Chapter 16
The wicked take the
truth to be hard—Lehi's sons marry the daughters of Ishmael—The Liahona guides
their course in the wilderness—Messages from the Lord are written on the
Liahona from time to time—Ishmael dies; his family murmur because of
afflictions. About 600–592 B.C.
After Nephi had finished teaching his brethren, they
complained that what he had taught were “hard
things, more than we are able to bear” (1 Nephi 16:1). Nephi replied, yes, I know what I said were
hard things addressed to the wicked. The
wicked often respond in anger. After
Stephen had preached to the high priests, we read that, “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they
gnashed on him with their teeth” (Acts 7:54). Nephi would later write that his writings “speaketh harshly against sin,
according to the plainness of the truth; wherefore, no man will be angry at the
words which I have written save he shall be of the spirit of the devil” (2
Nephi 33:5).
Nephi then gives us an important truth, “the guilty taketh the truth to be hard” (1 Nephi 16:2).
And
this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For
every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved.
But
he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God.
John 3:19 - 21
The
world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the
works thereof are evil.
John 7:7
Nephi exhorted is brethren to walk uprightly before the
Lord, stop whining about everything, and keep the Lord’s commandments. They began to humble themselves before the
Lord.
Life went on in the valley of Lemuel. The next set of events was the marriage of
the daughters of Ishmael to the sons of Lehi and to Zoram. “And
thus my father had fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord which had been
given unto him. And also, I, Nephi, had
been blessed of the Lord exceedingly” (1 Nephi 16:8).
One night, the voice of the Lord commanded Lehi to continue
their journey the next day. That morning,
as Lehi found a ball in his doorway.
Nephi described it as “ball of
curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass.
And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way
whither we should go into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 16:10).[1]
The family gathered things together along with a variety of
seeds and began their journey again in the wilderness.
They traveled for four days in a south-southeastern
direction. They found a place where they
could pitch their tenets. They called
this place Shazer [HEB twisting, intertwining].
They went into the wilderness with their bows and arrows to
get food for their families. They were
successful and continued their journey in the same south-southeast direction,
keeping in the most fertile parts of the wilderness. Hugh Nibley explains, “A strong point for the
Book of Mormon is the claim that Lehi's people survived only by ‘keeping in the
more fertile parts of the wilderness’ (1 Nephi 16:14), since that is actually
the custom followed in those regions, though the fact has only been known to
westerners for a short time. Nephi gives us a correct picture of hunting
practices both as to weapons and methods used. Even the roughest aspects of
desert life at its worst are faithfully and correctly depicted.”[2]
After spending a short time in Shazer, they continued their
journey for many days. As they traveled,
they followed the directions of the ball.
This led them to the more fertile parts of the wilderness. Hugh Nibley explains how this fits in with
what is now known about this part of the world.
Intrepid explorers of our own day
have learned the secret, however, and Lehi knew of it too. Like a sudden flash
of illumination comes the statement that Lehi by divine instruction "led
us in the more fertile parts of the wilderness" (1 Nephi 16:16). Woolley
and Lawrence describe such "more fertile parts" as "stretching
over the flat floor of the plain in long lines like hedges." They are the
depressions of dried-up watercourses, sometimes hundreds of miles long. They
furnish, according to Bertram Thomas, "the arteries of life in the steppe,
the path of Badawin movement, the habitat of animals, by reason of the
vegetation—scant though it is—which flourishes in their beds alone." In
Arabia it is this practice of following "the more fertile parts of the
wilderness" (1 Nephi 16:16) that alone makes it possible for both men and
animals to survive. Cheesman designates as "touring" the practice
followed by men and beasts of moving from place to place in the desert as spots
of fertility shift with the seasons.[3]
[1]
Nephi never gives the ball a name (though he later refers to it as a
compass). The only reference to it, by
name, was by Alma2 when he gave it Helaman2. Here he tells him that it was called “Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a
compass” (Alma 37:38).
[2] Man
Versus Nature, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed March 18, 2013.
[3] Into
the Desert, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed March 18, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment