1 Nephi 1:6 And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard he did quake and tremble exceedingly.
A vision opens up to him with the backdrop of a pillar of fire. Reminds me of the burning bush experience of Moses.
In this vision, he was shown what was to happen to the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants if there was no change in righteous of it inhabitants.
Being that his family, friends, and neighbors lived in or just out of the city, it was quite a disturbing picture to behold. He could see in vision that if they did not repent of their sins and follow the commandments of the prophets they might be killed or at least lose all they had if the Babylonians invaded.
The same conditions that existed in Lehi's day, exist now! We also should be "exceedingly" fearful for our family members, friends and neighbors who have not embraced the Gospel. They are going to fall victim to the calamities that lay in wait for those who will not repent of their sins and follow the commandments give to us by our latter-day prophets.
1 Nephi 1:7 And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen.
To say the least, Lehi was just beside himself with grief contemplating what was to happen in the near future to the place where he was raised and where his family members also lived and loved. Sometimes things we see are just plain horrible and hard to deal with. Lehi was so overcome that he went home and could only go to his bed to try and come to grips with his emotions.
I wonder if I were to see such a vision showing in graphic detail of the events preceding the Second Coming if I would not have the same reaction? I wonder still would I be concerned enough to go out and try to get my friends and neighbors to listen to me as did Lehi?
1 Nephi 1:8 And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.
To comfort Lehi, Heavenly Father shows Lehi in vision all the children of men giving praise and thanks for what He had done for them by providing them the experience of mortality. I’m sure Lehi was shown how He would be supporting them and help them while they struggled with mortal life.
He was also relieved to know that God was aware of his situation and that plans were in place to help him get through it. And even more important that plans had been made before the earth even made to deal with the situation. Lehi found out that life situations are known about ahead of time and the best remedy for the righteous are in place to help them get through these unpleasant events, not to necessarily to escape them, but to survive them.
This might beg the question if the experiences of mortality are know ahead of time, why does not God just not allow them to happen? Since they do and will all through the mortal experience a better question might be if God does not want to stop them, then what is their purpose? Well obviously, there is some benefit and we just have to deal with them.
Now whether we were completely aware of what all the things that would be happening to each of us during all the years of our mortal existence is not clear to me. It may be like when I was called on a mission to England. I was happy to be called, but certainly had no idea of what events or people I would meet during that experience. I thanked God for the privilege to serve but could not see the benefit it would be to me or the people I would interact with. And maybe that was how it was for all of us before our mortal births.
I feel sure that God knew ahead of time what we would be like and what acts we would commit during our mortal existence, but may have kept that knowledge to Himself. We needed the experience of deciding for ourselves what paths in life we would follow and learning good from evil. That can only be learn by being free to act and being free to suffer for our acts, whether they be good or evil.
1 Nephi 1:9 And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day.
To illustrated to Lehi that plans were indeed in place to help mortals get through this mortal existance, Lehi is shown the Savior of the world and the powers granted Him to help the righteous in all of life's situations.
1 Nephi 1:10 And he also saw twelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament.
In addition, Lehi is shown the twelve apostles that he will call and set them apart to aid him in his mission to establish his church. They will carry on after his crusifiction and will testify to his mission and later died for their testimonies.
