1 Nephi 13:11-20
13:11 - Why would the wrath of God be kindled against the "seed of (Nephi's) brethren" all these hundreds of years later. I always wondered why God would punish people for not believing in him when in fact it wasn't their fault at all, it was their ancestors hundreds of years ago, why not punish them? But then again, here comes the logic saying "well a just God wouldn't do that so there is probably something that I'm either not seeing or that I don't know that would make that judgement at that time make sense.
13:12 - I remember the first time that I actually read this verse and realized that it was talking about Christopher Columbus, it was magical. It was like lightening hit me... "Oh my goodness, I know who they are talking about!" According to the Institute manual, President Ezra Taft Benson identified this man as Columbus and says that Columbus always attributed his ideas and success to God. He said that the Lord "unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire for the deed." When I was in the Army I had a friend who is Native American and he always hated Columbus day. His argument was "why should I celebrate the day that my people were destroyed." And I've always thought that that was a valid argument. When I was in college in Hawaii, I took a Hawaiian Studies class and it was honestly life changing. One of the points that was driven home was, America is land of the free for many people but for some it means the destruction of their culture, their population, their lifestyle. Ever since I have subscribed to the philosophy that we, as an American culture, are guilty of literal and cultural genocide. So I've felt the same way that my friend did, that Columbus was a tool, and that his journey here was the beginning of devastation for many peoples. But with this new information and the idea that his whole mission was to prepare this land to be the gospel center, I will have to rethink my position.
13:13 - The word "captivity" in this verse is interesting to me. In the previous post I talked about the saints of God being tortured, killed and enslaved, but I had imagined it to only be a few of them. When it says that the Spirit of God "wrought upon other gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon many waters" it implies that the nature of this enslavement of the saints of God was systemic. Otherwise why would they leave in a ship and go across the ocean to escape oppression? If this wasn't a governmental systemic problem then wouldn't a simple move to the countryside be sufficient for freedom?
13:14-15 - So the gentiles come to the promised land and the Lamanites are "scattered and smitted." And the gentiles were blessed and they prospered, and that is consistant with the Lord's promise of "whosoever shall keep my commandments shall prosper in the land." Even though they didn't have the specific instruction directly from the Lord, as the gospel had not yet been restored, they were brought to the promised land just like all the others, by the Spirit of God, and they were faithful in keeping the commandments that they had at the time. Here again, Nephi uses the "black and white" descriptive words for his imagery. This can be a difficult subject, and in fact I just had to talk to my kids about this today, as we were reading one of the stories of Nephi and he uses that same wording. My ex husband is African American and so my kids are mixed, and so they recognize that they have a different skin color than I do, and sometimes that's difficult for them to reconcile, so when this wording came up today I decided to nip it in the bud and talk to the kids about it, and explain that even though it may seem like Nephi is saying that their skins are black or white, what he is really talking about is the light or darkness in their soul. And I said "would Jesus ever say someone is bad because they have black skin? No of course not, so let's be reasonable here and assume that he didn't say it at this time either."
13:16 - The gentiles that are new to the promised land humbled themselves before the Lord, and his power was with them. This is in keeping with the whole "keep my commandments, prosper in the land" thing. Now that I think about it, all of the people that the Lord led out of other countries into the promised land brought a belief in God with them, so even though they didn't have the fullness of the gospel, they still had enough knowledge and faith to live in the manner that he expected from them. Interesting, I had never before understood what the "fullness of the gospel" meant, but this puts it into perfect context. They didn't know everything, they didn't have all the ordinances, all the doctrines, all the commandments, that's the fullness of the gospel. Very interesting.
13:17-19 - Their "mother gentiles" is a very interesting way to say "the countries that they came from." I guess if you think about the "motherland" or the "mothership" it means where you came from originally so I guess it makes sense here. I'm trying to think if there would have been another way to say it that would have made more sense but taken up less space. The power of God was with the gentiles in the promised land and the wrath of God fought against the "mother gentiles." There is a book by Glenn Beck that I really want to read called "Being George Washington." I picked it up and read the back cover one day when we were somewhere and it was incredible. It recounted one of the battles of the Revolutionary War and at the end George Washington had a ton of bullet holes all throughout his clothing, and I think his horse had been shot out from under him, but he wasn't even injured. I never had considered that God himself fought our revolutionary war. I guess if you think about it, strategically it doesn't make sense that we won the war, the British had far more manpower, weaponry, supplies, etc. But a bunch of farmers their freedom from the greatest military power at the time. I guess that would be like Paraguay winning a war against America, with God it's possible but not with anything else. The Institute manual has a quote from President Joseph F. Smith talking about how the restoration of the gospel was only possible in this newly free country. He says that any other country would have choked our the gospel by "stringent laws and bigotry," and really that's true. He had to inspire people to come over here, he had to win a war for the freedom of the people here in the promised land. And again, the Lord promised that as long as the people in the promised land kept his commandments they would be free from the captivity of other nations. So not only did God win the war for us, he also had his inspired men to set up the foundations of the country. Revolution is a tricky business, and I'm sure that logically the founding fathers knew that they were statistically not likely to win, but the Lord inspired them on what to do, and they executed the mission in complete faith. They knew what was at stake, their own lives, the lives of their family and friends. How difficult that decision must have been, when deep in your soul the Lord is telling you to start a revolution, and your brain is saying "you will lose and everyone that you love will be murdered to set an example." Wow, I'm more and more impressed every time I read and write that there are so many people have given all, gone against the sheer terror of their logic to obey the Lord and follow their inspiration. I have much to aspire to.
13:20 - The gentiles won the war and prospered in the land, and they have a book with them, and that leads into tomorrow night's reading.
13:12 - I remember the first time that I actually read this verse and realized that it was talking about Christopher Columbus, it was magical. It was like lightening hit me... "Oh my goodness, I know who they are talking about!" According to the Institute manual, President Ezra Taft Benson identified this man as Columbus and says that Columbus always attributed his ideas and success to God. He said that the Lord "unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire for the deed." When I was in the Army I had a friend who is Native American and he always hated Columbus day. His argument was "why should I celebrate the day that my people were destroyed." And I've always thought that that was a valid argument. When I was in college in Hawaii, I took a Hawaiian Studies class and it was honestly life changing. One of the points that was driven home was, America is land of the free for many people but for some it means the destruction of their culture, their population, their lifestyle. Ever since I have subscribed to the philosophy that we, as an American culture, are guilty of literal and cultural genocide. So I've felt the same way that my friend did, that Columbus was a tool, and that his journey here was the beginning of devastation for many peoples. But with this new information and the idea that his whole mission was to prepare this land to be the gospel center, I will have to rethink my position.
13:13 - The word "captivity" in this verse is interesting to me. In the previous post I talked about the saints of God being tortured, killed and enslaved, but I had imagined it to only be a few of them. When it says that the Spirit of God "wrought upon other gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon many waters" it implies that the nature of this enslavement of the saints of God was systemic. Otherwise why would they leave in a ship and go across the ocean to escape oppression? If this wasn't a governmental systemic problem then wouldn't a simple move to the countryside be sufficient for freedom?
13:14-15 - So the gentiles come to the promised land and the Lamanites are "scattered and smitted." And the gentiles were blessed and they prospered, and that is consistant with the Lord's promise of "whosoever shall keep my commandments shall prosper in the land." Even though they didn't have the specific instruction directly from the Lord, as the gospel had not yet been restored, they were brought to the promised land just like all the others, by the Spirit of God, and they were faithful in keeping the commandments that they had at the time. Here again, Nephi uses the "black and white" descriptive words for his imagery. This can be a difficult subject, and in fact I just had to talk to my kids about this today, as we were reading one of the stories of Nephi and he uses that same wording. My ex husband is African American and so my kids are mixed, and so they recognize that they have a different skin color than I do, and sometimes that's difficult for them to reconcile, so when this wording came up today I decided to nip it in the bud and talk to the kids about it, and explain that even though it may seem like Nephi is saying that their skins are black or white, what he is really talking about is the light or darkness in their soul. And I said "would Jesus ever say someone is bad because they have black skin? No of course not, so let's be reasonable here and assume that he didn't say it at this time either."
13:16 - The gentiles that are new to the promised land humbled themselves before the Lord, and his power was with them. This is in keeping with the whole "keep my commandments, prosper in the land" thing. Now that I think about it, all of the people that the Lord led out of other countries into the promised land brought a belief in God with them, so even though they didn't have the fullness of the gospel, they still had enough knowledge and faith to live in the manner that he expected from them. Interesting, I had never before understood what the "fullness of the gospel" meant, but this puts it into perfect context. They didn't know everything, they didn't have all the ordinances, all the doctrines, all the commandments, that's the fullness of the gospel. Very interesting.
13:17-19 - Their "mother gentiles" is a very interesting way to say "the countries that they came from." I guess if you think about the "motherland" or the "mothership" it means where you came from originally so I guess it makes sense here. I'm trying to think if there would have been another way to say it that would have made more sense but taken up less space. The power of God was with the gentiles in the promised land and the wrath of God fought against the "mother gentiles." There is a book by Glenn Beck that I really want to read called "Being George Washington." I picked it up and read the back cover one day when we were somewhere and it was incredible. It recounted one of the battles of the Revolutionary War and at the end George Washington had a ton of bullet holes all throughout his clothing, and I think his horse had been shot out from under him, but he wasn't even injured. I never had considered that God himself fought our revolutionary war. I guess if you think about it, strategically it doesn't make sense that we won the war, the British had far more manpower, weaponry, supplies, etc. But a bunch of farmers their freedom from the greatest military power at the time. I guess that would be like Paraguay winning a war against America, with God it's possible but not with anything else. The Institute manual has a quote from President Joseph F. Smith talking about how the restoration of the gospel was only possible in this newly free country. He says that any other country would have choked our the gospel by "stringent laws and bigotry," and really that's true. He had to inspire people to come over here, he had to win a war for the freedom of the people here in the promised land. And again, the Lord promised that as long as the people in the promised land kept his commandments they would be free from the captivity of other nations. So not only did God win the war for us, he also had his inspired men to set up the foundations of the country. Revolution is a tricky business, and I'm sure that logically the founding fathers knew that they were statistically not likely to win, but the Lord inspired them on what to do, and they executed the mission in complete faith. They knew what was at stake, their own lives, the lives of their family and friends. How difficult that decision must have been, when deep in your soul the Lord is telling you to start a revolution, and your brain is saying "you will lose and everyone that you love will be murdered to set an example." Wow, I'm more and more impressed every time I read and write that there are so many people have given all, gone against the sheer terror of their logic to obey the Lord and follow their inspiration. I have much to aspire to.
13:20 - The gentiles won the war and prospered in the land, and they have a book with them, and that leads into tomorrow night's reading.
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