Latest / Scripture Central / 1 Nephi 1-7 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

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1 Nephi 1-7 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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Welcome to Scripture Central. We're thrilled to have you here.
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Just a quick note, this video is a revamped edition of this video
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series from four years ago. The content, however, is as
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relevant and insightful as ever. We also invite you to explore
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our extensive collection of resources and programs designed
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to enhance your study of the scriptures.
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You can do this by visiting Scripture central.org.
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Now let's dive into the lesson so we We embark on this first
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book written by Nephi. Before we dive into our
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scripture block for today, I just wanted to show you in in
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the 1830 Replica edition of the Book of Mormon that if you look
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carefully, there are no footnotes.
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There are no verse markers There.
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There aren't double columns there.
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It's simply written in paragraph format and the first chapter of
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Nephi is long. It comes clear over to the
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original page 16, and it ends with chapter 5, verse 22 in our
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current edition. And then it picks up chapter 2
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with and now I Nephi do not give the genealogy of my father's in
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this account, so he opens up chapter 2 in what we would call
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verse 6 or sorry, chapter 6. So a couple of things just for
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you to be oriented with. The 1830 edition has has
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completely different chapter breaks the way it was originally
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given. So Nephi had somehow on the
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plates made some sort of a space or a marking to signify, OK,
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this is one complete unit and it's it's interesting to see the
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original chapters in the Book of Mormon.
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And it would be worth your time sometime if you want to download
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the Scripture Plus app for free and read the Book of Mormon in
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the 1830 edition that's embedded right there in the Scripture
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Plus app. And you can see those chapter
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breaks as they come. There were other editions of the
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Book of Mormon, but the significant one that kind of
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changed things was 1879 when Orson Pratt published the book
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and under the direction of of the prophet at the time,
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President Brigham Young Orson Pratt organized the Book of
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Mormon text into what would match up more closely with the
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way the the Holy Bible is written.
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So kind of match the same size of how how long the verses would
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be and how long chapter breaks would would be.
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And that all happened in 1879 when Orson Pratt published that
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that edition with the chapters and verses as we now see them in
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our current edition. One other thing of note is
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regarding punctuation. It was back in the 1830 edition
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where John Gilbert, he is the typesetter for EB Grandin's
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print shop. He's he's the guy who takes each
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individual letter or punctuation mark and puts them into those
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little blocks to then print the 1830 edition.
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It's John Gilbert who puts in all of our punctuation in the
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Book of Mormon. And so be careful to not make
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doctrinal judgments on what the scriptures or what the Book of
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Mormon is saying based on punctuation.
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Because it it wasn't there. There was no punctuation on the
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plates. Joseph Smith didn't include any
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punctuation in his translation effort.
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Oliver Cowdrey didn't put any punctuation in it was delivered
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to the print shop, that printer's manuscript, and it was
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John Gilbert who put all of that in.
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Now we begin, we embark on the first book of Nephi, his reign
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and ministry. It's interesting.
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He starts with his reign and ministry in the the heading to
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his book, who is it that reigns King's reign and who is it that
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ministers So his reign and ministry.
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This is priests and prophets in in history.
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I love the fact that the Book of Mormon begins with a prophet who
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has a reign and a ministry. So to embark on this journey,
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you pick up verse chapter one, verse one.
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Now, I'm going to experiment here.
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I'm going to try something. Let's see if this works.
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I want you to pay really close attention.
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All right. I, Nephi, having been born of
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goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the
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learning of my father, and having seen many afflictions in
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the course of my days, Nevertheless, having been highly
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favored the Lord in all my days, yeah, having had a great
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knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore
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I make a record of my proceedings in my days.
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Now I told you I was going to going to try and experiment
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here. Let's see if it worked.
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My experiment was this. Let me see how long you would be
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able to stick with me as I read through one verse of scripture
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happens to be the very first verse.
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Some would say it is the most often read verse of the Book of
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Mormon. In some cases, with our resolve
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to read the book and we keep starting over and so we're we're
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pretty familiar with verse one. Here's the question, How long
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did you stay with it? Did your mind stay focused as I
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was reading that entire time? Or did your mind do what most
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most of us do when we hear scripture that's fairly familiar
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to us? You heard the first phrase and
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thought, oh, I know this, and then your mind wandered to
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something else. You'll notice as you embark on a
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serious study of the Book of Mormon.
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If you're just reading Black Words on a White page, it's
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going to be very, very difficult for you to stay focused and to
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actually learn the things that the book contains that are most
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relevant and applicable for this phase of your life that you're
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going through right now. So we would give an invitation
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here to say, help your mind out, help your heart out that you
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don't go in just looking at Black Words on the white page,
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but that you go in looking for something specific, something
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that would be more relevant and meaningful to you right here,
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right now. Because if you're looking for
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something, you're far more likely to stay focused and pay
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attention. One simple technique that some
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of you could could use if you haven't before or develop it
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further if you already have in the past is some sort of a
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marking system. Some sort of a way to to
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organize the page whether it's by color or by different types
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of markings or cross reference or sticky notes or thoughts and
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impressions that you can put in the margin.
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Something to help your mind stay focused.
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So let me give you one example of of how to use this principle
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to stay focused on on things that are more likely to help you
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move forward on the covenant path.
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Let's take verse one. And I'm just gonna start by
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saying this. There was never, and this is a
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bold statement, but I'm standing by it.
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There was never a better opener to any book ever written in the
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history of the world that we have access to than first Nephi
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chapter one, verse one. This thing is so beautiful.
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Contained in one verse, Nephi managed to fit the entire Book
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of Mormon story. Not just that, but he was able
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to fit in that one verse. Your story and my story, it's
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all here. So look for how this one verse
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is a mirror for you to look in. OK, notice the first phrase by
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Nephi having been born of goodly parents.
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You'll notice that every one of us begin with some sort of a
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family. Genesis.
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We're born into a family, regardless of what your earthly
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parents may or may not have been for you.
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As far as goodly, we were all born into heaven of goodly
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parents. Now notice the next word.
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The next word is therefore. Now.
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In English, we'll often come to words like therefore and our
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mind and our eye will just kind of skip over it, when in fact
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that right there becomes an incredible organizing word to
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describe what's on either side because it creates this
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relationship between what comes before it compared to what comes
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after it. A therefore statement takes
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phrase A and combines it with phrase B in A cause effect
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relationship. So you have born of goodly
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parents and because of that what happened.
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It says Therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of
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my father. Good parents.
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I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father.
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My parents didn't teach me everything.
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They know about everything, because goodly parents don't do
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that. They give you a part of the
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breadth of their knowledge because they know that your
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experience is going to flesh out what needs to be flushed out
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through your life, through your own life.
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Living every story in the entire Book of Mormon fits in this.
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Your story fits into this. We're taught enough to be able
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to then move forward. Now look at the next phrase.
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Having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, If you
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stop and think about the fact that Nephi is writing this
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probably between 30 to 40 years after they left Jerusalem, based
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on 2nd Nephi 5, that means he's able to from a from a
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perspective looking back in time at all of this, he's able to
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give us some detail that he wouldn't have been able to give
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as they're just leaving Jerusalem.
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And he says, having seen many afflictions in the course of my
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days, you can just cast your mind back to some of the things
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that Nephi has experienced in in the first book of Nephi, some of
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the struggles and the near loss of life at at multiple
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junctures. If we were to translate this
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into 21st century English, we might say life was very, very
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hard for Nephi. But in this ancient context,
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it's having seen many afflictions.
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Now notice if the next word had been there for we would be
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looking for. This is a cause and the outcome,
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the effect would be I've had a really hard life, therefore I'm
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justified in being angry or bitter or frustrated with God or
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any number of things could be the effect.
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But notice what Nephi does. He takes the difficulties, the
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many afflictions, and he doesn't say.
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Therefore, he says, nevertheless, nevertheless
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happens to be this beautiful word that many have attributed
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to William Tyndale coining this word.
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Look at how it's put together. Never the less it could have
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just as easily been coined as always.
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The greater the element. That's important and
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nevertheless is where you put the emphasis.
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It's never the less over here, it's always the greater emphasis
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here with what follows, which then diminishes your focus on
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what came before. It's as if it's a cause counter
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effect. It's the opposite of what you
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would have expected. Having seen many afflictions in
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the course of my days, notice what follows the Nevertheless in
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verse one. Nevertheless, having been highly
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favored, the Lord in market all my days, not just the days when
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things were going well, when when we were able to get food,
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when there was no storm on the boat, or when my brothers
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weren't trying to kill me. It's having been highly favored,
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the Lord in all my days. Did you notice that?
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Here's Nephi telling you that his life has been very
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difficult, but in spite of those difficulties, put the greater
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emphasis on God's goodness. I've been highly favored of the
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Lord in all my days. Think about every story in the
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Book of Mormon. Think about every year in your
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life, OK, we started with family, being taught, given
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agency. And then you embark on this life
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and here you move forward and then you run into opposition.
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Things don't always work out, things don't always turn.
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Turn the direction you wanted them to turn and you experience
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many afflictions and Nephi showing us a Christ like pattern
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of turning those into nevertheless moments where
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instead of turning it into a Therefore I'm angry at God
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moment it becomes a nevertheless I've been highly favored the
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Lord and you can see that in every story in the book one you
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can see that as you as you look at your own life history you can
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find the hand of the Lord guiding you, blessing you,
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sustaining you, encircling you and loving you through through
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all of your days, not just the days when things are working
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out. Which then brings us to the
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third and final phrase of first Nephi 11.
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It says, yay, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and
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the mysteries of God therefore, so we're back to another
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therefore statement. But he starts with the cause
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phrase a being. I have a great knowledge of the
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goodness and the mysteries of God.
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Therefore I am going to make a record of my proceedings in my
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days. Did you notice that he has a
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great knowledge of the goodness and mysteries of God, right
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after he tells you how hard his life has been and how much he's
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been highly favored the Lord? I don't think that Nephi would
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have been able to write this third phrase about the knowledge
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of the goodness and the mysteries of God if it hadn't
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been for that second phrase being in place.
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And I don't think you or I could truly know how good God is if
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life was only filled with sweetness and success and
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everything working out perfectly.
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It's somehow in that mixture of the bitter and the sweet of the
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having to step out of the the light into the darkness and
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experiencing pain and set back and loss and frustration and
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difficulty through through mortal trials, that the light of
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God's goodness shines the brightest and we recognize how
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desperately we need him and how much he is a part of our life.
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And I think that's what Nephi is giving us right here in verse
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one is this, this nutshell overview of the entire Book of
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Mormon, his entire life, and our entire life by by extension and
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by application, likening the scriptures to us.
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Now, brothers and sisters, we've spent a lot of time on 1st
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Nephi, chapter one, verse one. We aren't going to spend this
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kind of time with every verse, but this therefore and
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nevertheless principle that will bless your life as you move
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forward into the rest of the scriptures.
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If you're looking for some of these words that will help you
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make better sense of what the scriptures mean, and as you're
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looking for your own story on every page and every experience
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that's being shared, then you'll find that your mind is able to
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stay focused better, and your study becomes more purposeful,
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more meaningful, and more likely to lead to lasting change as you
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progress on that covenant path. Let's look just again at Nephi's
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opening statement and just briefly.
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We've mentioned before that names are the lesson.
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Now, Joseph Smith did not know Hebrew Egyptian when he was
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translating the Book of Mormon, but the writers of the Book of
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Mormon did know those languages. And significantly, many of the
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names in the Book of Mormon are Egyptian or Hebrew in origin.
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And as we've learned about the meanings, remarkably what we've
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seen is that they function as thesis statements for the life
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of that person or for the story in which their name is embedded.
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Let's take a look at the name Nephi.
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Any guess of what the name Nephi means in ancient Egyptian?
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Our best proposals suggest the name Nephi means good, lovely or
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beautiful or desirable. So Nephi is actually doing a
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word play as he introduces himself as a good ancient
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Israelite scribe would be trained to do.
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We don't do this in English, not very often and Jill Smith would
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have would not have known about this.
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So Nephi basically saying I Nephi haven't been born of Nephi
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parents or I the good, I good haven't been born of good
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parents. But it's also suggesting who's
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the real good, It's Jesus. And what's the theme of Nephi's
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writing? It's about the goodness of God,
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the beautifulness of God, the desirability of God.
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In fact, when we get to 1st Nephi, chapter 8 and all, and
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the other chapters that deal with the tree of life, how does
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Nephi describe the fruit? He describes it with the word
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beautiful. And if we translated the Book of
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Mormon back into Egyptian, Nephi would have been using his own
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name, the meaning of his own name, Nephi, to describe the
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beautiful fruit from which he and members of his family
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partook the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
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So as you read the Book of Mormon, just remember that it's
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a beautiful record of God's atonement.
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It's a witness to you of his goodness, and Nephi's name
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throughout the record can serve now as a reminder to you to
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remember the beauty, the goodness, the desirability of
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the atone of Jesus Christ. Now Nephi introduces us to the
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to the language verse two, he says.
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I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of
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the learning of the Jews, that would be Hebrew, and the
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language of the Egyptians. We learn at the very end of the
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book from Moroni that he's he says we've modified our spoken
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Hebrew and we also are writing and reformed Egyptian.
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So it's this interesting language situation where Nephi
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has taken the incredible time and effort to learn from his
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father not only the the spoken language of Hebrew, but how to
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write and read in Egyptian or Egyptian script.
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At least this would not have been a simple exercise.
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But thanks to that effort that he went to, we now have the
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benefit of the Book of Mormon today because Moroni tells us
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that if they had written in Hebrew, it would have been too
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big. It it won't fit on the plates,
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but because they're able to write it in Egyptian script,
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somehow it it compresses the the size of the writing.
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And so we can we can get this this full record.
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Then he bears testimony in verse 3.
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I know that the record which I make is true, and I make it with
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my own hand, and I make it according to my knowledge.
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And then he opens the narrative with verse 4 for it came to
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pass. You'll notice in the Book of
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Mormon that there are hundreds of instances of it came to pass
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in one form or another. This is coming from a language
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that didn't have punctuation, remember?
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So in English or in modern languages, we say something and
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then at the end of what we say we put in a punctuation mark.
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They're apparently not doing that.
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They front load their new thoughts with keywords or or
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characters and it came to pass. Seems to be this equivalent of
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what we would use a period to end our sentences with it, and
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then we're going to go to the next part of the narrative.
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The next part of the story is moving forward.
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It came to pass. It came to pass.
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It came to pass. I love the fact that most
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trials, tribulations and difficulties in life come and
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then they pass. They don't stay.
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They don't. The storms and the the
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Hurricanes and tornadoes of life don't constantly keep blowing on
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most people. Now there are some exceptions,
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but for most of us it's these these opportunities to grow and
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see God's hand. They come and then they pass and
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and I know that's not the the literary intent of that phrase
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in scripture. I just love the fact that that
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most OFT repeated phrase from the Book of Mormon, even that
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carries with it lessons for our life as we move forward on on
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the covenant path. Now you'll notice the rest of
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chapter one is where Nephi launches into telling us about
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his father and his writings. So we're told in chapter one,
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verse 17, I shall make an account of my proceedings in my
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days. Behold, I make an abridgement of
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the record of my father upon plates which I've made with mine
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own hands. So he tells you, I'm going to
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abridge the writings from the book of Lehigh 1st and then I'm
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going to give you my own stuff. If you look if you want to cross
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reference verse 17 with first Nephi, chapter 10, verse one, as
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well as the last verse of Chapter 9, you'll see that at
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the end of Chapter 9 Nephi finished abridging his dad's
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record. And then in chapter 10, he's
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he's no longer reading what his dad wrote and putting it in his
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own words. He's now just writing his own
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stuff. The vision that Nephi is given
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in chapter one calls him to be a prophet, to go in and preach to
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those people in Jerusalem about their wickedness and that
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they're going to be destroyed. God pulls Lehigh out of this
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comfort zone and says I, I need you to change your your
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approach. I need you, I need you to be a
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prophet for me and go in and tell these people what you've
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seen. So notice verse 19, chapter one,
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verse 19. It says the Jews did mock him
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because of the things which he testified of them, for he truly
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testified of their wickedness. Notice this he says you're
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wicked and you're going to be destroyed if you don't repent.
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And the result was they mocked him.
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I learned this insight many, many years ago from from a
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colleague up at the Logan Institute, Tom Cherrington, when
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he pointed out this change that occurs.
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Notice it says that at the bottom of verse 19, the things
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which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the
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book, manifested plainly of the coming of a Messiah and also the
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redemption of the world. And when the Jews heard these
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things, they were angry with him.
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Yet even as with the prophets of old, whom they cast out and whom
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they had slain, he testified of the coming of a Messiah.
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And now they want to kill him. They don't just want to mock
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him, they want to kill him. Why the Messiah is coming there.
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There's this phrase in in antiquity, Messianic
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expectations. It's What do you expect of the
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promised Messiah? Who is he?
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What will he do? When will he come?
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How will he come? What form will he come in?
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And everybody has these Messianic expectations.
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And Lehigh is now saying God is going to come down to the earth,
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the Messiah is going to come down to the earth and redeem the
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world. And they get angry with him.
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They feel like He has now blasphemed God's perfection and
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His good name. Think about it from this context
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for a moment. This doctrine as taught in the
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in the Book of Mormon, that God would come down and take upon
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Him flesh and become like us, become a man, is the doctrine of
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the condescension. You'll notice they don't like
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this doctrine very much in BC time period, and they want to
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kill Lehigh. They feel like he is blasphemed.
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God, how dare you say that God could ever come down and become
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like us, take upon Him, flesh like us.
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He He He's not going to do it that way.
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It's going to be some other way. Isn't it interesting that in BC
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times that doctrine causes a lot of problems?
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Well, what doctrine in relation to this causes problems today or
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in in the the modern era we would say AD well, could it be
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that that doctrine right there causes many of our Christian
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brothers and sisters in the world at large to get frustrated
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with us because they feel like it's blasphemy?
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That to say that man and woman could ever become like God.
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It's the doctrine of deification or exaltation that seems to be
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problematic for people today in 80 times.
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Most people don't have a hard time with Jesus Christ being a
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God who came down and was made flesh, became became like us,
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took on a human condition. Now the problem is, the
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companion doctrine here is one of the beautiful lessons of the
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Book of Mormon is that the reason Jesus did come down and
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become like us is so that he could not just descend like us,
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but to descend below us to then lift us up.
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It's not blasphemy for Jesus to say I'm going to save you.
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I'm going to lift you up by my mercy, by my merits, by my
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grace. I'm going to promise you
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exaltation if you'll just trust me.
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And that's what happens through this entire Book of Mormon is we
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learn what those things are that Jesus has asked us to do in
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order to fully accept Him as our Lord and Savior, to allow him to
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perform this part of the process that completes the cycle that he
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started with being born all those 2000 years ago in
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Bethlehem. Nephi has very clear purposes in
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why he writes, and he's very explicit about that if we look
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at the last verse in this chapter, verse 20.
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Let's read it and carefully and think about what is Nephi trying
31:06
to convince us of as we read? What did he purposely choose to
31:11
put into his record, and why? Here's what he tells us.
31:15
When the Jews heard these things from Lehi, they were angry with
31:18
him. Yet even as with the prophets of
31:20
old, whom they cast out and stoned and slain, and they also
31:24
sought his life, that they might take it away.
31:26
And now here's the part where Nephi makes it very clear why
31:30
he's writing his record. And you can look for this.
31:34
You can test Nephi throughout his writing.
31:37
How well does he fulfill his purpose that he lays out here?
31:42
But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies
31:48
of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of
31:54
their faith, to make them mighty, even under the power of
31:58
deliverance. This statement in summarize some
32:01
ways summarizes and encapsulates the totality of Nephi's writings
32:07
and actually of the Book of Mormon and even the plan of
32:10
salvation that God is a God of tender mercies.
32:15
The Book of Mormon was written to preserve examples of his
32:19
tender mercies of how God delivers the faithful.
32:23
You might remember we talked, we've talked about the two
32:26
significant covenants, the Abrahamic covenant and the
32:29
Mosaic covenant. In the Abrahamic covenant, God
32:32
promised that he would be the God of deliverance.
32:36
That is His eternal obligation, and He will do that deliverance
32:42
for all those who are faithful. So just know that God has
32:46
already promised, long before you were born to deliver.
32:49
You just choose to be faithful to Him and need by rights to
32:53
encourage all of us to be faithful to God, to remember
32:56
there's all these amazing stories of God's tender mercies.
33:01
We might put your minds forward to the end of the Book of
33:05
Mormon. Where Moroni he asks readers,
33:09
after having read the entire Book of Mormon, to reflect back
33:12
on all the tender mercies of God and to ask Is it true, all of
33:19
his goodness? Is it true?
33:21
Are all of his tender mercies real and true for me?
33:24
And are all these stories true? Can I trust them?
33:27
And I know that they are true. And you can find out for
33:31
yourself through God's promised Holy Spirit, that His tender
33:34
mercies are not simply true for those who live in the past, but
33:38
are alive and well today. For He is the God of yesterday,
33:43
today and tomorrow, never ending for all eternity.
33:48
Now, chapter one, you get Lehigh with his vision of God sitting
33:56
upon his throne, surrounded by numberless concourses of angels
34:00
in the attitude of seeing and praising their God.
34:03
This this incredible what we would call a throne, theophany a
34:08
view of God in the heavens. That's chapter one.
34:12
Chapter 2 you get Lehigh who has a dream from God warning him to
34:21
leave and to to get out of Jerusalem and take his family
34:26
out into the wilderness. Notice verse 3's wording.
34:31
It's fascinating Came to pass that he was obedient unto the
34:35
word of the Lord. Wherefore He did as the Lord
34:39
commanded him. Did you notice what just
34:41
happened? Wherefore creates the same
34:46
grammatical function pretty much as therefore it's a cause
34:50
effect, connector word. So if you look at what the cause
34:54
is, what comes right before, Wherefore Lehigh was obedient
34:59
unto the word of the Lord. What's the effect?
35:03
He did as the Lord commanded him.
35:07
That's odd. Nephi, Why would you?
35:12
Why would you take the effort and the time to write something
35:15
so obvious? My dad was obedient, Wherefore
35:21
he did what the Lord asked him to do, wherefore he was
35:23
obedient. And it leaves you scratching
35:26
your head, saying, if writing on the plates is so hard, why did
35:30
you waste your time with that statement?
35:31
Because it's just so self-evident a must have in my
35:36
mind. Cross reference to verse 3 takes
35:39
you over to verse 14. Look carefully.
35:44
Begin at the very bottom of verse 14, find the wherefore
35:48
down there at the bottom and circle it and notice what comes
35:52
as the effect. What is the outcome?
35:55
Wherefore they did as he commanded them?
35:58
We're Speaking of Layman and Lemuel here.
36:00
So the outcome is Lehmann and Lemuel did as they were
36:04
commanded by Lehigh. Hmm that's interesting because
36:08
back in verse 3 the outcome was he did as the Lord commanded
36:12
him. So it's pretty similar, right?
36:16
The only difference is they're doing as Lehigh commanded them,
36:20
which makes sense. A prophet getting his marching
36:23
orders from the Lord being obedient to the Lord, and
36:25
they're getting their marching orders from Dad and they're
36:28
doing it. Look at the cause and verse 14.
36:32
Look at the first part. It came to pass that my father
36:35
did speak unto them in the valley of Lemuel with power,
36:38
being filled with the Spirit, until their frames did shake
36:41
before him, and he did confound them, that they durst not utter
36:45
against him. They're scared, they don't, they
36:48
don't dare say anything against him.
36:52
Wherefore they did as he commanded them.
36:57
Lehigh was obedient. Wherefore he did as the Lord
37:03
commanded him. Laman and Lemuel in verse 14
37:07
were scared to death. Wherefore they did as their
37:11
father commanded them. One obedient action seems to
37:17
lead to greater faith in the Lord and greater discipleship
37:21
and greater progress along the covenant path, whereas another
37:27
form of obedience doesn't seem to help propel somebody along
37:32
that covenant path very far as as listed in verse 14.
37:37
Which brings up this interesting point.
37:41
Why did God have to make this journey so difficult?
37:46
They're in Jerusalem and they're trying to get down to the Red
37:53
Sea, out into the wilderness and then three days journey into the
37:58
the wilderness from there. This is a long difficult not
38:03
very pleasant part of the earth to be travelling in if you're,
38:07
if you're camping, not the greatest of physical conditions.
38:11
So this is really hard and this is just the very beginning.
38:17
God could have very simply transported them from Jerusalem
38:22
over to the New World and we would be done.
38:24
Or he could have made it so that their journey through the
38:27
wilderness was a journey of absolute ease.
38:31
But he didn't. He lets it be hard.
38:35
He lets it be long and grueling. Because the whole point of the
38:41
plan of salvation isn't just to get us from where we are to
38:44
heaven. It's to help us to become
38:47
something. It's to help us to develop
38:49
characteristics and traits in our in our character, in in our
38:54
personality that be allow us to become more like Christ and to
38:57
rely more on him through those experiences of life.
39:01
And so you're going to see these difficulties along the way, and
39:05
God is going to be stretching every single member of this
39:09
family almost every step of the way, giving them opportunities
39:14
to become more like the Savior. Notice how in the end of Chapter
39:21
2 we open up chapter three with the Lord speaking yet again to
39:27
Lehigh in a dream. God is God is directing this
39:35
this whole family through through revelation, and this
39:41
time it's a dream. We've now made it clear down
39:44
here, and the Lord said, now send your boys back to Jerusalem
39:48
to get the plates. You can picture Lehmann and
39:51
Lummiel that morning. The frustration when Dad said,
39:54
hey, I dreamed a dream and I need you boys to go back to
39:58
Jerusalem to get scriptures so that I can use them to to teach
40:03
you from not a happy day for Lehman and Lemiel, from their
40:07
perspective, Can you imagine the questions they might have asked?
40:12
Come on dad, Why didn't he give you that revelation right here?
40:17
Or why not a week before we left?
40:19
Why? Why wait?
40:22
Why make it so hard? And the answer is we don't know
40:24
why, but we know that God's purpose is not to make our life
40:29
as easy and simple and problem free as possible.
40:35
That isn't why we're here. He's giving us opportunities to
40:39
stretch our faith, to grow our trust in Him as what's happening
40:44
here in Chapter 3. So they go back now.
40:47
You'll notice that this whole experience in chapters 3 and
40:51
four is rooted in. Get the plates right, They know
40:58
what they're supposed to do. Get the plates.
41:03
They even know Nephi even has. I'm gonna put as a semi
41:12
exclamation mark. He's got some reasons as to why
41:16
they need the plates. They're going to be able to fill
41:18
in some some more of those reasons later on.
41:21
What don't they know? They don't have any idea how
41:28
they're going to get the plates. You don't just you don't just
41:30
waltz in and take away this incredible family heirloom from
41:37
Laban. You don't just do that, but
41:41
you'll notice they do the best they can.
41:44
So attempt number one, they send in Layman.
41:48
He draws the lot to be the one to get to go in.
41:51
He asks. He doesn't get the plates.
41:54
In fact, he's accused by Laban of being a robber and a thief,
41:59
and he's told that he's going to get killed.
42:02
Which is, by the way, the only thing that Laban is recorded of
42:07
having actually said his own words in the Book of Mormon are
42:11
an absolute blasphemy. To falsely accuse somebody who
42:16
came in this is a very foolish thing for Laban to do.
42:21
To say you're a robber and a thief and I'm going to slay you.
42:27
The grand irony is Layman comes back from that experience and
42:30
says, well, we tried. That failed.
42:32
Let's go back to the tent, clear down there in the wilderness and
42:36
tell Dad that it didn't work. I love Nephi's response to that.
42:43
Look at chapter 3, verse 15. But behold, I said unto them, As
42:48
the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our
42:52
Father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing
42:54
which the Lord has commanded us. Because of his famous statement
42:57
back in verse seven, chapter 3, verse seven, he told his father,
43:02
I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children
43:05
of men save He shall prepare a way for them that they may
43:08
accomplish the thing which he commanded them.
43:10
And he's going to stick to that. He says, yeah, we we failed.
43:15
But we only failed if we give up.
43:18
It's not a failure if we learn from it.
43:21
So then he says, let's go get all of all of Dad's gold, silver
43:25
and precious things. Keep in mind, when they left
43:30
Jerusalem back in chapter two, he he told you a little bit
43:35
about what that cost the family in verse four.
43:38
Chapter 2, verse four says they departed into the wilderness and
43:43
they left their house, land of his inheritance, his gold, his
43:47
silver and his precious things, and took nothing with him save
43:52
it were his family and provisions and tents and depart
43:54
into wilderness. Brothers and sisters, have you
43:57
ever considered the fact that God is going to sometimes ask
44:03
you to let go of earthly possessions like he did with
44:09
Lehigh? Here, let's stop and think about
44:12
this for a minute. How much gold, How much silver,
44:16
How many precious things? How much land did Lehigh leave
44:20
behind in Jerusalem in comparison to what he's going to
44:25
be given in the Promised Land? And for some, our Promised Land
44:33
is heaven. For others the Lord asks you to
44:36
make earthly sacrifices that seem big, seem almost impossible
44:42
to accomplish at the time. But then if we trust Him and
44:46
move forward, then He actually gives us more than we gave up in
44:51
this life. In a physical context.
44:53
It's not always just reserved for blessings in heaven in every
44:56
case. And this is one of those where
44:59
in an earthly context, yes, Lehigh sacrificed a lot, no
45:02
question about that, but nothing compared to what God has in
45:07
store for him. Not just in in heaven, but also
45:10
in in this life as well. So he's very rich and let's go
45:15
get the gold and silver and precious things and bring them
45:18
in and and offer trade for the brass plates.
45:23
Well, you know that that attempt #2 failed yet again.
45:31
In fact, that's where Laban becomes guilty of the very thing
45:36
he had falsely accused Layman of.
45:39
He becomes now a thief and a robber and an attempted
45:44
murderer. He he sends his guards to kill
45:47
these four brothers, so the the possessions fall into the hands
45:51
of Laban. At that point we find ourselves
45:54
in a cave, and Layman and Lemuel are pretty upset.
45:57
Keep in mind, Layman just lost a double portion because he's the
46:01
oldest son, so he would get a double portion of his father's
46:04
goods. And we've now lost all of that.
46:07
All of Dad's riches are now in the hands of Laban.
46:11
I wonder, I wonder if there's a possibility that the Lord wanted
46:16
those riches to be removed from the the realm of possibility so
46:22
that when later on we're traveling out in the wilderness
46:24
and it gets really hard during those eight years that there's
46:28
less draw for them to go back to Jerusalem.
46:32
They're they're already wanting to return Lehman and Lemuel and
46:36
some of the sons of Ishmael. But now with the loss of those
46:40
riches, maybe that draw towards Jerusalem might be just a little
46:44
bit less. Now as they're beating up Nephi
46:49
and Sam with with sticks in that cave, the Angel comes to them
46:54
and stops them and tells them that they are going to go and
47:00
get the plates still. Because at the bottom of verse
47:03
29 he promises them you shall go up to Jerusalem again and the
47:07
Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.
47:11
At which point the Angel departs and laymen and Lemuel are
47:14
scratching their heads saying, how is the Lord going to deliver
47:17
Laban into our hands because Laban can command 50, He's got
47:20
50 men at his at his beck and call.
47:25
How are we going to be able to get him?
47:27
Can you picture what that might have sounded like from a
47:29
heavenly perspective? Where you were up in heaven as
47:32
an Angel, so to speak, in 600 BC?
47:35
How silly that might have sounded.
47:38
Seriously, Laban can command 50. I love Nephi's faithful example
47:46
here in chapter four he goes and with his brothers outside of the
47:51
walls of the city. It's night, it's dark.
47:54
He leaves them there, and then he goes into the city.
47:59
Look at verse six of chapter 4. And I was led by the Spirit not
48:04
knowing beforehand the things which I should do.
48:08
I love this part of the story, brothers and sisters, because
48:12
Nephi still knows what he's supposed to do.
48:15
He he knows partly why he needs to do it, but he still has no
48:20
clue as to what he's going to do in order to get the plates.
48:25
How do I do this? I tried the two logical things.
48:29
None of those worked. Have you noticed that sometimes
48:33
God loves it? When we find ourselves in a
48:37
position where we can no longer rely on the arm of flesh, when
48:42
we can no longer rely on our best thinking and our own
48:45
resources, and where we can't fix a problem by ourself, That's
48:50
exactly where Nephi is right now.
48:52
He's got nothing other than Footsteps of Faith into the Dark
48:59
City that night. Look at verse 7.
49:03
Nevertheless, remember what we said earlier about nevertheless
49:08
putting always the greater emphasis on what comes after it,
49:13
not what came before. What came before.
49:17
Verse six was I was led by the Spirit not knowing what I should
49:21
do. Basically he deemphasizes the
49:24
fact that he doesn't know what to do, and he puts nevertheless
49:29
emphasis on I went forth. I love that.
49:37
I love the fact that he has absolutely nothing to go on
49:41
other than raw faith alone. But he went on that, he went
49:45
forth, and as he came forward, he found Laban, sees his sword,
49:51
and we get this incredibly difficult situation where all of
49:56
a sudden God says Nephi #3. So this didn't work.
50:04
That didn't work. I'm gonna show you how to get
50:07
the plates. See that sword, use it to kill
50:10
Laban. That introduces a whole new
50:15
series of questions. But in this context, Nephi now
50:23
knows what he's supposed to do. He knows how to do it.
50:28
But now this one becomes a major question mark for him.
50:34
Why? Why do I have to do this?
50:39
I've never done anything like this before.
50:42
God is asking this, this young prophet to to do something that
50:49
would be the very hardest possible request you could make
50:53
of him. And it takes multiple verses
50:58
here for the spirit to work with Nephi through this, through this
51:03
difficult process. At which point he's able to go
51:08
and get the plates with the help of Zorn, and they they're able
51:13
to then go down to the tent of their father in the wilderness
51:17
in chapter 5. And you'll notice that when they
51:21
arrive in chapter 5 that Soraya has has been very sad.
51:30
It took them a little bit longer than they should have to get the
51:34
plates and and Soraya has obviously been keeping track of
51:36
the days and she she's struggling while they're while
51:42
they're gone. She had supposed you're in
51:44
chapter 5, verse 2. For she had supposed that we had
51:47
perished in the wilderness, and she also had complained against
51:50
my father, telling him that he was a visionary man, saying,
51:53
behold, thou hast LED us forth from the land of our inheritance
51:56
and my sons are no more and we perish in the wilderness.
52:00
There are some people who look at this and see Soraya as a
52:02
weak, lacking faith character. I think it's fascinating that
52:09
Soraya followed her husband and brought her family out of
52:14
Jerusalem on his testimony alone.
52:19
She's trusting him and it's now taken them a long time to get
52:24
the plates. And I love the fact that in
52:29
verse four he acknowledges the fact that he is a visionary man,
52:34
and he reassures her that in verse five he has obtained a
52:39
land of promise and he bears witness.
52:42
I know that the Lord will deliver my sons out of the hands
52:44
of Laban. Now you'll notice what happens
52:47
when they come home. Verse 7, when we had returned to
52:51
the tent of my father, behold, their joy was full and my mother
52:54
was comforted. You'll notice she wasn't
52:58
complaining about her own lack of comfort and ease.
53:02
She was struggling because she was concerned about the safety
53:06
and the well-being the the the life of her four sons.
53:11
Look at verse 8. And she spake, saying, Now I
53:15
know of a surety that the Lord had hath commanded my husband to
53:20
flee into the wilderness. And I also know of a surety that
53:23
the Lord has protected my sons and delivered them out of the
53:25
hands of Laban and given them power whereby they could
53:27
accomplish the thing which the Lord had commanded them.
53:31
And after this manner of language did she speak.
53:34
Let's not focus on a moment where Soraya is struggling as a
53:41
mother because of the the concern that she has for the
53:44
welfare of her sons. I love verse 8 because she says
53:48
now I know of a surety these things.
53:52
Did you notice what just happened?
53:54
Lehigh received his witness early, Soraya receives her
54:00
witness later. Their scripture stories were
54:03
sometimes it's the wife who receives the first witness and
54:06
later on the husband figures some things out and it it can go
54:11
together early and late. But I love the fact that now you
54:16
have a man and a woman standing at the head of this family who
54:20
are embarking on this eight-year journey into the wilderness.
54:24
And then they're going to get on a boat and then they're going to
54:26
come to the new world. But you have a husband and a
54:30
wife who now stand together having received an independent
54:36
witness in different ways from God that they are on the Lord's
54:40
errand. There's something powerful about
54:43
that about a husband and a wife having a witness from the Lord
54:49
to move their family forward into whatever your wilderness
54:52
looks like, and to seek the Lord's will for progressing
54:58
towards your promised land. One of the awesome names in the
55:02
Book of Mormon, I believe, is Soraya.
55:06
My proposal and I may be incorrect, but it's my
55:09
suggestion that Soraya's name may be a representation of
55:15
Nephi's powerful testimony in first Nephi 37 where he says I
55:19
will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded.
55:24
Now if you look at where Soraya is quoted in first Nephi chapter
55:31
5, verse 8, she's only quoted twice, and in the second time
55:36
she's quoted directly. She says in three different ways
55:40
that she knows that the Lord gives commandments and that God
55:44
has the power to prevail to deliver.
55:48
Now it's very interesting. Soraya's name in Hebrew comes
55:52
from the word Jehovah. This is the shortened form of
55:55
the word Jehovah in Hebrew. And the word SAR means something
55:59
like a commander. So you can actually hear that in
56:01
Nephi's testimony and Soraya's testimony about the power of
56:05
Jehovah to command. Now what's also interesting is
56:09
the word tsar from Soraya shows up in the word Israel, Israel,
56:14
which means God will prevail. So as we think about this, as we
56:20
are all part of the House of Israel, we're all part of the
56:23
House of the God who will prevail on our behalf.
56:27
He will command us, and by so doing, if we follow those
56:29
commands, he will deliver us. The tender mercies of God are
56:34
over all those whom He has chosen because of their faith to
56:37
follow His commands to make them mighty, even under the power of
56:40
deliverance. That's what a commander does.
56:42
So I think it's fascinating that Soraya, that the meaning of her
56:47
name may be one of the most significant messages that Nephi
56:51
could ever express. I will go and do the things
56:55
which Jehovah commands me. There's one part of this story
56:59
that Nephi doesn't tell us about.
57:02
That had to have happened to 1° or another when they came home
57:06
or came back to the tent with the plates.
57:10
At some point there had to be a conversation where Nephi talked
57:17
to either Lehi or Lehi and Soraya together to say I need to
57:21
tell you what I had to go through to get those plates.
57:25
At which point I think it becomes very clear to both
57:28
Lehigh and Soraya what God is doing with this family.
57:32
How? How much He is stretching them
57:36
and reaching and pulling those heartstrings and and causing
57:40
them to to trust in and rely on the Lord like never before.
57:49
The next major story that occurs is when he gets the revelation
57:56
to send the boys back to Jerusalem yet again.
57:59
It's this long journey to this time.
58:02
Get the family of Ishmael and his daughters and bring them
58:06
down so they can have wives. And you'll notice not a lot of
58:09
complaining from Lehman and Lemiel in that chapter.
58:13
And thus we have this group assembled, including Zoram.
58:17
We have the brass plates and now we can embark on moving forward
58:22
into the wilderness on on our journey toward the promised
58:26
land. In closing today brothers and
58:29
sisters, we have everything we need from the Lord.
58:32
We have scriptures, we have living prophets, we have loved
58:36
ones around us and and local leaders in the church and
58:40
ministers to help us as we move forward.
58:45
And keep in mind, God loves you and your progression and and
58:51
your potential of who you're becoming much more than He loves
58:55
your ease and comforts of life today.
59:00
And so if you're experiencing many afflictions in the course
59:03
of your days, you're in good company.
59:07
Our invitation would be to turn that into a nevertheless moment
59:09
like me if I did back at the beginning of chapter One, and
59:14
see the goodness of God, and see His hand guiding you through
59:19
your wilderness affliction to become more like him.
59:26
And we leave that with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ,
59:29
Amen.