ALL THINGS ACCORDING TO HIS WILLGD BoM Lesson 2: 1 Nephi 1-7

INTRODUCTION➤ “The family is central to the Creator’s

plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”

➤ It is fitting that the keystone of our religion is primarily written about a family

➤ Can we relate to them?

➤ They live in a corrupt world

➤ They lose wealth and position when they decide to follow the Lord

➤ They are consistently asked to do things in a new and unfamiliar way

➤ They have some children who follow and some who do not

➤ They argue, suffer, repent, forgive, complain, see miracles, suffer loss, are blessed beyond expectations

WHO WAS LEHI?➤ We often focus heavily on Nephi. We should admire this

patriarch (GospelDoctrinePlus.blogspot.com)

• was a city-dweller (v. 4)

• that he was well-off (v. 1: "goodly")

• that he listened to the prophets (v. 4)

• that he had great care and concern for his fellow-citizens (v. 5)

• that his instant approach to worries was to pray (v. 5)

• that he was educated and wrote a great deal (v. 16--see the link in the previous post theorizing that he may have been a scribe by trade)

• that he was a seer (v. 13)

• that because of his own communications from the Lord he became a prophet or missionary (in a real sense they are the same thing) in Jerusalem (v. 18)

• that he was not swayed by public opinion (v. 19)

• that he had a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ (v. 19)

• and he did not see any success in his mission, and was even threatened with death for it (v. 20)

LEHI LEAVES JERUSALEM AND TAKES HIS FAMILY INTO THE WILDERNESS

➤ 1 Ne 1:6-12 (summarize his vision)

➤ 1 Ne 1:13-15

➤ Why does seeing destruction (13) cause him to rejoice (15)? What else might his vision have contained (14)?

➤ 1 Ne 1:18-20

➤ Hearing truth causes 2 reactions: humility or anger (example of Alma vs. the wicked priests of Noah)

➤ How does this happen today?

➤ What are tender mercies?

➤ Elder Bednar quote (next slide)

“ “I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often the Lord’s timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them.

“… The Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindness, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly the Lord suits ‘his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men’ (D&C 46:15).

-Elder David A. Bednar

LEHI LEAVES JERUSALEM AND TAKES HIS FAMILY INTO THE WILDERNESS

➤ 1 Ne 2:2-4

➤ It’s 200 miles to get to the Red Sea (12-14 days)

➤ What does he do first?

➤ 1 Ne 2:6-7

➤ The journey must have been brutal, yet he praises God

➤ Lehi’s parenting tactic

➤ What do we know about Laman & Lemuel (2:12-13)

➤ How does he speak to them? (2:9-11)

➤ He must know them, why bother with hope?

DANGERS OF MURMURING

➤ What is murmuring? How is it different than outright defiance? Why does Satan encourage it?

➤ Elder H. Ross Workman of the Seventy (3 steps to disobedience)

➤ 1. When people murmur they begin to question and then plant questions in the minds of others

➤ 2. They begin to rationalize and excuse themselves from doing what they have been instructed to do

➤ 3. They begin to be slothful in following the commandment

➤ D&C 58:29, ‘But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned’

➤ ATOT: Listening to the Sunday School Podcast. It’s message seemed straight but it had traces of murmuring against the prophet and leaders. It had seeds of doubt packaged in an obedient image.

➤ H. Ross Workman quote (next slide)

“ I invite you to focus on the commandment from living prophets that bothers you the most. Do you question whether the commandment is applicable to you? Do you find ready excuses why you cannot now comply with the commandment? Do you feel frustrated or irritated with those who remind you of the commandment? Are you slothful in keeping it? Beware of the deception of the adversary. Beware of murmuring” (in Conference Report, Oct. 2001, 104–6; or Ensign, Nov. 2001, 85–86).

-H. Ross Workman of the Seventy

NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS RETURN TO JERUSALEM TO OBTAIN THE PLATES OF BRASS

➤ What is the antidote to a tendency to murmur? Nephi must have had the same fears and frustrations in leaving his home.

➤ What did he do? 1 Ne 2:16

➤ What can we learn from his example?

➤ I Ne 3:1-4, Why were they sent back to Jerusalem (14 day journey one way)?

➤ Why were the plates such a big deal? (1 Ne 5:11-12)

➤ Five books of Moses, record of the Jews, Prophecies, Genealogy

➤ What was Laman & Lemuel’s response? 1 Ne 3:5

➤ What was Nephi’s? 1 Ne 3:7 ➤ President Ezra Taft Benson put it most poignantly when he said, ‘When obedience ceases

to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power’” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1998, 108; or Ensign, May 1998, 82).

➤ Have you had “I will go and do” moments? What did you learn?

➤ Henry B. Eyring quote (next slide)

““Whoever we are, however difficult our circumstances, we can know that what our Father commands we do to qualify for the blessings of eternal life will not be beyond us. …

“We may have to pray with faith to know what we are to do and we must pray with a determination to obey, but we can know what to do and be sure that the way has been prepared for us by the Lord” (“The Family” [CES fireside for young adults, Nov. 5, 1995], 1, www.ldsces.org).

-President Henry B. Eyring

NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS RETURN TO JERUSALEM TO OBTAIN THE PLATES OF BRASS

➤ Story summary: 3 attempts to get the plates

➤ 1. Laman tries to reason with Laban (3:11)

➤ 2. They all gather their riches and try to buy the plates (3:22)

➤ After their escape they try to beat Nephi and see an angel(3:28-29)

➤ 3. Nephi goes “alone” (4:6). What was the critical difference with this plan?

➤ How can this type of obedience strengthen us?

➤ What miracles did Nephi experience by allowing the Spirit to guide his actions? I found at least 6. Nephi couldn’t have foreseen any of these outcomes.

➤ 1. 4:7, his enemy is delivered to him

➤ 2. 4:19, the clothes of Laban fit (Nephi was a young man)

➤ 3. 4:20, his voice was altered

➤ 4. 4:23, he received words to say

➤ 5. 4:31, he received physical strength

➤ 6. 4:35, he was able to convince Zoram with his testimony & oath

NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS BRING THE BRASS PLATES TO THEIR FAMILY

➤ Meanwhile back in the wilderness…(sweet example of conflict resolution in a marriage)

➤ Sariah was scared (25-30 day round-trip journey…that’s a lot of time for a mom to worry)

➤ She starts to doubt & fear (5:2)

➤ Lehi responds with understanding and faith (5:4-6)

➤ He testifies of having “obtained a land of promise” yet he is still in the “wilderness”. How does he have both?

➤ He is a prophet, he’s using prophetic future tense. His testimony of the prophecy is so secure that he doesn’t need to see it realized to believe it

➤ Their joy is full (5:7)…well almost. She needs grand babies ;)

NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS RETURN TO JERUSALEM FOR ISHMAEL AND HIS FAMILY

➤ 1 Ne 7:1-3, No one murmurs this time (they know they need wives) ➤ 1 Ne 7:4-5, How were they persuaded? How does gaining favor first make a

difference? Why couldn’t they just use a Jedi mind trick?

➤ 1 Ne 7:6-7, If their hearts were softened, why did they rebel so quickly?

➤ Their father had testified that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Now they’ve gone back 3 times and it’s still standing. That must have sown the seeds of doubt in them.

➤ What is Nephi’s response? (7:8-12) ➤ What experiences with the Spirit are we ‘forgetting’? How can we reconnect

with what we once ‘knew’? ➤ They bind him with cords and try to kill him. What does he pray for? (7:17)

➤ Why should we pray for strength to endure rather than miraculous escape?

➤ What is Nephi’s response to their hardness? (7:21)

CONCLUSION➤ The scriptures promise that people

will ‘prosper’ in the land if they obey the commandments of God (34 times)

➤ Prospering doesn’t mean life will be free from trial. Lehi’s family is a great example of this.

➤ President Joseph F. Smith taught “The man who stays with the kingdom of God, the man who is true to this people, the man who keeps himself pure and unspotted from the world, is the man that God will accept, that God will uphold, that he will sustain, and that will prosper in the land, whether he be in the enjoyment of his liberty or be confined in prison cells, it makes no difference where he is, he will come out all right” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. [1939], 257).

REFERENCE MAP

Possible route taken by Lehi’s family