Lehi has a dream that tells him to pack provisions and hack it out in the wilderness. He obeys, to the chagrin of some (Laman and Lemuel) and the possibly grudging acceptance of the rest.
I wonder about their real reaction to this. No one in their right mind would be happy to leave their life and all their possessions behind to go camping for an indefinite period of time, right? There are lots of commandments from God that I obey even though I'm not exactly delighted about it. I won't go into which ones. But trust me. To tell you the truth, I think that's the real test of love: to be willing to do something not because it's what you want or because it would directly benefit you in some way, but because it's the right thing to do. Even if you don't understand it. If they hadn't all been pissed off about leaving, it wouldn't have been a sacrifice. It's what you do with your pissed-offed-ness that counts. You can whine and complain like a little sissy, or you can suck it up. Nephi, let's face it, is the champion of sucking it up.
An interesting aside about obedience: "fake it till you make it" can really work. If you keep going to church or paying tithing or avoiding coffee, eventually you'll gain a better understanding of why, and even an appreciation for that commandment. Unless you're really off the deep end.
My six year-old can be a sassy little punk sometimes, and always very obnoxiously asks "why" when I ask him to do something. A favorite answer of mine is this: "If for no other reason, then because I asked you to." It's like that.
Feminist insert: The entire First Book of Nephi is about Nephi's family, but he doesn't mention that he has any sisters until Second Nephi chapter five. What, he couldn't have just thrown that in there a little bit earlier? What's with the "my family, consisting of my mother, my father, and my brothers." What are sisters, chopped liver? That is so Old Testament. Given, this was written during the same time period. But still.
Here's the rub about Lehi's parenting skills.
Compliment: having a river or valley named after you.
Insult: using said river or valley to make an unfavorable observation about your moral character.
So, do those two just cancel each other out? Once again, I feel for Laman and Lemuel. Granted, they were immature, whiny, lazy, kvetchers, but man, what a break. It's interesting to me that their descendants ended up better than Nephi's in the long run. Their progeny was spared, Nephi's destroyed. I have heard many times that this is because the Nephites had the truth in their lives, but rejected it. The original Lamanites rejected the truth early on, so their kids didn't have it in their lives, and thus weren't accountable. It's a little jumbled but it's actually pretty fair, when you think about it. With great power comes great responsibility, so if you blow it, you really blow it. The kind of blowing it that involves divine vengeance.
I think this is the same reasoning behind Cain having a mark put upon him intended to protect him from others. His descendants would be far from the truth, and thus protected from severe punishment for going against what they knew. Because they didn't know much.
Sounds like an easy life. Not that I would trade what I have for ignorance. Ever.
1 comment:
I think that your idea of faking it until you make it is central to my reading of this chapter. Nephi does a great job of getting at the difference between Laman and Lemuel and the rest of the family. It's not just a question of their behavior, of individual actions. It's something more profound. It has to do with knowing "the dealings of that God who had created them." It's what motivates Lehi to leave behind gold and silver and precious objects to live in a tent. It's what Lehi tries to express with his awkward topographical metaphors.
Righteousness flows like a river. It isn't a set of actions, but the mindset behind them. Righteousness is firm and steadfast like a valley. It doesn't consume itself in a single fiery outburst; it's sustainable, reliable, steadfast. Righteousness is a worldview, and people who can't see things with an eye of faith live in a completely different world. Finally, Lehi's impassioned speech confounds them, but they still can't see things with the eye of faith.
I'm interested that he doesn't mention his sisters too. That's so weird to us because it seems really inconsiderate. And maybe it is. But maybe it has something to do with keeping the record concise. Maybe he had more brothers that he didn't mention either. Or maybe his sisters were born in the wilderness. And again, maybe he just wasn't sensitive to his culture's denigration of women.
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