So the Lord speaks to Lehi again, and do you know what He says? "Welcome back. Glad to hear your boys made it home safely. Now all y'all return to Jerusalem and find your boys wives."
First of all, if this is reward for their long-suffering and all-around good sportmanship during the whole Brass Plates ordeal, it works. This time around, no one complains, not even Laman and Lemuel. Kind of like how I have to twist guys' arms to help me move my stuff every August, but any one of my hot former roommates actually had to send eager helpers away.
I wonder about Ishmael, the father of the women Lehi's sons take to wife. I wonder if he was one of those golden converts who is enamored by the Gospel and is delighted to do whatever his newfound spiritual leader says, or if he was just a real adventurous type and thought journeying to a new land sounded like a good time. Amongst the daughters, there must have been all types, for each of the sons of Lehi to find their match. Two older, swarthy girls for Laman and Lemuel (I picture them as sexy in a dark mannish sort of way, like Pansy Parkinson from Harry Potter); two clean-cut, chipper little blonds for Nephi and Sam; and whichever one was left for Zoram.
No sooner has everyone been paired off (although it doesn't say that for sure ... maybe it happened after this little incident) two (count 'em) of the daughters of Ishmael, two sons of Ishmael, plus Laman and Lemuel (naturally) rebel against the rest and mobilize in favor of returning to Jerusalem. As if they want to travel all that way? Again? Wickedness not only opposes happiness, it really doesn't make any sense. Nephi chastises them, of course, and a picture his little wifey gazing up at him with admiring little eyes as he does so.
A summary of Nephi's stern little talking-to:
1. You guys are older than me, and yet I'm the one who has to be the good guy here? Hell-o!
2. Why don't you listen?
3. Have you forgotten about the angel?
4. And all the other cool stuff God did for us?
5. You also seem to have forgotten that God, being God, can do anything, am I right?
6. Also, Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. Pretty sure you don't want to be there.
Granted, if one were the choose-to-be-offended type, that's some harsh language. But this time I actually side with Nephi. These guys can be pretty dense and frustrating. Maybe they were rebelling to impress the ladies, but still. Honestly.
And then, what do they do? Bind their brother with cords, like frat boys. But Nephi, evidencing that not only brain triumphs over brawn, but so does having God on your side, prays for the strength to deliver himself from the bonds, and breaks those suckers clean off. I like that Nephi deson't pray to be rescued, he prays to have the strength to deliver himself. That sets a good example for people like me who expect to be coddled by God in certain situations. Forget that. Go, to and break your own dang bonds.
Unfortunately this lesson, and any other lesson that might have been learned from this situation is lost to L and L (as I have just now decided to call them) and they try to attack him again. But one of the daughters of Ishmael (you don't have to be a statistician to guess that this is probably the future Mrs. Nephi) sticks up for him, and so does her mother and one of the sons of Ishmael (so maybe Lehi had only one righteous daughter to marry this guy? Who knows?) Nephi forgives them, and everyone goes on their merry little way.
I saw only the first few moments of the Book of Mormon movie before getting annoyed and turning it off, but the thing about making a movie based on a book like this is that it's incredibly repetitive. This is because 1) everyone in the Book of Mormon seemed to need several examples of every principle in action before they really got it and 2) we modern people also need to have everything repeated to us in order to fully understand. I would not find rebellion against God so pointless were it not for L and L. Thanks, boys!
1 comment:
My first thought about this chapter is, "Why send them back twice?" It's enough that they leave without the plates. That's understandable. But surely God could helped them kill two birds with one stone. Why make them add another trip?
I think that probably betrays my misunderstanding of the way God works. God doesn't lay out our role for us. He gives us a very broad picture of what we're supposed to do and leaves figuring out how to carry it out up to us. Lehi faithfully marched off into the wilderness, and God was nice enough to remind him that he had forgotten something important. In the second case, visions about his posterity might have tipped Lehi off to the need for a family to procreate with, and Ishmael was the revealed choice. God expects people to participate meaningfully in planning and executing, and we can't participate meaningfully if he warns us about everything ahead of time.
But there may be other reasons too. Maybe if they hadn't completed the mission to get the plates first, the temptation to give up and shack up with Ishmael's daughters would have been too strong. Having accomplished something as difficult as getting the plates, they had a greater stake in continuing their journey through the wilderness. At least in theory.
Ideally, this should apply to my life. The difficult trials that I overcome should fortify me to stay on the right path when life is easy. When I'm tempted to slack off in the easy stuff, I should think back to hard times and say, "Hey, I already got the plates from Laban. How can I give up now? How can I not complete this leg of the journey when I've already completed a much harder leg?"
Unfortunately, that's not how Laman and Lemuel felt, perhaps because they weren't really the ones who surmounted the earlier challenge. They just begrudgingly went along for the ride. No wonder they didn't have Nephi's perspective. They didn't have the powerful experience of the Lord confirming their faith. They had no faith to be confirmed. They hadn't worked on their relationship with the Lord. They didn't feel that the Lord would be faithful to them because they knew that they hadn't been faithful to Him.
Note also that by this time all of the points Nephi have to make are sounding really repetitive and obnoxious to them. Stop saying that! Of course, Nephi keeps repeating himself because they aren't getting it, and all it does is infuriate them because they already know exactly what he's going to say, and repeating it over and over again is tantamount to saying, "You are dumb and didn't get this the first several times, so I'll repeat it."
I really like the detail you point out about Nephi asking for strength to break the bands. It's a subtle difference, but it makes a big difference in working with the Lord.
I also really appreciate the fact that Nephi couldn't calm his brothers, while mother, daughter, and son could. I think that mother, daughter, and son had spiritual gifts that Nephi didn't have. E.g., the gift of not royally pissing wicked people off. That's an important thing for everyone who feels inadequate to remember. The most righteous, gifted people still lack gifts and relationships that you have. You may be able to calm the fury that Nephi can do nothing about. If those three hadn't been willing to step up and pacify the others, things would have ended very poorly. No matter who you are, you have gifts worth contributing.
And let's be honest, Nephi can be pretty unbearable: I forgave them and then exhorted them to pray for forgiveness from God. The guy never lays off. He never gives anyone any space.
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