So there they were, having a good time, enjoying the desert air, when suddenly they get directed to go back to Jerusalem after the brass plates. Laman and Lemuel, who ironically didn't even want to be there in the first place, now don't want to leave... Nephi heads the trek back to get the plates. You know the story...
Interesting insights in today's reading include:
1. Nephi must repeatedly convince/persuade/cajole his brothers into keeping the commandments. This must get irksome after a while, especially after they had been beating him with a stick...
2. Laban is a bad dude. The things he does - lying, stealing, attempted murder - are all capital crimes in traditional Judaic law. It has been suggested that the brass plates were not his, per se, anyway, and that he was just a care taker. This makes sense then, since their first approach was to just go and ask him if they could have them.
3. Could you kill someone if directed by the Spirit? I hope I never have to find out. And if I do, I hope I have the kind of relationship with the Lord that I am pretty darn sure that He wants me to do the deed. Otherwise - there's just no way... Which leads to another question - there's nothing more basic in Judeo-Christian morals and norms than "Thou shalt not kill." And yet, here's Nephi being told that's what he had to do. Is this one of those "killing in wartime or in battle is OK" kinds of things? We know that Laban was a bad dude, and the crimes he committed made him worthy of the death penalty. We also know that death is not the end of existence - indeed, the only prerequisite for death is birth - but was this really necessary? Did Laban pose a great threat to the escaping Lehi, et al? I don't know. These are things that linger in the back of my mind each time I read the account. I don't know that I could do what Nephi was asked to do. He writes that he did it only with the greatest reluctance, and after having been repeatedly constrained by the Spirit...
4. The passage about Zoram is interesting. The impressment of Zoram into the crowd following Lehi into the desert is later used as an excuse for the dissenting Zoramites to peel off from the main stream Nephites and do their own thing. But the record seems to indicate that Zoram was happy to head out from Jerusalem. It is also interesting that their promises to each other should carry such weight - when Zoram promises to go with them, their fears concerning him cease. Such integrity seems to be sorely lacking in our world - we have to get things notarized and signed and credit checked and background checked and everything - just to get a loan or a job or whatever. I think that these are probably good developments in our society, protecting lender and borrower alike. But I long for a time when things were simpler and people more trustworthy.
Comments
But the question: could I do it? I don't know. I'd like to think that I could, if the Lord required it of me, but I really have no idea.
Moses killed the Egyptian overseer. Of course, that was prior to the actual receipt of the 10 commandments, but I think that it is generally understood that killing someone is never a good thing. It brings up the whole debate about capital punishment, too, because if it's wrong to kill someone ever then perhaps capital punishment is not good, also. Personally, I don't like capital punishment, and I think we are too cavalier about offing someone. But I think that a lifetime in prison may be worse than death. And I think that (with the proper perspective) death is nothing to be feared but a transition into the next sphere. It still doesn't sit very well with me, but it makes it easier for me to accept the death penalty...
Imagine if Nephi had just left Laban drunk on the ground, 'borrowed" his armor and gotten the plates. Laban wakes up and what happens? He pursues Lehi's family into the wilderness which was already alive with both Egyptian and Babylonian patrols as well as native peoples ready to ingratiate themselves with either side by selling a rich family from Jerusalem to the first available side. (Egypt and Babylon were preparing war. Lehi and his family got out just in time. Zedekiah, king of the Jews, was a technical vassal of Babylon but had made an alliance with Egypt. As you can imagine, Neb. with no sense of humor at all, was not a happy camper. That's why Jerusalem was sacked.) That's why Lehi and his family had to travel in the wilderness without fire.
Anyway, if Nephi was to get the plates, it had to be over Laban's dead body because Laban made it that way.
I think that the historical context helps to understand a lot of what Nephi was dealing with. He's one of the few in the Book of Mormon that we can identify with - the rest of the Book of Mormon has its own unique culture - albeit one that grew out of the Jewish culture/religion.