “broken off” and “driven out” from their lands. As we discussed in the summary of the last chapter, Isaiah lived through a time (740-700 B.C.) when several tribes (traditionally, around 10) of Israel were taken away into captivity or otherwise scattered when the northern kingdom of Israel was captured by the Assyrians.

Isaiah’s words have special resonance for Nephi’s family, who recently journeyed halfway across the world to a new, strange place. They have their own experience of being broken off from their lands in the sense that the Lord told Lehi to take them out of Jerusalem to avoid the Babylonian captivity that was imminent due to the people’s wickedness. Thus, when Isaiah writes in the name of the Lord to the “isles of the sea” (verse 8), Nephi hopes that this will bring reassurance to his people that the Lord has not forgotten them.

In this chapter, Isaiah appears to be referring to himself as a larger symbol for all of Israel, because in verse 3 he reveals that the Lord said to him: “Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” So when we read the words “my servant” (as in verses 6 and 8) they can broadly apply to any person called by the Lord to “restore the preserved of Israel” and be “a light to the Gentiles,” or the rest of the world. This is a sign that God has not forgotten the covenant he made to Abraham, which eventually passed to Isaac and Jacob (who was renamed Israel and whose children became the starting point for Israel’s 12 tribes).

So who is called by the Lord to re-gather Israel and bring salvation to the world? Isaiah’s account tells Nephi’s family that they and other branches of Israel will eventually find themselves miraculously delivered and lifted up. This implies that they may have to go through times of struggle and subjection to rulers who are not acquainted with the true nature of God and his relationship to mankind.

The first and central step, as always, is through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Isaiah describes how the Lord will not forget his covenant, by referring in an unmistakable way to Christ’s crucifixion. The Lord says (in verse 16), “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” This is a clear prophecy (given hundreds of years before the event actually occurs) about the Roman nails that will be driven through the hands of Jesus. Because Jesus will love his people so much, he will be willing to suffer on their behalf even unto death, making his love even more sure than that of a nursing mother for her helpless child (verse 15).

And the power of that love will bring salvation (via the forgiveness of sins) to those who believe on Jesus and exercise faith by acting in accordance with this belief. The gathering of the people comes from the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the performance of the necessary ordinances (baptism, etc.) of His Church by those who have authority to act in His name.

Isaiah may be speaking about authority and power when he refers (in verse 2) to the Lord hiding his covenant people in the “shadow of his hand” and comparing them to a “sharp sword” and a “polished shaft” (an arrow) in his quiver. A revelation from the Lord recorded by Joseph Smith in 1832 (known today as Section 86 of a book of scripture in our Church called the Doctrine and Covenants) says that those who have the priesthood authority to act in God’s name “have been hid from the world with Christ in God.”

How have they been hid? At various times in the history of God’s people, for reasons that may not be entirely clear but probably depend on the overall obedience and humility of the people and their leaders, the authority to perform sacred ordinances with eternal effect in God’s name has gone away. When that has happened, we can literally say that the only ones who have this authority are those who have gone back to be hid in God’s hand after the end of their mortal lives.

But each time the authority has gone away, the Lord has looked for opportunities to restore it through the true heirs of Abraham’s covenant and of the priesthood authority that follows from it. These are people who show obedience and humility before the Lord, exemplified in a willingness to receive and perform the ordinance of baptism. Remember, it was John the Baptist (in Luke 3:8) who warned his Jewish audience not to rely solely on their ancestral link with Abraham, saying “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” When John said this, he knew that his own coming among the people represented a restoration of divine authority to perform ordinances. Another restoration of this authority came on May 15, 1829, when the resurrected John the Baptist appeared as an angel to Joseph Smith and his associate Oliver Cowdery and gave them (first) the means to baptize each other and (after that) the means to ordain each other with the priesthood authority that had previously been hidden from the world (see verses 68-73 of this history of Joseph Smith).

But even when the priesthood authority is actually present on earth, its holders can be “hid from the world” in the sense that most people don’t know where to find them amid the confusion and distraction of everyday life. That’s where the sharp sword and polished shaft come into play. The Lord’s covenant people have an obligation to share the message of salvation through Christ via faith, repentance, and obedience (including the receipt of necessary ordinances), and the sword and arrow represent the power that God gives to those who share this message in His name.

If we understand these concepts, the beauty and power of this chapter really begins to kick in, as we sense how the Lord’s messengers can find great joy and comfort in spreading the Word even when others initially reject them, because a way will eventually be prepared for the message to have glorious effect.

And then Isaiah shares this amazing idea that part of God’s plan is for the Gentiles (those who either aren’t physical heirs of Abraham’s covenant, or don’t know that they are) to gather the scattered people of Israel. The Gentiles will be given the power (again through sharing the word and performing ordinances under divine authority) to deliver God’s people from captivity, as they themselves become heirs to the covenant—proving how universally it applies. This is exactly what took place with the restoration through Joseph Smith of the gospel, priesthood authority, and Christ’s Church, and the next chapter will refer to this in more specific terms.

I like to imagine Nephi and his family pondering these amazing promises, realizing that somehow their long and strange journey is playing some part in ensuring salvation will be made available to all people. And that those who stand in its way will be frustrated and, if obstinate, destroyed.

You can read the entire chapter of 1 Nephi 21 at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/21?lang=eng

You can read the entire chapter of Isaiah 49 at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/49?lang=eng