Chapter 8
Lehi sees a vision of
the tree of life—He partakes of its fruit and desires his family to do
likewise—He sees a rod of iron, a strait and narrow path, and the mists of
darkness that enshroud men—Sariah, Nephi, and Sam partake of the fruit, but
Laman and Lemuel refuse. About 600–592 B.C.
Lehi’s group had gathered an assortment of grain and fruit
seeds. When did they gather the
seeds? Did they bring them with them
from home? Did they gather them in the
valley of Lemuel? How long did they
stay? Nephi does not give us this
information in his small plates, so we’re left in a position where any answer
to these questions is speculation.
While in the valley of Lemuel, Lehi spoke to his family,
telling them “I have dreamed a dream; or,
in other words, I have seen a vision” (1 Nephi 8:2). “Confusion of types of revelation is also the
rule in the Book of Mormon, as when Lehi says, ‘I have dreamed a dream; or, in
other words, I have seen a vision’ (1 Nephi 8:2). Which was it? It makes no
difference, as long as the experience came from without by the Spirit of the
Lord.”[1]
Lehi rejoices because he has reason to believe that Nephi,
Sam, and many of their posterity will be saved.
On the other hand, he is concerned for Laman and Lemuel.
In his dream, he is in a dark wilderness. A man, dressed in a white robe, would act as
his guide through the wilderness. “In
the dream, Lehi first finds himself in a dark and dreary wilderness (see 1
Nephi 8:4–7). This suggests the state of fallen man in ignorance, cut off from
the presence of God, without knowledge of the way of life (or death).”[2]
That Lehi dreamed he was traveling in the dark was
representative of his lifestyle. “The
dream is also true to other cultural and geographical dimensions of the
family's world. For example, Lehi's dream began in ‘a dark and dreary
wilderness’ wherein Lehi and a guide walked ‘in darkness’ for ‘many hours’ (1
Nephi 8:4, 8). Plainly, they were walking at night, the preferred time for
traveling through the hot desert.”[3]
Lehi traveled for many hours in the darkness. He began to pray to the Lord, asking Him to
show mercy. After he had prayed, he saw
a large and spacious field. Christ used
the field as an example. “The field is the world; the good seed are
the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;”
(Matthew 13:38). “After praying for
mercy, Lehi sees a large and spacious field wherein the ways of life and death
are symbolically portrayed, as well as the responses of people to these two
options. The very manifestation of the way of life, then, is a function of the
mercy or grace of God.”[4]
In that spacious field, Lehi saw a tree. The fruit “was
desirable to make one happy” (1 Nephi 8:10). Referring to the tree, Alma said:
But
if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by
your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the
fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up
unto everlasting life.
And
because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in
nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck
the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is
sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that
is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye
hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.
Then,
my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and
patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto
you.
Alma 32:41 - 43
Lehi went to the true and ate the fruit. “[I]t was
most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was
white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen” (1 Nephi
8:11). Alma taught the people in Zarahemla
the Lord told them, “Come unto me and ye
shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of
the bread and the waters of life freely” (Alma 5:34).
Having partaken of the fruit, Lehi was filled with great
joy. He wanted his family to partake and
he began looking for his family.
Richard Bushman explains Laman’s and Lemuel’s perspective on
life referring to Lehi’s dream.
Nephi's and Lehi's theology offered
more enduring sustenance to Laman and Lemuel as a way to resolve the conflict
between submission and pleasure. In the brothers' characteristic plot,
submission meant deprivation, and pleasures came only through rebellion and
violence. In their view of events, God's superior power forced them to submit
and drove them into the sufferings of the wilderness. The family's theology and
faith in Christ, by contrast, offered supreme pleasure and happiness, not
through rebellion but through submission to God. Lehi's vision made the point
most graphically with the tree "whose fruit was desirable to make one
happy." When Lehi partook, he "beheld that it was most sweet, above
all that I ever before tasted" (1 Nephi 8:10-11). Christ was presented as
the resolution of the troubling conflict. The image of divine love in the form
of luscious fruit should have appealed directly to Laman's and Lemuel's most
fundamental need.[5]
[1] Lehi
the Poet—A Desert Idyll, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute, accessed January 21, 2013.
[2] The
Way of Life and the Way of Death in the Book of Mormon, Mack C. Stirling, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 21, 2013.
[3] New
Light from Arabia on Lehi's Trail, S. Kent Brown, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 21, 2013.
[4] The
Way of Life and the Way of Death in the Book of Mormon, Mack C. Stirling, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 21, 2013.
[5] The
Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History, Richard L. Bushman, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 21, 2013.
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