Chapter 4
Nephi slays Laban at the Lord’s command and
then secures the plates of brass by stratagem-Zoram chooses to join Lehi’s
family in the wilderness. About 600–592 B.C.
Nephi attempted to
reassure Laman and Lemuel. We will go again to Jerusalem, keeping the Lord’s
commandments. The Lord is mightier than Laban’s fifty or even his tens of
thousands. The Lord is mightier than all the Earth.
“Yet even the older
brothers, though they wish to emphasize Laban’s great power, mention only fifty
(1 Nephi 3:31), and it is Nephi in answering them who says that the Lord is ‘mightier
than Laban and his fifty,’ and adds, ‘or even than his tens of thousands’ (1
Nephi 4:1). As a high military commander Laban would have his tens of thousands
in the field, but such an array is of no concern to Laman and Lemuel: it is the
‘fifty’ they must look out for, the regular, permanent garrison of Jerusalem.”[1]
Nephi encouraged
them to be strong like Moses.
“If thou faint in
the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
“If thou forbear to
deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
“If thou sayest,
Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and
he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every
man according to his works?” (Proverbs 24:10-12).
He used the example
of the dividing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army as an
example of faith.
After being
discovered by Ammon and his party, King Limhi called the people together and told
them, “Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God,
in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that
God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused
that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, and fed them with
manna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he
do for them” (Mosiah 7:19).
They had seen an
angel and he spoke to them. The Lord will deliver us and destroy Laban even as
he did the Egyptians.
1st
Nephi and the Exodus[2]
Lehi’s group saw themselves as reenacting the exodus of the
Israelites from Egypt. Just as God had called Moses and Joshua to lead the
children of Israel out of oppressive conditions across a sea and the river
Jordan, and into the promised land, so he called Lehi to lead his group out of
Jerusalem, across the ocean, and to a new land of promise. Nephi thought of
Moses when he exhorted his brothers to be “strong like unto Moses,” who had
delivered his people out of captivity (1 Nephi 4:2). As a typology, that first
exodus, mainly in the Old Testament book of Exodus, became a pattern whose
motifs may be found throughout Nephi’s story of this second exodus. By
extension, many of these themes can also be found in accounts of other Book of
Mormon groups who were likewise delivered from captivity and fled into the
wilderness. It is a pattern that still holds today in the personal conversion
of individuals who flee evil and seek the Lord.
|
1 Nephi
|
Exodus
|
Motifs Common
to Both Accounts
|
|
1:6
|
3:2
|
fire present
at the calling of Lehi and Moses
|
|
1:6, 16:16
|
13:21
|
Lord’s
guidance
|
|
1:20
|
1:11-16
|
oppressive
conditions
|
|
2:2
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3:7-18
|
Lord’s
command to depart
|
|
2:6-7
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3:18; 15:22;
20:25
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sacrifice to
the Lord after three days’ journey
|
|
2:11-12;
5:2; 16:20
|
15:24;
16:2-3
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murmuring
against the Lord
|
|
2:15; 3:9;
10:16
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18:7; 3:8
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dwelling in
tents
|
|
2:20
|
3:17
|
promise of a
new land of inheritance
|
|
4:12
|
17:8-13
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victory over
enemies
|
|
7:6-7
|
14:12
|
rebellious
desire to return
|
|
9:1-4
|
17:14
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a record of
the journey
|
|
11:1-14:27
|
19:19-31:18
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instruction
from God on a high mountain
|
|
15:6-16:5
|
19:3-25
|
prophet who
teaches with divine instruction
|
|
16:10
|
7:9-21;
8:16; 14:16
|
miraculous
objects (Liahona, rod)
|
|
16:34
|
Josh. 24:32
|
a burial
|
|
17:2-5
|
16:11-18
|
Lord’s
provision of ready-to-eat food
|
|
17:4
|
16:35; Deut.
8:2
|
prolonged
wandering in the wilderness
|
|
17:6
|
16:3, 17:1
|
afflictions
in the wilderness
|
|
17:26;
18:8-23
|
17:21-22,
29; 15:19
|
crossing a
sea
|
|
17:52
|
34:30
|
a
transfiguration
|
|
17:55
|
14:31; 20:12
|
acknowledgement
of the Lord’s power
|
|
18:7
|
18:3-4
|
two sons
born in the wilderness
|
|
18:8
|
14:21
|
Lord’s
providential wind
|
|
18:9
|
32:18-19
|
wicked
revelry
|
|
18:20
|
32:10
|
death
warning from the Lord
|
|
18:23-25
|
Josh 11:23
|
inheritance
of a promised land
|
|
19:11
|
20:18
|
thunderings
and lightnings at God’s presence
|
Having heard this,
Laman and Lemuel were still angry and continued to murmur. Even so, they did
follow Nephi to the walls outside of Jerusalem.
Here we see Nephi is
the only one who has a divine perspective. Laman and Lemuel were seeing
through their own glasses and they couldn’t see how the four off them can take
on all of Laban. Nephi has clearly learned from their previous failures, the
only way they will succeed is through the Lord’s intervention.[3]
Laman, Lemuel, and
Sam waited outside the city walls as Nephi entered the city. As he went
forward, he was led by the Spirit. He had no idea what he was going to do. Hugh
Nibley wrote, “Nephi goes on. He was led by the spirit. This passage reassures
anybody. ‘And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which
I should do’ (1 Nephi 4:6). This is a very popular passage in the Book of
Mormon because inside of all of us there comes that time when you are led by
the Spirit not knowing what you should do. Yet you are willing to be led. What
does your own judgment have to do with it?”[4]
“The gradual
increase of light radiating from the rising sun is like receiving a message
from God ‘line upon line, precept upon precept’ (2 Nephi 28:30). Most
frequently, revelation comes in small increments over time and is granted
according to our desire, worthiness, and preparation. Such communications from
Heavenly Father gradually and gently ‘distil upon [our souls] as the dews from
heaven’ (D&C 121:45). This pattern of revelation tends to be more common
than rare and is evident in the experiences of Nephi as he tried several
different approaches before successfully obtaining the plates of brass from
Laban (see 1 Nephi 3–4). Ultimately, he was led by the Spirit to Jerusalem, ‘not
knowing beforehand the things which [he] should do’ (1 Nephi 4:6). And he did
not learn how to build a ship of curious workmanship all at one time; rather,
Nephi was shown by the Lord ‘from time to time after what manner [he] should
work the timbers of the ship’ (1 Nephi 18:1).”[5]
The Lord is teaching
Nephi. Coming into the wilderness, Nephi needed to know Lehi was a prophet. He
needed to learn it is critical to have a testimony of a prophet. In our lives,
we learn there are things which we need to receive to have a personal witness from
the Lord.[6]
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