The contentions among the Nephites about the fulfillment of Samuel’s
prophesies came to a head. The unbelievers set a deadline for the sign of
Christ’s birth. If the signs did not come by then, believers would be executed.
Nephi was saddened by these events. He went to a place of
solitude and poured his soul out to the Lord on behalf of the believers. He prayed
for a long time. Nephi’s prayers were similar to special prayers offered by
Enos and Alma. “And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I
cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the
day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my
voice high that it reached the heavens” (Enos 1:4).
“Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the
Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might
know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true;
for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this
is the spirit of revelation which is in me” (Alma 5:46).
After his pleading with the Lord, Nephi’s prayer was
answered.
He heard the voice of the Lord, telling him, “[B]e of good
cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be
given, and on the morrow come I into the world … I come unto my own, to fulfil
all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation
of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the
Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time
is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given” (3 Nephi 1:13-14).
The Savior told the Israelites, “Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18).
“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44).
The coming of the Savior was prophesied “from the foundation
of the world” (3 Nephi 1:14). “And thus God bringeth about his great and
eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of the world. And
thus cometh about the salvation and the redemption of men, and also their
destruction and misery” (Alma 42:26).
“And even unto the great and last day, when all people, and
all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall stand before God, to be judged
of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—If they be good,
to the resurrection of everlasting life; and if they be evil, to the
resurrection of damnation; being on a parallel, the one on the one hand and the
other on the other hand, according to the mercy, and the justice, and the
holiness which is in Christ, who was before the world began” (3 Nephi 26:4-5).
And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the
Father and I are one—The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son
because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the
sons of men … And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of
the fulness at the first” (D&C 93:3-4, 14).
The promise made to Nephi occurred. When the Sun went down,
there was no darkness. The people were amazed because there was still light
after the Sun had sent.
The nonbelievers fell to the Earth. “[T]hey that the great plan
of destruction which they had laid for those who believed in the words of the
prophets had been frustrated; for the sign which had been given was already at
hand” (3 Nephi 1:16).
They realized the Savior was about to be born. “When the
sign arrives, the only emotion on display—for both unbeliever and believer
alike—is astonishment (3 Nephi 1:15, 17). The believers may have had a better
outcome than the unbelievers (that is, in addition to remaining conscious they
perhaps have reason to again hope in the Messiah) but the conspicuous absence
of anything like joy in their reaction still hints at a kind of loss when the
believers’ response is compared to their earlier faith.”[1]
Their sins had caught up with them. They had been warned.
They began to be afraid “because of their iniquity and their unbelief” (3 Nephi
1:18).
[1] Temporality
and Fulfillment in 3 Nephi 1, Kimberly M. Berkey, Journal of Book of Mormon
Studies 24 (2015): 69.
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