1 Nephi 17:13 - 17:17
1 Nephi 17:13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.
The Lord had told him along the way that He would be their guide and supplier. All they had to do was to do as He had told them and they would get through this and be all the better for it. Sometimes we lose sight of this fact. Things maybe hard to take at times, but it will always give benefits which are almost always not seem before hand. Anyway the experience is to show the group that He is indeed in charge and will get them to where He wants them.
We often are like little children who want tie their own shoes when they really don’t know how. They want to show their independence and that they are bigger.
1 Nephi 17:14 Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem.
Nephi tells us that all would know that after they had arrived in the promised land, they would know that it was the Lord that got them there. That they had been delivered from death and ruin in Jerusalem and that He had done it.
1 Nephi 17:15 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and diligence.
So with this encouragement, Nephi tries hard to live the commandments and encouraged this brethren to do the same.
Yesterday, I read what is meant by keeping the commandments. It means doing what the Lord commands which come a various moments and various ways such as teaching a class or serving in a leadership position. It not just refraining from doing evil things like stealing. In other words if I refuse to take a calling to serve I am not keeping the commandments even though I am not killing anyone or stealing his stuff.
So with Nephi keeping the commandments of the Lord means doing as He has asked them to do. Doing back for the brass plates was keeping the commandments. These commandments were designed to get the group to the promise land. He is not just saying that they should not try to kill him all the time when he reminds them to be nice and follow his direction.
1 Nephi 17:16 And it came to pass that I did make tools of the ore which I did molten out of the rock.
Nephi now begins to make tools from the ore the Lord had shown him where to find it. Nephi must have had some experience in doing such things as we see that Nephi does not ask how to make tools only where to find ore. He must have had some experience with metallurgy as he was growing up. I’m sure the Lord inspired him to learn these skills because of what he would be called on to do in the future.
Now I’m sure Nephi did not know about this future experience only that he was inspired to be interested in metal work and probably enjoyed working with metals. After all he would have to know in the future how to smelt gold from ore to make the plates he would record the record of his people.
1 Nephi 17:17 And when my brethren saw that I was about to build a ship, they began to murmur against me, saying: Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters.
As Nephi makes the tools which I guess that did not surprise the older boy. Maybe Nephi was always playing around with metal. But I guess as Nephi told them that they were now commanded to build a ship and he was going about starting the project, they started getting on his case again. I guess they could see more work ahead for them when they did not want to do any. They may have been happy to be in Bountiful enjoying the cool sea breezes and tasty things to eat all day.
Anyway they begin to ridicule Nephi for thinking he could build a ship to cross the ocean. They may of had no experience doing such a thing and sure that Nephi didn't either. In addition, I’m sure they were not anxious to start working for Nephi or do what he asked them to do. They really resented being told what to do by a younger brother.
As I was writing this the thought came to me, I wonder if Lehi or Nephi knew at the time they began this journey that the promise land was on the other side of a large ocean? Were they shown the land without being shown just where it was on the globe or how they were going to get there?
