Latest / Scripture Central / 1 Nephi 8-10 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

Transcript

1 Nephi 8-10 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

0:00
Welcome to Scripture Central. We're thrilled to have you here.
0:04
Just a quick note, this video is a revamped edition of this video
0:07
series from four years ago. The content, however, is as
0:10
relevant and insightful as ever. We also invite you to explore
0:14
our extensive collection of resources and programs designed
0:17
to enhance your study of the scriptures.
0:20
You can do this by visiting Scripture central.org.
0:23
Now let's dive into the lesson. Of all of the chapters in the
0:28
Book of Mormon that have had an impact on my life, I have to
0:33
just say first Nephi. Chapter eight was my first real
0:41
profound memory, deep memory of the Book of Mormon.
0:44
I don't know how old I was, 6-7 years old at the most.
0:49
I can still in my minds. I remember sitting in my
0:53
bedroom, sitting in bed with one of those old light blue copies
0:58
of the Book of Mormon with the Angel Maroni on the front.
1:01
And I had read diligently through chapters one through 7.
1:06
And then this particular day, I got to Chapter 8, and I started
1:10
reading the dream. And this was the first time that
1:16
the power of the Book of Mormon literally distilled upon my
1:21
soul. I I could feel it.
1:22
I was drawn in. I I could visualize this dream
1:28
and it the the whole thing became profoundly real to me at
1:34
a very young age. So as we as we jump in today, I
1:40
love, I love this dream and I love the fact that this
1:46
particular dream of Lehigh is going to have such an impact on
1:52
future prophets and prophecies and their writings.
1:55
The the illusions and the comparisons and the and the
1:58
metaphor. It just keeps.
2:01
It's a gift that just keeps on giving.
2:03
So let's begin the the first thing to keep in mind is it was
2:11
a dream. Because it's a dream.
2:14
That means Lehigh as he's sleeping, he's having this
2:19
visionary dream. He's not conscious, he's not
2:23
awake, he's not able to to interact with the elements of
2:28
the dream directly. He's it's like watching a movie.
2:31
You can't change what the actors are doing.
2:33
You just watch them. And one of the actors happens to
2:35
be him on this stage. It's very different from Nephi's
2:41
vision that we're going to cover next time, which is chapters
2:44
11/12/13 and 14, where Nephi is fully awake and he's able to
2:48
interact with his tutors, the spirit of the Lord and the
2:52
Angel. But in this case, there's
2:55
something elegantly beautiful about Lehigh just waking up and
3:00
telling his family, and by extension us, about his dream.
3:04
Now, if you think about it, when most people dream, they don't
3:08
dream in words, They dream in images.
3:11
You see things. They they interact, and
3:14
sometimes in very bizarre ways. In this particular case, pay
3:21
close attention to those elements in the dream that are
3:26
that you would consider to be good versus that you would
3:31
consider to be bad. OK, so let's let's just grab a
3:36
couple of of the the easy ones. For starters, you have a path.
3:43
You have a rod of iron. You have a tree of life, and
3:49
that tree produces fruit. These are all good elements that
3:56
they all carry with them positive connotation and
4:01
positive symbolism. You also have things like mists
4:06
of darkness. You have the the great and
4:11
spacious building where you've got great multitudes who were in
4:17
the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers at those
4:20
who are progressing. You have forbidden paths, these,
4:28
these directions people can take that would get them off of the
4:34
straight and narrow way. You have strange roads.
4:39
You also have things that are really profound in in the dream
4:46
or the additional element of the filthy river.
4:53
Now I'm kind of cheating here. Here's why, because I'm adding
4:58
the word filthy and Lehigh didn't.
5:01
It's Nephi later on having the vision who adds that little
5:06
detail to the river that Lehigh saw because he just mentions the
5:10
river of water. And so we're going to get a lot
5:15
of descriptions here, but we don't get a lot of
5:18
interpretation in the dream. You have to wait for Nephi's
5:24
vision to get most of the the interpretations of here's what
5:28
that represents or here's what that means.
5:32
So I'm going to put the filthy here so that we can clarify that
5:37
this particular river is bad. OK, there's also a fountain of
5:43
living water that would go over on this side.
5:45
Now let's get to some of the elements that might be a little
5:50
more difficult to to qualify. Which side is it on?
5:55
Look at Chapter 8 as he opens in verse two.
6:01
He says it came to pass that while my father tarried in the
6:04
wilderness, he spake unto us saying, behold, I have dreamed a
6:09
dream, or in other words, I have seen a vision.
6:13
He clarifies This wasn't just a funny dream because I had too
6:19
much food late at night and couldn't sleep.
6:22
Well, he's saying, yes, I dreamed a dream, but it was a
6:25
visionary dream. There's purpose, there's intent
6:29
to it. It's it's a vision from God that
6:33
came through this dream format. Isn't it interesting that in the
6:37
book of Joel we're told that in the last days their old men
6:41
shall dream dreams and their young men shall see visions?
6:46
Well, here's a nice little comparison of that clear back in
6:49
600 BC happening exactly like that.
6:52
Lehigh dreaming a dream, Nephi seeing a vision.
6:55
But there's no question about the visionary nature of this
6:59
particular dream. Just wanted to make that clear.
7:03
Now notice he says, verse 4. Behold, Layman and Lemuel, I
7:08
fear exceedingly because of you. For behold me thought I saw in
7:12
my dream a dark and dreary wilderness.
7:17
Well, where do we put the dark and dreary wilderness?
7:20
Most people watching this would think, Come on, it's bad, it's
7:24
dark, it's dreary, it belongs here.
7:30
And others would say, huh, the dark and dreary wilderness is
7:35
neither good nor bad. It's it just is.
7:41
It's an environment. It's not inherently.
7:44
The environment isn't inherently trying to hurt or do damage to
7:48
Lehigh. It just happens to be a
7:50
wilderness area. And the significant route of
7:53
wilderness is wild, meaning it's untamed.
7:57
It's it's unpredictable. You're not sure what's what's
8:02
going to to affect you in what way.
8:06
You can't rely on your own capacities alone when you're in
8:09
a wilderness, usually in this context.
8:13
And so the fact that it's dark, it's dreary, implies that it's
8:18
an opportunity for Lehigh to learn some things, to discover
8:23
some things about God and about himself as he goes through this.
8:30
So you can, in your own study, you can put these elements on
8:36
any side of this line you want, and it's totally fine.
8:41
For the purposes of moving forward with this particular
8:46
representation of the dream, I'm going to stick the dark and
8:52
dreary wilderness right here, straddling the line as a
8:57
neutral, so to speak. Because my hunch is that many of
9:04
you can think of times in your life when you went through a
9:07
dark and dreary wilderness, and while you were going through it,
9:12
you were convinced it was bad. It was terrible.
9:15
You would never wish it on anybody, and you would never
9:18
want to go back and repeat that particular trial or a similar
9:22
trial or tribulation in your life.
9:25
And yet, after you pass through that wilderness and get to the
9:30
other side, you look back on it. And my hunch is that many of you
9:38
would say, you know, I didn't like it while it was happening.
9:43
But now that I've been through it, I am so grateful that I had
9:48
that experience. And I'm so grateful that I
9:51
learned what I did about the Lord, and about myself in the
9:56
process, and about my loved ones around me, thus making that
10:00
wilderness at the time, being bad in hindsight, it becomes
10:04
this shaping life, changing eternity, clarifying and forming
10:11
experience for you. Now look at verse five.
10:15
It came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a
10:20
white robe, and he came and stood before me.
10:24
A man in a white robe. Is he good or is he bad?
10:30
Whenever I whenever I teach this in in a class, the traditional
10:35
response from students is, well, he's good.
10:39
And my obvious follow up question is why would you say
10:42
he's good? And the answer usually is, well,
10:47
he's wearing a white robe. Brothers and sisters, if all we
10:51
have to do is wear a white robe to be good, then we can all just
10:56
go out and buy white robes and walk around and be good.
11:01
The reality is, is the devil can appear to people in the form of
11:07
as an Angel of light, he he he could wear a white robe too, so
11:11
that's not the qualifier. Now having said that, however,
11:18
I'm going to put the man clearly for me.
11:22
You can put that man in a white robe anywhere you want on this
11:25
scale, but for me, he's firmly on this side.
11:29
Here's why. I think it's interesting that in
11:32
the dream, right from the get go, it begins in this metaphor
11:40
for life for what you could call mortality.
11:44
Our our journey through the the earth experience.
11:50
It's this dark and dreary wilderness where we're outside
11:54
of the presence of our heavenly parents.
11:56
We're no longer living in heaven and we're trying to learn how to
12:00
walk in this, in this world of ours.
12:05
Walk in the light. Even though sometimes it's
12:07
really hard to find and really hard to see.
12:10
I love the fact that right after introducing the problem, we get
12:15
a travelling companion, a man in a white robe.
12:18
To me, this man isn't just an Angel or it isn't just the Holy
12:22
Ghost. To me, symbolically, this man
12:26
embodies in a dreamlike symbolism.
12:29
This man embodies everything about the Savior, Jesus Christ.
12:34
Everything in this side of the the symbolic elements to me
12:41
point to Jesus Christ. All of these elements.
12:45
And this one embodies him for me directly.
12:48
Why? Because Lehigh is in a dark
12:53
place. He needs help.
12:55
So what does God do? He sends his Son to walk beside
13:01
Lehigh so that he won't be alone, so that he won't feel cut
13:05
off and forsaken, so that he will have somebody to to help
13:11
guide him through this wilderness.
13:14
Now if you look at verse six, it says, it came to pass that he
13:16
spake unto me and bade me follow him.
13:20
Come follow me is a phrase that Jesus likes to use in scripture.
13:27
And so verse seven it came to pass that as I followed him, I
13:31
beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.
13:36
Now that's interesting. Logic would say that if I'm
13:41
following Jesus, all of a sudden my life should get easy.
13:46
All of a sudden I should just be walking in the light and
13:49
everything's clear and I'm just prospering, and every door of
13:53
opportunity that I ever wanted is now just swinging open for me
13:57
to just walk through. That's not what verse seven
14:03
said. Lehigh's walking with this man,
14:07
and he still beheld that he was in a dark and dreary waste.
14:10
In verse 8, after I'd traveled for the space of many hours in
14:15
darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have
14:19
mercy on me. My brothers and sisters, when
14:22
you embark in the service of God, when you become a disciple
14:28
of Christ, when you when you enter into a covenant connection
14:31
with him, he says, take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy
14:38
and my burden is light. He doesn't tell you he's going
14:42
to take away all problems and solve all of your issues.
14:47
He just says walk with me and take my yoke upon you because
14:50
you can do it. Why can you do it?
14:52
A yoke by default brings two people together.
14:58
Think of the yoke as yet another symbolic way or a different
15:04
angle to look at what the covenant is with God.
15:08
It's Jesus standing there with a yoke.
15:10
And a yoke has two sides to it where you can bring these two
15:16
animals together in in a farm setting.
15:20
So he's standing there with yokne saying come stand with me,
15:25
I'll help pull with you, I'll walk with you.
15:29
Now some of you may be asking the question right now.
15:32
Well, why does it have to be so hard?
15:35
If I if I choose to follow Jesus, if I choose to enter a
15:40
covenant relationship, why doesn't he make the path easier?
15:45
Why doesn't life become simpler and more prosperous in all of
15:48
the earthly ways? It's a valid question.
15:54
I don't know if God sends us down to this earth in order to
16:00
experience a life of just pleasure and ease and comfort
16:05
and and peace and prosperity 100% of the time.
16:09
Why? Because as I, as I look at
16:12
scripture and as I look at my own life, I love those times of
16:17
prosperity where they're wonderful blessings.
16:20
But something happens when you go through trials, when you go
16:23
through dark and dreary wilderness and dark and dreary
16:26
waste periods of life, where it stretches the soul, where, where
16:32
you have to dig deep into your reservoir of faith and trust in
16:37
God and say, do I really believe this is hard and this is taking
16:41
a lot longer, many more hours than I would have ever thought,
16:45
or in some cases many more weeks or months, years.
16:50
And for some of you decades of persevering in the darkness than
16:54
you thought. Let me word it this way.
17:01
If you're starting at point A and you need to get over to
17:04
point Z and you've got this long, difficult journey to cover
17:11
in order to get there, the man in the white robe to me
17:16
signifies the fact that God, says Tyler, you have to walk
17:23
this path. I need you.
17:25
I need you to get there. I need you to become that
17:29
person. But I can't just pick you up and
17:35
magically drop you there. And have you become who I need
17:39
you to become. I can't shape you, I can't
17:43
refine you. I can't mold you and make you
17:47
the the instrument in my hands that I need you to be by just
17:51
putting you somewhere. I need you to go through certain
17:56
experiences and some of them are dark and dreary for many, many
18:01
hours, days, weeks, months, years.
18:04
But what he does promise, as he said, I'm going to assure that
18:08
you never have to walk that long, lonely, difficult, dark
18:14
Rd. completely in isolation or alone.
18:18
I'm going to send you a traveling companion so you'll
18:21
never need to be alone. And that's where the Lord Jesus
18:25
Christ comes into this, into this dream analogy.
18:31
I love this. Let's review a couple of these
18:34
scriptures and pick up a bit of what Tyler talked about with the
18:38
yoke. But just for interest, I'd like
18:41
to share with you a Sanskrit word that many of you have heard
18:44
over the years called yoga. Yoga is a discipline, a mental
18:50
and physical, emotional, spiritual discipline.
18:54
And it actually the word yoke and yoga are actually come from
18:59
the same root word. And so it's all about being
19:02
disciplined. It takes effort.
19:05
Many of us have heard about yoga, but how many of us really
19:07
do it? Because it takes a lot of time
19:09
and effort and discipline. And Jesus asks us to be his
19:14
disciple, and being a disciple takes a lot of effort.
19:19
Now let's point our minds back to Abraham.
19:22
We might call him after Genesis 12, the first disciple of God.
19:29
Think about what God did. Genesis 12/1 through three God
19:31
says, Abraham, I want you to leave your homeland, your
19:35
family, at least your father's home, and come to a new land.
19:39
And Abraham yoked himself with God had that discipline, and he
19:44
came to the Holy Land. And what did he discover?
19:47
Here's a famine. It's just like what we have
19:49
here, Lehigh following the man who bade him to follow him and
19:55
find himself in a deep, dark, dreary wilderness.
19:58
And some of us might say, wait a second, that's not fair.
20:01
I chose to follow God's servant or to follow God.
20:05
And what I thought was going to happen didn't.
20:07
So God lied to me. I'm done.
20:09
And if that's where you stopped, you might convince yourself
20:13
you're right. Abraham could have chosen in
20:17
Genesis 12 to call God a liar. You promised me land and
20:21
children. In fact, it gets worse for
20:23
Abraham after he gets to the land of Canaan, where there's a
20:27
famine, right? It's a dark and dreary
20:29
wilderness. He and his wife Sarah go down to
20:34
Egypt, and as you might remember, in Genesis 12, Sarah
20:37
gets stolen by the Pharaoh. And yet Abraham trusted God.
20:43
Abraham was faithful to God. Abraham was righteous.
20:47
He was loyal to God. He knew that God would keep his
20:51
promises, and sure enough, Sarah was returned to him.
20:56
They returned then to the Holy Land and it was very a fruitful
20:58
land and they were able to prosper in the land.
21:03
Now I find this very interesting that Lehigh as a child of
21:06
Abraham descended, that is has this dream that in some ways
21:11
represents what we find from the first disciple Abraham, the
21:16
discipline of really what it means to follow God.
21:19
It's a lot of effort, and at times it's, well, it's
21:23
uncomfortable. But those who persist and endure
21:27
and remember the mercy and tender mercies of the Lord will
21:32
find that He will open up all things to them.
21:35
And I want to dwell for a little bit on that word.
21:38
Mercy and Lehigh even uses this word, the tender mercies, right
21:48
here in verse eight. We might remember that Nephi
21:52
told us the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom
21:57
He hath chosen because of their faith, or their faithfulness or
22:01
their persistence, to make them mighty even under the power of
22:05
deliverance. Here's an example of Nephi's
22:08
testimony that he gets from his own Father that Lehigh persisted
22:12
in faith and trusting God, calling upon the everlasting
22:18
mercy of God. Now the underlying word for
22:22
mercy in Hebrew is Hesed, And Hesed refers to the quality of
22:31
enduring, unswerving total loyalty.
22:36
And when God made the promises to Abraham in Genesis chapter
22:40
12, it actually was Hesed or mercy.
22:45
He was telling Abraham, I will do these things for you with
22:49
unswerving loyalty. I promise that if you endure and
22:54
trust me, Abraham and all your descendants, which includes all
22:57
of us, that I will fulfill my mercy to give all these things
23:01
that I promised. It may not come quite when you
23:04
think you might discover that the promised land has a famine,
23:08
or that your spouse is taken, or some other promised blessing is
23:13
temporarily removed from you. But if you endure, if you trust
23:19
my hesit my mercy, my tender mercies endure forever.
23:23
They were always there, even if for a short time I'm let I'm let
23:28
you be challenged so that you can practice the discipline of
23:32
being yoked with me. And so I love this vision or
23:36
this dream that Lehigh has and particularly this opening part
23:39
that we often kind of skip over because we want to get to the
23:42
rod, we want to get to the rod, we want to get to the tree.
23:46
But we miss this part of Lehigh having to learn discipleship by
23:53
wandering in a dark and dreary waste, which is life.
23:57
But God has a plan, and none of us have to feel like we're fully
24:02
abandoned because because God's hassid His mercy, His tender
24:07
mercy, is always there for us. So wherever you are in your
24:11
life, hang on to that. Just know that the Scriptures
24:15
have been written and preserved to show evidence that God's
24:18
mercy always endures, even if for a time The people who are
24:22
the heroes of the story seem to be suffering and struggling with
24:26
no way out. Know that God is faithful, and
24:29
that is the point of the Scriptures, is to reveal that
24:32
key characteristic of the God that we worship.
24:36
OK, so you'll notice that in verse 9, after he had prayed
24:40
unto the Lord, he beheld a large and spacious field, and he
24:46
beheld a tree whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.
24:52
Now look at the descriptions that he gives for the fruit in
24:55
verse 11. It came to pass that I did go
24:57
forth and partake of the fruit thereof, and I beheld that it
25:01
was most sweet above all that I ever before tasted.
25:06
Yeah, And I beheld that the fruit thereof was white to
25:09
exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.
25:12
So here's Lehigh's experience with the tree and the fruit
25:18
You're going to notice as we get a little later on in the in the
25:21
chapter, some other people are going to interact with the
25:24
fruit, and apparently they don't taste the same exquisite
25:29
sweetness that Lehigh does because they're going to leave
25:34
the tree. Now let's diagram this for a
25:39
moment. So I'm going to get rid of this.
25:44
If we were to visualize this dream, especially these good
25:50
elements over here, do you picture it as a large and
25:56
spacious filled with a nice little sidewalk that brings us
26:02
over here to a tree of life? And there happens to be a
26:10
straight and narrow path with the rod of iron that leads to
26:15
the tree going right beside. Is that is that a good
26:20
representation? We're just going along the rod
26:24
to the tree. It's a fine representation and
26:28
it's a dream, so you can represent it any way you want,
26:31
whatever works for you to liken the scripture to your life.
26:36
I don't prefer this particular representation because it's
26:42
taking me from one level and there's very little increase.
26:46
There's just a horizontal movement.
26:50
I prefer looking at it this way. I prefer seeing it as if you're
27:02
walking in the mountains and it's a a steep climb with lots
27:12
of twists and turns. Now some would say wait, it says
27:15
it's a straight and narrow path. Keep in mind that the spelling
27:21
is not straight, it's a straight and narrow.
27:29
This is probably more reminiscent of the the Hebrew
27:33
poetry technique of symbolic repetition, where you say
27:38
something and then you say it again using using a synonym or a
27:43
different way to say the same thing.
27:46
It's straight and narrow. It doesn't guarantee that it's
27:50
not going to have ups and downs and twists and turns.
27:54
It just means it's it's going to be pretty slim as you're as
28:00
you're going along your journey. Now with that in mind, you have
28:04
this, this rod. I'll just depict the rod like
28:09
this all along the path that leads to the tree.
28:19
Now look at that. You have a path, a rod and a
28:25
tree. For those of you who like
28:27
writing cross references in your in your scriptures.
28:30
For these three elements you could write John 14 verse 6
28:39
because it's here where Jesus teaches the people.
28:42
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
28:51
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
28:54
Now look at the elements of Lehigh's dream.
28:57
Here for a moment. I am the way.
29:00
Well, it's a pretty simple way to describe the path that we're
29:07
supposed to tread. I am the truth.
29:11
The iron rod is the word of God. Interesting because John chapter
29:21
one verse one begins in the beginning was the Word and the
29:27
word was with God, and the word was God.
29:33
The iron rod is the word of God. Well, there you go, A nice
29:40
symbol for how Jesus is both your path and the rod.
29:46
He's he's symbolized in different ways by both physical
29:52
elements. And I am the life.
29:57
Well, we call the tree the tree of life.
30:00
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
30:04
Now those those are three elements that point us to
30:09
Christ. And I would recommend to you
30:11
that every good symbol in the Scripture is simply another
30:16
lens, another way that you can look to see different aspects of
30:24
the Savior's mission, his life, His love, His infinite
30:28
atonement, his mercy, his His character, his attributes.
30:35
You see Jesus through all of these beautiful symbols, kind of
30:41
like you can see the opposition from the devil in a lot of the
30:47
negative symbols that you find in Scripture.
30:50
For instance, there's that river.
30:53
It's a river of filthy water, like I said before, that Nephi
30:57
points out and the river is flowing here.
31:05
Notice. Notice carefully what he says
31:10
about that river. Look at verse 19.
31:13
I beheld a rod of iron and it extended along the Bank of the
31:18
river and led to the tree by which I stood.
31:23
Have you noticed that? If that's true, that the river
31:28
is side by side with the path, So this is kind of a side angle
31:36
of of a visualization of the dream.
31:38
But if you picture being on the path and you've got the rod here
31:43
it says that the rod is extending along the Bank of the
31:47
river. That means at the bottom of the
31:50
rod, it's the Bank of the river. Well, if you're on the path, you
31:54
know that the bottom of the rod is also on the the immediate
31:59
side of the path. Now wait a minute.
32:03
That means that the Lord allowed the devil to put this river
32:09
right next to the path that leads to eternal life.
32:13
And it's Nephi who gives us the interpretation that the river
32:16
represents the bitterness of hell, the depths of hell.
32:19
It represents all of those those opposing forces that the devil
32:25
throws at us, and it's side by side, right next to the very
32:32
path that represents Jesus himself.
32:35
That brings us to the tree where we partake of the fruit, and the
32:41
ultimate fruit being His his infinite atonement which leads
32:45
to eternal life. The question then remains, why
32:51
would God put his path and his rod right next to the river that
32:58
represents the the bitterness of hell?
33:01
Or why would God allow the devil to put the bitterness of hell so
33:07
close to the path that leads to eternal life?
33:12
In asking that question, you'll notice that the implication is
33:18
that we're on the path, we're holding onto the rod.
33:23
We're always good 100% of the time.
33:27
We're perfect. And why do we have to deal with
33:31
the bitterness of health right next to this effort that we have
33:34
to move forward? The older I've gotten, the more
33:38
I've realized that it was a merciful God who put the the
33:44
path and the rod where he did and allowed the devil to have
33:49
his temptations where they are right next to us.
33:53
Why? Because all of us have spent
33:57
time in that river. All of us have have thought how
34:03
refreshing it would be to just give in and and relax and float
34:07
for a little. Because look, it's pretty
34:09
Stillwater right there. And what started as perhaps a
34:16
refreshing diversion in a in a carnal way can quickly turn into
34:23
Rapids and waterfalls where we can get beat up, spiritually
34:27
speaking. And I see it as a loving God who
34:33
put the rod right on the Bank of the river, so that when we need
34:38
help, when we need that beautiful gift of forgiveness
34:43
that comes through the Savior's Infinite Atonement and His mercy
34:47
as we repent and reach for him and call out for help, that it's
34:52
right there on the Bank of the river.
34:55
He doesn't say to us. Pull yourself out of the river
34:59
and then try to work your way through this, this dark and
35:03
dreary wilderness back to the path.
35:05
No, it was a merciful God who put his son right on the Bank of
35:13
that river, reaching into the depths of hell, willing to pull
35:17
you and me out whenever we we start working our way away from
35:24
the tree and headed in the other direction.
35:28
Now watch as people start interacting with this, with this
35:35
path and the rod working their way towards the tree, and you'll
35:40
notice that the first thing that happened with Lehigh when he
35:43
made it to the tree was he had this desire for his family to
35:47
partake. So he turns and and he has these
35:51
interactions with Sam and Nephi and Soraya in verse 14.
35:57
And they come. He can't get Laman and Lemuel to
36:00
come to him, and that's what has him concerned in verse 17 and
36:06
18. But then he starts describing
36:09
other groups. So watch verse 24.
36:13
It came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and
36:17
they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron.
36:21
Now watch as he describes their interactions on this path.
36:29
We could call this the covenant path.
36:33
We could call this this straight narrow way.
36:37
It could be a beautiful symbol for what it means to be a member
36:42
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in in 1
36:47
symbolic way. Why?
36:49
Because we know that baptism is a gate that gets us onto the
36:54
path that leads to eternal life. So in in that symbolic lens we
37:00
could see this as members of the Church.
37:04
What? What does it mean?
37:05
And what does discipleship look like?
37:07
And what does that covenant connection with Christ look
37:09
like? And how do people interact with
37:12
him, and and how do they treat their discipleship?
37:16
So look at the verbs he beheld others.
37:19
They were pressing forward. They came forth, they caught
37:23
hold of the end of the rod of iron, and they did press forward
37:27
through the mists of darkness. So there are temptations that
37:31
come that try to cloud our vision, that make it so that you
37:34
can't see the end goal. You're not sure where you're
37:38
even headed anymore at times. And it says they press forward
37:43
through the mists of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron even
37:46
until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the
37:49
tree. So there's an interesting
37:52
difference in this group. So in verse 24, this group makes
37:58
it all the way to the tree to partake of the tree.
38:03
The the verb that Lehigh used here is clinging to the rod of
38:11
iron as they press forward. And you'll notice with this kind
38:16
of a depiction, it was Elder Neil A Maxwell who who spoke
38:20
about this many years ago when when he said something along
38:24
these lines. He said the straight and narrow
38:27
path is so steep in certain places that you can't hope to
38:34
progress unless you're on your knees.
38:38
It's too steep. You can't walk, you can't just
38:43
climb nonchalantly. You have to inch your way
38:48
forward on your knees. This particular version depicts,
38:56
for me, a mortal life where there are times when you have
39:01
breathtaking blessings and experiences, where you're where
39:07
you're on top of this, this plateau, so to speak.
39:10
And you can see the Vista behind you and and you can see where
39:16
you've been and it's just beautiful and the air is clear
39:19
and you feel invigorated and it's wonderful.
39:23
And then there are other times. There are times when you're
39:27
working through a long and quite frankly, miserable trial or
39:34
tribulation where the way is so steep that you're you feel like
39:38
you're making zero progress and you're going nowhere because you
39:42
you, you slip and you slide and there there are patches of snow
39:49
or rock slides. There are dark nights, there are
39:54
severe storms that come up out of nowhere while you're hiking
39:58
up in this in this mountain analogy.
40:01
And you can feel cold, you can feel disoriented, you can feel
40:05
forsaken, and it's all mixed in together.
40:09
And we're all walking our our unique journey that Christ has
40:14
laid out for each of us individually as his disciples.
40:18
And it can be pretty frustrating for some.
40:22
Hence, I like the the the difference here in verse 24 when
40:26
he says they were clinging to the rod.
40:29
Now hold that. Let's go to another group for a
40:33
moment for contrast. I'm just going to give you the
40:37
end here before we go through verse 30.
40:40
The end of the story is the group in 24.
40:44
They did their best. And we're not judging them,
40:47
We're not condemning them, we're not making fun of them.
40:50
They did their best. They came to the tree, they
40:51
partook the fruit. But in verse 25 it says after
40:55
they had partaken the fruit of the tree, they did cast their
40:59
eyes about as if they were ashamed.
41:03
It's almost as if when they partook of the fruit, they
41:06
weren't. They weren't filled with that
41:09
exquisite taste that Lehigh describes being sweeter than
41:14
anything they'd ever tasted before They're eating the fruit.
41:19
After this long journey, they finally got there, They're
41:22
eating the fruit, and it's as if they're saying, is this it, is
41:27
this all there is. And then they're casting their
41:29
eyes around about as if they were ashamed, almost as if to
41:34
say, oh, should I have done this?
41:37
Is there is there something else I should be pursuing instead?
41:42
And by the way, that's when he introduces the great and
41:45
spacious building. When you can see this, this
41:47
large building filled with people both old and young, both
41:51
male and female, their manner of dress was exceedingly fine and
41:55
they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their
41:57
fingers toward those who had come at and were partaking of
42:01
the fruit. By the way, just as a side note,
42:06
when you point a finger scorn at somebody, you'll notice that you
42:09
have 3 pointing back at you, just as a as a symbolic side
42:13
note. And I also believe it was Elder
42:16
Maxwell who said when somebody points a finger of scorn at you
42:21
for for your desires and your efforts to be good, simply
42:25
follow their directions, turn around and and walk away rather
42:30
than engage. Now that won't work for all of
42:32
you in every situation, but it's a it's a clever way to consider
42:38
the situation. And I'll cover verse 28.
42:41
After they had tasted of the fruit, they were ashamed because
42:46
of those that were scoffing at them, and they fell away into
42:50
forbidden paths and were lost. Now contrast that with the group
42:56
in verse 30, but to be short in writing.
42:59
Behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward, and they came
43:02
and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron.
43:04
So, so far it's the same. And they did press their way
43:07
forward, continually holding fast.
43:16
Notice the difference here, the contrast.
43:22
They're clinging to the rod. They're continually holding
43:25
fast. I I don't know all of the
43:28
implications. And keep in mind, Lehi is
43:31
sharing this dream in Hebrew with his family.
43:35
Nephi is writing it down in reformed Egyptian or an Egyptian
43:38
script. Then it gets translated into
43:41
English in 1829. And the way it comes to us in
43:47
English is clinging and continually holding fast.
43:49
So we may be reading more into this than we should.
43:53
Then maybe what it was in its original telling from Lehigh.
43:57
But I have to say, we, we, we're, we're, we have the
44:02
English, so we're gonna go with what we've got.
44:04
And there is a difference between these two.
44:06
In English, to me, clinging implies something like plastic
44:15
wrap or cling wrap where it just it locks on to something.
44:21
To me that word denotes fear. And this is just Tyler speaking.
44:29
This isn't, this isn't anything official or speaking for the
44:32
church to me, somebody in my mind's eye, if I'm making a
44:37
movie of this and I'm having actors go up the the path
44:41
holding to the rod, if they're clinging, it's this fearful.
44:46
Oh no, I'm scared to death. Kind of a of a of an approach to
44:52
the word of God. There's something about the
44:57
phrase continually holding fast this they're both constant.
45:04
But this one feels more like it's driven by a steadiness of
45:10
faith, a confidence in God and in the rod, rather than a fear
45:16
of what I'm capable of doing that's bad.
45:19
It's a faith in what God's perfectly capable of doing.
45:23
That's good, is how it comes through.
45:26
For me, in its implication, continually holding fast means
45:31
that I never completely am isolated or let go of the rod.
45:36
I'm continually holding fast, but I'm not.
45:39
I'm not fearfully clinging to it as I progress in fear.
45:44
I love God. I trust him, and I'm going to
45:47
continually move forward, which ironically frees us up to be
45:53
able to look around and perhaps help other people come to
45:59
Christ. Come to the rod as well.
46:02
Beckoned to others to come as well.
46:05
Now watch the the end of verse 30.
46:09
They're continually holding fast to the rod of iron until they
46:13
came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the
46:17
tree. Did you notice this?
46:20
Look at the look at the order they came forth, they fell down
46:27
and then they partook of the tree, the fruit of the tree.
46:32
That, brothers and sisters, is a very, very peculiar order.
46:39
If you and I were to go into a fruit orchard of some kind and I
46:45
said let's have a competition, we're going to pick fruit and
46:50
see who picks more and better fruit, you are gonna go in,
46:58
you're gonna fall down under the trees and you're gonna partake
47:01
of the fruit and I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna take a ladder and
47:06
I'm gonna climb up and I'm gonna partake a fruit.
47:10
Who's gonna get the best fruit? In fact, in professional or or
47:15
commercial orchards, they're not allowed by by law in most
47:20
countries to sell fruit that has fallen off the tree to the
47:24
ground. Or I guess you could picture the
47:28
Tree of life having boughs that come really low to the ground
47:33
and the fruit is growing down there, so they're picking it
47:35
low, low hanging fruit. That's possible.
47:38
What I'm getting at here is that this is not a logical
47:43
progression if you're talking about picking fruit off of a
47:49
fruit tree. But what if we're not talking
47:56
about a fruit tree? What if we take seriously the
48:00
idea that all good symbols are simply placeholders or symbolic
48:06
types or shadows for Christ? We already talked about Jesus
48:11
being the path, Jesus being the rod.
48:14
I am the way, the truth. What if it's not a tree?
48:20
But that's just a symbolic placeholder for the real thing.
48:25
From a distance, in a dark and dreary wilderness, if you're in
48:28
this large and spacious field, and from a distance, if you see
48:32
the the Lord of the outstretched arms, this God of resplendent
48:39
glory and light. I think it's a pretty good
48:43
analogy to use to refer to him as a tree of life, a tree of
48:48
light in that distance from the dark and dreary perspective that
48:52
you have out there in the in the wilderness.
48:56
And then you can picture climbing.
48:59
And when you're climbing in these kinds of of mountains, you
49:05
say, oh, there's the top. I can do that.
49:08
And you get to the top only to realize it's a false summit.
49:13
It wasn't the top at all. It just looked like the top.
49:17
You catch your breath and then say, OK, there's the top and
49:21
then you get there to realize it's not the top either.
49:25
And then you say there's the top and you keep going.
49:28
Brothers and sisters, life on this earth, especially life on
49:33
the covenant path, is a lot like that.
49:36
God gives us these bite sized chunks to work on, and he
49:42
doesn't show us the end. He gives us the next phase, the
49:46
next step, the next mission to accomplish.
49:51
And we work at it, work at it, work at it.
49:53
Can you picture a person after a long life, of going through all
49:59
these experiences and coming up over the rise to realize, OK, I
50:04
finished that, that part of of my mortal calling my mission in
50:09
in life, catch your breath, get some more direction, more
50:14
blessings, and say OK, there's the next one I need to tackle.
50:19
Can you picture a person going through a lifetime of that and
50:23
then on one occasion coming up over the top and realizing this
50:31
is the top I did arrive. Then they would come forth, fall
50:39
down and partake of the fruit of the tree.
50:44
If they recognize that it's not just a fruit tree but it's the
50:49
Son of God himself, then that that order is beautiful and it's
50:59
perfect. Because after this long life of
51:02
discipleship, realizing that Jesus is the way that we've
51:06
been, we've been living our life the way He's He's laid out for
51:10
us and He tread alone for us In the past we've been holding to
51:15
Him. There's there's some beautiful
51:19
power in visualizing. Not just holding on to to a
51:24
piece of metal, but reaching out and holding on to the almighty
51:29
hand of the Son of God as we walk that path of life.
51:34
And then we get to the top only to realize it's Him come unto
51:40
Christ, it's Him. Then you come forth, fall down,
51:45
and they're partake of the fruit.
51:47
It's beautiful symbolism if it's not really a fruit tree, but if
51:52
it's the Son of God to have this group experience that now you'll
51:56
notice the group back in 24. There's no mention of them ever
52:02
falling down. There's no mention of them
52:05
seeming to recognize what it is that they've arrived at, and so
52:10
they feel ashamed. I don't know if it's because
52:14
they've lived their life in fear, and the fear of am I
52:18
missing out on something else? Is there Is there more Did?
52:22
Did Did I Mess up versus this group in verse 30 who moves
52:27
forward in faith, recognizes him for for whom He is and for what
52:32
He is, And now they're partaking of that incredible sweet fruit
52:39
of His infinite love and His mercy and His atonement which
52:43
leads to eternal life. So I'd like to share a thought
52:47
about the word rod and then tell a story that comes from my own
52:53
life that represents this experience.
52:57
I just wanted to share with you just a fun little insight that
53:02
in Egyptian, the word rod is actually also the same Egyptian
53:08
word that they use for word. So it appears that Nephi and
53:16
Lehigh are actually using a word play, that the word is the rod
53:21
and the rod is the word. And So what are you holding on
53:23
to? Holding fast to the word of God.
53:27
And as we talked about earlier, when we consider what is learned
53:31
in the Gospel of John, Jesus is that word.
53:34
That is what we hold on to. Jesus is the word.
53:37
He is the rod. And now a personal story.
53:41
So I've had the privilege of leading tour groups to the Holy
53:45
Land on occasion, and some years ago I had the opportunity to
53:49
have my brother join me. My wife usually does join me,
53:54
but she was having some health issues, foot surgery, and so my
53:57
brother took her spot and my brother TJ and we had a great
54:01
time. It was fabulous to be able to
54:03
travel with my brother. I recall it was his first time
54:05
out of the country and I was able to introduce him to this
54:08
land that I love, that I've spent so much time in.
54:11
And we went with a family from my ward, just a lovely family,
54:15
the Vanderhorst. And we traveled in the Holy Land
54:20
down to Masada. And before we went to Masada, we
54:23
stopped at a place called Nahal David.
54:26
It's actually a little a little Creek.
54:29
It's a very narrow ravine and it gets serious flash floods and
54:33
gets to be kind of a raging torrent, filthy water and which
54:38
also might be related to things that Lehigh saw in his dream.
54:41
Well, we decided to go hike up to some of these small little
54:44
waterfalls that were up this Creek and it was actually there
54:48
was some very steep wet areas and it's very interesting.
54:52
The path that we had to follow was it was narrow but also with
54:58
steep in areas and there actually was an iron rod that we
55:01
had to hold on to. And I still, this day just felt
55:04
so grateful to the Van der Horst family for helping my brother
55:09
who was dealing with just a bit of balance issues.
55:12
At one point helping him along as we were all continually
55:17
holding fast to the iron rod as we're walking through this like
55:20
narrow gorge. And there was this, this Creek
55:22
here. And at the time I just thought,
55:25
this is stunning that I'm having this life experience of what it
55:30
means to hold fast to a rod along a Creek in this narrow
55:34
place where we want to go see this beautiful vegetation,
55:38
right, you know, near the fountain of water at the end.
55:42
And it's actually in a location that may have been in the very
55:45
spot or nearby where Lehigh had been camping out having his
55:50
dream. Now we don't know exactly where
55:52
Lehigh was when he had his dream, but he may have been near
55:55
the area. And I just found it beautiful on
55:58
so many levels. But in particular, just the the
56:01
social experience of seeing individuals helping one another
56:07
along the path as they all, as they all strove to hold on to
56:11
that rod, which would lead to the great payoff of the
56:14
beautiful experience of being at the tree.
56:17
So we invite you to remember that this process of holding to
56:21
the rod, it's an ongoing one. Sometimes you might get a little
56:24
tired or discouraged, but know that there are people in our
56:29
community willing to provide supporting hands and help, and
56:33
maybe you could do that for somebody in your sphere of
56:36
influence. You could be there in front of
56:39
them, calling out to them, encouraging them, lending them a
56:41
hand to help guide them to the rod, to the word of God, or
56:45
maybe behind them and giving them a boost wherever you are,
56:48
whatever stage of life, just know that as we try to serve and
56:53
minister and support other people on their journey, it will
56:57
also help us to stay fast holding on to the rod and to
57:01
staying on that narrow path that will lead us to God.
57:05
Now remember that in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon,
57:10
or in the original manuscript, there aren't chapter breaks the
57:15
way we have them here, that the chapters that Nephi gave us are
57:19
much longer. So remember that the first one
57:23
was first Nephi chapters one through 5.
57:27
His second chapter is 6 through 9, so he gives you 2 chapters of
57:37
of Nephi's own abridgement of Lehi's book.
57:42
And so here's chapter 8 nestled in in this block.
57:46
Then in Chapter 9 he tells you about the fact that he's making
57:52
two sets of plates, the large plates 1st and then the second
57:56
set is the smaller plates, and he's describing those.
58:00
Notice what he says very quickly in verse Chapter 9, verse 5.
58:03
Wherefore the Lord has commanded me to make these plates?
58:06
That would be the small plates for a wise purpose in him.
58:09
Which purpose I know not. You'll notice that even for
58:14
God's profits, there are times when God asks them to do things
58:18
and go to the next level and they have no idea why.
58:24
And if. If the world or the culture of
58:26
their day were to press them for a good reason why they're going
58:30
to all this effort, the only answer they could give is I
58:33
know, not save, the Lord commanded me.
58:35
This is beautiful for us, knowing the end story of the 116
58:41
lost pages and how God is putting the solution in place,
58:45
clear back here at the very beginning to fix the problem
58:50
that is going to be created in 1828.
58:54
It's remarkable. Then Nephi opens up his third
58:59
chapter, which for us is chapter 10.
59:01
And now he's telling his own story.
59:03
Notice he finished Chapter 9, verse six with Amen.
59:08
Now he opens up 10 verse one. Now I, Nephi, proceed to give an
59:11
account upon these plates of my proceedings and my reign and
59:14
ministry. Wherefore to proceed with mine
59:17
account? I must speak somewhat of the
59:19
things of my father. So now he describes this.
59:25
He goes into the Babylonian captivity that that dad has been
59:30
prophesying to the Jews would happen.
59:34
Look at verse 6, where for all mankind were in a lost and in a
59:37
fallen state and never would be say they should rely on this
59:42
Redeemer. Are you seeing allusions back to
59:46
Lehigh's dream of there are all these strange roads and
59:50
forbidden paths and there's this, this river that could be
59:55
this gorge right next to this path by the iron rod.
59:59
And flash floods can come through at any time in these in
1:00:03
these riverbeds and wadis and destroy people.
1:00:09
And he's saying we're all lost. We're all in a fallen state
1:00:13
unless we rely on this Redeemer. Well, Lehigh's dream gave you
1:00:18
the ways to rely on him. Get on his path.
1:00:21
Make that covenant connection with him through baptism.
1:00:24
Hold fast to that rod of iron. Trust that God knows more than
1:00:30
we know about what we need to do, and rely on His words that
1:00:35
come to us through the scriptures and the words of our
1:00:38
living prophets. And we press forward, relying on
1:00:42
on the Redeemer. Then as you turn the page over
1:00:46
He, He tells you of His own desires.
1:00:50
This is where we'll end in verse 17.
1:00:52
It came to pass that after I, Nephi had heard all the words of
1:00:55
my Father concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and
1:00:58
also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost,
1:01:00
which power he received by faith on the Son of God.
1:01:03
And the Son of God was the Messiah who should come.
1:01:07
I, Nephi, notice the verbs was desirous that I might see and
1:01:13
hear and know of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost,
1:01:18
which is the gift of God, unto all those who diligently seek
1:01:21
Him as well. In times of old, as in the times
1:01:24
that he should manifest himself unto the children of men,
1:01:27
brothers, and sisters. Nephi was an ideal student.
1:01:31
He didn't sit there and listen to his dad tell the story and
1:01:36
say, oh, good for you, dad, Nephi said No.
1:01:40
I want to know for myself. We live in a day and age where
1:01:44
we have prophets, apostles, and church leaders of the different
1:01:48
organizations who speak to us. And it's one thing to listen to
1:01:52
them and say, OK, I'll, I'll. I'll just take your word for it.
1:01:58
And it's another to desire deep in our soul, to want to see and
1:02:05
hear and know of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost, and
1:02:10
to go to God and say, teach me, what can I do to actually live
1:02:16
these truths that have been taught?
1:02:18
And what does it look like in my life, in my sphere?
1:02:22
In closing, brothers and sisters, the the Savior never
1:02:26
seemed to promise us a a smooth paved sidewalk with the
1:02:31
guardrail. But He did promise us that if we
1:02:36
would take His yoke upon us, if we would come unto him through
1:02:40
baptism, and get on that path, and turn at that gate, and
1:02:45
endure to the end, and persevere continually, holding fast with
1:02:51
faith, that He would save us, that He would bring us to the
1:02:56
Father and and present a spotless to Him.
1:03:01
Now, as you embark on your day or your week, that's in front of
1:03:09
you right now, some of you may be in that kind of an experience
1:03:13
right now. Some of you may be on on a
1:03:16
mountain peak. Some of you may be at the very
1:03:19
beginning. Some of you may be nearing the
1:03:22
very end. You're just moments away from
1:03:25
being able to have incredible experiences.
1:03:28
Here's the point. Wherever you are on the path,
1:03:33
whatever element of mortality you're experiencing on that
1:03:36
covenant path, as a disciple of Christ, rather than getting
1:03:41
discouraged because you're not further along or looking back
1:03:45
and wondering why other people are struggling so much, Wherever
1:03:49
you are, what the Lord is inviting each and every one of
1:03:53
us to do is take the next step forward, take the next footstep
1:04:00
of faith to come closer to him. And that is our prayer, that we
1:04:05
will be able to do that today, and that you'll be able to do
1:04:08
that today, and that you'll be able to encourage your family
1:04:11
and your loved ones and those around you to be able to do that
1:04:14
today. There are a lot of mists of
1:04:17
darkness out there. There are a lot of forbidden
1:04:19
paths and a lot of strange roads, and there are a lot of
1:04:22
deep, dark canyons and rivers that are dangerous for people.
1:04:29
So may the Lord bless us all as we collectively and individually
1:04:34
move onward and upward on this covenant path towards the
1:04:38
Savior, with the Savior's help. With our hand In His is our
1:04:42
prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ,
1:04:44
Amen. In this week of Gospel Explorer,
1:04:47
we gain deeper insights into coming to Christ and partaking
1:04:50
of the fruit of the Tree of Life.
1:04:53
Our path on the left side takes us into a deeper study of the
1:04:56
family, a Proclamation to the World.
1:04:59
You can really dig into this topic with numerous videos and
1:05:01
resources highlighting the words of our modern prophets.
1:05:04
On this important theme, The Middle Path takes you on a
1:05:08
journey of studying the power that God gives to us to overcome
1:05:11
and diversity by holding fasts to the rod of iron.
1:05:15
You'll want to watch these videos to gain strength as you
1:05:17
go through your trials in opposition, especially if you
1:05:20
feel that you are alone in your desire to follow Christ.
1:05:23
The Last Path will take you into a study of faith and actively
1:05:27
following the Lord. One branch will focus on how
1:05:29
revelation helps us in making faith filled decisions, while
1:05:33
the other branch focuses on developing the faith to act on
1:05:36
that revelation. We hope that this resource
1:05:39
continues to deepen your desire to come unto Christ and develop
1:05:42
a closer relationship with Him.