Chapter 4
Lehi counsels and
blesses his posterity—He dies and is buried—Nephi glories in the goodness of
God to him—Nephi puts his trust in the Lord forever. About 588–570 B.C.
Lehi has finished with his specific blessings. Nephi now breaks into his account and shares
his thoughts with us.
He emphasizes the importance of Joseph and his
prophecies. Here is an example of where
the brass plates had a more detailed record than does our Bible.
As he ends his first book, Nephi emphasizes the importance
of the brass plates as a religious record.
“Wherefore, my brethren, I would
that ye should consider that the things which have been written upon the plates
of brass are true; and they testify that a man must be obedient to the
commandments of God” (1 Nephi 22:30). While the brass plates were an important
part of the religious tradition of the Nephites, Gordon Thomasson shares
another important role they played in later Nephite history.
Benjamin gave his son the Nephite
national treasures, which are representative of those that a real king was
required to possess anciently (Mosiah 1:16). The first of these, the plates of
brass, contained among other things much of the Old Testament as we know it, a
book of Joseph (2 Nephi 4:2), and a genealogy of Lehi's forefathers back to
Joseph (1 Nephi 5:14). These, coupled with the genealogy and records of the
kings of the Nephites on the large plates (1 Nephi 6:1; 9:4), proved Mosiah's
right to rule by the legitimacy of his descent.7 [1]
Having finished speaking about the prophesies of Joseph,
Lehi calls to gather the children of Laman.[2] (Notice, he does not ask Laman to join
them.) He gives specific counsel to them,
emphasizing that if “ye shall keep my
commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my
commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence” (2 Nephi 4:4). He is reiterating his message to their
father.
He tells his grandchildren that, “if ye are brought up in the way ye should go ye will not depart from
it” (2 Nephi 4:5). He is echoing the
words of Solomon, “Train up a child in
the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”
(Proverbs 22:6).
However, he understands that the chances are small they will
be raised in the proper and correct way.
So, to his blessing, Lehi adds these words, “I leave my blessing upon you that the cursing may be taking from you
and answered upon the heads of your parents” (2 Nephi 4:6).
In this dispensation, the Lord told Joseph Smith:
And
again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which
are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance,
faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the
Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon
the heads of the parents.
For
this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which
are organized.
And
their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight
years old, and receive the laying on of the hands.
And
they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the
Lord.
D&C 68:25 - 28
Duane Boyce writes:
More than two hundred years after
the appearance of Christ, Mormon tells us that the people now called Lamanites
“were taught to hate the children of God, even as the Lamanites were taught to
hate the children of Nephi from the beginning” (4 Nephi 1:39). On the matter of
accountability in general, recall Lehi’s blessing to the children of Laman that
“if ye are cursed, behold, I leave my blessing upon you, that the cursing may
be taken from you and be answered upon the heads of your parents” (2 Nephi
4:6)—a blessing which he extended to the children of Lemuel as well (2 Nephi
4:9).[3]
Elder Neal Maxwell teaches that choices made by parents have
large effects on their children.
[1] Mosiah:
The Complex Symbolism and Symbolic Complex of Kingship in the Book of Mormon,
Gordon C. Thomasson, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed
July 19, 2013.
[2] Lehi
gave this same blessing to give the children of Lemuel (see 2 Nephi 4:9-10).
[3] Were
the Ammonites Pacifists? Duane Boyce, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute, accessed July 19, 2013.
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