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 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.