11:17-23 - After Nephi had prayed for rain "the Lord did turn away his anger from the people, and caused that rain should fall upon the earth." And just like we talked about yesterday, the food didn't spring up immediately, it took time and until the season that it was supposed to be grown in. The people were very happy and they "did rejoice and glorify God, and the whole face of the land was filled with rejoicing; and they did no more seek to destroy Nephi, but they did esteem him as a great prophet, and a man of God, having great power and authority given unto him from God." Interestingly, this is exactly what the chief judges accused him of doing when he miraculously revealed the murder of the chief judge, they accused him of conspiring with the actual murderer so that everyone could think of him as a great man and a prophet. So if they would have, at that time, believed in him and God, they could have been spared the war and the famine, but ultimately, in the end, they came to the same conclusion. Lehi, the brother of Nephi was equally as righteous for "behold, Lehi, his brother, was not a whit behind him as to things pertaining to righteousness." The people had about 3 years of peace where they did prosper, and rebuild their cities, spread all over the face of the land, and most of the people Nephites and Lamanites did belong to the church. But again, people can't be prosperous for too long because "in the seventy and ninth year there began to be much strife." But the church leadership, to include Nephi, Lehi, and "many of their brethren" were able to lay everything straight for the people and they were "having many revelations daily, therefore they did preach unto the people, insomuch that they did put an end to their strife in that same year." It would seem to me that, sure, there can be some questions about doctrine but to the point where there is strife, it would seem to me that perhaps the people are just looking for something to fight about. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching "The true doctrine of Christ is that all men must come unto him, gain faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end in order to gain salvation." It also quotes President Boyd K. Packer as teaching "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior... That is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel." There are a lot of doctrines that can be confusing, I guess all of them could be without the proper understanding. I think that there are differing degrees of "understanding" when it comes to gospel doctrine, like upon like you know? The more we are faithful to the understanding that we have the more we are given and as we learn more who who God truly, they more we learn and understand who we truly are the more our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs will be morphed into what the Savior would have us become. It is very powerful, like President Packer says. The IM teaches concerning the "Cycles of Righteousness and Wickedness" that "Several times in the Book of Mormon history the people passed through a cycle of righteousness, prosperity, riches, pride, wickedness, destruction, humility, and righteousness again... Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles lamented mankind's failure to break out of negative cycles: 'I guess one of the greatest mysteries of mortality is why mankind fails to learn from history.' Surely the Lord has placed these obvious patterns of behavior in scripture for our own lives." I know that it doesn't have to be like that, that we can be humble and faithful without having to be chastened, there are many people who do it, so I know it's possible. I hope that I can maintain that humility and that faithfulness. I hate to be chastened, it's painful, I know that regardless of how I live there will be trials, but I'd like to minimize them by being righteous, and I'd like to minimize their impact on my by not needing to be compelled to be humble. The hardest thing about being chastened is that you're not in the right state of mind to deal with it, so not only is it difficult as a trial, but you can't even be completely comforted and led by the Savior because your heart is hardened. I wonder if that's how I am now.
11:24-38 - The next year the Lamanites and the Nephite dissenters come to war against the Nephites, but it appears that it's not the type of conventional war that we are used to seeing, this is more of like a guerrilla type warfare. Instead of attacking the Nephites head on as a large group "they did commit murder and plunder; and then they would retreat back into the mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, hiding themselves that they could not be discovered, receiving daily an addition to their numbers, inasmuch as there were dissenters that went forth unto them." This seems similar to us when times are prosperous and we live in abundance, we might not physically flee into the mountains or wilderness, but we spiritually abandon all that we know to be true and right and run towards lawlessness and evil, deserting our people and our homes and our families and our religion, not physically always, but spiritually. We will commit spiritual murder, actual plunder, steal and lie to get gain, this is what we do similarly today, which I think is worse because you don't actually leave and come back as a robber, but you spiritually and emotionally leave and then come back looking like someone people trust and then you take advantage of them. The quick return of the people to wickedness is taught about in the IM saying "The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that 'the devil always sets up his kingdom at the very same time in opposition to God.' Whenever the Savior's Church is established or strengthened, the adversary seeks to create resistance in one form or another to battle the progress made by the Saints of God. We see an example of Satan's opposition emerge in Helaman 11. The Gadianton Robbers had been swept off the land. The righteous Nephite and Lamanite members of the Church had great peace. Only a few years passed, however, before Satan's influence on the people led them to return to iniquity and allowed the Gadianton Robbers to regain their power and influence."
Hugh Nibley talks extensively about the GR hiding in the mountains after they had done their damage, he calls it the Robbers Roost technique citing many global historical and modern examples of groups who are able to make major problems for the general citizenry because they are so difficult to track once they have gone into their hiding places. And that's just what happened when the Nephites decided to go into the mountains and wilderness after them, to finally put a stop to them. The Nephite army came against the GR once and "they were driven back even into their own lands." There are a lot of reasons why this probably didn't work out for them. First it is kind of a preemptive attack, which the Lord does not condone, but is it really? I don't know because the Nephites had been attacked first several times. I wonder if they thought and prayed about attacking the GR as a solution, remember the Lamanites found them and preached the gospel to them and that destroyed them among the Lamanites. Second, they are attacking them on their soil, where they have the "home field advantage," they know the land, the layout, they could set traps and blockages all over the place with no problem. Third, they are guerrilla fighters and the Nephites are conventional fighters, this was a problem for the British during the Revolutionary war. The British would stand in the lines and kneel and shoot, and the Americans would find behind trees, use cover and more insurgency methods, and it was wildly successful. Again the Nephites go against the GR and the "did destroy man; and they were also visited with much destruction." They go back and forth repenting, rebelling, again and again until the 85th year when "they did wax stronger and stronger in their pride, and in their wickedness; and thus they were ripening again for destruction." Tragic. I wonder if that's how our lives are as well. I would like to think that I can maintain righteousness and just do the fine tuning work, but who knows, sometimes I think I'm doing pretty well, and sometimes I think I'm doing awful, so I'm going to keep thinking about it and see how it goes.
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