Even though
Lehi has already delivered words of parting and blessing to his sons Laman and
Lemuel as he approaches death, he feels compelled to separately address their
sons and daughters. The first thing Lehi does (in verse 4) is to bluntly repeat
the same promise he shared with Laman and Lemuel in 2 Nephi 1:20:
Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye
shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye
shall be cut off from my presence.
Why the
repetition? From what follows in the chapter, it appears as though Lehi is
determined to do whatever he can to soften the consequences for his
grandchildren of their parents’ hard-heartedness. As we’ve seen in a number of
places throughout Nephi’s account so far, Lehi has received divine revelation
showing him that Laman and Lemuel will fall short of the Lord’s standard for
obedience.
There are
unavoidable natural consequences that Lehi senses will come upon these
grandkids as a result of their fathers’ disobedience, including being cut off
from regular communication with the Lord and being brought up in such a way
that conditions them more toward bad choices than good ones. Lehi shares with
the grandkids his conviction that “if ye are brought up in the way ye should go
ye will not depart from it” (verse 5), probably with the understanding that
most of them will be brought up in a way they’d be better off not going.
But the love
of a grandfather desperately wants to take away as much undeserved suffering as
possible. So we have this remarkable blessing where Lehi prays that any curse
be taken from the grandkids and answered upon the heads of the parents,
followed by the promise that God will not let them perish, but will be merciful
to them and their descendants forever (verse 7).
As the later
history of the Nephites and Lamanites unfolds throughout the rest of the Book
of Mormon, we will witness through the centuries how the Lord repeatedly inspires
a number of Nephi’s descendants (Enos, the sons of Mosiah,
and two brothers named Lehi and Nephi)
to pray for and actively work toward reclaiming the descendants of Laman and
Lemuel to the Lord’s side. Ultimately, many of these Lamanites will play a critical
role in inspiring the Nephites to overcome their weaknesses or in waking them
up to their own wickedness (as seen most vividly in the stories of the stripling warriors
commanded by the prophet Helaman and the prophecies a Lamanite named Samuel will share
of Christ a few short years before His birth).
Even more
significantly, the blessing Lehi leaves with his grandchildren is soaked
through with the great faith, hope, charity and grace represented by the
redeeming promise that comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Lehi wants the
grandkids to know that despite one generation’s wickedness, all is definitely
not lost.
Lehi’s
inspired ability to work with the Lord to use time to his family’s advantage
reminds me of the story of Sleeping Beauty, even though Lehi’s story is real
and Sleeping Beauty is myth. You may remember that the evil sorceress Maleficent
cursed the Princess Aurora for her father the king’s failure to invite
Maleficent to the celebration of Aurora’s birth. As the curse went, when Aurora
turned 16, she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die, not for
anything she had done, but because of something done by the previous generation
(her father). If the story ended there, we would be overwhelmed by the
injustice involved. But a final good fairy’s blessing awaited after Maleficent’s
curse, and that fairy devised a way out for Aurora. She said that after a
certain number of years, true love’s kiss would have the power to awaken Aurora
after she pricked her finger. And so the story proceeded with the inevitable
drama of Aurora pricking her finger, falling into a deep sleep, and
waiting…waiting, until a courageous prince emerged from the world to awake
Aurora and all the others from the kingdom who had been encased in years of
slumber.
So it is
with Lehi’s descendants. The prick of the finger for them is the consequences
of disobedience that began with Laman and Lemuel. They endure a long separation
from their true heritage as covenant children of the Lord, as if they were lost
in a sleep-like state. But Lehi assures us that the story doesn’t end there. A
courageous true love’s kiss, in the form of the restoration of the gospel of
Christ through Joseph Smith, will give them the great opportunity of revival,
of which countless numbers of them will take hold through faith, repentance,
baptism, and continued obedience.
That pattern
of “falling asleep” in life and being tempted to lose heart, but later
realizing that we are not to give up and can turn to the Lord for restorative
power and energy, is a powerful pattern we should all be able to relate to and
find instruction from.
And not long
after Lehi finishes blessing his grandchildren and a few others “according the
feelings of his heart and the Spirit of the Lord,” Nephi records that Lehi
dies. And then the pattern Lehi had pointed to in his last words of blessing
begins to play itself out. It takes Laman, Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael only
a few days to get angry at Nephi for counseling them about obedience to the
Lord’s way. With Lehi now gone, we sense that a new chapter has begun in the
lives of his children. The old bonds that kept them together are fraying.
Nephi no
longer has a wise patriarch to turn to, so he becomes even more dependent on
the Lord. The final 21 verses of the chapter (15-35) are often known as the
“Psalm of Nephi,” as these verses are reminiscent of the Psalms
of the Old Testament (many of which are attributed to King David) in the
eloquent way they express Nephi’s recognition of (1) the importance of his
experience in turning to God in constant prayer and in scripture study, (2) the
gratitude he feels for the Lord’s miraculous blessings in his life (most
importantly being filled with the Lord’s own love – verse 21), and (3) the
goodness, greatness and absolute reliability of the Lord (the “rock of my
righteousness” – verse 35) in compensating for Nephi’s own weaknesses and in
offering salvation.
It is a
great lesson to us about the type of attitude we need to have as we face the
adversity and the great unknown of this life. Never lose heart, because the
promises the Lord extends to us are true and sure, even if they sometimes seem
elusive and remote.
You can read
the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/4?lang=eng
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