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
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