The Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi 16

Today, we take a look at 1 Nephi 16.

Lots of things happen in this chapter so, to start off with, I’ll give you a little list summary of events.

1. Nephi finishes his discussion with his brothers and they humble themselves.
2. Zoram, Nephi and his brothers marry the daughters of Ishmael.
3. Lehi discovers a brass ball (liahona) outside his tent
4. The company packs up and leaves, heading generally south-southeast.
5. Four days later, they stop at Shazer to stock up on wild game.
6. Several days later, they stop again to rest and restock their supplies.
7. Nephi’s fine steel bow breaks.  Nephi’s brothers are angry with him.  They are unable to get food.
8. Nearly everyone begins murmuring against the Lord because of hunger.
9. The brothers’ bows lose their spring.  Things get extremely difficult.
10. The brothers harden their hearts.  Nephi speaks to them.
11. Nephi makes a bow and arrow.  He takes these and a sling and stones and asks his father for directions to find food.
12. Lehi is chastened by the Lord.  He consults the liahona for Nephi.
13. Nephi is able to obtain food.
14. The company travels further.  They stop at Nahom for a rest.
15. Ishmael dies and is buried.  His daughters mourn and murmur against Lehi for taking them away from Jerusalem.  They blame him for their suffering.
16. Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael plot to slay Lehi and Nephi
17. The Lord chastens them and they repent.
18. The company is again blessed with food.

Okay, that’s the basic plot, right there.  Now, I want to dig a little deeper and find some of those hidden treasures. 

First off, Nephi’s comments to his brothers are worth looking at.  After he finished explaining things to them, they complained that he was being hard on them, maybe too hard.  Nephi replies that he knows he’s said things that the wicked might take to be hard.  The righteous, however, would feel justified.  Nephi tells them he’s done nothing more than speak the truth and “the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center. (v1)”  I realize that I’ve been guilty of this a time or two.  Have you ever noticed how hard it is for most people to have someone tell them they are making a mistake.  Nobody I know of likes to hear that, “for it cutteth them to the very center.”  In short, we know that our accuser is right, but we don’t think they should be the one to tell us.  If they don’t, though, and we’re not listening to the Holy Ghost, who is going to tell us?  Nephi adds that, if the brothers were righteous and walked uprightly before the Lord (this phrase makes me think that the opposite might be akin to someone in a trench coat skulking along guiltily in the shadows) their behavior would be different.  Then Nephi encouraged them to keep the commandments of the Lord.  After that, they humbled themselves and Nephi started to feel like they were maybe going to be righteous from here on out.

The other part of this chapter has a great deal to do with how to handle personal affliction.  The Lord has promised us He would test our faith.  Affliction is how He does so.  You can almost compare the behavior of Nephi with those of the rest of his family.  After Nephi breaks his bow, the brothers are angry with him because the bow was made of fine steel and they bring back no food.  There’s a lot of murmuring and pointing blame and lots of sorry faces. Nephi, however, doesn’t waste his energy in feeling sorry for himself and his circumstances.  He exhorts his family to righteousness, then makes a new bow and an arrow and turns to the family patriarch for directions on where to find food.  The result is that he is able to obtain food for the hungry family.  I can’t help but wonder if the death of Ishmael might have been seen differently by his grieving family if they had possessed a greater level of faith.

Lastly, I note the comment from Nephi about the liahona, or brass ball.  According to Nephi it acted as their compass.  There were two spindles within the ball, one of which indicated their direction.  Sometimes, words would be written on the pointers and changed based on the level of faith that existed in the growing family and the diligence they paid to the directions they were given.  We’ve been told that the Holy Ghost is similar to, if not the same as, the liahona, in that our faith is what allows us to receive his directions, as well as our diligence in following them.