Why Didn’t They Know?

It’s well time that a blog was written. It has been 94 days since my last post, nevertheless, I hope this is as interesting to you, as it was to me.

Today was the day I got back to the beginning of the Book Of Mormon to start reading it again, as I usually do once I’ve completed reading it. I got to the end of 1st Nephi chapter 3, you know, the part where once Nephi, Sam, Laman and Lemuel reach the “…cavity of a rock.” (1st Nephi 3:27). Well, we all also know that after that failed attempt to gain the plates of brass, two brothers who wrongly felt deprived of all the meaning of their life, now stood facing the realization that not only were they homeless, without serious belief in the cause their father had enlisted them in, but now, every earthly possession they had sat it the paws of a greedy, and now even more rich man.

Laban had no intention of ever trading the plates of brass, but he certainly had every intention of increasing his net worth. Laban had increased the weight of his net worth but, sadly like many of his brethren of the Jews, his mind and heart wasn’t where it should be. (Just remember, according to the scriptures this was sometime on, or very soon after the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah. 600 B.C.)

It was very disconcerting to suffer through, but in an act as ruthless as unconscionable, Laman and Lemuel begin to smite Nephi and Sam with a rod. (See verse 28). Why do such a thing? Didn’t they all just safely make it to the cavity of a rock, and all had no bodily harm? Where is that unconditional love that is said to exist between brothers? Laman and Lemuel were filled with pride and a love for those things of the world.

Fortunately for Nephi and Sam, an Angel of the Lord quickly intervened, stopping the smiting of the two younger, and more righteous brothers by their elder brothers Laman and Lemuel.

Laman and Lemuel were told by the angel that the Lord chose Nephi to be a ruler over them because of their iniquities. I can see that the realization of that statement may have made them angry, but it was true.

But Laman and Lemuel were still struggling with something, and it was knowledge they should have known. Listen to what the scripture describes of them and what they say in the final verse of chapter 3, (Verse 31) “And after the angel had departed, Laman and Lemuel again began to murmur, saying: How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?”

Now, its clear to me, and I’m sure to all of us that Laman and Lemuel were not righteous, but why would they not know? They were not familiar with the scriptures, and indeed, the Lord. To close this blog, and to prove the point concerning the dangers of not knowing the Lord, lets go back another chapter in 1st Nephi. Here Lehi mentions to Laman and Lemuel how he hoped they would be like a great valley, and a great river. Nephi then describes why by saying the following:

“Now this he spake because of the stiffneckedness of Laman and Lemuel; for behold they did murmur in many things against their father, because he was a visionary man, and had led them out of the land of Jerusalem, to leave the land of their inheritance, 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, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.”

Let us all remember this great lesson. Much love brethren!