Helaman 11:1-16
11:1-6 - The people of Nephi are still embroiled in their contentions and there were wars and contentions "and it was this secret band of robber who did carry on this work of destruction and wickedness." The war and bloodshed didn't seem to be stirring up their people to repentance like it normal does, so Nephi prayed saying "O Lord, do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword; but O Lord, rather let there be a famine in the land to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God, and perhaps they will repent and turn unto thee." When God was giving Nephi the sealing power in the last chapter Hugh Nibley observed that God "gives him a broad hint, a suggestion- you'll have power to smite the earth... So he planted the idea, obviously with Nephi." Makes sense, and I was thinking why famine instead of war? I guess that's because I really don't like being hungry, but I think that there is a distinct difference between war and famine, both are horrific, but the first difference is that war can happen because the people are wicked and the Lord withdraws His protection, and then they are left to fend for themselves against Satan. Famine is different in the fact that it's God who is actively participating in the chastening by keeping the rain away and making the curse come upon the land. When plagued by war people can hold hate in their hearts, hate for those who started the war, hate for those who fight in it, hate for the enemy. There can be justification, "we went to war for this good reason," so there's no need to feel like questioning your own moral standing before God if you believe that you are justified in your purpose. You can also feel that the war doesn't effect you so kind of bury your head in the sand. But famine effects everyone, and I wonder if it effected Nephi, I would imagine so, even he had his agency and faith and if he was hand fed or if he only had rain in his little spot that would kind of take away his agency by making the choice obvious. The Old Testament stories chapter 33 says that while hiding from Jezebel Elijah was fed by birds and drank from a stream but "then the famine came. There was no water in the stream. Elijah had no water to drink or food to eat." So not even the prophets are exempt from the effects of famine. The birds didn't continue to feed Elijah when there was no food, the stream didn't continue to flow even though there was no rain. These elements followed their natural processes and the prophet and other citizens had to completely depend on God for deliverance. So it might have been with Nephi, I don't really get a feel for how he survived, technically, like I know that the Lord preserved him, but I don't know how. Nephi demonstrates unwavering commitment and love of his fellow man when he himself is willing to go hungry to an extreme degree so that the people can be persuaded to repent. With a famine, there is no one to hate, no one logically anyway, people will always find things to blame and hate because that's what they are looking for, but if anyone is at all reasonable, they can't look at their neighbor and say "this is your fault." They can't expect anyone else to make it rain, water only comes from one source, God, and no one can reasonably question otherwise. Hugh Nibley explains that "they (the Nephites) began to remember their Lord because this is it- you are always dependent on him. If it wasn't for the sky and the Lord sending rain, you wouldn't last at all... That is the ultimate curse. That's why you had to go to the temple. That's the meaning of the word liturgy, a prayer for rain...Its original idea is this prayer for rain, but it is an obsession with the human race because our livelihood depends on it. Look what happens." The Nephites with all their fine clothes and gold and silver didn't get them food or water, they couldn't buy it if it wasn't there, they couldn't squeeze it out of their jewelry, they couldn't convince God to give them water for any other reason then their repentance. There was no energy to be spent trying to strategize the destruction of a city, there was no hope that a certain tactic would work and bring peace, there was literally nothing except turning to God, repenting and being humble that would make the rain come, that's part of the difference between war and famine. This famine was so severe that even the Lamanites were effected, and as we remember, the Lamanites were the righteous ones at this time. Another interesting fact here is that we don't know exactly how spread out over the American continent the Nephites and Lamanites are, if they are expanded over the whole north and south America, then this famine effects almost half of the earth, various landscapes and terrain, it is completely universal regardless of the lay of the land. But why let the Lamanites starve when they are the righteous ones? I guess there's two parts to this answer, first is that if the Lamanites, who were righteous, had plenty of food and water because they were being blessed by the Lord, then they might be motivated to remain righteous so that they could maintain their blessings of food and water, they wouldn't be motivated to be righteous by a love of God. And on the flip side, the Nephites would see that they were being punished but the Lamanites were not and they might be motivated to "repent" so that they could be blessed with food and water also. Basically, by having both peoples effected by the famine, the Lord ensured that if they did repent then it would be done for the right reasons, to be a lasting repentance, a repentance that would bring reconciliation with God. The second reason why God might have allowed the Lamanites to suffer with the famine would have been one of their trials to bring them closer to Him. If they were starving, would they turn against Him, turn wicked or would they work harder to grow closer to Him and to keep his commandments with even more exactness, it was a purifying exercise. But the famine was not spread across the land equal, and "they were smitten that they did perish by thousands in the more wicked parts of the land." How did the Lord manage to spare more of his righteous then the wicked while still maintaining that balance of agency? There could have been lots of ways, he could have prepared them before hand, prompting them for food storage like he does for us and like Joseph in Egypt. He could have made their famine less severe in the more righteous parts of the lands.
11:7-16 - The people were really suffering, and I could imagine that that's true, I hate being hungry and I couldn't imagine starving to death and watching it happen to my children as well. In their suffering, and possibly since many of their more wicked people were dead, "the people saw that they were about to perish by famine, and they began to remember the Lord their God; and the began to remember the words of Nephi." So they finally do realize what's going to happen to them if they don't repent, and they can see that they've been told about it many times beforehand and that they had many many opportunities to stop all that mess before it got to this point. The people began asking their chief judges and their leaders to talk to Nephi and ask him to ask God for rain and they did go to Nephi and ask him. I was trying to understand the significance of having the chief judges be the ones to ask, and why didn't the people just go and ask him themselves, and I'm not exactly sure why they didn't, but it seems significant to me that the chief judges were the most ambitious of the GRs, they were the ones so hungry for power that they were willing to put themselves in the judgment-seat and risk murder by their friends and family just for a taste of that power. They were also the ones who were very angry with Nephi when he was preaching to them on the tower, they were the ones who witnessed first hand the miracle that Nephi told them about, and yet they hardened their hearts, so it seems important to me that they were the one to humble themselves and go to Nephi and ask him to ask God for relief, but they did ask, and Nephi did pray. Nephi's prayer has a couple of interesting components to it, the first being that he prays not only for those who have humbled themselves but also "let thine anger be appeased in the destruction of those wicked men whom thou hast already destroyed." Maybe I just don't get it, but it would seem to me that Nephi's praying for those wicked people who have already died. That's very interesting because I'm not too familiar with people praying for those who are already dead, which I guess would make sense, I just am not too familiar with it. Another interesting thing in the prayer is that he prays for God to "send forth rain upon the face of the earth, that she may bring forth her fruit, and her grain in the season of grain." He doesn't pray for rain to come and food to pour from the sky, which the people might have been expecting, I mean, even I probably would have expected that, but he's not asking for a grand miracle, they've already rejected the miracles, he's not asking for anything spectacular, he's just asking for the normal processes of nature to resume. If it had rained and food sprouted up instantly, then we might come back to the whole what's the true motivation of the repentance and righteousness? Is it because they love God and want to obey Him or is it so that they will have food. And like we learned yesterday, faith can not be built on miracles, the miracles happen because of their faith. The last interesting tidbit here is that when Nephi asks the Lord to send rain he asks "O Lord, thou didst hearken unto my words when I said, Let there be a famine that the pestilence of the sword might cease; and I know that thou wilt, even at this time, hearken unto my words, for thou saidst that: If his people repent I will spare them." He doesn't ask God to send rain because "you said that you would give me whatever I asked for and this is what I'm asking for," he has a complete separate argument, spare the people like you said you would. It's just interesting that even though Nephi has been given the power to command heaven and earth there's no rush of power there, it probably feels like an even greater responsibility to him, in fact he doesn't mention that at all as any of the reasons why God should do what he asks. The IM teaches that Prophets Pray for the People saying "Nephi's prayer on behalf of his people illustrates the concern of a prophet for the people. As well as representing God to the people, at times, prophets also seek to intervene on behalf of their people. When plagued by poisonous serpents, the children of Israel went to Moses and pled, 'pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.' In the Americas, Nephi, the son of Lehi, wrote: 'I pray continually for (my people) by day, and mine eye water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith.' Our current prophets continue to pray for us." I know that we are supposed to pray for the prophets but it hadn't occurred to me that they would pray for us also. Very interesting. And finally, I just want to point out that Nephi has a unique style of speaking, that seems to be pretty consistent from the prayer for famine and also the prayer for rain. He uses the phrase "O Lord," several times as the only way that he addresses God. He also puts an "st" on the end of many words that isn't done as frequently, such as "saidst," "seest" "canst." Just a little side note on the unique communication style of Nephi.
11:7-16 - The people were really suffering, and I could imagine that that's true, I hate being hungry and I couldn't imagine starving to death and watching it happen to my children as well. In their suffering, and possibly since many of their more wicked people were dead, "the people saw that they were about to perish by famine, and they began to remember the Lord their God; and the began to remember the words of Nephi." So they finally do realize what's going to happen to them if they don't repent, and they can see that they've been told about it many times beforehand and that they had many many opportunities to stop all that mess before it got to this point. The people began asking their chief judges and their leaders to talk to Nephi and ask him to ask God for rain and they did go to Nephi and ask him. I was trying to understand the significance of having the chief judges be the ones to ask, and why didn't the people just go and ask him themselves, and I'm not exactly sure why they didn't, but it seems significant to me that the chief judges were the most ambitious of the GRs, they were the ones so hungry for power that they were willing to put themselves in the judgment-seat and risk murder by their friends and family just for a taste of that power. They were also the ones who were very angry with Nephi when he was preaching to them on the tower, they were the ones who witnessed first hand the miracle that Nephi told them about, and yet they hardened their hearts, so it seems important to me that they were the one to humble themselves and go to Nephi and ask him to ask God for relief, but they did ask, and Nephi did pray. Nephi's prayer has a couple of interesting components to it, the first being that he prays not only for those who have humbled themselves but also "let thine anger be appeased in the destruction of those wicked men whom thou hast already destroyed." Maybe I just don't get it, but it would seem to me that Nephi's praying for those wicked people who have already died. That's very interesting because I'm not too familiar with people praying for those who are already dead, which I guess would make sense, I just am not too familiar with it. Another interesting thing in the prayer is that he prays for God to "send forth rain upon the face of the earth, that she may bring forth her fruit, and her grain in the season of grain." He doesn't pray for rain to come and food to pour from the sky, which the people might have been expecting, I mean, even I probably would have expected that, but he's not asking for a grand miracle, they've already rejected the miracles, he's not asking for anything spectacular, he's just asking for the normal processes of nature to resume. If it had rained and food sprouted up instantly, then we might come back to the whole what's the true motivation of the repentance and righteousness? Is it because they love God and want to obey Him or is it so that they will have food. And like we learned yesterday, faith can not be built on miracles, the miracles happen because of their faith. The last interesting tidbit here is that when Nephi asks the Lord to send rain he asks "O Lord, thou didst hearken unto my words when I said, Let there be a famine that the pestilence of the sword might cease; and I know that thou wilt, even at this time, hearken unto my words, for thou saidst that: If his people repent I will spare them." He doesn't ask God to send rain because "you said that you would give me whatever I asked for and this is what I'm asking for," he has a complete separate argument, spare the people like you said you would. It's just interesting that even though Nephi has been given the power to command heaven and earth there's no rush of power there, it probably feels like an even greater responsibility to him, in fact he doesn't mention that at all as any of the reasons why God should do what he asks. The IM teaches that Prophets Pray for the People saying "Nephi's prayer on behalf of his people illustrates the concern of a prophet for the people. As well as representing God to the people, at times, prophets also seek to intervene on behalf of their people. When plagued by poisonous serpents, the children of Israel went to Moses and pled, 'pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.' In the Americas, Nephi, the son of Lehi, wrote: 'I pray continually for (my people) by day, and mine eye water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith.' Our current prophets continue to pray for us." I know that we are supposed to pray for the prophets but it hadn't occurred to me that they would pray for us also. Very interesting. And finally, I just want to point out that Nephi has a unique style of speaking, that seems to be pretty consistent from the prayer for famine and also the prayer for rain. He uses the phrase "O Lord," several times as the only way that he addresses God. He also puts an "st" on the end of many words that isn't done as frequently, such as "saidst," "seest" "canst." Just a little side note on the unique communication style of Nephi.
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