This post is part of a project where I read The Book of Mormon with a focus on various themes. You can read more about the idea for this project by clicking here. If you'd like to see all the posts in this series, click here.
My Book of Mormon reading expedition starts with the first five chapters of 1 Nephi. Here's a quick synopsis of what happens:
We're introduced to a man named Nephi, who begins telling a family story. The story focuses heavily on his father, Lehi, who is told in a vision from God that he needs to preach repentance to his city. His fellow citizens don't take kindly to this and want to kill him, so he is again directed by God, this time to leave Jerusalem and go into the wilderness with his family. The family consists of Lehi, his wife Sariah, and four sons -- Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. In the wilderness, Laman and Lemuel are disrespectful of Lehi's teachings and spiritual abilities. Nephi is more receptive and eventually prays about what his father has told him; he is answered with a vision of his own. Shortly thereafter, Lehi tells his sons to go back to Jerusalem to retrieve some family records (called the brass plates) from a relative called Laban. The brothers go but are turned away at first. They return to Laban and try to trade some of their gold and silver for the plates, but Laban takes their riches and chases the brothers away with threats. Laman and Lemuel blame Nephi and begin beating him. An angel appears and tells them to stop. Nephi makes one more attempt to get the plates on his own, finds Laban collapsed and unconscious on the street, and is told by some spiritual force to kill Laban in order to get the plates. Nephi follows this prompting and then puts on Laban's clothes, convinces one of Laban's servants that he's actually Laban, and finally gets the brass plates. Nephi (still masquerading as Laban) returns with the servant (named Zoram) to where his brothers are waiting and, once he's revealed his true identity, convinces Zoram to travel back into the wilderness with them. The group returns to Lehi and Sariah.
These chapters offered a lot of material, and while I think I'll narrow down my thoughts in future posts, the richness for this first go-round was impressive enough that I wanted to share as much as possible.
These chapters offered a lot of material, and while I think I'll narrow down my thoughts in future posts, the richness for this first go-round was impressive enough that I wanted to share as much as possible.
PART 1: Themed Reading
Once I finished an initial read, I selected a theme at random -- Connection. This instantly inspired some questions:
Once I finished an initial read, I selected a theme at random -- Connection. This instantly inspired some questions:
1. There are a number of complex relationships (or connections) at play in these chapters. Among the brothers, Laman and Lemuel seem to be two peas in a pod, and there are indications that Nephi and Sam share a special bond as well. Nephi seems to be intent on forging or deepening a connection with his father, Lehi; perhaps this desire of his is what motivates him to seek a personal connection with God, which will allow him to have something extra in common with his dad. Then there are the relationships that aren't examined or highlighted as strongly, which left me curious as a reader as to what sort of connections these individuals shared. What sort of connection exists between Lehi and Sariah? Between Sariah and each of her sons? Did Lehi and Laban, who were apparently cousins (close or distant, the text doesn't say), share any history or contact? Did Zoram feel an intuitive connection with Nephi and the other brothers, or was his decision to journey with them made under duress? Did Nephi feel any strange, haunting connection with Laban through the experience of, frankly, murdering him? Did that traumatic event strain his connections with other members of his family? Lehi's attitudes towards Laman, Lemuel, and Nephi are quite apparent, but what about his connection to Sam, the perennially overlooked child?
2. What about connections to place? The family starts out in Jerusalem, where I assume they've lived for generations. They eventually travel into the wilderness, some more reluctantly than others. What connection does each family member feel with both of these locations? Does Sariah long for Jerusalem? Does Sam feel at home in the wilderness? Lehi names a river and a valley after his two eldest sons, Laman and Lemuel -- was this an attempt to make them feel a greater connection to this place they never wanted to be in?
3. Lehi is portrayed as a prophet, a visionary man, and a father, but I'm wondering now if this final role presents his biggest challenge. This family is said to have existed around 600 BC, so the family dynamics that would have existed at this time and in this culture are sure to be radically different from what we typically see today, and yet I can't help but notice that one of the dominant measures of a father's success now is really lacking for Lehi -- specifically, his ability to connect with his children. Does he know them very well? Do they feel understood by him? Admittedly, this is a complex, layered story told in a limited word count, so not every detail will be spelled out; perhaps the sons' relationships with their dad are more connected than comes through.
4. Unless I missed something obvious, the ages of Nephi, Lehi, and the rest aren't explicitly mentioned. We can make guesses based on contextual evidence (it sounds like all the sons were unmarried, which might give us some clues), but even assuming those guesses are correct, we still have unanswered questions about each person's developmental stage and what their respective ages would have meant in their culture (like how the expectations for a 16-year-old now are very different than they were for a sixteen-year-old in the late 1700s). That said, I'm curious about Laman and Lemuel. When their family left Jerusalem for an unknown future in the wilderness, L&L took it the hardest. I wonder if the reason for that really comes down to connection -- specifically, the loss of being able to connect with people outside their family. If they were at an age or stage of development when they most needed to differentiate from their parents, being yanked out of their relationships with the larger culture would have been incredibly harsh and difficult to get over.
5. Finally, I thought about what these chapters had to say about being connected to the past. This concept comes through on a few different levels -- Lehi's connection to the past is what causes him to tell his sons to go retrieve the family records, Nephi's connection to the past is what causes him to write this account, and the reader, too, is asked to connect with a mysterious past in which this is all taking place. Like any work that draws on history or personal memoir, the Book of Mormon relies on the audience's interest in the past -- and the potential connections between past, present, and future -- to have any sort of impact.
The theme of Connection guided me through a second reading, and here's what I noticed:
- Lehi prays in behalf of his people ("Wherefore, it came to pass, that my father Lehi, as he went forth, prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people"). This suggests a connection with his greater community, which may come from their shared history, shared land, shared destiny, or a hard-won love developed over a lifetime.
- As Lehi is praying, he says, "... great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth; and because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish!" Lehi believes that God won't allow those who come unto him (or connect with him) to perish. I'm curious what exactly he means by perish; it probably doesn't mean die exactly, since everyone dies and I can't imagine Lehi thinking that being connected with God will amount to physical immortality. Maybe perish means something more like die violently? Be destroyed entirely? Or maybe it refers to someone's descendants dying out; there's a theme through these chapters of how important posterity is and how the future destinies of one's children, grandchildren, and so on are always important to keep in mind.
- There are a couple of times when Nephi brings up connections between the people in this family tale and important historical/religious figures. I noticed it first when he said (referring to his father), "And when the Jews heard these things, they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out and stoned and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away." The connection here is meant to show that Lehi is an inheritor of that prophetic role, even to the point that people want to kill him the way they wanted to kill previous prophets. A similar thing happens when he's asking his brothers to go back to Jerusalem after Laban has chased them away. Nephi tells them, "Therefore, let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea, and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow, and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea."
- Nephi blames Laman and Lemuel's murmuring on their lack of connection to God ("And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.") and points out that they're connected instead to the people who wanted to kill their dad ("And they were like unto the Jews, who were at Jerusalem, who sought to take away the life of my father.").
- Shortly after arriving in the valley of Lemuel, Nephi feels compelled to "know the mysteries of God." He prays and has this experience: "... I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers. And I spake unto Sam, making known unto him the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit." A few things stand out to me here. First of all, this spiritual experience affords Nephi the chance to connect with his father; he now believes what Lehi has been saying, and we see later that this causes him to become Lehi's right hand man, essentially. Second, Nephi specifically sets himself up in comparison to his brothers in this passage ("wherefore I did not rebel against [Lehi] like unto my brothers"), which sends a clear message about how connected he feels to them and also how connected he thinks they are with Lehi. Third, it appears Nephi approached Sam very shortly after his vision to share what he'd learned. Sam is obscured and hidden over and over again in these chapters, and I wonder here if Nephi feels an actual connection to Sam or if he goes to him just because he happens to be around.
- Chapter 3 contains a discrepancy I'd never noticed, and I think it might tell us something unflattering about Nephi or about the Lord. The brothers have retreated after their second attempt at getting the plates has failed, and Laman and Lemuel are upset. "Wherefore, Laman and Lemuel did speak many hard words unto us, their younger brothers, and they did smite us even with a rod." At that point, Nephi reports that "an angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them saying, why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities?" What I noticed here is that, even though L&L are taking their anger out on both Sam and Nephi, the angel only reprimands them for how they're treating Nephi. This could be interpreted as a failing of Nephi's memory or his attention to detail; if he was most concerned about his own safety, he may have written down the angel's words in a way that defended and praised him and forgotten to mention Sam. Another interpretation is that the angel actually didn't speak up for Sam. Could this be due to the fact that Sam wasn't as valiant or destined for the same greatness Nephi was ("the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you")? If so, that doesn't speak too highly of the angel's/the Lord's connection with or concern for Sam.
- Nephi's encounter with a drunken Laban is full of nuance and questions for me, and I had several thoughts pop up related to the theme of connection. The first had to do with Nephi's connection to his own moral compass, which wavers in this moment. "And it came to pass that I was constrained by the spirit that I should kill Laban: but I said in my heart, never at any time have I shed the blood of man, and I shrunk and would that I might not slay him. And the spirit said unto me again, behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands; yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property." What an intense inner struggle! He's battling with his sense of right and wrong here, feeling suddenly unsure of what had once seemed so obvious -- that he shouldn't kill. The internal debate continues: "And it came to pass that the spirit said unto me again, slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish, than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." When I read this, I had to wonder all over again at the connection the Lord had to this confusing situation. If "the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes," why didn't the Lord do the slaying? Presumably, a force that is so powerful and all-knowing would have had the ability to end Laban's life without Nephi's involvement. It certainly would have been less traumatizing for Nephi, who, after all, is still a very young person and is all alone in this decision. But maybe there's something valuable in expecting Nephi to do such a difficult thing; when we make great sacrifices for a particular cause, we can feel more committed to that cause. Understand, though, that this is murder. Laban was defenseless, even unconscious, and Nephi cut his head off with a sword. They were the only people around. Would this experience have forged a strange bond between the two men? After killing him, putting on his bloody clothes, impersonating him, and taking his place in so many ways (ordering Zoram around, taking possession of the brass plates), would Nephi have felt weirdly connected to Laban for the rest of his life? Did he have nightmares, flashbacks?
- Zoram is an interesting figure in these chapters. He's one of Laban's servants, and when Laban steals the brothers' treasures instead of trading for them, the text says, "...he thrust us out, and sent his servants to slay us, that he might obtain our property." Was Zoram included in this group? What was his relationship like with Laban? When Nephi is asking Zoram to leave Jerusalem and join the family in the wilderness, he promises that Zoram "should be a free man, like unto us, if he would go down in the wilderness with us." Does this mean Zoram's servitude was more like enslavement, making him unfree? I also wonder what sort of connection or impression Zoram had when it came to Nephi and his brothers. Nephi presents the scene as though he was inviting Zoram along, but was it really a choice he was free to make safely? Was his option to continue journeying with them or to be killed so he wouldn't return to Jerusalem and divulge what had happened? If such a threat wasn't expressed or even intended, Nephi had still just killed Laban, and Zoram knew that; perhaps he made the choice to travel with them because he thought it was his only chance at survival. Then again, perhaps there was something in him that yearned for the sort of freedom or the nomadic life these strangers were offering. Maybe it was a free choice. Either way, it stands out to me that after Zoram agrees to Nephi's proposal, Nephi later says this: "And it came to pass that we took the plates of brass, and the servant of Laban, and departed into the wilderness, and journeyed unto the tent of our father." Though Zoram was promised his freedom, it's obvious that Nephi still connects with him as though he's an inferior; he could use his name, which has already been established, but he instead refers to him as something belonging to Laban. He even objectifies him, saying that they took him along the same way they took the brass plates.
- In the final verses of Chapter 5, Nephi reports, "And it came to pass that thus far I and my father had kept the commandments wherewith the Lord had commanded us. And we had obtained the record the record which the Lord had commanded us ... insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children. Wherefore, it was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us, as we journeyed in the wilderness towards the land of promise." My most important conclusion from reading this chapters through the theme of Connection is this: Nephi desperately wanted to forge a connection with his father, Lehi. There are clues all over the place that this desire is motivating his choices, and as we conclude here, it seems that he feels this connection is strong. He and Lehi are we, are us. They are united in their devotion to God, their righteousness, and their goals.
- Various other questions to ponder: How does Nephi's hindsight influence his portrayal of Laman and Lemuel in these chapters? Which connections in these chapters are ones of equals, and which are ones of hierarchy? What is the angel's connection to time? The reader automatically feels a connection to Nephi because he's the narrator, but how would the story be different if it were told through Lehi's eyes, through Sam's eyes, through Sariah's eyes, through Laban's eyes, through Zoram's eyes, etc? Who would you feel most connected to as a narrator?
PART 2: Lectio Divina
For this part of the reading, I randomly selected a very short passage (literally by closing my eyes, flipping to a page, and pointing my finger at a random spot). I ended up choosing 1 Nephi 3:4, which reads as follows: "Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness."
What is literally happening in the story here?
Lehi is speaking to Nephi, telling him to go back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. This happens just after Nephi has had a personal spiritual experience that impresses upon him the importance of following God's commandments.
What metaphoric or symbolic meanings are contained in this excerpt?
There's something here about the role of parents and children, since Lehi is the one apparently receiving revelation for what his sons should do (rather than revelation to him about what he should do, or revelation to the sons about what they should do). Is this saying something about Lehi's place as a father, or does it relate more to his job as a prophet?
I'm also intrigued by the symbolic potential behind taking records from Jerusalem (a place that's settled, established, populated, historically and economically prominent) into the wilderness (a place that's wild, mysterious, open). Maybe the plates stand as a symbol for Lehi and Sariah's family, who are making a similar transition from the familiar to the unknown. There might also be some symbolism for how spiritual journeys sometimes develop, starting out in a place with many other people and comfortable homes and a well-trod network of streets, then moving into a less certain domain.
The issue of timing also stands out to me. Nephi's experience with the Lord, which immediately preceded this conversation with his father, primes him to be receptive. That said, is it possible that Nephi made an error in assuming someone else's directions were actually commandments of God? What if his experience with the Lord had prompted him to tell Lehi that he needed direct confirmation that this instruction was divine? Perhaps the timing alone convinced him that this was the case.
What does this excerpt remind me of in my own life?
I'm still thinking of that issue of timing, how a turn of events can be incredibly meaningful when it coincides with other events in your life. When I was 22, I was going through a really hard time. I was just married, and because of a painful medical condition, my sex life and self-image were suffering. My thoughts at that time turned often to a play I had been in a few years before, The Vagina Monologues. Though I have a different perspective on TVM now, back then, it was deeply meaningful and empowering for me. My memories of the play were helpful as I tried to sort through my feelings of inadequacy.
In a strange coincidence, a close friend of mine went to see a production of The Vagina Monologues at about that time. He knew I'd been in the play previously and that it had been a positive experience for me, so he decided to give it a fair chance. After seeing it, though, he texted me and told me how disgusting and awful he had found it. His texts included a phrase I remember even now: "To save myself from the darkest corner of hell, I would never see that show again."
Now, if he'd shared his negative response to the play with me a few years later or even today, it probably wouldn't bother me much, if at all. But at that exact moment in my life, it shocked and angered me. How dare he insult something so precious, so life-affirming to me? The timing of this conversation drastically changed our relationship. In fact, I called him later that day and ended our friendship completely (the only time in my life I've ever done something like that). We haven't spoken in almost eight years and probably never will again. He's not an awful person or anything, but looking back, I can see ways that our friendship was toxic in my life, and I feel like this situation prompted me to make a necessary decision that was completely uncharacteristic for me. The timing was everything.
What does this passage call upon the reader to do in the future?
Again, I'm fixated on timing. I feel impressed that I should pay special attention to the timing of difficult or thought-provoking things in my life and ponder on how they might relate to other situations that are happening. Maybe holding events in close proximity will teach me valuable lessons and help me make unexpected choices.
PART 3: Blessing
I want to bless Zoram for his resolute choice in a confusing moment. We have no idea what Zoram's life was like prior to this encounter with Nephi. Was he young, old? Was he Laban's servant because he was an orphan, because his family was poor, because he was being punished for a crime, because he was born to servants? Who was he leaving behind back in Jerusalem? I can't know if he felt excited by this sudden chance at a new life or if he only went along with it out of fear, but in any case, I honor him for making his choice and forging ahead. His options were likely limited at many points in his life, and I bless him in his daring to try something different despite its risk and unfamiliarity.
Thanks for reading along. The next post in this series will focus on the theme of Sincerity in 1 Nephi 6-9.
- There are a couple of times when Nephi brings up connections between the people in this family tale and important historical/religious figures. I noticed it first when he said (referring to his father), "And when the Jews heard these things, they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out and stoned and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away." The connection here is meant to show that Lehi is an inheritor of that prophetic role, even to the point that people want to kill him the way they wanted to kill previous prophets. A similar thing happens when he's asking his brothers to go back to Jerusalem after Laban has chased them away. Nephi tells them, "Therefore, let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea, and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow, and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea."
- Nephi blames Laman and Lemuel's murmuring on their lack of connection to God ("And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.") and points out that they're connected instead to the people who wanted to kill their dad ("And they were like unto the Jews, who were at Jerusalem, who sought to take away the life of my father.").
- Shortly after arriving in the valley of Lemuel, Nephi feels compelled to "know the mysteries of God." He prays and has this experience: "... I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers. And I spake unto Sam, making known unto him the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit." A few things stand out to me here. First of all, this spiritual experience affords Nephi the chance to connect with his father; he now believes what Lehi has been saying, and we see later that this causes him to become Lehi's right hand man, essentially. Second, Nephi specifically sets himself up in comparison to his brothers in this passage ("wherefore I did not rebel against [Lehi] like unto my brothers"), which sends a clear message about how connected he feels to them and also how connected he thinks they are with Lehi. Third, it appears Nephi approached Sam very shortly after his vision to share what he'd learned. Sam is obscured and hidden over and over again in these chapters, and I wonder here if Nephi feels an actual connection to Sam or if he goes to him just because he happens to be around.
- Chapter 3 contains a discrepancy I'd never noticed, and I think it might tell us something unflattering about Nephi or about the Lord. The brothers have retreated after their second attempt at getting the plates has failed, and Laman and Lemuel are upset. "Wherefore, Laman and Lemuel did speak many hard words unto us, their younger brothers, and they did smite us even with a rod." At that point, Nephi reports that "an angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them saying, why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities?" What I noticed here is that, even though L&L are taking their anger out on both Sam and Nephi, the angel only reprimands them for how they're treating Nephi. This could be interpreted as a failing of Nephi's memory or his attention to detail; if he was most concerned about his own safety, he may have written down the angel's words in a way that defended and praised him and forgotten to mention Sam. Another interpretation is that the angel actually didn't speak up for Sam. Could this be due to the fact that Sam wasn't as valiant or destined for the same greatness Nephi was ("the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you")? If so, that doesn't speak too highly of the angel's/the Lord's connection with or concern for Sam.
- Nephi's encounter with a drunken Laban is full of nuance and questions for me, and I had several thoughts pop up related to the theme of connection. The first had to do with Nephi's connection to his own moral compass, which wavers in this moment. "And it came to pass that I was constrained by the spirit that I should kill Laban: but I said in my heart, never at any time have I shed the blood of man, and I shrunk and would that I might not slay him. And the spirit said unto me again, behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands; yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property." What an intense inner struggle! He's battling with his sense of right and wrong here, feeling suddenly unsure of what had once seemed so obvious -- that he shouldn't kill. The internal debate continues: "And it came to pass that the spirit said unto me again, slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish, than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." When I read this, I had to wonder all over again at the connection the Lord had to this confusing situation. If "the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes," why didn't the Lord do the slaying? Presumably, a force that is so powerful and all-knowing would have had the ability to end Laban's life without Nephi's involvement. It certainly would have been less traumatizing for Nephi, who, after all, is still a very young person and is all alone in this decision. But maybe there's something valuable in expecting Nephi to do such a difficult thing; when we make great sacrifices for a particular cause, we can feel more committed to that cause. Understand, though, that this is murder. Laban was defenseless, even unconscious, and Nephi cut his head off with a sword. They were the only people around. Would this experience have forged a strange bond between the two men? After killing him, putting on his bloody clothes, impersonating him, and taking his place in so many ways (ordering Zoram around, taking possession of the brass plates), would Nephi have felt weirdly connected to Laban for the rest of his life? Did he have nightmares, flashbacks?
- Zoram is an interesting figure in these chapters. He's one of Laban's servants, and when Laban steals the brothers' treasures instead of trading for them, the text says, "...he thrust us out, and sent his servants to slay us, that he might obtain our property." Was Zoram included in this group? What was his relationship like with Laban? When Nephi is asking Zoram to leave Jerusalem and join the family in the wilderness, he promises that Zoram "should be a free man, like unto us, if he would go down in the wilderness with us." Does this mean Zoram's servitude was more like enslavement, making him unfree? I also wonder what sort of connection or impression Zoram had when it came to Nephi and his brothers. Nephi presents the scene as though he was inviting Zoram along, but was it really a choice he was free to make safely? Was his option to continue journeying with them or to be killed so he wouldn't return to Jerusalem and divulge what had happened? If such a threat wasn't expressed or even intended, Nephi had still just killed Laban, and Zoram knew that; perhaps he made the choice to travel with them because he thought it was his only chance at survival. Then again, perhaps there was something in him that yearned for the sort of freedom or the nomadic life these strangers were offering. Maybe it was a free choice. Either way, it stands out to me that after Zoram agrees to Nephi's proposal, Nephi later says this: "And it came to pass that we took the plates of brass, and the servant of Laban, and departed into the wilderness, and journeyed unto the tent of our father." Though Zoram was promised his freedom, it's obvious that Nephi still connects with him as though he's an inferior; he could use his name, which has already been established, but he instead refers to him as something belonging to Laban. He even objectifies him, saying that they took him along the same way they took the brass plates.
- In the final verses of Chapter 5, Nephi reports, "And it came to pass that thus far I and my father had kept the commandments wherewith the Lord had commanded us. And we had obtained the record the record which the Lord had commanded us ... insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children. Wherefore, it was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us, as we journeyed in the wilderness towards the land of promise." My most important conclusion from reading this chapters through the theme of Connection is this: Nephi desperately wanted to forge a connection with his father, Lehi. There are clues all over the place that this desire is motivating his choices, and as we conclude here, it seems that he feels this connection is strong. He and Lehi are we, are us. They are united in their devotion to God, their righteousness, and their goals.
- Various other questions to ponder: How does Nephi's hindsight influence his portrayal of Laman and Lemuel in these chapters? Which connections in these chapters are ones of equals, and which are ones of hierarchy? What is the angel's connection to time? The reader automatically feels a connection to Nephi because he's the narrator, but how would the story be different if it were told through Lehi's eyes, through Sam's eyes, through Sariah's eyes, through Laban's eyes, through Zoram's eyes, etc? Who would you feel most connected to as a narrator?
PART 2: Lectio Divina
For this part of the reading, I randomly selected a very short passage (literally by closing my eyes, flipping to a page, and pointing my finger at a random spot). I ended up choosing 1 Nephi 3:4, which reads as follows: "Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness."
What is literally happening in the story here?
Lehi is speaking to Nephi, telling him to go back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. This happens just after Nephi has had a personal spiritual experience that impresses upon him the importance of following God's commandments.
What metaphoric or symbolic meanings are contained in this excerpt?
There's something here about the role of parents and children, since Lehi is the one apparently receiving revelation for what his sons should do (rather than revelation to him about what he should do, or revelation to the sons about what they should do). Is this saying something about Lehi's place as a father, or does it relate more to his job as a prophet?
I'm also intrigued by the symbolic potential behind taking records from Jerusalem (a place that's settled, established, populated, historically and economically prominent) into the wilderness (a place that's wild, mysterious, open). Maybe the plates stand as a symbol for Lehi and Sariah's family, who are making a similar transition from the familiar to the unknown. There might also be some symbolism for how spiritual journeys sometimes develop, starting out in a place with many other people and comfortable homes and a well-trod network of streets, then moving into a less certain domain.
The issue of timing also stands out to me. Nephi's experience with the Lord, which immediately preceded this conversation with his father, primes him to be receptive. That said, is it possible that Nephi made an error in assuming someone else's directions were actually commandments of God? What if his experience with the Lord had prompted him to tell Lehi that he needed direct confirmation that this instruction was divine? Perhaps the timing alone convinced him that this was the case.
What does this excerpt remind me of in my own life?
I'm still thinking of that issue of timing, how a turn of events can be incredibly meaningful when it coincides with other events in your life. When I was 22, I was going through a really hard time. I was just married, and because of a painful medical condition, my sex life and self-image were suffering. My thoughts at that time turned often to a play I had been in a few years before, The Vagina Monologues. Though I have a different perspective on TVM now, back then, it was deeply meaningful and empowering for me. My memories of the play were helpful as I tried to sort through my feelings of inadequacy.
In a strange coincidence, a close friend of mine went to see a production of The Vagina Monologues at about that time. He knew I'd been in the play previously and that it had been a positive experience for me, so he decided to give it a fair chance. After seeing it, though, he texted me and told me how disgusting and awful he had found it. His texts included a phrase I remember even now: "To save myself from the darkest corner of hell, I would never see that show again."
Now, if he'd shared his negative response to the play with me a few years later or even today, it probably wouldn't bother me much, if at all. But at that exact moment in my life, it shocked and angered me. How dare he insult something so precious, so life-affirming to me? The timing of this conversation drastically changed our relationship. In fact, I called him later that day and ended our friendship completely (the only time in my life I've ever done something like that). We haven't spoken in almost eight years and probably never will again. He's not an awful person or anything, but looking back, I can see ways that our friendship was toxic in my life, and I feel like this situation prompted me to make a necessary decision that was completely uncharacteristic for me. The timing was everything.
What does this passage call upon the reader to do in the future?
Again, I'm fixated on timing. I feel impressed that I should pay special attention to the timing of difficult or thought-provoking things in my life and ponder on how they might relate to other situations that are happening. Maybe holding events in close proximity will teach me valuable lessons and help me make unexpected choices.
PART 3: Blessing
I want to bless Zoram for his resolute choice in a confusing moment. We have no idea what Zoram's life was like prior to this encounter with Nephi. Was he young, old? Was he Laban's servant because he was an orphan, because his family was poor, because he was being punished for a crime, because he was born to servants? Who was he leaving behind back in Jerusalem? I can't know if he felt excited by this sudden chance at a new life or if he only went along with it out of fear, but in any case, I honor him for making his choice and forging ahead. His options were likely limited at many points in his life, and I bless him in his daring to try something different despite its risk and unfamiliarity.
Thanks for reading along. The next post in this series will focus on the theme of Sincerity in 1 Nephi 6-9.
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