1
Ne 17:2 we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness,
our women…were strong
The
juxtaposition of these two phrases is not meant to show a causal relationship.
Rather, it was to show that even though the diet was not ideal, the women gave
plenty of suck and were strong. Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are
written in the Hebrew style which is basically patriarchal. The result is that
the record contains precious few descriptions of the contributions of the women
to society. This should not be construed to mean that there weren’t any.
Rather, we should glean all we can from those passages which show the fortitude
of these women. Certainly, traveling through the Arabian Peninsula while being
heavy with child is no small sacrifice. These women had left all behind. They
had to exercise faith in the Lord and in Lehi’s visions.
1
Ne 17:4 Why did it take them 8 years to travel the Arabian Peninsula?
Nephi
doesn’t explain much of what goes on during those 8 years. Why did it take them
so long? They traveled for a period then stopped and set up their tents. This
was the way of travel in the desert, but it doesn’t take 8 years to travel that
far. They traveled as directed by the Liahona but only when it was working. It
must not have been working because the Lord was punishing the rebellious in the
family—Laman, Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael and their wives for murmuring.
Speaking of Lehi’s family, Alma later recorded, ‘They
were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those
marvelous works (ie. the Liahona) ceased, and
they did not progress in their journey; therefore, they tarried in the
wilderness, or did not travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger
and thirst, because of their transgressions…for as our fathers were slothful to
give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not
prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual’ (Alma 37:41-43).
This
is exactly what happened to the children of Israel. The Lord was prepared to
bring them into the land of their inheritance soon after they departed from
Egypt. However, the people were so wicked and faithless in their attitude about
battling the inhabitants of the land, that the Lord made that entire generation
wait (for 40 years). Joshua and Caleb were the only adults of that generation
that did not die before the children of Israel were allowed to inhabit the land
(Num 26:65). Thus the forty years of wandering in the wilderness were the
result of the idolatry, faithlessness, and murmuring of the children of Israel.
1
Ne 17:5 the land which we called Bountiful
Hugh
Nibley
“After traveling a vast distance in a
south-south-easterly direction (16:14,33), the party struck off almost due
eastward through the worst desert of all, where they ‘did wade through much
affliction,’ to emerge in a state of almost complete exhaustion into a totally
unexpected paradise by the sea. There is such a paradise in the Qara Mountains
on the southern coast of Arabia…..
“Of the Qara Mountains which lie in that
limited sector of the coast of south Arabia which Lehi must have reached
if he turned east at the nineteenth parallel, Bertram Thomas, one of the few
Europeans who has ever seen them, writes:
‘What a glorious place! Mountains three
thousand feet high basking above a tropical ocean, their seaward slopes velvety
with waving jungle, their roofs fragrant with rolling yellow meadows, beyond
which the mountains slope northwards to a red sandstone steppe….Great was my
delight when in 1928 I suddenly came upon it all from out of the arid wastes of
the southern borderlands.’
“…Compare this with Nephi’s picture….It
is virtually the same scene: the mountains, the rich woodlands with timber for
ships, the rolling yellow meadow a paradise for bees, the view of the sea
beyond, and above all the joyful relief at the sudden emergence from the ‘red
sandstone steppe,’ one of the worst deserts on earth.” (Lehi in the Desert
and The World of the Jaredites, pp. 125-6)
1
Ne 17:5 What is Irreantum?
The
many waters that Nephi is referring to is the Arabian Sea adjacent to the
Indian Ocean.
1
Ne 17:12 the Lord had not suffered that we should
make much fire
Most
scholars suggest that the family needed to remain secret so that they would not
fall prey to maurading bands of local Arabs.
Hugh
Nibley
“One illuminating ‘aside’ by Nephi
explains everything. It was only after they reached the seashore, he says, that
his people were able to make fires without danger…That tells all. ‘I well
remember,’ writes Bertram Thomas, ‘taking part in a discussion upon the
unhealthfulness (danger) of campfires by night; we discontinued them forthwith
in spite of the bitter cold.’ Major Cheesman’s guide would not even let him
light a tiny lamp in order to jot down star readings, and they never dared
build a fire on the open plain where it ‘would attract the attention of a
prowling raiding party over long distances and invite a night attack.’ Once in
a while in a favorably sheltered depression ‘we dared to build a fire that
could not be seen from a high spot,’ writes Raswin. That is, fires are not
absolutely out of the question, but rare and risky—not much fire, was
Lehi’s rule. And fires in the daytime are almost as risky as a night: Palgrave
tells how his party were forced, ‘lest the smoke of our fire should give notice
to some distant rover, to content ourselves with dry dates,’ instead of cooked
food.
“…All this bears out the conviction,
supported both by modern experience and the evidence of archaeology, that Lehi
was moving through a dangerous world.” (Lehi in the Desert and The World of
the Jaredites, pp. 72-3)
1
Ne 17:12-3 I will make thy food become sweet, that
ye cook it not; And I will also be your light in the wilderness
When
we have difficulties, we often ask the Lord to remove our obstacles, to bring a
quick end to our suffering. In the Lord’s plan, instead of removing our
afflictions, He often wants us to continue in our tribulations, but gives us
the necessary strength to come out victorious. The people of Alma, the elder,
had been righteous but still they were overcome by local Lamanites who laid
heavy burdens on their backs. The Lord’s response was as follows, And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your
shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are
in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter,
and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in
their afflictions (Mosiah 24:14). Lehi’s family was to know that the
Lord visits his people in their afflictions. We should learn this lesson as
Lehi’s family did. Notice that He doesn’t always take the afflictions away
according to the timetable of the afflicted.
1
Ne 17:17 Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that
he can build a ship
The
carnal man is quick to point out one’s weaknesses and limitations. Although
Laman and Lemuel had seen the hand of the Lord many times, and even heard his
voice, they still thought as a carnal man thinketh. They had not learned the
lesson, with God all things are possible (Matt 19:26).
1
Ne 17:20 it would have been better that they
(our women) had died before they came out of
Jerusalem
With
this phrase we must turn again to the similarities between the faithlessness of
Nephi’s elder brothers and the murmuring attitude of the children of Israel
wandering in the Sinai Peninsula: all the children
of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that
we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness!
And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword,
that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to
return into Egypt? (Num 14:2-3)
Human
nature is myopic. In both of these situations, the children of Israel and
Lehi’s family, the Lord is trying to bring the people into a promised land. He
is trying to bless them with things they couldn’t even dream of, even a land
flowing with milk and honey. Nephi tried to get his brothers to see the
similarities between their situation and the children of Israel, ye know that is must needs be a good thing for them, that
they should be brought out of bondage (v. 25). Yet the shortsighted
would rather return to the slavery that feels comfortable than patiently wait
on the Lord and receive the greater blessing. We are often the same with our
spiritual trials. We would like everything to just return to the way it was,
rather than patiently understand that the will of the Lord is to bring us
through our tribulation into a spiritual land of promise.
1
Ne 17:30 leading them by day and giving light unto
them by night, and doing all things for them
Here
we see another similarity between the children of Israel and Lehi’s family. The
children of Israel were led in the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a
pillar of fire by night (see Ex 13:21). Lehi’s family was led by just as
miraculous a means, the Liahona.
1
Ne 17:32-5 the children of this land…who were driven
out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous? Behold, I say unto
you, Nay.
It
is not our purpose here to comment on Old Testament events. However, Nephi’s
question is instructive and deserves some comment. It will be remembered that
after the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, they
began to enter the land of Canaan, but they had to do it by force. When they
fought the inhabitants of the land, they would kill men, women, children, and
livestock (Josh 6:21). This is always hard to understand for those who believe
God is a merciful God. It is hard to tell from reading the Old Testament why
the Lord is so ruthless with these people.
Nephi
makes it clear that they were wiped off the face of the earth because of their
wickedness. They had become ripe like the people in Noah’s day, they were ripe in iniquity and the fullness of the wrath
of God was upon them (v. 35). The Lord is not just indiscriminately
wiping them out because the children of Israel need a place to live. He is
delivering just rewards to the idolatrous inhabitants of the land. Nephi goes
on to explain that the Lord would not have chosen Israel had they not been more
righteous, thus confirming that the Lord esteemeth
all flesh in one (v. 35).
1
Ne 17:36 the Lord created the earth that it should
be inhabited
This
seems like a harmless, simple phrase. In the 21st century, however,
many are concerned with burgeoning population statistics. Can the earth hold
all these people? Aren’t we going to consume all the natural resources and
leave nothing for our grandchildren? Some have become almost religious about
the preservation of Mother Earth. Certainly, we should be wise stewards of the
earth. We should not waste resources or pollute the beauty of nature. But we do
not need to limit our family size because our many children will consume too
many resources. Indeed, the Lord created the earth
that it should be inhabited. The Lord created the earth for us and not
the other way around. The earth, like all of God’s creations, is meant “to fill
the measure of its creation.”
1
Ne 17:41 What is a fiery flying serpent?
A
fiery flying serpent is a poisonous snake. “Fiery” refers to being poisonous
and “flying” probably refers to their striking motion in an attempt to bite.
The Book of Mormon, as in many other instances, teaches us as much about this
Bible story as the Bible does. Numbers states that after the people had
murmured again, the Lord sent serpents which bit them. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten,
when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put
it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when
he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived (Num 21:8-9).
John
makes brief mention that the serpent raised by Moses represented the Messiah
being lifted up on the cross (Jn 3:14). It is Alma who teaches us that there
were many who perished, simply because they did not
believe that it would heal them. He continues:
O my brethren, if ye could
be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye
not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be
slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?
If so, wo shall come upon
you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son
of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and
die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which
shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to
be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works. (Alma 33:21-2)
The
imagery of Christ as a serpent continued long after the death of the Nephites.
One of the ways in which the god, Quetzalcoatl, is represented is as a
feathered serpent.
“Now, the strange fact is that the
winged serpent, or the feathered serpent, plays a prominent part also in the
religious concepts of the American Indians, and in their traditions. Among the
ancient Mexicans, one of the divinities was known as ‘the feathered’ or ‘plumed
serpent,’ Quetzalcoatl, which name corresponds to the ‘flying serpent’ of the
Hebrews. Quetzalcoatl among the Mexicans was what the brazen serpent was to the
Hebrews-the representative of the healing, life-giving power.” (Reynolds and
Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 267)
1
Ne 17: 41 because of the simpleness of the way, or
the easiness of it, there were many who perished
Boyd
K. Packer
"How silly," some must have
said. ‘How can such a thing cure me? I'll not show my stupidity by paying any
attention,’ and some would not look….
“And today many say, ‘How silly! How
could accepting Christ save me?’ They will not turn their heads to look nor
incline their ears to hear. They ignore the great witness that comes from these
conferences. We ought to, indeed we must, heed the counsel of these men, for
the Lord said, ‘What I the Lord have spoken, I have
spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away
my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own
voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.’ (DC 1:38)” (Conference
Report, Oct. 1, 1968, p. 76)
Harold
B. Lee
“Some may say all of what I have said
sounds so simple. It is. It is like the rod of Moses on which the
serpent-bitten Israelites had only to look to be healed. But, as the Book of
Mormon reminds us, ‘because of the simpleness of the
way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished’ (1 Nephi
17:41). Strange as it seems, some men are, as Jacob described them, forever ‘looking beyond the mark’ (Jacob 4:14), missing the
plain and simple truths in their search for complexity!” (Teachings of
Harold B. Lee, p. 334)
Rex
D. Pinegar
“Brothers and sisters, we must not fail
to do the simple and easy things that the gospel requires and thereby deny
ourselves and our families the great blessings that the Lord has
promised….Charles Francis Adams, the grandson of the U.S. ambassador to
Britain. Amidst his responsibilities, he had little time to spare. He did,
however, keep a diary. One day he wrote, ‘Went fishing with my son today—a day
wasted!’ On that same date, Charles’s son, Brooks Adams, had printed in his own
diary, ‘Went fishing with my father today—the most wonderful day of my life’ (Daily
Guideposts, 1994). President Hunter has said, ‘Frequently it is the
commonplace tasks that have the greatest positive effect on the lives of
others’ (BYU 1986-87 Devotional and Fireside Speeches, p. 115). I pray
that we will heed the counsel of our prophet and have the faith to follow the
Savior by doing the simple things His gospel requires.” (Ensign, Nov.
1994, p.82 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon
compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p.53)
1
Ne 17:45 he hath spoken unto you in a still small
voice
The
still small voice is not barely audible to the receptive soul. When the Lord
communicates this way, the still small voice penetrates every fiber of the
individual’s being. This is taught in 3 Nephi when the survivors of the
destructions which attended Christ’s crucifixion gathered at the temple, they
heard a voice:
and it was not a harsh voice,
neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small
voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was
no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them
to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn.
In a letter to W.W.
Phelps, the prophet Joseph Smith said, Yea, thus saith the still small voice,
which whispereth through and pierceth all things, and often times it maketh my
bones to quake (DC
85:6).
Gordon
B. Hinckley
President Hinkley “told of his recent
interview with CBS News reporter Mike Wallace, which is scheduled to air on 60
Minutes in February.
“When asked by Mr. Wallace, ‘How does Jesus
speak to you?’ President Hinckley said he told him the voice of the Lord
doesn’t come in dramatic fashion, but as with the prophet Elijah ‘through the
still, small voice.’
“’It is the voice of the Spirit which
speaks, and which will speak to you concerning your own problems, if you will
seek for wisdom and understanding in prayer. There is no doubt in my mind that
that voice speaks and is heard.’” (LDS Church News, Deseret News, Jan.
20, 1996)
Boyd
K. Packer
"We do not have the words (even
the scriptures do not have words) which perfectly describe the Spirit," he
told new mission presidents and their wives at a seminar on 19 June 1991.
"The scriptures usually use the word voice, which does not exactly fit.
These delicate, refined spiritual communications are not seen with our eyes nor
heard with our ears.… It is a voice that one feels more than one hears.
"Once I came to understand this,
one verse in the Book of Mormon took on profound meaning and my testimony of
the book became fixed. The verse had to do with Laman and Lemuel, who rebelled
against Nephi. Nephi rebuked them and said: 'Ye have
seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to
time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past
feeling, that ye could not feel his words' (1 Nephi 17:45)."
"I have come to know that
inspiration comes more as a feeling than as a sound," Elder Packer
repeated in general conference, October 1979. He then counseled: "Ponder
and pray quietly and persistently.… The answer may not come as a lightning
bolt. It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there, 'line upon line, precept upon precept' (D&C
98:12).
"Some answers will come from
reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers. And, occasionally, when it
is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration. The
promptings will be clear and unmistakable."
“He recalled what the Prophet Joseph
Smith said:
‘A person may profit by noticing the
first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure
intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas.… And
thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the
principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus. (Teachings
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 151).’”
(Lucile C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer, A
Watchman on the Tower, p. 280)
Bruce
R. McConkie
“We have a testimony when we have managed
to attune our souls to God so that the Holy Spirit speaks to the spirit that is
within us. We must hear the still, small voice. When that witness is given,
then we know of ourselves that the work is true, and on appropriate occasions
we stand up and bear that record to the world. All the missionaries who
succeed, do so because they are testifying missionaries. They bear witness to
what they of themselves know of the divinity of the work. We have a little
formula that we follow in order to gain a testimony: We desire in our hearts to
know if the work is true; we study the principles that are involved; we
practice them in our lives; and we pray to God and ask him to reveal the truth
to us, on the same basis that the Prophet used when he read in the book of
James:
“’If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’” (BYU Speeches, Sept. 29, 1964, p. 7)
1
Ne 17:45 ye were past feeling, that ye could not
feel his words
“True religion is a feeling. It is
common in anti-Mormon literature for attacks to be made on prayer and on
trusting one's feelings as sources for obtaining truth. In the realm of
spiritual understanding both are fundamental. Truth is felt. Falsehood is often
clothed in erudite and sophisticated arguments. One does not have to be able to
refute the argument to know that it is false. Truth feels good; falsehood does
not.
“Christ spoke of the inability of the
wicked to ‘understand with their heart’ (Matthew
13:15), while the righteous ‘understood in their
hearts’ things too marvelous to utter (3 Nephi 19:33-34). Describing the
spirit of revelation for Joseph Smith, the Lord said, ‘I
will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall
come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart’ (D&C 8:2).
Because of their wickedness, such understanding was lost to Nephi's rebellious
brothers.” (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon,
vol. 1, p. 137)
“President
Harold B. Lee has called our attention to the phrase ‘past feeling’ which is
used several places in the scriptures. In Ephesians, Paul links it to
lasciviousness that apparently so sated its victims that they sought ‘uncleanness with greediness.’ Moroni used the same
two words to describe a decaying society which was ‘without
civilization,’ ‘without order and without mercy,’ and in which people
had ‘lost their love, one towards another.’ Insensate,
this society saw violence, gross immorality, brutality and all kinds of
‘kamikaze’ behavior. Nephi used the same concept in his earlier lamentation
bout his brothers' inability to heed the urgings of the Spirit because they
were ‘past feeling.’ The common thread is
obvious: the inevitable dulling of our capacity to feel renders us impervious
to conscience, to the needs of others, and to insights both intellectual and
spiritual. Such imperceptivity, like alcoholism, apparently reaches a stage
where the will can no longer enforce itself upon our impulses.” (“For the Power
is in them…”, p. 22)
“Some
young people belong to peer groups in which there is an almost constant
celebration of the senses: tactile, visual, and aural. It is significant that
three prophets (Nephi, Paul, and Mormon) in three different cultures and at
three different times, each used the same two words to describe a people who
had celebrated the senses so much that they had lost their capacity to feel.
The words ‘past feeling’ appear in the
scriptures to depict people who had become sufficiently encrusted in their
excesses that they killed their capacity to feel. The very capacity to feel
which they celebrated was lost in the process of celebration. They were in a
situation in which increasingly stronger stimulants were needed to feel
anything, and finally no dose was large enough to appease their appetites.” (A
Time to Choose [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972], 15 - 16.)
“Ironic though it is, ultimately those so warped by pleasing the carnal mind and by wrongfully celebrating their capacity to feel soon lose their capacity to feel, finally becoming ‘past feeling’ (1 Ne. 17:451 Ne. 17:45; Moro. 9:20Moro. 9:20).” (One More Strain of Praise [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1999], 66.)
1
Ne 17:55 they fell down before me, and were about to
worship me
“Here Laman and Lemuel received a
powerful, tangible witness that the power of the Lord was with Nephi. Their
immediate reaction was to fall down and worship Nephi (vs. 55). In doing so
they demonstrated a common mistake of men, namely, they wanted to worship the
man with the power rather than God, the source of the power. Sometimes Saints
become deeply attached to missionaries or Church leaders who are instruments in
bringing spiritual power into their lives, without realizing that it is not the
man but the source of the power he demonstrates—namely God—that should be
worshiped. Like other prophets faced with this tendency to personal adoration,
Nephi teaches where the true worship should be centered.” (Book of Mormon
Student Manual, 1981, p. 45-6) See also Acts 10:25-6.