Latest / Scripture Central / 1 Nephi 6-10 | Jan 15-21 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson

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1 Nephi 6-10 | Jan 15-21 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson · Scripture Central

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Hi, welcome back. I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson and this
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is John W Welch here to talk about our favorite book in the
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world, the Book of Mormon. We're part of the Come follow me
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team with Scripture Central. And you can get all this
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information on either audio or visual or there's handouts.
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You'll find the John W Welch notes.
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We can attach them here or you can dive into all these books
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that we'll give you. We hope to be able to strengthen
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your testimony and understanding of this fabulous book.
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We're starting today In first Nephi, chapter six through 10 we
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are bridging Lehigh and his family, leaving and now
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introducing the family of Ishmael and the vision of the
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Tree of Life. In chapter 6, right from the
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start, Nephi introduces his purpose in writing.
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Back in the beginning, in chapter one he talks about I'm
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going to write to show you the tender mercies.
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But here in chapter 6, verse four, it reads The fullness of
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my intent is that I may persuade men to come unto God of Abraham
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and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and be saved.
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And if you mentioned last week, that's coming into Christ.
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And so we begin with this beautiful bridge, and it's time
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to go get the women, because Lehigh is reading, and it's
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another revelation that you we need to raise up seed.
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And your sons do not have their wives with them.
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And I think the wives were arranged.
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I think that's probably true as well that it was normal in that
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day for. That Millennium.
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Men, the fathers to to provide for and to arrange for
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marriages, and often cousin marriages were thought to be the
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the, the closest and the the most likely to succeed, I guess.
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But at least the families were well known.
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They knew each other, I think when they go to get Ishmael.
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Ishmael and Lehigh probably had spent a lot of time together.
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But I think it's significant that his name is Ishmael, and
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that Ishmael is from Abraham's first wife, Hagar.
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And we deal with a person who knows how to travel.
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His family's ready to go. It appears like these marriages
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had already been arranged and that they were already sensitive
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to the spirit. So your thought that they knew
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Lehigh fits in very well because Lehigh is a prophet his friends
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and family members probably knew.
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And there's outside sources that suggests that he was also from
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the tribe of Joseph, that he was in Ephraimite, but that's not in
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the text like we have. And and one other thing that
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would probably lead us to expect that these were prearranged
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marriages is that we know that Lehigh was a man of considerable
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substance. He had wealth.
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He had animals. He had a business.
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And property outside of Jerusalem, Property inside of.
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Jerusalem. And so he is thinking of his
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posterity. And Lehigh would always want to
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be sure that that was properly distributed and passed on, but
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for good purposes. And especially a man like Lehigh
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would want to be sure that his his sons would be able to have
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righteous children. That was a great desire of a
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righteous man's heart. And it sounds like Ishmael has
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an enormous family. You know, Lehigh is, up to this
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point, only mentioned the four sons.
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But Ishmael has sons who are already married, and then he has
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at least five daughters. And it sounds like there's even
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a daughter for Zorm, his eldest. And, you know, marriages were
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arranged much younger than the actual marriage taking place.
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So it's fascinating to me that they hadn't already married off
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some of these. But everything is in the Lord's
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timing. Nephi called himself exceedingly
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young. Well, what's young in that day
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and age? And I know what young is.
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By the time of the New Testament, you're you're an
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adult at 12, 1/2 in one day. And you're you're not
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necessarily a breadwinner. You know you have to move in
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with your parents. But you can be married very,
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very young by 12. Well, and especially the life
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expectancy in the ancient world was much lower.
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It was unusual for a person to live to be 70 or 80 years old.
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It's unusual for them to live past age 10.
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You know, we're losing half of the population in their infancy.
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So these marriages are arranged and they want to make sure that
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they can procreate while they're still alive.
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Yeah. But this beautiful trip back up
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to Jerusalem to say, please join us.
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The Lord has directed this. We need to have these marriages
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consummated and and families begun.
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Speaks so highly that the whole family was willing to come
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again. We don't believe that God
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courses us and Chapter 7 is filled with examples that some
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people didn't have the same opinion by the time they got
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halfway down. And we have another fisticuff
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again amongst the brothers and and and Nephi has to stand up
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for what's right. And then, of course, they are
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betrothed, but they're not yet married.
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And so you know the the sons who with Lehman and Lemuel object to
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what Nephi is doing. And well, you know who's in
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charge here because Lehigh wasn't there.
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So you can understand how there could have easily been
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controversy about what we're supposed to do and and how this
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is to happen. And if you're getting married,
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why not stay in the lap of luxury where you've got land and
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property? They already know how meager it
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is down in their 2 1/2 week, whatever the journey.
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Is this 200 miles plus? That's right.
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But in the end, of course, Nephi knows that we've been commanded
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to do this. We will follow the instructions
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of the Lord. We will keep His commandments.
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Nephi, I think, puts this little detail into the record to let us
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know that it's not going to be easy, but it will be worth it,
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and it turns out indeed to be richly worth it for them.
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So let's end chapter seven with the last verse.
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They came down to the tent and I mentioned that before.
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We constantly have reference to this.
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I think it's a Tabernacle. I think this is a sacred place
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where marriages are conducted, where scriptures are read, where
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visions are received. They came down to the tent of
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our father, I and my brethren, all the House of Ishmael when we
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came down to the tent. This is another evidence that
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it's an ancient text. Regardless of the of the
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altitude, if you are going away from your Jerusalem, you always
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go down, whether you're going north-south, east, West, 500
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meters above sea level, whatever, it's always down if
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you're away from the holy city. And then it says, once they get
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to the tent of their father, they did give thanks unto the
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Lord their God. And he did offer sacrifice and
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burnt offerings unto him. Well, what it says here is that
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they offer sacrifices of thanks. They're different kinds of
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sacrifices that were made in the temple.
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Some of them were atonement sacrifices for forgiveness of
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sin. But a Thanksgiving offering was
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not necessarily blood offering. The the reason something would
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be burned at an offering in the temple was to show that it was a
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total sacrifice. No one is benefiting from this.
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Maybe the food or whatever it was that they put on the altar
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or the stones that they set up, Whatever it was, they, they
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aren't going to offer that as a sacrifice.
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And then somebody gets to eat it or use it.
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They're burning it so that it goes up in smoke, literally up
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to God. It's a total sacrifice without
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any self-interest. And that's the way our
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sacrifices are made today too. When you pay your tithing, it
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goes into a general fund where the the president of the Church
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controls the distribution of tithing, sacred, consecrated
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funds. And they they are used then as
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the Lord would have. So I think that we we think of
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the you know the idea of sacrifice here as maybe blood
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offerings but I don't think that was the case he they're they're
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it's. A thanks offering.
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It's a Thanksgiving offering. Although I do want to go back to
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the idea of the priesthood because I was fascinated by the
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idea that at the time when Joseph Smith is doing the
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translating, priesthood was sort of a bad word.
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You know, anything that had to do with Catholicism or Judaism
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was not appreciated in 19th century early Americana,
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especially during the Second Great Awakening.
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You know, they called it Popish. And yet Joseph begins being
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introduced to the priesthood at Moroni's first visit.
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You know, I will send you more information on the priesthood.
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And then we start the Book of Mormon.
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And of course we know that they are from the tribe of Joseph.
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But the holy order of God and sacrifices are mentioned all
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over the place before Christ comes in 3rd Nephi.
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So I decided to count him up. And I said, let's not just look
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for the word priesthood. Let's look for some of the words
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that mean a priesthood, that they're going to have either
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sacrifices or ordinances or bestowal of the priesthood, or
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examples that the priesthood is being used and it's it's
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saturates the text. Does and the 1st place that they
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would have encountered that if they certainly knew it before.
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But now that they are in a situation where they don't have
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Levites or the high priests to do this, they didn't have to
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read very far in the book of Genesis to come to Genesis
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chapter 14, which talks about Melchizedek being a king and a
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priest. Is giving his tithes to the king
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and. The priest Abraham, Isaac and
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Jacob and the tribes of Israel. So priesthood did exist, Yeah,
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yeah, right in their text. And they're reading it.
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And and also we're taught by the Prophet Joseph in one of his
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later sermons in Nauvoo that all the prophets received the higher
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order of the priesthood and their equivalent of the
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endowment and then taught from that perspective.
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So I am believing that no, Lehigh did not hold the ironic
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priesthood, but he held the higher order.
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But they do not refer to it as Melchizedek.
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Very often in these ancient texts they refer to it as the
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higher Order or God's power. And we see this idea of God's
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power, which I believe all of God's power is priesthood power.
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Whether we're seeing it in the manifestations of the gifts of
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the Spirit or whatever. It's all God's power.
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We see it here starting in first Nephi with the idea that he is
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authorized as the patron shark out in front of his Tabernacle
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to be offering Thanksgiving offerings to the Lord.
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And what that gives us an example of is their awareness of
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the patriarchal order of the priesthood, which is husband and
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wife sealed. And that's where this priesthood
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which you're. Talking about the higher order
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of the priesthood. So they didn't necessarily have
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that in the ironic, but they were totally aware of the
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husband and wife sealed I and that's why I think it's so
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important that they have these marriages that they have to have
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it because he's so concerned about their posterity.
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The word order of the priesthood usually talks about organizing
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and ordering, arranging the organization of the church, but
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priesthood and sacrifices go back to Adam and Eve.
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We're told that in the program Price Book of Moses.
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And Abel half offering sacrifices too.
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So finding those references so early in the book of Genesis on
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the brass plates would have given Lehigh an understanding of
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his role as leading this people as prophet, priest and king.
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And I think as Lehigh is writing this down 30 years later, he is
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also following the pattern of the children of Israel and in
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their times when they also did the same thing.
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So we see a lot of continuity between the Exodus cycle of the
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Israelites and the Nephites Lehighites.
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And one tiny detail that you look at when you get to the end
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of Exodus Chapter 20. It does talk about how the altar
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should be made as an altar of stones.
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And it has to be stones without being cut right?
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Like field stones or something? For the the original concept,
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especially, this is when the Israelites are in the
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wilderness. They would make an altar of a
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pile of stones, and they should not be cut with a chisel at all.
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Yeah, it has to be a fieldstone. And what what we have here in
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the Book of Mormon is that Lehigh does make an altar of
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stones. So we have the plural.
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Yeah, that's not that he's going to make a stone altar or a
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single one. No, but it's again this
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continuity. It is an ancient text.
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Joseph had no idea. There is evidence on every page
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of this great book. There you go.
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But now it's time to turn to Chapter 8 with the beautiful
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story of Lehigh's vision of the Tree of Life.
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And what does Chapter 8 begin with?
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Begins by saying here they are out in the wilderness and they
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gather seeds. I don't know who else they might
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be gathering them from. Maybe they're seeing caravan
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ears? Apparently, when they.
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Leave. When they left Jerusalem, maybe
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they get out in a hurry. They take a few months supply,
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but they got to get more. And I think that's sort of the
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pattern of the Bedouin you you establish yourself in a place
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long enough to grow some seeds and to establish some
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continuity. Then, once all the grass is
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gone, you've got to move on so your camels can eat something
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else. And does the word seeds just
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refer to wheat and corn? And they didn't have corn, but
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wheat and barley. The beauty of Lehigh's record,
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You know we've got this, the continuity of Lehigh's daughters
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coming right here, as we're talking about posterity of
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seeds. And now he starts in Chapter 8
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the idea that we need to gather seeds.
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And then he has the vision of the tree of life, which is all
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about the seed again. And the Tree of Life.
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Ultimately, you partake of the fruit the white fruit of the
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Tree of Life, and it will grow up in you to become a Tree of
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Life. So you have this idea of the
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seed of truth and the seed of of power and the seed of life.
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Let's just go back to the Garden of Eden.
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The Tree of Life is in the Garden of Eden.
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It is the tree that will allow immortality, right?
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But doesn't the Lord command angels to guard it so that no
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one can partake of it until they can partake of it without their
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sins? So when he's talking about this
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vision of the Tree of Life, is he going back like to the
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presence of God? Back to the parody disciple
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state of the Earth, the Garden of Eden.
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Yeah, once Adam and Eve had partaken and were then
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transgressors. If they had partaken and live
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forever in their sins, that would have been contrary to the
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plan of God. So now Lehigh is seeing this in
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a vision, but that's the same tree we're talking about.
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That's right. OK.
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So we're talking about eternal life and the fruit of that tree.
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Of course, that tree is symbolic, and it comes to
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represent the love of God and the atonement of Jesus Christ.
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And this symbolic tree, which will produce fruit that is white
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above all. This is an unusual fruit.
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Yes. It's a kind of glowing, like the
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spirit that is pure, and out of that purity and glowing power,
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you will then have eternal life that's given to you.
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Jack, this idea of it being white fruit, I didn't.
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I just read it and accepted that, OK, it's white fruit.
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We don't have white fruit. It's white fruit.
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But I was listening to Margaret Barker and other people speak on
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other ancient texts that refer to a white fruit that is very
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unusual and it's God's gift. So this is not just here in
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Lehigh, this is other ancient texts where we have this unique
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white fruit that's full of light, that's full of love, that
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represents God's immense love for us and.
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There were throughout the ancient world and even today,
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cultures all over the world have their tree that is especially
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important to them. In fact, I've read some of this
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book on the tree of life from Eden to eternity.
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There is so much to back up the historicity, the validity, the
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archaeological evidence of this of this story.
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It's just amazing. And this book is one of those.
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And one thing I like about this point, that the Tree of Life is
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a pervasive cultural concept, is that the gospel is for everyone.
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It is to all people. I didn't even know in Egypt the
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the symbol of the Lotus flower was a tree of life.
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You know all these different. Cultures and the date palm in
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Babylon is a tree of life. There's one in Japan and there's
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one in Latin America. There.
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Tree of life's pop up everywhere, a lot of continuity,
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which means I think they had a similar source.
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You can ask people, as I have done from all over the Pacific
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Rim, what is the Tree of Life? Do you have one in your culture?
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And what do they say? And people from Papua New
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Guinea, yeah, we have a tree by the coconut tree in Samoa.
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They all depend so much on the tree, especially the coconut
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tree in the island. And that became their image of
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the tree of life. God is as good to them
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spiritually and eternally as this tree is to them physically
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and now. I want to go back to the rod.
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In chapter 8, verse 19, it says, I beheld a rod of iron and it
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extended along the Bank of the river and it led to the tree by
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which I stood. Now, iron has been around for a
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long time by now, but it's still not very long.
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You know, they didn't have a lot of long iron.
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So I think this was interesting in his vision that he said this
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was a a rod that extended along the bank that it's not what he's
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used to. You know, I, although we do know
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that there are steel bows, that metallurgy has come to quite a
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distance. In fact I'm I'm sure you
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remember you and I went to a museum on metallurgy in 600 BC
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in France, the how much metal they had found in Gaul, the
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nation of Gaul at that time. So we know that there's a lot of
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metal in the time of Nephi and Lehi, but this rod, we're told
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later on in Nephi's explanation what it represents the the words
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of God. But I also think that it's
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fascinating that he is given images from his DNA that then
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expand. And that's just how the Lord
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reveals things to us. He He gives us something that we
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can understand and then we are to grow from it.
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And I think that's interesting that the word of God extends all
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the way to the banks of the filthy water.
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Yes. It's not just over in paradise
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somewhere. No, it goes, it is along, and
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the water is the wickedness of, yeah.
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And by clinging to the word of God.
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We can get through. It will bring you to the tree of
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life. And when you get to the tree of
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life, you know, some people look around and they get attracted by
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the the taunting and the pride of the world.
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They see people over in the great and spacious building
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having having a great time, and they fall away.
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But there's something that people do who don't fall away.
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And it says particularly when they get to the tree, they fall
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down. They fall in humility.
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They fall in thankfulness. And Lehigh had made a big point
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about the sacrifice of thankfulness, which opened up
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this dream. I think what he's telling us
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here is that gratitude is probably the most important
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virtue we can cultivate to help us.
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And President Nelson, as a physician, has talked about what
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being grateful will actually do. Physically.
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To you, there's there's a chemical reaction that.
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Goes on. As a nurse, I can see it.
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Hope and and gratitude. But before you leave the
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spacious building back in chapter 8, verse 26, this is
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interesting. Not only does it represent the
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pride of the world, but he's organized this in beautiful
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parallels, as Nephi often does, and there's a small little
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chiasm in chapter 8 where you reverse the order of things, and
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he starts out with them pressing forward in verse 24 and they're
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clinging to the rod. I love his verbs tense.
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But then it says the center point here is the concern about
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you may let go because of the taunting of other people.
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And then he repeats it again and he goes back.
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And it's not a complete parallel, but he warns them that
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to come unto Christ, to partake of Christ's love, you have got
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to keep holding on to that rod, that word of God, whether it's
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the Scriptures. And to me, part of pressing
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forward, holding on to the rod, says it is your scripture study
21:51
that will lead you to the love of God, that it is hearing the
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conference reports. It's the revelation that you
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receive. It's the the words of
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forgiveness that come after our sincere repentance.
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It's those words that help us feel God's love.
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I love that and and you, you know it just you talk about
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holding onto the rod and holding the book.
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What does it mean to cling to? You're in a Tempest.
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You're in a storm. You're holding on as the winds
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and the waves are wrapping against you.
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I, I. That's right.
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I see Peter coming out of the water as the Lord grasped him.
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He's clinging to the Lord. Yeah, you you don't just hold it
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gently, you do respectfully, but when you cling to something you
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desperately. Hold on.
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When Christ attacks Satan, he quotes Scripture and we can
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attack the Satanic influences in our life by knowing and clinging
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to the word of God. Jack, can you go into a little
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more detail about just one of those texts?
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I've mentioned a few of them. You've mentioned a few, but can
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you go into detail on the one that you published in BYU
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Studies years ago? And we'll have a link to it here
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on our on our video. But this is again such evidence
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that not only is the Book of Mormon a book of antiquity, but
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that God's plan is pervasive. Well, this.
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You're talking about the narrative of Zossimus.
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Yeah, when I was in law school at Duke.
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Yeah. I would sneak over to the
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divinity school. To study theology or something,
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huh? Because I've become friends with
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a professor then named James Charlesworth.
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Oh, I know that name. His work as a young professor in
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those days in the early 70s, was pulling together all of the
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apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works, Jewish and early
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Christian, and compiling them there.
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They were eventually published in the 1980s, and one of these
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texts is called The Narrative of Zasimha.
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So in a seminar that I sat in on, he would have us working on
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drafts and just reading the text and trying to understand what
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this particular document is all about.
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And one of the questions he was always asking was, is this text
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a Jewish text or is it a Christian text?
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That would help situate the meaning of words in those texts.
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So he began this one day by introducing this narrative of
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Zossimus. What's the date on this text?
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What do they think it comes from?
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What's the handwriting? Or the?
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We have the narrative of Zossimus in many languages.
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It's in Ethiopic, it's in Old Church Slavonic.
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It's in Greek. The earliest ones are very
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early, but not before the time of Christ.
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But the story was widespread, OK?
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You know, as you pick it up and read it, you wonder, well, is
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this coming down through Christian hands or Jewish hands?
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Actually, there wasn't that much difference originally between
24:59
some forms of Judaism and some forms of Christianity of.
25:02
Course not. They're come from the same
25:03
source. As he gave us this, he said,
25:07
well, let me just tell you a little bit about the story.
25:09
So as you go read it for your homework, you can kind of figure
25:12
it out. And as I've written it up here,
25:14
let me just summarize this according to the narrative of
25:17
Zossimus, A righteous man named Zossimus, dwelling in in a cave
25:23
in a desert, praised to the Lord and obtains spiritual passage to
25:27
a land of blessedness. In order to arrive at this land
25:31
of promise, Zossimus must wander in the wilderness without
25:35
knowing where he is being LED. He is pushed to the point of
25:38
exhaustion, but attains his destination by constant prayer
25:43
and divine intervention. Zossimus at length arrives at
25:48
the Bank of an unfathomable river of water covered by an
25:53
impenetrable cloud of darkness. Interesting.
25:58
You're beginning to catch the picture and grabbing on to one
26:04
of the branches of the tree, a rod that comes out of the mist.
26:09
Zosibus is then transported in the spirit across the water
26:18
where he sits beneath this tree that the branch was connected
26:23
with. And it was a beautiful tree and
26:27
he was eating its fruit and life sustaining water was flowing out
26:32
of its roots. Well, that even ties to Isaiah
26:35
as well. Zossimus was then met by an
26:39
Angel. Good, we like.
26:41
Those going to take him along and asks him what is wanted.
26:47
He gets a guide, just like Glee High did.
26:49
And Nephi will also say the Angel says to him what is
26:54
wanted. You know, this is so interesting
26:56
because do you remember Joseph Smith's dad was a visionary man.
27:00
Joseph Senior had seven divine visions where they were all
27:04
leading toward the Restoration. But he never, he never could
27:07
open the chest and get it. He'd always wake up and thinks.
27:10
But I think his second dream had parallels to not only say it
27:16
again zos not only to Zosmus but also to Lehigh and Nephi Stream.
27:21
But I see that this is not necessarily Zosmus is not
27:25
necessary talk about Lehigh. I think the same vision was
27:28
given multiple times in different places because when
27:31
Joseph senior saw it, it's a rope.
27:33
It's not a rod of iron. And I just feel like, no, this
27:36
is there's enough details to say God is giving this message on
27:40
how do we feel God's love in our life.
27:43
How do we feel Christ's love? Well, it's the tree of life.
27:47
It's the atonement of Jesus Christ.
27:48
We we take His word and we are then.
27:51
But this vision, just like the throne Theophany we were talking
27:55
about last week, that's in so many texts from add them on down
28:01
and now we have similarities in this ancient text.
28:04
Well, what did James Charles will say when you said, did you
28:08
say it? Well, what he he stopped as, you
28:11
know, he was telling all of this and, you know, I'm getting
28:14
pretty excited. I was just sitting next to just
28:17
a couple seats down on his right and he looked over at me and he
28:21
said, Jack, what? What do you see here that we
28:25
don't see? OK.
28:27
And I said, well, and there's more to the story that even gets
28:32
more likely High's vision. But I just said, we have in the
28:36
Book of Mormon a story that's fairly similar to this.
28:39
And Professor Charlesworth later said, when you were talking, I
28:43
thought you were levitating. He said, I was so excited.
28:48
He then assigned all the students to go and write a paper
28:51
on the narrative of Zossomas and what they made of it personally.
28:54
Oh, so you were able to really study it in parallel with your
28:58
text open? So the next week I came to class
29:01
with a list of and just parallel Zossimus, Leo and put the two
29:08
and they line up point after point.
29:10
And that's what this article goes through and shows how
29:13
closely these two texts work, down to the point that the
29:18
Angelic escort then shows Zossimus a vision and tells him
29:25
of the future of the House of Israel.
29:28
Zossimus, who was praying. He says, I'm here wanting to
29:33
know the way of the life of blessedness.
29:37
And the Angel will then talk to him about eternal life and the
29:42
principles that he needs to know.
29:45
And he then says, oh, and by the way, let me also show you here
29:52
because there are some other people around this tree that the
29:56
Angel then brings up, and Zosimus is approached by them.
30:02
And they say, well, who are you and what are you doing here?
30:05
Because nobody's supposed to know that we're over here.
30:08
And Zosimus says, I was brought by the spirit of the Lord.
30:14
And they said, oh, and where did you come from?
30:16
He said I came from Jerusalem. He said, oh, OK, then we can
30:19
talk to you. And in fact, they then bring out
30:22
their records that they have written and they say we too have
30:25
come from Jerusalem. And they tell the story of how
30:29
they got there and their history.
30:31
It says they kept engraved upon soft stone plates.
30:37
That's in the narrative. This is the most amazing
30:41
evidence. So I have heard people suggest
30:43
oh, Joseph Smith is just telling the story from his dad's dreams
30:47
that he heard as a child, but that has nothing to do.
30:50
Much more detailed, the Exhaustomus story then goes on
30:54
to say how this group explained that they had been led by their
30:58
father, escaped the destruction of Jerusalem at the time of
31:01
Jeremiah, and how the nation had survived as scattered Israel.
31:07
Wow. They were allowed to occupy this
31:11
paradise only because of their righteousness, and if they
31:16
didn't remain righteousness, they righteous, they would lose
31:18
it. Their religion was based upon
31:21
prayer, chastity and receiving knowledge of the wickedness of
31:25
the outside world by revelation. Now this is a text that was not
31:30
known in the Western world until the 1880s.
31:34
That's the first time it was translated into English.
31:37
Wow. So it's, but it is following an
31:42
ancient pattern. Yes, there were many prophets,
31:45
many people led by God. And in fact he tells us that in
31:49
3rd Nephi you know I will go visit other tribes.
31:53
The world is filled with people who had the truth at one time.
31:56
What a powerful connection. And when I came back that next
32:00
week and showed and told everyone, here's Lehi, here's
32:05
this, we had quite a discussion about that.
32:10
The class then had a discussion about, well, is the the book
32:16
Jewish or is it Christian? And what about the Book of
32:20
Mormon? Is it Jewish or is it Christian?
32:22
And we got into some very interesting wide angle
32:25
discussions. It's both.
32:27
Just before the class was dismissed, Professor
32:32
Charlesworth actually said, well, as you are thinking about
32:35
where the narrative of Zossimus came from, you might think,
32:38
where does the Book of Mormon come from as a graduate student
32:43
challenge. And there was a little kicking
32:46
this around the the solution that the that seemed to carry
32:50
the day was that Joseph Smith must have been a reincarnated
32:54
Jewish monk. I'll stick with the Maroni
32:58
story. Thank you.
33:01
One of the students came up to me afterwards and I said, you
33:03
know, I find it easier to believe Joseph Smith's Maroni.
33:06
Story but. He was the one who had always
33:11
been really kind of snide. And, you know, anytime any Book
33:14
of Mormon or LDS kind of comment came up, he'd kind of, you know,
33:20
dismiss it, things like that. He was the only one who came up
33:23
and said I'd like a copy of the Book of Mormon.
33:26
Oh, wow. Nephi gives a little interim
33:34
here in Chapter 9. It says eight that most of this
33:37
is written on it on my other plates, my dad's plates that
33:40
I've written earlier, But now I'm going to just give you a
33:44
brief summary and then I want to talk more about mine.
33:47
But in this little interim Chapter 9, again he's at the
33:50
tent of his father. But he says that he makes in
33:54
verse 4 upon other plates should be Engraven, an account of the
33:59
reign of the kings and the wars and intentions.
34:01
And then he says in verse 5, the Lord hath commanded me to make
34:06
these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know
34:11
not. But the Lord knoweth all things
34:13
from the beginning. This is so amazing to me.
34:17
The Lord is His omniscience is not just generally, it is in the
34:23
details of our lives. And this beautiful
34:26
acknowledgement, This is again at the end of verse 6.
34:29
Behold, He hath all power unto the fulfilling of the words, and
34:33
thus it is. Amen.
34:35
And the fact that Nephi was willing to go through all the
34:37
effort of finding more ore and beating it out and purifying it
34:41
and dipping it into their acidic, you know, However,
34:45
they're doing their refining so much work to rewrite this stuff.
34:49
And aren't we grateful for the small plates?
34:52
You know that after the loss of the 116 pages, this was
34:55
prophesied right here. Lynn here.
34:57
In Chapter 9 we do find this expression that Nephi has to
35:02
sort of justify why am I going to all the trouble of writing
35:05
now this this smaller version or a different version.
35:11
It's kind of presumptuous of of him to say I'm now going to
35:15
write the book of Nephi to take the place of the book of Lehi.
35:20
Lehi was the father and now Nephi has his own people.
35:25
They have separated. By the time he's writing this
35:28
down. So there may be some reason for
35:31
just telling the story from Nephi's perspective, because
35:34
he's now the leader of that segment of Lehigh's, he says.
35:39
He doesn't know why he has to rewrite him.
35:41
That's right. He doesn't have a specific
35:43
purpose in mind. But I think the Lord is
35:45
inspiring to say that you need to be more focused on the
35:52
commandments and the importance of keeping the commandments, of
35:56
bidding people to come, of inviting people.
36:01
Nephi's text. We don't know what Lehigh's text
36:04
looked like, but it does seem that Nephi has a much more
36:12
abundant, fuller version of what he knows about the future of his
36:20
posterity then what Lehigh had spoken of.
36:23
He says in verse 4. Wherefore these plates are for
36:28
the more part of the ministry? It's it's where we come unto
36:32
Christ. He's already stated his purpose
36:34
is to come unto Christ or to come to God of Abraham and Isaac
36:38
and Jacob. And here he says, these plates
36:40
are going to focus on that. That's right.
36:43
And so, presumably, Lehigh's record had focused more on the
36:48
the details, the history. He says.
36:50
The wars and the history and the condition.
36:52
Yeah, OK. Do you want to move ahead to
36:59
Chapter 10? Chapter 10 is again.
37:02
A Nephi is summarizing now his dad's vision and conversation
37:08
with his family. Interestingly, we will get
37:11
Nephi's full vision. Next week.
37:13
In chapters 11 to 14, and knowing that, he can now
37:20
summarize the various points that Lehigh had also known
37:24
about. Without going into great detail,
37:26
yeah, that's Chapter 10. And he he lists the prophecies
37:30
that Lehigh had received about leaving Jerusalem.
37:33
Why we have to go? He says 600 years from that time
37:36
the Messiah is going to come, so they're good at.
37:37
Record keeping. I love the fact that he knows
37:40
about John the Baptist. That's verse 6-7 and eight.
37:43
That's right. And it says that Jesus would be
37:44
baptized by John the Baptist at a place called Bethabara, which
37:49
means Beth, the House of Crossing.
37:52
Well, they don't say Jesus or John, but they do say Bethabara.
37:55
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
37:56
Which I think is very interesting because that's where
37:58
Joshua came over. Exactly that, the the crossing
38:02
of Joshua and his people into the promised land.
38:06
On the River Jordan. Is known as that place of
38:09
crossing and there was one other person who crossed there,
38:12
Elijah, Elijah. That's a chariot of fire.
38:15
That's right, as he crossed. And then Elijah goes into the
38:20
back into Canaan and Elijah goes up into heaven.
38:23
So Lehigh is also saying I recognize that place and it's
38:30
important enough. Yes.
38:32
In both the history of Israel and in the life of Elijah the
38:38
prophet to recognize that Jesus's baptism.
38:44
Going. Down into the water and coming
38:47
out in a new land, a new life, a new.
38:51
World He Who will bring us to the Promised Land.
38:54
Happens in that same place. And it happens to be the lowest
38:58
place on the planet, you know, it's also down, down, down below
39:02
sea level. And do you think Lehigh could
39:04
have related to these journeys he has taken his people?
39:10
Right in similar locations. To that area and they have left
39:15
and they will go to a new land of promise.
39:19
Of course, they're not just going across the River Jordan,
39:22
they're going across the ocean. But that crossing, that place of
39:26
crossing is a place symbolic of how complete our baptismal
39:33
covenantal change is as we go from one side of the world to a
39:39
land or a place of promise. We are promised through baptism
39:44
and through the gifts and power of Jesus Christ and the Holy
39:48
Ghost. We can also be LED to our
39:52
Heavenly Father's home and back to our heavenly Paradise.
39:57
And isn't it interesting? In Nephi's account, he goes from
40:00
the baptism of the Messiah. In verses 9 and 10 he talked
40:04
about Bethebara and then he goes down in verse 17.
40:11
To talk about the Holy Ghost, just how you'd combined it
40:14
there. I love this, he says.
40:16
His dad has this vision and he spake by the power of the Holy
40:20
Ghost and then he skips down and he says, I Nephi was desirous
40:24
that I might see and know these things by the power of the Holy
40:29
Ghost. So I was fascinated to see the
40:32
Spirit connected with power. So I just did a little number
40:35
crunching. That is a phenomenal connection.
40:40
In restored Scripture. Whenever the Spirit is
40:43
mentioned, power is often accompanied with it, and I found
40:50
that the Spirit was mentioned many, many, many more times.
40:53
The idea that God's power is directed through His Spirit was
40:58
something that Nephi desired, and that will take us to next
41:02
week. But before we start Nephi's
41:10
vision next week, I would just like to testify that I believe
41:13
that the power of the Holy Ghost can witness to all of us that
41:18
Jesus is the Christ, and that the Book of Mormon is a source
41:23
to come unto Christ, And it was written for that very purpose.
41:26
And if we prayerfully seek His Spirit, the Spirit of God can be
41:31
accompanied by power in our lives and as we've been directed
41:34
not only to read the scriptures, but to seek for a witness of
41:38
them and to seek for the power of the Holy Ghost in our life
41:41
through repentance and obedience.
41:43
I believe the Book of Mormon can help us do that.
41:46
I think that's why we have it. I think it's that iron rod that
41:50
can take us to feel of God's love.
41:52
And as long as we know of God's love, everything else can work
41:56
out. Thank you, Lynn.
41:58
That was really beautiful. There are so many takeaways that
42:02
we can take out of this lesson. What are your favorite
42:06
takeaways? What do you see speaking to you
42:10
in the words or in the actions and all these details that you
42:15
can take and put into practice in your life?
42:18
The spirit is power, and the spirit will move us, but without
42:24
our action, without doing all of that power is is kind of like
42:30
power going through an electric wire, but without ever
42:33
connecting to the appliance, you might say.
42:36
No electricity. We got to have the.
42:39
We are the appliance, meaning we apply the power.
42:44
I love it and. So we apply these scriptures in
42:47
our lives as we keep the commandments and keep doesn't
42:53
mean just putting them into a box and locking the box with a
42:58
key that keep means to obey and to preserve and to always keep
43:09
them bright in our memory. There are lots of ways that we
43:13
remember our covenants and remember Him always.
43:17
But with all of this in mind, I have learned a lot going back
43:21
through these chapters, as I always do.
43:23
Every time you go back and lend bouncing ideas back and forth
43:28
with you is a real pleasure. And I've learned things with
43:31
this, and I'm suppose everyone. I hope everyone has.
43:35
We always can improve in our lives in so many ways, and I
43:40
testify that the gospel is a living truth.
43:46
It's not just words on a page. I know that when I live the
43:49
gospel, when I keep the commandments, when I treasure
43:54
them, the Lord more than rewards me with what I need and far
44:01
beyond. I testify that Jesus is the
44:05
Christ and that he has brought forth this record for this time
44:13
in the history of the world, that we might all come unto him.
44:18
And I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
44:21
Amen.