1 Ne 17:2 we did live upon raw
meat in the wilderness, our women…were strong
The juxtaposition of these two phrases is not meant to show
a causal relationship. Rather, it was to show that even though the diet was not
ideal, the women gave plenty of suck and were strong. Both the Bible and the
Book of Mormon are written in the Hebrew style which is basically patriarchal.
The result is that the record contains precious few descriptions of the
contributions of the women to society. This should not be construed to mean
that there weren’t any. Rather, we should glean all we can from those passages
which show the fortitude of these women. Certainly, traveling through the
Arabian Peninsula while being heavy with child is no small sacrifice. These women
had left all behind. They had to exercise faith in the Lord and in Lehi’s
visions.
1 Ne 17:4 Why did it take them 8 years to travel the Arabian
Peninsula?
Nephi doesn’t explain much of what goes on during those 8
years. Why did it take them so long? They traveled for a period then stopped
and set up their tents. This was the way of travel in the desert, but it
doesn’t take 8 years to travel that far. They traveled as directed by the
Liahona but only when it was working. It must not have been working because the
Lord was punishing the rebellious in the family—Laman, Lemuel, the sons of
Ishmael and their wives for murmuring. Speaking of Lehi’s family, Alma later
recorded, ‘They were slothful, and forgot to
exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works (ie.
the Liahona) ceased, and they did not progress in
their journey; therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a
direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their
transgressions…for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass
(now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with
things which are spiritual’ (Alma 37:41-43).
This is exactly what happened to the children of Israel. The
Lord was prepared to bring them into the land of their inheritance soon after
they departed from Egypt. However, the people were so wicked and faithless in
their attitude about battling the inhabitants of the land, that the Lord made
that entire generation wait (for 40 years). Joshua and Caleb were the only
adults of that generation that did not die before the children of Israel were
allowed to inhabit the land (Num 26:65). Thus the forty years of wandering in
the wilderness were the result of the idolatry, faithlessness, and murmuring of
the children of Israel.
1 Ne 17:5 the land which we
called Bountiful
Hugh Nibley
“After traveling a vast distance in a
south-south-easterly direction (16:14,33), the party struck off almost due
eastward through the worst desert of all, where they ‘did wade through much
affliction,’ to emerge in a state of almost complete exhaustion into a totally
unexpected paradise by the sea. There is such a paradise in the Qara Mountains
on the southern coast of Arabia…..
“Of the Qara Mountains which lie in that
limited sector of the coast of south Arabia which Lehi must have reached
if he turned east at the nineteenth parallel, Bertram Thomas, one of the few
Europeans who has ever seen them, writes:
‘What a glorious place! Mountains three
thousand feet high basking above a tropical ocean, their seaward slopes velvety
with waving jungle, their roofs fragrant with rolling yellow meadows, beyond
which the mountains slope northwards to a red sandstone steppe….Great was my
delight when in 1928 I suddenly came upon it all from out of the arid wastes of
the southern borderlands.’
“…Compare this with Nephi’s picture….It
is virtually the same scene: the mountains, the rich woodlands with timber for
ships, the rolling yellow meadow a paradise for bees, the view of the sea
beyond, and above all the joyful relief at the sudden emergence from the ‘red
sandstone steppe,’ one of the worst deserts on earth.” (Lehi in the Desert
and The World of the Jaredites, pp. 125-6)
Fertile
coastal mountains and vegetation in Wadi Sayq, Oman
After rain in Dhofar, near Wadi Sayq,
probable site for Bountiful
1 Ne 17:5 What is Irreantum?
The many waters that Nephi is referring to is the Arabian
Sea adjacent to the Indian Ocean.
1 Ne 17:12 the Lord had not
suffered that we should make much fire
Most scholars suggest that the family needed to remain
secret so that they would not fall prey to maurading bands of local Arabs.
Hugh Nibley
“One illuminating ‘aside’ by Nephi
explains everything. It was only after they reached the seashore, he says, that
his people were able to make fires without danger…That tells all. ‘I well remember,’
writes Bertram Thomas, ‘taking part in a discussion upon the unhealthfulness
(danger) of campfires by night; we discontinued them forthwith in spite of the
bitter cold.’ Major Cheesman’s guide would not even let him light a tiny lamp
in order to jot down star readings, and they never dared build a fire on the
open plain where it ‘would attract the attention of a prowling raiding party
over long distances and invite a night attack.’ Once in a while in a favorably
sheltered depression ‘we dared to build a fire that could not be seen from a
high spot,’ writes Raswin. That is, fires are not absolutely out of the
question, but rare and risky—not much fire, was Lehi’s rule. And fires
in the daytime are almost as risky as a night: Palgrave tells how his party
were forced, ‘lest the smoke of our fire should give notice to some distant
rover, to content ourselves with dry dates,’ instead of cooked food.
“…All this bears out the conviction,
supported both by modern experience and the evidence of archaeology, that Lehi
was moving through a dangerous world.” (Lehi in the Desert and The World of
the Jaredites, pp. 72-3)
1 Ne 17:12-3 I will make thy food
become sweet, that ye cook it not; And I will also be your light in the
wilderness
When we have difficulties, we often ask the Lord to remove
our obstacles, to bring a quick end to our suffering. In the Lord’s plan,
instead of removing our afflictions, He often wants us to continue in our
tribulations, but gives us the necessary strength to come out victorious. The
people of Alma, the elder, had been righteous but still they were overcome by
local Lamanites who laid heavy burdens on their backs. The Lord’s response was
as follows, And I will also ease the burdens which
are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs,
even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as
witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord
God, do visit my people in their afflictions (Mosiah 24:14). Lehi’s
family was to know that the Lord visits his people in their afflictions. We
should learn this lesson as Lehi’s family did. Notice that He doesn’t always
take the afflictions away according to the timetable of the afflicted.
1 Ne 17:17 Our brother is a fool,
for he thinketh that he can build a ship
The carnal man is quick to point out one’s weaknesses and
limitations. Although Laman and Lemuel had seen the hand of the Lord many
times, and even heard his voice, they still thought as a carnal man thinketh.
They had not learned the lesson, with God all things are possible (Matt 19:26).
1 Ne 17:20 it would have been
better that they (our women) had died before
they came out of Jerusalem
With this phrase we must turn again to the similarities
between the faithlessness of Nephi’s elder brothers and the murmuring attitude
of the children of Israel wandering in the Sinai Peninsula: all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
against Aaron: and the whole congregation
said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God
we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto
this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a
prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? (Num 14:2-3)
Human nature is myopic. In both of these situations, the
children of Israel and Lehi’s family, the Lord is trying to bring the people
into a promised land. He is trying to bless them with things they couldn’t even
dream of, even a land flowing with milk and honey. Nephi tried to get his
brothers to see the similarities between their situation and the children of
Israel, ye know that is must needs be a good thing
for them, that they should be brought out of bondage (v. 25). Yet the
shortsighted would rather return to the slavery that feels comfortable than
patiently wait on the Lord and receive the greater blessing. We are often the
same with our spiritual trials. We would like everything to just return to the
way it was, rather than patiently understand that the will of the Lord is to
bring us through our tribulation into a spiritual land of promise.
1 Ne 17:30 leading them by day
and giving light unto them by night, and doing all things for them
Here we see another similarity between the children of Israel
and Lehi’s family. The children of Israel were led in the wilderness by a
pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (see Ex 13:21). Lehi’s
family was led by just as miraculous a means, the Liahona.
1 Ne 17:32-5 the children of this
land…who were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were
righteous? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
It is not our purpose here to comment on Old Testament
events. However, Nephi’s question is instructive and deserves some comment. It
will be remembered that after the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness
for 40 years, they began to enter the land of Canaan, but they had to do it by
force. When they fought the inhabitants of the land, they would kill men,
women, children, and livestock (Josh 6:21). This is always hard to understand
for those who believe God is a merciful God. It is hard to tell from reading
the Old Testament why the Lord is so ruthless with these people.
Nephi makes it clear that they were wiped off the face of
the earth because of their wickedness. They had become ripe like the people in
Noah’s day, they were ripe in iniquity and the
fullness of the wrath of God was upon them (v. 35). The Lord is not just
indiscriminately wiping them out because the children of Israel need a place to
live. He is delivering just rewards to the idolatrous inhabitants of the land.
Nephi goes on to explain that the Lord would not have chosen Israel had they
not been more righteous, thus confirming that the
Lord esteemeth all flesh in one (v. 35).
1 Ne 17:36 the Lord created the
earth that it should be inhabited
This seems like a harmless, simple phrase. In the 21st
century, however, many are concerned with burgeoning population statistics. Can
the earth hold all these people? Aren’t we going to consume all the natural
resources and leave nothing for our grandchildren? Some have become almost
religious about the preservation of Mother Earth. Certainly, we should be wise
stewards of the earth. We should not waste resources or pollute the beauty of
nature. But we do not need to limit our family size because our many children
will consume too many resources. Indeed, the Lord
created the earth that it should be inhabited. The Lord created the
earth for us and not the other way around. The earth, like all of God’s
creations, is meant “to fill the measure of its creation.”
1 Ne 17:41 What is a fiery flying serpent?
A fiery flying serpent is a poisonous snake. “Fiery” refers
to being poisonous and “flying” probably refers to their striking motion in an
attempt to bite. The Book of Mormon, as in many other instances, teaches us as
much about this Bible story as the Bible does. Numbers states that after the
people had murmured again, the Lord sent serpents which bit them. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten,
when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put
it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when
he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived (Num 21:8-9).
John makes brief mention that the serpent raised by Moses
represented the Messiah being lifted up on the cross (Jn 3:14). It is Alma who
teaches us that there were many who perished, simply because they did not believe that it would heal them. He
continues:
O my brethren, if ye could
be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye
not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be
slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?
If so, wo shall come upon
you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son
of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and
die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which
shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to
be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works. (Alma
33:21-2)
The imagery of Christ as a serpent continued long after the
death of the Nephites. One of the ways in which the god, Quetzalcoatl, is
represented is as a feathered serpent.
“Now, the strange fact is that the
winged serpent, or the feathered serpent, plays a prominent part also in the
religious concepts of the American Indians, and in their traditions. Among the
ancient Mexicans, one of the divinities was known as ‘the feathered’ or ‘plumed
serpent,’ Quetzalcoatl, which name corresponds to the ‘flying serpent’ of the
Hebrews. Quetzalcoatl among the Mexicans was what the brazen serpent was to the
Hebrews-the representative of the healing, life-giving power.” (Reynolds and
Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 267)
1 Ne 17: 41 because of the
simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished
Boyd K. Packer
"How silly," some must have
said. ‘How can such a thing cure me? I'll not show my stupidity by paying any
attention,’ and some would not look….
“And today many say, ‘How silly! How
could accepting Christ save me?’ They will not turn their heads to look nor
incline their ears to hear. They ignore the great witness that comes from these
conferences. We ought to, indeed we must, heed the counsel of these men, for
the Lord said, ‘What I the Lord have spoken, I have
spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away
my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own
voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.’ (DC 1:38)” (Conference
Report, Oct. 1, 1968, p. 76)
Harold B. Lee
“Some may say all of what I have said
sounds so simple. It is. It is like the rod of Moses on which the
serpent-bitten Israelites had only to look to be healed. But, as the Book of
Mormon reminds us, ‘because of the simpleness of the
way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished’ (1 Nephi
17:41). Strange as it seems, some men are, as Jacob described them, forever ‘looking beyond the mark’ (Jacob 4:14), missing the
plain and simple truths in their search for complexity!” (Teachings of
Harold B. Lee, p. 334)
Rex D. Pinegar
“Brothers and sisters, we must not fail
to do the simple and easy things that the gospel requires and thereby deny
ourselves and our families the great blessings that the Lord has promised….Charles
Francis Adams, the grandson of the U.S. ambassador to Britain. Amidst his
responsibilities, he had little time to spare. He did, however, keep a diary.
One day he wrote, ‘Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted!’ On that same
date, Charles’s son, Brooks Adams, had printed in his own diary, ‘Went fishing
with my father today—the most wonderful day of my life’ (Daily Guideposts, 1994).
President Hunter has said, ‘Frequently it is the commonplace tasks that have
the greatest positive effect on the lives of others’ (BYU 1986-87 Devotional
and Fireside Speeches, p. 115). I pray that we will heed the counsel of our
prophet and have the faith to follow the Savior by doing the simple things His
gospel requires.” (Ensign, Nov. 1994, p.82 as taken from Latter-day
Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p.53)
1 Ne 17:45 he hath spoken unto
you in a still small voice
The still small voice is not barely audible to the receptive
soul. When the Lord communicates this way, the still small voice penetrates
every fiber of the individual’s being. This is taught in 3 Nephi when the
survivors of the destructions which attended Christ’s crucifixion gathered at
the temple, they heard a voice:
and it was not a harsh
voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being
a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that
there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did
pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn.
In a letter to W.W.
Phelps, the prophet Joseph Smith said, Yea, thus saith the still small voice,
which whispereth through and pierceth all things, and often times it maketh my
bones to quake (DC 85:6).
Gordon B. Hinckley
President Hinkley “told of his recent
interview with CBS News reporter Mike Wallace, which is scheduled to air on 60
Minutes in February.
“When asked by Mr. Wallace, ‘How does
Jesus speak to you?’ President Hinckley said he told him the voice of the Lord
doesn’t come in dramatic fashion, but as with the prophet Elijah ‘through the
still, small voice.’
“’It is the voice of the Spirit which
speaks, and which will speak to you concerning your own problems, if you will
seek for wisdom and understanding in prayer. There is no doubt in my mind that
that voice speaks and is heard.’” (LDS Church News, Deseret News, Jan.
20, 1996)
Boyd K. Packer
"We do not have the words (even
the scriptures do not have words) which perfectly describe the Spirit," he
told new mission presidents and their wives at a seminar on 19 June 1991.
"The scriptures usually use the word voice, which does not exactly fit.
These delicate, refined spiritual communications are not seen with our eyes nor
heard with our ears.… It is a voice that one feels more than one hears.
"Once I came to understand this,
one verse in the Book of Mormon took on profound meaning and my testimony of
the book became fixed. The verse had to do with Laman and Lemuel, who rebelled
against Nephi. Nephi rebuked them and said: 'Ye have
seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to
time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past
feeling, that ye could not feel his words' (1 Nephi 17:45)."
"I have come to know that inspiration
comes more as a feeling than as a sound," Elder Packer repeated in general
conference, October 1979. He then counseled: "Ponder and pray quietly and
persistently.… The answer may not come as a lightning bolt. It may come as a
little inspiration here and a little there, 'line
upon line, precept upon precept' (D&C 98:12).
"Some answers will come from
reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers. And, occasionally, when it
is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration. The
promptings will be clear and unmistakable."
“He recalled what the Prophet Joseph
Smith said:
‘A person may profit by noticing the
first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure
intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas.… And
thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the
principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus. (Teachings
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 151).’”
(Lucile C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer, A
Watchman on the Tower, p. 280)
Bruce R. McConkie
“We have a testimony when we have
managed to attune our souls to God so that the Holy Spirit speaks to the spirit
that is within us. We must hear the still, small voice. When that witness is
given, then we know of ourselves that the work is true, and on appropriate
occasions we stand up and bear that record to the world. All the missionaries
who succeed, do so because they are testifying missionaries. They bear witness
to what they of themselves know of the divinity of the work. We have a little
formula that we follow in order to gain a testimony: We desire in our hearts to
know if the work is true; we study the principles that are involved; we
practice them in our lives; and we pray to God and ask him to reveal the truth
to us, on the same basis that the Prophet used when he read in the book of
James:
“’If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’” (BYU Speeches, Sept. 29, 1964, p. 7)
1 Ne 17:45 ye were past feeling,
that ye could not feel his words
“True religion is a feeling. It is
common in anti-Mormon literature for attacks to be made on prayer and on
trusting one's feelings as sources for obtaining truth. In the realm of
spiritual understanding both are fundamental. Truth is felt. Falsehood is often
clothed in erudite and sophisticated arguments. One does not have to be able to
refute the argument to know that it is false. Truth feels good; falsehood does
not.
“Christ spoke of the inability of the
wicked to ‘understand with their heart’
(Matthew 13:15), while the righteous ‘understood in
their hearts’ things too marvelous to utter (3 Nephi 19:33-34).
Describing the spirit of revelation for Joseph Smith, the Lord said, ‘I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the
Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart’
(D&C 8:2). Because of their wickedness, such understanding was lost to
Nephi's rebellious brothers.” (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on
the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 137)
Neal A. Maxwell
“President
Harold B. Lee has called our attention to the phrase ‘past feeling’ which is
used several places in the scriptures. In Ephesians, Paul links it to lasciviousness
that apparently so sated its victims that they sought ‘uncleanness
with greediness.’ Moroni used the same two words to describe a decaying
society which was ‘without civilization,’ ‘without
order and without mercy,’ and in which people had ‘lost their love, one towards another.’ Insensate,
this society saw violence, gross immorality, brutality and all kinds of
‘kamikaze’ behavior. Nephi used the same concept in his earlier lamentation
bout his brothers' inability to heed the urgings of the Spirit because they
were ‘past feeling.’ The common thread is
obvious: the inevitable dulling of our capacity to feel renders us impervious
to conscience, to the needs of others, and to insights both intellectual and spiritual.
Such imperceptivity, like alcoholism, apparently reaches a stage where the will
can no longer enforce itself upon our impulses.” (“For the Power is in them…”,
p. 22)
Neal A. Maxwell
“Some
young people belong to peer groups in which there is an almost constant
celebration of the senses: tactile, visual, and aural. It is significant that
three prophets (Nephi, Paul, and Mormon) in three different cultures and at
three different times, each used the same two words to describe a people who
had celebrated the senses so much that they had lost their capacity to feel.
The words ‘past feeling’ appear in the
scriptures to depict people who had become sufficiently encrusted in their
excesses that they killed their capacity to feel. The very capacity to feel
which they celebrated was lost in the process of celebration. They were in a
situation in which increasingly stronger stimulants were needed to feel
anything, and finally no dose was large enough to appease their appetites.” (A
Time to Choose [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972], 15 - 16.)
Neal A. Maxwell
“Ironic though it is, ultimately those so warped by pleasing the carnal mind and by wrongfully celebrating their capacity to feel soon lose their capacity to feel, finally becoming ‘past feeling’ (1 Ne. 17:451 Ne. 17:45; Moro. 9:20Moro. 9:20).” (One More Strain of Praise [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1999], 66.)
1 Ne 17:55 they fell down before
me, and were about to worship me
“Here Laman and Lemuel received a powerful,
tangible witness that the power of the Lord was with Nephi. Their immediate
reaction was to fall down and worship Nephi (vs. 55). In doing so they
demonstrated a common mistake of men, namely, they wanted to worship the man
with the power rather than God, the source of the power. Sometimes Saints
become deeply attached to missionaries or Church leaders who are instruments in
bringing spiritual power into their lives, without realizing that it is not the
man but the source of the power he demonstrates—namely God—that should be
worshiped. Like other prophets faced with this tendency to personal adoration,
Nephi teaches where the true worship should be centered.” (Book of Mormon
Student Manual, 1981, p. 45-6) See also Acts 10:25-6.