Here I am. Where are you? I have thoughts, you want to know?

1 Nephi Chapter 9

These smaller chapters present a problem for me because there isn’t a lot of content to present a commentary on. Actually sometimes this is a blessing also because many chapters of the Book of Mormon have so much information that entire books could be, or have been written on single verses. Not to mention that some chapters contain doctrine on multiple subjects.

This chapter is a maintenance chapter. Nephi tells us that there are lots of records and that these records are going to contain more information about the teachings of Nephi. Ministry is the word he uses.

Its important to recognize that Nephi is still new at keeping records so he finds that its important to keep us appraised of his plan. In doing so he expresses his faith. He says that he doesn’t know exactly why he is asked to do what he is doing. Hindsight is 20/20. Remember that story of Martin Harris and 116 pages. Now we don’t know what exactly was lost as far as words on these pages but we know that the important stuff will be preserved “for a wise purpose.”

1 Nephi Chapter 8

If you ask me this is the most significant of the visions that are revealed in the Book of Mormon. I’m not the smartest guy but I think this is the only “Dream” or vision that is described in detail in the Book of Mormon. I know the prophets of the Book of Mormon describe other revelations but they don’t come in the allegorical form as this one does. I may have to correct myself later.

I don’t think the vision Alma the Younger has counts, his is more experiential and doesn’t use types and shadows like this one does.

I like to think that the sealed portion of the scriptures has more of these beautiful visions that are described with such clear detail and description. I fear that some of the clarity of description was lost in translation during the repeated transcription of the Biblical scrolls. Not to mention the possibility that some editorial changes could have been made at each step. I’m not saying for sure that happened, I’m just saying that the possibility is there.

1 Nephi Chapter 7

There is a lot that happens in the first 6 verses of this chapter. First, Nephi gets to find out that they don’t have to go alone. (I have that oldies song in my head “Chapel of Love”) GREAT news, but now they go back to Jerusalem, and we already talked about how long that must have taken.

I imagine them showing up at Ishmael's house, a quick knock, and ‘hey wanna come with us to a new world, across the great sea?” and a quick “yea sure, oh by the way i have a whole household that will come too, maybe you could marry my daughters!?” Then they start walking back and the 2 brothers and their newfound friends say something like “Yea, this is lame...;” Maybe they are the only ones who are making sense considering all the stuff that is going on.  Not lame, but wicked, it turns out, they are acting without faith in a situation that was completely governed by prophecy.

Did I mention the angel? Yea the brothers ‘grimm’ had seen an angel that stopped them from beating their brother Nephi to death.  Sorry about the sarcastic tone here... The hard hearted brothers, see the angel, see the providence of the Lord, and now see Nephi through the power of the Lord convince Ishmael and his daughters (his whole household) to leave everything to join the Prophet in fleeing from a city that was soon to be destroyed. Evidence after evidence, after evidence. Still no faith, no action.

In all the reminding Nephi does in this chapter, the only result is that the brothers are more angry and they tie Nephi up with the intention of leaving him to be devoured by nature. Nephi prays and the bindings loosen, which doesn’t amaze the brothers, it just makes them more angry. Finally it seems that a small population of the house of Ishmael are able to bring everyone around... completely.

what a roller coaster...

1 Nephi Chapter 6

Really this is the chapter that I feel like I need to declare that indeed this record is the Stick of Joseph that is spoken of in the old testament.

EZEK. 37: 16, 19
16 MOREOVER, THOU SON OF MAN, TAKE THEE ONE STICK, AND WRITE UPON IT, FOR JUDAH, AND FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HIS COMPANIONS: THEN TAKE ANOTHER STICK, AND WRITE UPON IT, FOR JOSEPH, THE STICK OF EPHRAIM, AND FOR ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL HIS COMPANIONS:
•  •  •
19 SAY UNTO THEM, THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD; BEHOLD, I WILL TAKE THE STICK OF JOSEPH, WHICH IS IN THE HAND OF EPHRAIM, AND THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL HIS FELLOWS, AND WILL PUT THEM WITH HIM, EVEN WITH THE STICK OF JUDAH, AND MAKE THEM ONE STICK, AND THEY SHALL BE ONE IN MINE HAND.

1 Nephi Chapter 5

Sorry that it has been nearly a year since the last entry. God had promised Nephi that he would provide a way to accomplish his will, he did it and we move on.

The first 8 verses in this chapter are a unique look at Nephi’s Mom, Sariah. As is common in the Book of Mormon, and the Bible for that matter there is not much discussed about the wives of the prophets. Lehi’s wife had followed him humbly into the wilderness. They had been traveling some time when Nephi had been asked to go back with his 2 brothers.

Sariah’s concern and worry come out here. She complained! Not all prophets wives “never complain” She calls her husband a “visionary man.” Now in many cases now-a-days this would be a good thing but in those says she was calling him a dreamer.

As you would expect from any husband he defends himself and it seems to me, sort of how the story reads in the scripture, that Nephi arrives back home almost in the midst of the ‘discussion’

the quoted verse above is the result; she knew but now she knows. The work they are engaged in is real, and true, and that her husband is indeed inspired.

I think a great sermon can be preached here but I will leave that to someone who has thought it out more.

The other significant thing in this chapter is that we learn what exactly were in the plates of brass. The first five books of moses. and genealogy, the genealogy of Laban and Lehi in fact. Also we learn that Laban’s family were the record keepers. An most significantly that Laban was of the house of Joseph, the same guy who wore the technicolor dream coat.

Also Lehi makes a prophecy about the contents of these plates.

Stick of Joseph....

1 Nephi Chapter 4

I have been avoiding doing the write up on this chapter. The main reason for this is that I think the content of this chapter is somewhat difficult to explain why Nephi had to kill Laban, kidnap Zoram, and steal the plates. The explanation given in Chapter 4 is good enough for me but I can sympathize with people who don't accept it.

Nephi is told the kill Laban and Nephi immediately says No! He says that he has never before killed anyone and won't do it. I imagine a scene in front of a large stone building where Laban has just staggered out, he has been celebrating the new acquisition of the tremendous wealth he got by stealing it from Lemuel. He is so drunk that he has passed out like a vagrant in front of the building. Nephi comes walking up and basically starts talking to himself. He is told by the spirit to kill Laban. I have been through this before. I know what it means to have a thought come into my mind that is not mine. Nephi must have been pretty familiar with this happening because he doesn't question its source. He immediately wrestles with himself, at least that is what it looks like to the outside observer.

The reason he is given is that it is better that one man should die than a whole nation going forward without a knowledge of their history. At this point we are given a glimpse of what is going to happen and that God indeed has a large plan for Nephi and his family. Very soon we learn of the genealogical reason for having these plates. Later in the scriptures we also learn what happens when a nation does not have a record like this.

Later in the chapter we also get some information that I never learned until I heard it from a teacher somewhere along the line. The power of an oath. In the movies we have heard about "in the old days" how men could make contracts just by giving their word, or by shaking on it. In those days, as in Nephi's time, if you said "I promise..." then it was for sure going to happen. Today, it means virtually nothing. Finding someone who is a good as their word is like finding a treasured and rare antique. Now you have to have a contract and a notary and a witness and a lawyer and eventually a judge, and even then it seems justice is rarely had.

1 Nephi Chapter 3

Chapter 3 contains one of the eternal truths that transcends religion. It has a verse that contains in it a truth that answers so many of life's larger questions: Why did this happen to me? Usually this question is asked after a tragedy of some kind.

I don’t think the verse answers the question in an obvious way but you sort of have to think about it, or meditate on it for awhile.

The verse is #7: I will go and do... and to paraphrase I will go and do because God wont ask me to do anything that is impossible to get through. I know God will make sure there is a way to get through what ever he asks me to do.

I agree that I am assuming here that indeed God has asked us to suffer a little. I am assuming that consequences are a sort of command that he has asked us to go through. I am assuming that a flood, or an earthquake, or a tornado is a sort of a commandment that God expects us to endure.

I don’t assume the reason we have to go through it. I don’t assume that tornadoes are a response for a vengeful God in retaliation for wickedness for example. I don’t think Hurricane Katrina is a response to New Orleans and its wickedness as one prominent Christian has said. He doesn’t know. His is making judgments based on his knowledge of Jesus and his understanding of his doctrines. (He has an incomplete knowledge of these things, as I do.)

I am also assuming that whatever situation we are in today is in some way a lesson for us. I am assuming that there is no situation that doesn’t fit into the lesson scenario also. Here is a very hard example. I have a friend. This person has recently found out that one of their children was abused for many years by a person this child should have been able to trust.

When I found out about this my heart broke because this friend has it really tough as it is. I don’t know why this person has it tough. I can make assumptions based on doctrine and my knowledge like the prominent christian mentioned above has done and write everything off as a consequence to sin but how about this child? Why should a child have to suffer at the hands of someone they should be able to trust? The verse doesn’t answer this question but it does give this friend and their child hope that they will get through it. Nephi said so. God will not ask us to do something that is impossible to do.

Nephi does not talk to us about how hard it will be. He does not articulate the specific steps we will have to take to get to the end of the trial. He does not spell out or provide a magic wand where we can wave it and skip to the end.

The Book of Mormon has more keys to helping us understand suffering and I am trying not to reveal them here so when we get to those chapters you will have to stick around to see where they are.
Laman and Lemuel are more sympathetic to me at this point in my life than they have ever been. I can see the justifications they must have made for behaving they way they did. (notice the emphasis) Nephi has also become much more amazing. At the bottom of the page where chapter 3 starts it says that the journey that Nephi and his brothers are about to take may have started as late as 8 years after they left Jerusalem. What this means is Nephi is as many as 8 years older, wiser, and stronger. His brothers are 8 more years uncomfortable. Laman and Lemuel are probably getting used to the idea that their crazy dad is really going to do this journey. They have been fending for themselves in the wilderness for a long time now. They have to hunt for food and stick to places where they know where water is in order to survive. They have probably gotten pretty good at it. They probably trade goods with passers by on the trip.

Now they have to go back. Ah Geez! How uncomfortable! Then here comes annoying Nephi who says in effect “Yea, sure! When?” Here I am saying “Are you kidding?” I thought you said the place would be destroyed? Then dear old dad reveals why. Go get the plates!

Nephi is saying “Ok” while the brethren are outlining why its a bad idea. 1. they are the plates! 2. they are guarded by laban 3. they are in what amounts to a police lock up and have to be signed for by royalty. 4. its a really long ways back 5. hasn’t this been hard enough already?

I have thought about the plates an awful lot. Everything I am about to say here is my thoughts not something I have learned or stolen or heard or read elsewhere.

These plates are in Jerusalem. The holiest city in the House of Israel. The home of the Jews. The place where the Christ is to teach in a few hundred years. Its really the center of religion for any Israelite for many many generations in 600 BC. If there really is a record of the people of Israel it would be here. This record would need to be permanent thus written on metal plates from which the scribes must have made copies of the scriptures to read and study from at the temple. So these might have been the most correct and most important record of Israel in existence in 600 bc. This is why it would be housed in a secure library accessible only by the authority of Laban or higher.

The scripture says that laban commands an army.

Scholars say they my have been traveling as many as 8 years. Granted they must have stayed in some areas for a long time. They still were gone a while so it was a long way back.

I am in my 30’s. At this point in my life I sort of know what path I am on and have some experience in specific areas so I know where I am going. At a few points in my life there have been events that upset my plans and when that happens it is extremely difficult. When I have to make adjustments or refocus I find it to be very frustrating in many ways. I have now gone through a few of these and I am better able to see the bigger picture and can accept the changes with a little, very little less frustration and difficulty.
I am like Laman an Lemuel I don’t like other people to upset my cart. I want my path directed by me and my consequences laid out by me so i can lessen the impact. I want to be in control.

Nephi is much less invested in himself. He does not care about his own will. He doesn’t have any guile, he doesn’t have an ego. His only investment is in his father and in his Heavenly Fathers will. This investment allows him to let go of his own will so much easier than those of us who have a level of affection for our will.

Let me explain that a little because I think it is important. I think we can have an affection for our sin. An example would be someone who likes to look at pornography. Their justification would be that they enjoy it and that it brings them a form of pleasure. When another person comes along and says pornography is bad, and not only that its bad but it is an abomination in the eyes of God and that it is a veritable poison, that will afflict their soul. The person will become offended very deep down inside. This is even more true if the offender partook in pornography knowing it was bad. Much less if the offender didn’t realize it was wrong. (This is difficult for reasons I will explain another day) If nephi was in this scenario he would put away porn with no problem at all because he cares more about gods will than his own. We are supposed to be like Nephi. The affection for the sin can ultimately lead to the individuals apostasy. This affection is also called pride.

I think I have written enough for now though I think there is a lot more that can be said and is taught in this chapter.

1 Nephi Chapter 2

The story of Nephi really begins here. In the last chapter Nephi has introduced himself and his family but in Chapter 2 the story begins.

Setting up the context of the Book of Mormon is important to me. It helps me to get a better understanding for the teachings when I know what it was like for these guys. First. its 600 B.C. There are no cars, no electricity, no plumbing, no “Civil rights” in the sense that today we can whine about its not fair I have the right to blah blah blah. Then these rights didn’t necessarily exist by legislation. (Capitalists and Americans believe these rights exist inherently but that is another story) I would say from an semi-educated perspective that he who has the most swords wins in Lehi’s town.

Notwithstanding the comparatively oppressive situation they lived in they still lived in a city. There was commerce there and there was population. And therefore some security, and Lehi is told to leave.

Verses 4, 11 indicates that Lehi had Gold and silver. Indeed they must have had some measure of wealth and yet in verse 15 Nephi says in a matter of fact sort of way that now we are relegated to tent dwelling.

Laman and Lemuel come off to me like whiners but in another sense I probably would feel much like they did. Laman was to inherit a measure of wealth from his father. They must have had a somewhat comfortable life with a wealthy father. For the record some wealthy fathers don’t just give their money to their kids willy nilly some of them actually expect their children to produce their own value in this world See Aaron Spelling and Warren Buffett. Other fathers support a crazy flagrant lifestyle see Paris Hilton.  EVEN having made these points at least Laman and Lemuel must have come home to a comfortable home and a warm meal everyday.

I just did a web search for life expectancy in 600 BC. So I didn’t find anything (quickly) what was authoritative but on this website a Phd. guy openly asserts that up to 60 years old was possible but 18 years old was more likely. Nephi says he was “exceedingly young” but tough. So he was 12 and his brothers were full grown men at 18? Lehi possibly in his 40’s.

18 year olds - we know how they are....

So dear old dad has a dream and everyone has to take off out of the nice comfortable place to live and everyone has to walk, and walk (forever) to some place called by Lehi the “Valley of Lemuel.” Everyone is whining, well at least the oldest boys are.

Maybe they didn’t ever go camping before. They were ticked off though, burnin’ mad I’m sure that all that “Precious” stuff is sitting in a house by the comfortable bed - or mat as the case may be - is and where the normal familiar welcome potty hole is and the normal water pump or well or what ever. Now they live in a tent with a not as familiar potty hole and they have to travel near the river to get water and the food isn’t picked up in the market but is gathered in the brush or hunted with (presumably) bows and arrows. All because of a “Vision” or “Dream” dear old dad had. And everyone knows just how popular he had been with the community lately telling everyone their homes would be destroyed soon.

I think I have painted a pretty good picture of the justification Laman and Lemuel used to be upset. See I don’t think they were truly bad kids at this point they just didn’t like what was going on and they weren’t tuned in to the same wavelength their father was on so they didn’t feel the same as he did.

Nephi was different, well at least thats the way Nephi tells it. It seems to me that exceedingly young but tough Nephi was an introspective kid. The experience of camping was maybe sort of exciting. Nephi probably didn’t have as much invested in the old place in Jerusalem so he just wanted to do was his Dad did. His motivations were pure. He was open to what ever was happing. I think its possible too that Laman and Lemuel weren’t used to the preaching he did. Lehi had to earn his wealth somehow. He must have had a trade before he went to full time preaching. Maybe Laman and Lemuel knew their father as a worker or a business owner, something other than a “Visionary man” or a prophet. What I’m saying is maybe they didn’t know this newly spiritual person as well as they knew the rich one. I also think Laman and Lemuel had some understanding of what life was going to be about. They would have to get a trade and excel at it whereas Nephi was still just in the beginning stages of this reality of life setting in thing.

So Nephi was different - he says that he had “great desires to know of the mysteries of God (v. 16)” Notwithstanding his possible naivety with regard to his knowledge of the world this quality leads him to a position of leadership (v.22) in his family. It leads him to have spiritual experiences that are awe inspiring “did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father.”

This chapter has set forth a prophetic opening to exactly what will happen in the remainder of the book.

To the detractors of Joseph Smith. Joseph had a 3rd grade education. He could not have known that it was the custom of the people of Jerusalem to name and refer to places (or geographical landscapes) like Lehi did in verse 9 & 14.