Holy Envy

Chapters 16 through 18 of 1 Nephi contain some of the best-known stories in the Book of Mormon, and rightly so. The historical narrative recounts the arduous journey of Lehi and his family from the Valley of Lemuel to the New World, and it compares with the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the Saints’ trek to the intermountain region in difficulty, importance, and miraculous nature.  

1-5 hard things, I’m trying to think of a better word than hard, something that better explains what the truth is really like. Exposing is the best things I can come up with. Truth is light, and it exposes us. So if there is goodness exposed, there is no guilt; otherwise exposure can be brutal. “I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken” (2 Ne 9:40). For most of us, it is both.

3 my brethren, if ye were righteous, I can’t help but wonder how things would have been different had Nephi treated his brethren differently. Could he not have said, “I know, right! The truth can be really hard to hear. None of us live up to the ideal. I sure don’t.”

8 I Nephi had been blessed of the Lord exceedingly, does he mention this now because he was just married?

10 round ball of curious workmanship, later referred to by Alma as the Liahona (Alma 37:38), and a symbol of the word of God which, as the ball led the family through the wilderness and to the promised land, will, “if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise” (Alma 37:45). Note the following verses for what the Liahona teaches us about God’s word:

• 10, of miraculous origin (Alma 37:38-39); to be consulted first thing in morning; quality workmanship (serious time and effort into creating it); points the way we should go.
• 14, directs to sustenance, i.e. the family is fed through it
• 16, directs to the more fertile parts of the wilderness (Alma 37:42)
• 19, stunted progression in our journey without it (Alma 37:41)
• 25, 26, contains what God wants to tell us (instead of speaking, he directs us to the scriptures)
• 27, warns and admonishes
• 28-29, works by faith and diligence (Alma 37:40). The family did not always use this spiritual compass to its full potential (there is more power embedded in the scriptures than we realize; we may be using them but not to their full potential).
• 29, small means (Alma 37:41; also Alma 37:6-7!)
• 29, plain, give understanding, changed time to time (as the word can hit us differently at different times)
• Etc.

12 river Laman, I just realized the irony of this. The river in the vision was filthy, and the river by their encampent was called Laman, though Lehi had apparently named it before he’d seen the vision (1 Ne 2:6-9), encouraging Laman to flow into the fountain of righteousness.

13-14 we traveled, a note about geography from Brant Gardner’s Second Witness: “The Lehites’ journey through the wilderness is being traced by modern researchers with increasing precision, thanks in part to the lack of water – the very element that makes travel in the desert so difficult.  Certainly Lehi’s family was compelled to follow the water, like any other traveler. Modern research has recovered knowledge of an ancient caravan route, the “Frankincense Trail’, from Dhofar, the ancient source of that precious water, to near Jerusalem; the trail conforms in detail to Joseph Smith’s account of distances, turns, and specific geography.  And modern travelers along that route have described details that fit the implications of his descriptions of topography, relative desolateness, weather conditions, etc.  This route, and its remarkable beginning point, the fertile Salalah area in Dhofar, were known and written about anciently… The trail was well traveled and well regulated.  Various tribes controlled sections of the trail and extracted tribute from the travelers in return for protection from marauders along the trail.  Lehi would have been forced to take the established trail both for safety and for the crucial wells. Even though Nephi never mentions meeting other travelers, it would have been impossible for them to make the journey without following this trail that marked the only locations where water was available. Every well was guarded, and the trail itself was well traveled. So Lehi’s family encountered numerous people on this part of their journey.  Nephi simply doesn’t mention them, a narrative trait the repeats when describing the family’s arrival in the New World.”  (SW 1:272-276)

20 did begin to murmur exceedingly, everyone, it seems, Nephi not excluded.

18, 23 I did break my bow… [so] I did make out of wood a bow, and out of straight stick, and arrow, simple as that, but not so simple because we don’t know how long they went without food. We do know that Ishmael dies shortly after (v34), and it could have been from famine and malnourishment. If Nephi actually never complained, then he was a better man than most of Israel, including Lehi and Moses. More to the point, we do complain, and for far lesser things. In any event, I don’t think the Lord cares as much about our complaining (what we say) as he does about our actions (what we do). Here, it appears that Laman’s and Lemuel’s bows had lost their strings long before Nephi’s bow broke (v21), and they had done nothing about it. They seemed happy enough to have Nephi do the hunting. In short, the power is in us (D&C 58:27-29), through faith that yields action, to bring to pass much good.

23-25 And I said unto my father, Whither shall I go to obtain food, Nephi showed faith in his father’s call despite his father’s shortcomings. For my part, it is a great thing to sustain an imperfect leader, far more admirable than upholding a perfect one.

26-29 the pointers…did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them, I have a Garmin watch that holds immense power—it can literally do hundreds of things from taking my health vitals to mapping out a mountain route. But I have spent too little time and effort learning about the watch and so I can do maybe five things with it. It would be easy to cast it aside as a waste of money (the thing cost almost $1,000), but that would only seem reasonable to someone unaware of its capability and power, or unwilling to mine that power. So it is was with the Liahona, and so it is with the word of God. A similar thing happened to Israel with the brazen serpent (Alma 33:19-22). Bringing it home, if feasting on the word seems not to “work”, perhaps we need to exercise more “faith and diligence and heed.”

34 Ishmael died…Nahom, likely because of the harshness of the journey. See footnote for a possible meaning of Nahom, “consolation,” but more notable is the archaeological findings along the Frankincense Trail, where the Hebrew trilateral NHM was found inscribed in stone at a place that was called Nihm. See article HERE.

38 Now, he says that…, this narrative will become the dominant narrative among Lamanites throughout the Book of Mormon and will fuel myriad wars. It’s tragic how often we attribute the worst motives on those with whom we disagree.

39 the voice of the Lord came, how did it come? Through Nephi? Lehi? Their wives or their mothers? Angelic appearance? Voice from heaven? Nephi doesn’t make this clear, but whatever it was, they apparently repented.