In the Wilderness
[Must Keep the Commandments to Prosper]
[Lamanites are to Keep the Nephites in Remembrance
122 But let’s consider now just the second chapter. In the first chapter they go down very rapidly. We are not going to linger in the desert now. Eight years is too long for the course, so we will have to get through fast. But there are some things to notice here. He took all his stuff and went down to the borders. It mentions “the borders” twice in the fifth verse. That should be capitalized because that’s what that area has been called, the Jabal, which means “the Borders.” Joseph Smith didn’t know that. Neither did Oliver Cowdery, so they left it uncapitalized. But that area in which they went was the Jabal. Jabal is the range of mountains that separates one country from another. This had that name, Jabal. So they went down into the Borders. Notice they found here, after three days, a valley beside a river of water. Why a “river of water”? Because usually it’s a “river of sand,” NAHR RAML. But this is a river of water. Well, how would they find a river of water in the desert at that time?
123 1 Nephi 1:4 . When you find a wadi that has water in it, that’s a “river of water” and is considered something very unusual. It tells us in 1 Nephi 1:4 that it was at the commencement of year. So this was the winter time when there was water running. The sight of it sent Lehi into fits of ecstasy, as we will see. (That’s what an Arab does whenever he sees water.) This is the way they came down.
123,124 1 Nephi 2:8 We are not lingering on geography. It’s points of doctrine we are interested in now. We have to mention the qaslda though. “And it came to pass that he called the name of the river, Laman, and it emptied into the Red Sea; and the valley was in the borders near the mouth thereof (1 Nephi 2:8). There’s the Borders for the third time—this area called “the Jabal.” It’s a mountain range. So it emptied into the Red Sea. We know where they were, and he renamed them. That’s what the Arabs do when they go down here. After all, if you are going in strange territory, you give names to things as you go. The pioneers did that. Certain things like Chimney Rock have been named various things. Timpanogos has quite a number of names. They have renamed Mount McKinley now. It’s back to Denali, its old Indian name. Different people give things different names, so he named it that.
124,125 1 Nephi 2:9 but notice the ecstasies he goes into: “And when my father saw that the waters of the river emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea.” That expression, “fountain of the Red Sea,” is the one that is used. Remember, the ancients believed that the sea was the fresh fountain and it fed all the rivers of the land; it was the other way around. This one up here is called “the fountain of the Red Sea.” There’s a writing called “The Victory over Seth” that was read in all the temples of Egypt every day, in which this expression occurs. As I said, we won’t linger over these things.
124 1 Nephi 2:9 “[Then] he spake unto Laman [his oldest son], saying: O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!” (1 Nephi 2:9). The sea was never stagnant for the ancients. If any water runs for more than half an hour, it is considered continual (practically perennial) by the people of that area. But it is seasonal. Notice, it says this was at the commencement of the year when the waters would be running. Then he spoke to his other son, Lemuel (who has a good, pure Arabic name, incidentally), and said, “O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lordl” Again, why would a valley be “firm and steadfast”? We say mountains are firm and steadfast. Well, where does the Arab find life, security, and safety? It’s in the valleys where there is water and vegetation. Anywhere else you are a dead man. Nobody wants to go up on a mountain there.
125 1 Nephi 2:11-13 Laman and Lemuel didn’t want it. They were against their father. We mentioned his being a PIQQEAH, a visionary man. They didn’t want to leave the land of Jerusalem and their inheritance. That’s very interesting. Notice, it says, “... led them out of the land of Jerusalem, to leave the land of their inheritance [we will come to “inheritance” presently], and their gold, and their silver, and their precious things, to perish in the wilderness. And this, they said he had done because of the foolish imaginations of his heart. And thus, Laman and Lemuel ... did murmur against their father ... because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them. Neither did they believe that Jerusalem, that great city [from the first they were disillusioned], could be destroyed according to the words of the prophets.” (1 Nephi 2:11-13).
125 1 Nephi 2:13 Notice it didn’t say taken but destroyed. Jerusalem had already been taken in 950, 720, 605, and 597 B.C. but it was spared every time. Sometimes it was taken by the Babylonians, sometimes by the Assyrians, and sometimes by the Egyptians. Nobody wanted to ruin Jerusalem; they wanted to take it so they could have it as a base, etc. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar had been very forbearing. He had spared the people. He had been kind to Necho and sent him back to Egypt to be Pharaoh there and serve his interests. When Necho turned against him, he got very angry. It was the same thing with Josiah. He was willing to cooperate with the Jews, but they played “footsy” with the Egyptians. When he took it in 597, he spared the city and went back. But when he came back this time, he was really mad and destroyed it completely. They [Laman and Lemuel] said the city couldn’t be destroyed because nobody ever wanted to destroy it. They didn’t say it couldn’t be taken, but it couldn’t be destroyed. They felt secure all the time. They had the wealth and all that sort of thing. They had all these things in common with others. As I said, it was a world civilization; they shared these things. So they didn’t believe that.
125,126 1 Nephi 2:14-17 But now we come to a surprising thing! After all these years, this is a thing I have never noticed myself. (You have to bring the Book of Mormon; anybody who doesn’t bring it doesn’t get a gold star next time.) “And it came to pass that my father did speak unto them ... and he did confound them” (1 Nephi 2:14). They couldn’t complain anymore, but they still didn’t change their minds. “I, Nephi, being exceedingly young [listen to his condition there], nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father ...” But he had to have a special revelation himself. He didn’t like the idea at all. Then he had to work hard on his brother Sam to convince him. Nobody liked the idea of leaving Jerusalem. Nephi liked it just as little as the others. After he prayed and cried unto the Lord, the Lord visited him and softened his heart so he would go along with his father. He wasn’t “gung ho” to go out and have some fun in the desert. He didn’t want it, and his brother Sam didn’t want it. Then he talked to Sam, “making known unto him the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit [he conveyed his special revelation to Sam]. And it came to pass that he believed in my words” (1 Nephi 2:17). But he had to be convinced too. So everybody had to be sold on this trip in the first place, including Nephi and Sam. I hadn’t noticed, but it is plain that nobody wanted to go out into that desert. That would be something.
126 1 Nephi 2:20-24 Then we come to the theme of the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 2:20-24. You might say, “Why do we linger so much on this part? We are not going very fast.” We mustn’t go fast because it is here, and right here we have the whole Book of Mormon. This theme is repeated throughout the book in different ways and different situations. It’s a sad story, this story from the dust, as we will see presently. It’s for us. Alas, alas, I wish it wasn’t, but this is it—the rule for the promised land: “And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.” We dwell on that.
126,127 1 Nephi 2:21-24 Remember the migrations at this time. They were all looking for promised lands. Tyrtaeus was looking for a promised land, and he told his people about it. Hesiod, the great Greek poet and contemporary of Homer, was looking for a promised land. He told how they looked and found nothing but bad places wherever they went, and they just had to keep on the move. And, of course, at the beginning of the [Aeneid], Vergil says, “Through many disasters and trials, many close calls, we are making our way toward Latium where there awaits us a seat in a promised land.” They were going from Troy clear over to Italy to find a promised land. So at the time of Lehi, most people were looking for promised lands. Everybody was shaken up because of world revolution. So this was it. They [Lehi’s family] would find their promised land. But if “thy brethren [Laman and Lemuel or anybody else] shall rebel against thee, they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And inasmuch as thou shalt keep my commandments, thou shalt be made a ruler and a teacher over thy brethren. For behold, in that day that they shall rebel against me, I will curse them even with a sore curse, and they shall have no power over thy seed except they shall rebel against me also” (1 Nephi 2:21-24). The Lamanites are never the problem in the Book of Mormon. When the Nephites rebel also, the Lord wants the Lamanites to be there in place to stir them up. “And if it so be that they rebel against me, they shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in the ways of remembrance.” In other words the Lord is saying, I want them breathing down your neck all the time. You will not solve your problem by getting rid of the Lamanites. They tried to do that and failed, and it was their own undoing, as we know. So who is the enemy? There is no conflict or battle in the Book of Mormon between the righteous and the wicked. We will see that. It is always when people are equally wicked that they collide. So this is the promise, and this is the theme of the Book of Mormon.
127 1 Nephi 3:1-20; 2 Nephi 1:3 Then we come to the third chapter of 1 Nephi. Notice he “returned from speaking with the Lord, to the tent of my father” (1 Nephi 3:1). He returned to the tent. They are living in the bayt al-sha’r. Then his father said, “Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brethren shall return to Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 3:2). Then they have to go back to Laban and fetch the plates. Well, we talked about Laban and the character of Jaush in the Lachish Letters. He was the military governor, and he kept the records. Although this chapter is vitally important, we are going to have to flee. “It must needs be that we flee out of the land.” They must flee out of the land; sometimes you can’t stay. Lehi said, I don’t have the vaguest idea why we have to obtain the records, except it may be to preserve the language of our fathers [paraphrased]. It turned out that wasn’t the main reason. They contained “the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets ... since the world began [the holy prophets before them—quite a record]” (1 Nephi 3:20).
127 1 Nephi 4:1 As I said, I want to get off the first book, so we are going to move right on. I’m going to go right over to the Bar Kokhba Letters and the Dead Sea Scrolls which are enormously important for the Book of Mormon. But notice this in the fourth chapter: “Let us go up again unto Jerusalem,... for behold he [the Lord] is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?” (the garrison of fifty and the troops of ten thousand). The regular division in the army is ten thousand, as it was at the Hill Cumorah and in the Battle Scroll, too.
131 As you go in the Scroll Room at Jerusalem, you turn to the left, and the first document you see is this document which has a light behind it. It’s a contract to the ownership of a farm down there. One of the owners of the farm was this man here Alma ben Yehudah, which Professor Yadin rendered “Alma [without any apology], son of Judah.” People have laughed for years about that name Alma, because it is a Latin word and a woman’s name. It means soul, alma mater and that sort of thing. They tried to figure out some Hebrew name that means a “coat of mail” or another word meaning a “young man.” But this is just A-L-M-A, like that, so Yadin properly made it “Alma, son of Judah.” You know he was a man, and you know he was a Jew if he is Alma, son of Judah
133 Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:20 Remember, until very recently (in the 1840s and 1850s) all the Christian churches absolutely insisted that the Jews would never return to Jerusalem because the veil of the temple was rent, and the Lord said the temple was destroyed and the Jews would never go back to Jerusalem. It was like that all the time up until 1948 when Harry Truman sent an ambassador. He visited the pope on the way, and the pope said, “Absolutely nothing doing; the Jews must never go back to Jerusalem. It would frustrate all prophecy.” They thought the Jews would never go back. I have an article on that in the Encyclopedia Judaica. I had to look up a lot of this stuff, and, believe me, the Christian world was against it. The only people that ever believed the Jews would go back to Jerusalem, of course, were the Mormons. We always preached that they would go back to Jerusalem, just as we would have Zion over here. “And except those days should be shortened, there should none of their flesh be saved [and, of course, they would have been wiped out completely time and again]; but for the elect’s sake, according to the covenant, those days shall be shortened” (Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:20).
136,137 1 Nephi 15:27 This is another one of these cultural notes. This is 1 Nephi 15:27 (we have to jump around so here). “And I said unto them that the water which my father saw was filthiness; and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water. And I said unto them that it was an awful gulf, which separated the wicked from the tree of life.” Remember that enormous gulf. You walk along in the desert and you come to one of those huge gulfs. You see them in Canyonlands, etc. I spend a lot of time down there. You noticed that Roman camp. There was a 2,000-foot drop between it and the caves on the other side. They were right together, but you couldn’t get from the one to the other. He said that’s exactly what happens to the wicked. There’s an awful gulf between them, and down that gulf comes this filthy water and sweeps them away. “An awful gulf, which separated the wicked from the tree of life, and also from the saints of God. And I said unto them that it was a representation of that awful hell which the angel said unto me was prepared for the wicked ... the justice of God did also divide the wicked from the righteous” (1 Nephi 15:28-30). So he compares it to this very thing. “And they said unto me: What meaneth the river of water which our father saw?” (1 Nephi 15:26). He said the water was filthy water and it ran down the gully and swept away the wicked.
137 So when it became extremely important to keep a record, they kept it on bronze. You’d say, “the brass plates.” Remember, “brass” is a new word. It is only used in English since the end of the nineteenth century. “Bronze” is the French word. We always said “brass.” You won’t find the word “bronze” in the Bible at all, though the Old Testament is a Bronze Age document. But we always called it “brass.” When he says “brass plates” it’s perfectly safe to think of those as “bronze plates” because brass is a mixture of copper and nickel, whereas bronze is copper and tin, and much more common and easy to make. As I said, throughout the Old Testament the word “bronze” never occurs because it is always “brass.” A copper alloy is always “brass” in English, and that was seventeenth century English. It makes no difference; the main thing is that it’s copper based.