After hearing Nephi’s words, his brethren were downright
angry with him. They had had
enough. They were so angry, they were
going to throw him in the ocean. “Laman
and Lemuel attempted to kill Nephi by throwing him into the sea (see 1 Nephi
17:48). This seems to imply cliffs overlooking the ocean, since Nephi's life
would not have been threatened by being thrown into the ocean from a beach.”[1]
As they tried to grab Nephi, he warned them, “In the name of the Almighty God, I command
you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the
consuming of my flesh; and whoso shall lay his hands upon me shall wither even
as a dried reed; and he shall be as naught before the power of God, for God
shall smite him” (1 Nephi 17:48).
When Moses saw God, he beheld his power.
“[M]ine own eyes have beheld God;
but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld;
for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me;
and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him” (Moses 1:11).
When Abinadi was filled with the Spirit of God, he warned
King Noah, “Touch me not, for God shall
smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message
which the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told you that which ye requested
that I should tell; therefore, God will not suffer that I shall be destroyed at
this time” (Mosiah 13:3).
In the new world, Lehi would remind Laman and Lemuel:
And
ye have murmured because he hath been plain unto you. Ye say that he hath used sharpness; ye say
that he hath been angry with you; but behold, his sharpness was the sharpness
of the power of the word of God, which was in him; and that which ye call anger
was the truth, according to that which is in God, which he could not restrain,
manifesting boldly concerning your iniquities.
And
it must needs be that the power of God must be with him, even unto his
commanding you that ye must obey. But
behold, it was not he, but it was the Spirit of the Lord which was in him,
which opened his mouth to utterance that he could not shut it.
2 Nephi 1:26 - 27
He commanded them so stop
complaining and get to work building the ship.
He told them, “God had commanded
me that I should build a ship … If God had commanded me to do all things I
could do them. If he should command me
that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should
say it, it would be done … , if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought
so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct
me, that I should build a ship” (1 Nephi 17:49-51). Paul, writing to the Philippians, told them, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me” (Philippians 4:13).
Nephi expounds on the effect his words had on his brethren. “I … said
many things unto my brethren, insomuch that they were confounded [IE ashamed,
overawed] and could not contend against me; neither durst they lay their hands
upon me nor touch me with their fingers, even for the space of many days. Now they durst not do this lest they should
wither before me, so powerful was the Spirit of God; and thus it had wrought
upon them” (1 Nephi 17:52).
The Lord wasn’t with them.
A few days later, Nephi was commanded to “[s]tretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and they shall not
wither before thee, but I will shock [IE cause to shake or tremble; see vv.
54–55] them, saith the Lord, and this will I do, that they may know that I am
the Lord their God” (1 Nephi 17:53).
This he did.
His brethren responded that they knew the Lord as with him,
and what he has done he did through the power of the Lord. They fell down and began to worship Nephi.
This was similar to Paul and Baranabas’s experience in Greece.
And
there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from
his mother's womb, who never had walked:
The
same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had
faith to be healed,
Said
with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet.
And he leaped and walked.
And
when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in
the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.
And
they called Barnabas, Jupiter [GR Zeus] ; and Paul, Mercurius [GR Hermes],
because he was the chief speaker.
Then
the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands
unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.
Which
when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and
ran in among the people, crying out,
And
saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We
also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn
from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and all things that are therein:
Acts 14:8 - 15
Nephi immediately stopped his brothers from worshipping him,
saying, “I am thy brother, yea, even thy
younger brother; wherefore, worship the Lord thy God, and honor thy father and
thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God shall
give thee” (1 Nephi 17:55).
We get a tremendous insight into Laman and Lemuel. Richard Bushman writes:
[A] frequent result of the
brothers' assaults on Nephi was a rebuke from the Lord. Once an angel appeared
to chastise them, and on another occasion they heard the voice of the Lord.
They gave way in the face of these rebukes, but on one occasion they did more
than relent. When Nephi was about to construct a ship and the brothers in anger
tried to throw him into the sea, Nephi was given the power to shock them
physically with a touch. This show of power so overwhelmed Laman and Lemuel
that they swung to the opposite extreme. Nephi says they "fell down before
me, and were about to worship me," and he had to reassure them he was
still only their brother (1 Nephi 17:53-55). This reaction, combined with the
brothers' repeated violent assaults on Nephi, suggests that force was their
characteristic reaction to crisis, the only language they understood in such
situations. It seemed to be a matter of smite or be smitten.[2]
Robert Rees describes the situation.
For a brief period, Nephi has such
great power that his brothers realize he could kill them merely by touching
them. The Lord then commands Nephi to stretch forth his hand and shock them.
Laman and Lemuel then use the word know honestly for the first
time: "We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee, for we
know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken us" (1
Nephi 17:55).
What Nephi is doing, of course, is
confronting his brothers with truth that no Israelite could deny: the
miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, their rebellion
against God, and their eventual arrival in the promised land. He then uses this
great defining moment in Israelite history to parallel the Nephites' sojourn in
the Arabian desert and their voyage to their own promised land. By employing
the words know/knew 22 times in this short passage, Nephi dramatically
demonstrates the difference between the ways that he and his brothers operate
in the world (they are dishonest or, at best, manipulative, while he always
acts with integrity) and also helps the reader see that this small episode is
in reality a microcosm of the entire Book of Mormon narrative. (Emphasis
in original)[3]
Virginia Pearce describes their behavior.
We see that very often people
comply or are obedient because they're afraid not to, and that's certainly the
lowest level of obedience, but sometimes in our own families we resort to that.
Then other times, Laman and Lemuel are persuaded. Nephi exhorts them. He is a
convincing person, and they are persuaded on their own. They humble themselves,
they are persuaded, but then they go back. There is even one place in this
story where it says they know of a surety (1 Nephi 17:55), which is the same
thing that Sariah says (1 Nephi 5:8), but they don't hold on to it like Sariah
does. The moment Sariah says she knows of a surety, she never goes back. She
seems to have what Nephi has, which is tenacity, and Lehi, Sam, Jacob, and
Joseph have it as well. It is just some kind of core that moves them forward once
they make that decision. Laman and Lemuel just don't believe. In the face of
experience after experience after experience, they are motivated by fear.[4]
[1] The
Arabian Bountiful Discovered? Evidence for Nephi's Bountiful, Warren P.
Aston, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 13,
2013.
[2][2]
The
Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History, Richard L. Bushman, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 13, 2013.
[3] Irony
in the Book of Mormon, Robert A. Rees, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute, accessed April 13, 2013.
[4] Virginia
Pearce, as quoted in Lehi's Family, S. Kent Brown, and Peter Johnson, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 13, 2013.
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