1 Nephi 10:11-22
10:11 - The whole "dwindling in unbelief" concept has always been a little weird for me. For me, the word unbelief has a connotation of "I've heard the truth and I choose not to believe." And in the first couple initial generations, that was probably the case, the outright rejection of the gospel, but in the case of hundreds of years and many generations of "unbelief" that this verse implies, the posterity of the apostates wouldn't have even had the opportunity to accept/reject the gospel. To me, the phrase "dwindling in unbelief" in this context implies a hard hearted, hopeless group of people just waiting to die out. And a reason that I don't like that is because, for the most part I believe that people want to believe in a God, in a higher power, in a purpose to their lives. To me that longing for belief is made clear by all the various religions world wide and those who are devoted followers of each. Until just the last 5-10 years, flow of information has been slow to nonexistent. So whatever religion a culture had was probably the only one they were ever going to have, and yet in every culture, every religion, there are devote followers. That says to me that the natural, inherent desire to believe is present in MOST people. So when it is said they "dwindled in unbelief," I think would have been better described to me as "existed in ignorance." Meaning that those subsequent generations weren't guilty of the apostasy of their forefathers, but simply didn't know or didn't have the opportunity to learn. That phraseology makes a lot more sense to me. Then he continues that after the Messiah is murdered, he will rise from the dead and manifest himself, "by the Holy Ghost, unto the Gentiles." So he says "hey Jews I gave you a chance, you blew it big time, so now I'm going to let you do your own thing and I'll take my gospel to the Gentiles." The phrase "by the Holy Ghost" is interesting to me though. If you leave out that "by the Holy Ghost" portion of the sentence, it totally implies that the Messiah would personally come down and show himself and teach the Gentiles. But he doesn't do that, not from any record that I've ever seen, he sends his servants, his disciples, his missionaries. They are the bearers of the gospel, but the Holy Ghost is the one who actually makes the knowledge of Jesus Christ manifest in the hearts and minds of the people. He doesn't mention the disciples at all, honestly he could probably have sent pamphlets on the backs of rabbits and it would have been the same effect if taught and converted by the Holy Ghost. I heard an Ensign article the other day that was talking to future missionaries and it said something like "don't worry, you're job is not to convert anyone, that's the job of the Holy Ghost, you're job is to give the Holy Ghost the opportunity to touch the hearts of the people."
10:12-13 - The Lord teaches in parables, and this is one of those times as well. Especially when we look at the misunderstandings that L&L had with this analogy. Lehi acknowledged that his Israelite family leaving Jerusalem and going to the promised land was a fulfillment of that prophesy. I guess this begs the question, why scatter Israel? The Institute manual says that it was due to their rejection of the gospel, their "defiling the priesthood," and killing the prophets. I understand that the Lord made a promise to Abraham, and him being all knowing, I guess it would make sense that he knew all along that they would become apostate, but making the Abrahamic Covenant, he had a plan. But why scatter Israel? Why not just do like he did with the Nephites and scourge them with war and famine until the repented? Too hard hearted maybe? I guess it's kind of like parenting a child. When the child misbehaves, first there are warnings, then they go to time out (famine,) then when the behavior escalates, they lose their privileges (war, lose your privilege to live,) then finally when they just can't function in their environment any longer, military school. In military school, all their bad behavior will be ripped out of them, it will be brutal, it will remove much of "who they are," but when they return the hope is that they will have learned their lesson, learned valuable life skills, how to live and even thrive in their home environment again. And as most loving parents, I bet Heavenly Father cried and felt heartbroken when Israel was scattered, or in our analogy, the misbehaving child was sent to military school. I guess it's all about escalation. In the beginning simple steps are employed to correct and teach the child, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe it's because as a child I focused on the death and destruction in the stories, it almost seems like it goes from 0-60 or disobedience to death in about 4 verses. But in reality and I stop and really read it, there are countless warnings, countless chances to repentance, and the death, destruction and scattering is the absolute last resort, but done out of love just like a child is sent away to military school.
10:14 - The very next verse says "but don't worry I'll bring them back" almost as if a "hey you're going to military school this weekend, then I'll come pick you up on Monday." It seems like the whole "scattering" and "gathering" part going to be within the same generation, it doesn't seem like it's going to take several millennia to do. And looking back at the end result this verse makes sense, "I'll gather Israel in again after the Gentiles have the fulness of the gospel and they will teach Israel and bring them back to the knowledge of my gospel, and then they will be considered gathered in again." But if I didn't have the past as a reference, this would make any sense to me. "So Israel will be gathered in again, but first the Gentiles have to receive the gospel, for some reason, and then we will learn the knowledge of the Messiah we've known about for centuries, right..." Maybe that can be lesson to me, take my Patriarchal blessing for instance, there are a lot of cryptic phrases and ideas, just like there probably is in everyones. But just because I think I know the meaning of something doesn't mean that that's the end of understanding. The scriptures as well.
10:15 - Here Nephi again references his "other book" but never references his father's record in that manner, again affirming to me that Nephi hadn't counted on his father's record being made available to us end readers.
10:16 - Here we see that they are still in their initial location, about 12-14 days away from Jerusalem.
10:17 - This is another time when Nephi says "hey wait, I want to see that too!" He's already prayed and asked for confirmation once, and this will be time two. Nephi says that his father "spake by the power of the Holy Ghost," and in the Institute manual there is a quote by Elder Russell M. Nelson that says "Living the Lord’s standards requires that we cultivate the gift of the Holy Ghost. That gift helps us understand doctrine and apply it personally. Because truth that is given by revelation can be understood only by revelation, our studies need to be prayerful." Lehi wasn't reading from a script when he was prophesying, he was speaking from his heart, he was saying the words that the Holy Ghost put into his mouth to both speak to his family and to have recorded for posterity. We can't simply take what we logically know and act throughout our lives and expect to be in accordance with the law the whole time. There are various scenarios which don't fit into one box, or that has a set action with it. The Holy Ghost is meant to guide us and direct us in our decisions and actions, comfort us in our sorrows, teach us when we humble ourselves enough to listen and learn. As the quote says, there are many points of doctrine that can seem far fetched or that doesn't seem like it's meant for us personally. These are all lessons that we must learn when we are quiet and our minds and hearts are still. Without these times of learning, comfort, and reflection we stand stagnant.
10:19 - "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded until them, by the power of the Holy Ghost." I'd like to think that this is what I'm doing right now, I'm really trying to diligently seek the Lord, and even though my blogging and studying has been slow, and probably lacked the maximum effort that I could be doing, I have already had many insights, many "light bulb" moments that I don't think I could have had otherwise. The mysteries of God and the universe are vast, and they are only given to those who, as I see it, the Lord feels will treat them with respect.
10:12-13 - The Lord teaches in parables, and this is one of those times as well. Especially when we look at the misunderstandings that L&L had with this analogy. Lehi acknowledged that his Israelite family leaving Jerusalem and going to the promised land was a fulfillment of that prophesy. I guess this begs the question, why scatter Israel? The Institute manual says that it was due to their rejection of the gospel, their "defiling the priesthood," and killing the prophets. I understand that the Lord made a promise to Abraham, and him being all knowing, I guess it would make sense that he knew all along that they would become apostate, but making the Abrahamic Covenant, he had a plan. But why scatter Israel? Why not just do like he did with the Nephites and scourge them with war and famine until the repented? Too hard hearted maybe? I guess it's kind of like parenting a child. When the child misbehaves, first there are warnings, then they go to time out (famine,) then when the behavior escalates, they lose their privileges (war, lose your privilege to live,) then finally when they just can't function in their environment any longer, military school. In military school, all their bad behavior will be ripped out of them, it will be brutal, it will remove much of "who they are," but when they return the hope is that they will have learned their lesson, learned valuable life skills, how to live and even thrive in their home environment again. And as most loving parents, I bet Heavenly Father cried and felt heartbroken when Israel was scattered, or in our analogy, the misbehaving child was sent to military school. I guess it's all about escalation. In the beginning simple steps are employed to correct and teach the child, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe it's because as a child I focused on the death and destruction in the stories, it almost seems like it goes from 0-60 or disobedience to death in about 4 verses. But in reality and I stop and really read it, there are countless warnings, countless chances to repentance, and the death, destruction and scattering is the absolute last resort, but done out of love just like a child is sent away to military school.
10:14 - The very next verse says "but don't worry I'll bring them back" almost as if a "hey you're going to military school this weekend, then I'll come pick you up on Monday." It seems like the whole "scattering" and "gathering" part going to be within the same generation, it doesn't seem like it's going to take several millennia to do. And looking back at the end result this verse makes sense, "I'll gather Israel in again after the Gentiles have the fulness of the gospel and they will teach Israel and bring them back to the knowledge of my gospel, and then they will be considered gathered in again." But if I didn't have the past as a reference, this would make any sense to me. "So Israel will be gathered in again, but first the Gentiles have to receive the gospel, for some reason, and then we will learn the knowledge of the Messiah we've known about for centuries, right..." Maybe that can be lesson to me, take my Patriarchal blessing for instance, there are a lot of cryptic phrases and ideas, just like there probably is in everyones. But just because I think I know the meaning of something doesn't mean that that's the end of understanding. The scriptures as well.
10:15 - Here Nephi again references his "other book" but never references his father's record in that manner, again affirming to me that Nephi hadn't counted on his father's record being made available to us end readers.
10:16 - Here we see that they are still in their initial location, about 12-14 days away from Jerusalem.
10:17 - This is another time when Nephi says "hey wait, I want to see that too!" He's already prayed and asked for confirmation once, and this will be time two. Nephi says that his father "spake by the power of the Holy Ghost," and in the Institute manual there is a quote by Elder Russell M. Nelson that says "Living the Lord’s standards requires that we cultivate the gift of the Holy Ghost. That gift helps us understand doctrine and apply it personally. Because truth that is given by revelation can be understood only by revelation, our studies need to be prayerful." Lehi wasn't reading from a script when he was prophesying, he was speaking from his heart, he was saying the words that the Holy Ghost put into his mouth to both speak to his family and to have recorded for posterity. We can't simply take what we logically know and act throughout our lives and expect to be in accordance with the law the whole time. There are various scenarios which don't fit into one box, or that has a set action with it. The Holy Ghost is meant to guide us and direct us in our decisions and actions, comfort us in our sorrows, teach us when we humble ourselves enough to listen and learn. As the quote says, there are many points of doctrine that can seem far fetched or that doesn't seem like it's meant for us personally. These are all lessons that we must learn when we are quiet and our minds and hearts are still. Without these times of learning, comfort, and reflection we stand stagnant.
10:19 - "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded until them, by the power of the Holy Ghost." I'd like to think that this is what I'm doing right now, I'm really trying to diligently seek the Lord, and even though my blogging and studying has been slow, and probably lacked the maximum effort that I could be doing, I have already had many insights, many "light bulb" moments that I don't think I could have had otherwise. The mysteries of God and the universe are vast, and they are only given to those who, as I see it, the Lord feels will treat them with respect.
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