Friday, February 15, 2013

The Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi 18

Today, we continue in our study of the Book of Mormon with 1 Nephi 18.

So, following the confrontation between Nephi and his eldest brothers, Laman and Lemuel worship the Lord and help with the building of the ship.  Nephi adds, at this point, that the ship they are building didn’t look like anything people had built up to that time.  The timbers weren’t worked the same way, nor was the ship built the same way.  So, we don’t really know what it looked like with the exception of the fact that it had at least two decks, and at least one mast.  It also had to be fairly watertight, since it needed to be able to withstand a transoceanic journey and bring the growing nation to the shores of the American continents.  Whatever the boat looked like, however, the point is that the architect of the ship was the Lord.  Nephi also states that he visited the mountain often to obtain further instructions and was shown “great things (v3).”  When, at last, the ship was complete, the eldest brothers noticed how good it was and the quality of the craftsmanship Nephi had put into it and they humbled themselves further before the Lord. 

So, at that point, Lehi is commanded to bring his family into the ship.  It’s worthwhile to point out that Nephi tells of the kinds of provisions they brought into the ship with them, plenty of fruit, meat from the wilderness and lots of honey, the seeds they’d carried with them all this time and all other provisions as commanded by the Lord.  As a side note, Nephi adds that the Lehi family has added two more sons: Jacob and Joseph.  I imagine that these names were chosen by Lehi and Sariah in order to always carry with them a link to their past.  Jacob, after all, is the other name of Israel and Joseph was the name of the tribe from which Nephi claims the little family descended.

So, they begin the trip across Irreantum to the promised land and, after a while, the brothers, along with the sons of Ishmael, appeared to forget how they came to be out in the middle of the ocean in a ship built by someone who, up to that time, probably hadn’t built so much as a bird house.  So, they begin to party.  Here, Nephi uses a word, “merry,” that we generally use to mean happy.  In this case, however, it is used to denote drunkenness.  Nephi also says that they spoke with much rudeness.  We generally use the word rude to mean insulting or offensive.  However, our friend Merriam-Webster has a number of synonyms that give the definition of the word a clearer meaning:  crude, raw, undeveloped, simple, unlearned, uncouth, discourteous, savage and vulgar, just to name a few.  In other words, they weren’t just being insulting, they were cursing and swearing. 

Nephi, realizing that, for crying out loud, the family is on a boat out in the middle of an ocean and directed by the hand of the Lord, became really scared that this behavior was going to attract the Lord’s wrath against them and maybe end up sinking the boat.  He started talking to them again, as before.  The brothers, however, chose to take offense and tied Nephi up.  Every picture I’ve ever seen of this shows Nephi bound to the mast of the ship.  However, this isn’t what we are told.  Rather, we are told that he was bound and treated harshly.  I’m willing to bet, however, that they probably kept him above decks with them, rather than letting him be below decks with his family and take a risk on having them untie him.  Shortly after that, though, the Liahona ceased to work so that the brothers didn’t know which direction to steer the ship.  Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, a big storm popped up out of nowhere and, for three days, drove the ship back.  The brothers, Nephi says, were terribly frightened, but not enough to release Nephi.  The fourth day, the storm got worse, to the point that the brothers thought they were about to die so, rather than release him, they loosened his bonds a little. Nephi, far from allowing this situation to make him bitter, immediately began praising the Lord and did so all day long. 

At this point, Nephi begins to mention the number of people aboard the ship that had spoken to the stubborn brothers asking for his release.  Among them were Lehi, both sons of Ishmael, Jacob and Joseph, and Nephi’s wife and children.  All of these spoke to Laman and Lemuel trying to persuade them to release Nephi.  The brothers’ response, at first, was to make threats against anyone who released him.  Meanwhile, the behavior of their two eldest sons made Lehi and Sariah deathly ill, which made things hard for Jacob and Joseph, who were still very young and needed their mother. 

None of this had any effect on the brothers.  They didn’t humble themselves again until they realized that they were about to be drowned.  Only then did they release Nephi, who immediately prayed for the cessation of the storm.  From then on, it was Nephi who steered the ship.  After several more days, they arrived, at last, in the promised land, which, incidentally, is the name they chose to give it.  Nephi then tells about how the family started planting their seeds and how they grew abundantly, providing lots of food for them all.  Furthermore, they discovered many different kinds of animals usable by man and also plenty of useful ores.  Since the family of Lehi had kept the commandment of the Lord, He blessed them with abundance.

Applying the Scriptures to My Life

Reading this chapter, I’m always struck by how well Nephi put up with his afflictions at the hands of his jealous brothers.  When they were mad at him, they were never gentle, but mean and fierce and frightening.  What bothered them most, I think, was that Nephi was right.  He was always right.  Here they were, the eldest sons, and they didn’t have what it took to even do that – be right.  Unfortunately, like myself, they didn’t think clearly enough when they were angry.  If they’d stopped to think, I imagine they would have realized that what they were doing was going to get them into trouble.  Time out of mind, I have looked back with my 20/20 hindsight and realized just how much trouble I could have avoided if I had stopped to think before I let myself get upset.  Nephi’s priorities, of course, were right on target.  Any blessing that came, however small, in the middle of his afflictions, was a blessing from God.  I wonder if I could make that work in my own life.  Rather than complaining because of the afflictions of my life, I should search for the small moments of peace and praise the Lord all the day long for them, as Nephi did, trusting that, eventually, the test will be over and I will be allowed to rest until the next one.

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