1 Nephi 8

The tree of life vision is probably one of the defining stories in the Book of Mormon. Full of interesting images that keep the attention of children, but also symbolically meaningful. A quick summary:

Lehi dreams that he is wandering through a dark and dreary wilderness. A man in a white robe shows up and commands Lehi to follow him. He obeys, and is led to another dark, horrible place. He travels for hours in this darkness, until he prays that God will have mercy on him, and upon so doing enters a field. He sees a tree and knows that the fruit of the the tree is the source of happiness. He eats the fruit and is filled with joy. He immediately thinks of his family and desires that they too eat this fruit and enjoy this same happiness. Sam, Sariah, and Nephi follow his directions and also partake of the fruit, but Laman and Lemuel do not. There's an iron rod leading to the tree, and he sees people holding onto it in order to find their way to the tree through a mist of darkness that makes it impossible to see. Nearby, there is a big building where people are dressed up in ostentatious clothing. They mock the people who have partaken of the fruit, and because of that some people are embarrassed enough to let go of the iron rod and get lost. However, a great deal of people use the iron rod to guide themselves to the tree and partake of the marvelous fruit.

There is enough in this little allegory to write books about. But here are some of my humble insights:

1. Initially, Lehi knows he is being guided, because he has an actual, physical guide. Then the guide leaves for no apparent reason, and Lehi wanders for a very long time. However, that doesn't mean he is lost, or abandoned. Heavenly Father doesn't always give us the assurance we want that we are being guided, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are doing something wrong, either. He might just be testing our faith.

2. The guide didn't lead him to the field right away. He led him to a dark and dreary waste, and then Lehi got out of there on his own. Sometimes, God's will is for us to be in places that are frightening and far from ideal. Being unhappy or sad or discouraged for a time doesn't mean we took a wrong turn, as it were. It might just be a sad time in our lives.

3. Lehi didn't receive comfort and arrive at his destination until he prayed.

4. The first thing that Lehi thinks after he eats the fruit and experiences that great joy is he desires for his family to feel that same joy. We used this story in Hungary when we met with members to encourage them to share the gospel with their friends and family. If you feel joy because of the things you have learned, why not share it?

5. One assumes that the fruit resembles true conversion, not just baptism or being taught the gospel, because Laman and Lemuel were most likely baptized and taught the gospel as children. But they failed to accept it and find joy in it.

6. The people who fall away from the truth because of the mockery of others go "crawling towards" the great and spacious building. But since the building was high above the ground, they never reached it. They were just lost forever. Giving in to people who mock you does not mean they will let you join their ranks. You will just end up bereft of what you had, lost, and all alone.

Nephi says there was more: that what he wrote was just a summary of the vision (making my puny paragraph a summary of a summary). This is one of those stories I'm excited to see the video of when I die.

I Nephi 7

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 Nephi 6

I remember hearing as a young girl in various writing workshops: never apologize for your writing. Never say, "Um, sorry this is still really lame because I haven't figured out the dialogue yet ..." or "I don't think you guys will like this, but this is my poem ..." But that's what this chapter is. Nephi apologizes for not copying the genealogy of his fathers onto the brass plates, because he wants to save the space for the most important things. Namely, the things of God. Not that family history isn't important! No sir! But he's right. For his intents and purposes, it really is sufficient to say that he is a descendant of Joseph.

It interests me that Nephi straight up says that his goal is to convince people to believe in God. You know, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That God. Not to be confused with some other God. And that his words will not be pleasing to the people of the world. Got that right. A nice Biblical genealogy might have helped to convince some scholar that the Book of Mormon is real scripture. Probably not too many people though. Nephi never was much for the popular opinion. Which is why even though I envision him as a bit of a goober, I still respect him. A lot.

1 Nephi 5

Here is one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon. Well, OK. There is a certain theme here that you don't don't find in many other places in the scriptures, and this is the first instance of it: complaining. Sariah believes that all four of her sons have died in Jerusalem, and she does what any normal person would do in the same situation: she gets upset! What a breath of fresh air! Some people use this as an excuse to revere Sariah less than other women in the scriptures, but it makes me love her more. She gets dealt a seemingly lousy hand, she complains, then repents. Flaws were indeed part of the Biblical character make-up. Which means I'm not entirely lost.

An interesting aside to this: when Lehi tries to comfort Sariah and reel her back into righteousness, so to speak, he tells her "I have obtained a land of promise, in the which thing I do rejoice." Say what? They haven't obtained any promised land yet that I know of. But his use of the present tense makes me wonder: to tell well-organized mind, is a promised blessing as good as an actual blessing? If I have been promised an eternal marriage, should that be just as satisfying to me as if I were already married? If so, I am in big, big, huge trouble. Really, though, I think he has the right idea. God is a s good as His word as long as we keep our end of the bargain: to continually move towards perfection. Piece of cake. All the blessings He has promised will be fulfilled, equals, almost as good as having them.

To my mortal mind, this makes no sense: the promise of cake is not nearly as delicious as a real piece of real cake. The anticipation of said cake may make the cake eventually taste better, but that still implies reception of the cake. I would not be happy to have anticipation forever unfulfilled. I guess that's just the mortal in me.

The rest of the chapter talks about the brass plates and why they were so great. So worth going back for. First five books of Moses. Pretty important, especially if one is still subject to that tricky Law of Moses. Genealogy. A man after my own heart, Lehi is thrilled to learn he is a descendant of Joseph. So was Laban, which proves that it takes all kinds to make a PAF chart. This knowledge sparks Lehi to prophesy about his seed, and the important role the brass plates would play in his posterity's lives. Beautiful stuff.

I wonder if, as Lehi rejoiced in the future fulfillment of positive prophesies, he likewise mourned in the doleful prophesies about his seed, as much as if it had already happened?