Sunday, October 19, 2014

Enos 1:11 - 1:15

Enos1:11 And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites.

Enos' faith became stronger because of what he heard from the Lord. Enos next prayed for his cousins, the Lamanites.

Enos 1:12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.

Again he prayed in earnest for them. Once again the Lord came to him to assure him that the Lord had not written them off and would not forget them in His working with the hearts of men.

Enos 1:13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation—

Knowing the spiritual state of his people, Enos prayed that if they should be destroyed, (he must have known that this would happen if they did not change) and if the Lamanites would be preserved (he must have known that the Lamanites would come out as the survivors in the struggles between both groups), that the records of the Nephites would be preserved. It would take direct intervention by the Lord for this to happen. But if the records should be safe from destruction, that they would come forth someday the descendants of the Lamanites to bring them to the Gospel.
[There would be no Nephites around to bring the Gospel too.]

Enos 1:14 For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith. And they swore in their wrath that, if it were possible, they would destroy our records and us, and also all the traditions of our fathers.

Enos tells us that they have tried to bring the Gospel to the Lamanites, but will not have it in their lives. They look upon the Nephites as great enemies and look for any opportunity to harass or kill them. They want to destroy the records that Nephites are keeping and their culture.
[Not sure why they would be so set on the destruction of the Nephite records. Nephi took them with him when he separated himself and his followers from Laman and Lemuel. Laman must have considered the possession of the brass plates as a symbol of leadership over the people and was very angry went Nephi took them. Laman must have felt that was an affront to his right of leadership of the family and swore he would not rest until he got them back. This must have been a message that came down through Laman’s family to the days of Enos.
We see this in our day. There are groups in this world that are bent on destroying Christians and their Bible. They cannot seem to live and let live. They think that they can only be happy when those who they hate are destroyed along with their culture. What is funny, even if they could destroy their enemies, they would then turn on each other.]

Enos 1:15 Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.

Enos knew that only the Lord could preserve that record for the Lamanites and he prayed for that. Again into Enos’ mind came the assurance that the records would be save until it was time for them to come forth to the descendants of the Lamanites. The Lord assures Enos that whatever he asks for in faith would be granted to him. 1:16—. Enos desires that the records he and his father and uncle kept would be part of the record to come forth at some future time to the Lamanites when it was opportune for that to happen. The Lord promised him that it would happened as he wished.

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