1 Nephi 17:33 - 17:37

1 Nephi 17:33 And now, do ye suppose that the children of this land, who were in the land of promise, who were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

Nephi asks his brothers now if they think that the Canaanites were a righteous people. They were not and because they were not, they were to be destroyed and the Lord had the children of Israel do it.

The inference is, I guess, that if the Canaanites were a good people they would not have been ripe for destruction. The children of Israel would have gone to some other place to settle. But I guess that the Lord have it planned that when the Canaanites went bad it would be time to now bring in the children of Israel from Egypt to fulfill the promises made to Abraham.This shows just how well planned He has the movements of peoples or his children in history.

I wonder if what Nephi is also trying to communicate to his brothers that the Lord can remove anyone from anyplace if it is his will. That righteousness is the requirement for permanency. If you go astray, you will be removed from our lands and it will be given to another. Righteousness is the requirement for possession not if you were there first or a stronger people.

This was maybe to try to show that Laman and Lemuel that if they want to keep the promise land for their descendents, they had better be better people. The Lord can just as well destroy them as well as any other people. I think Nephi wanted to put this thought in their minds as they journeyed to the promise land.

1 Nephi 17:34 Do ye suppose that our fathers would have been more choice than they if they had been righteous? I say unto you, Nay.

So anyway, Nephi tell them that if the Canaanites had been righteous they would not have been subject to destruction by the children of Israel. Just because your ancestor may be Abraham, that gives you no special privilege. The Lord is interested in righteous people regardless who their parents were. Righteousness not linage is the requirement for possession.

1 Nephi 17:35 Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God. But behold, this people had rejected every word of God, and they were ripe in iniquity; and the fulness of the wrath of God was upon them; and the Lord did curse the land against them, and bless it unto our fathers; yea, he did curse it against them unto their destruction, and he did bless it unto our fathers unto their obtaining power over it.

Nephi tells the boys that the Lord considers all men equal. The only thing that separates men is their personal righteousness. As a result the land of Canaan was cursed to the Canaanites and bless for the children of Israel now coming in to settle. And their acquiring it was only possible because the Lord gave them power to do so. If He had not played a direct roll, they could not.

From this verse I get the idea that there was prophets among them trying to get them to repent or at least angels whispering in their ears that they were not doing well. They were warned about their actions before the children of Israel came on the scene.

The Canaanites had undoubtedly seen them coming and their movement toward their land. They should have been paying attention to what was being preached to them or shown them by inspiration. Their days in Canaan were numbered but they obviously didn’t see it.

My only question was did they have real live prophets or was it angels trying to inspired them from beyond the veil? Is the US being handed in the same way before the coming of the Lord?

1 Nephi 17:36 Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it.

Nephi tells us the purpose of the earth. It was created for the benefit of his children. It was created that his children should inhabit it and grow from the experience of living on it. The earth is a devise for creating Gods!

1 Nephi 17:37 And he raiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked.

As a result He decides who will live where and when. He will raise up a righteous nation when there is one and will remove a wicked nation where He wants to put them.