1 Nephi 17:3 - 17:7

1 Nephi 17:3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

Nephi sights for us that as folks keep the commandments of God they are given strength by Him to cope with conditions. This is applicable to our day. As the world continues to go crazy, we can have the strength to cope with it too.

The Lord does two things. Nourishes and strengthens us to ignore the difficulties. In our day, we have the scriptures and the church to nourish and the Holy Ghost to strengthen. And unbeatable combination.

1 Nephi 17:4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.

Their journey in the desert lasts an incredible eight years. The hardest part was when they turn to travel in an easterly direction. They are going inland and away from the more fertile areas that are close to the ocean.

This region is called the ‘empty quarter’ and with good reason. It is one the driest places on earth. It is also without local control from cities that would provide protection to people and visitors. It is probably under the control to roving bands of robbers and thieves looking for easy pray. That was probably the reason the party eat only raw meat as to not have to build fires to cook. Some scholars have reasoned that they group could have been captured and forced into slavery until they could escape with the help of the Lord.

Regardless of what did happen to Lehi’s band it was a very tiring and difficult journey. One might wonder why the Lord made it so hard on them. There were attitudes of city people to change to settlers and some pride to be gotten rid of. A journey where someone else has to bail them out will often do the trick.

1 Nephi 17:5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters.

They now arrive at a place that is on the shores of the Indian Ocean which ocean they call Irreantum. It is also a very fertile place with much fruit and wild honey. There is such a place on the coast of Yemen that is directly east of Nahum and fits the description of Nephi and there is no other place like this in either direction along the coast in either direction.

1 Nephi 17:6 And it came to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of its much fruit.

They make camp and figure they will be here for a while. They probably are not yet aware of the next step to be taken in their journey. Not sure if they even knew that the land of promise could only be arrived at by ship.

In any case, I can only imagine the surprise and joy of coming across this area of plenty and cool ocean breezes. I feel sure that even the older boys gave thanks for this scene. It must have been a great surprise to everyone after being in the intense heat and barrenness of the desert for all those years. They called the place Bountiful. I must have been a place they did not know of because they gave it a name unlike Nahum which had one.

What is interesting to me in this verse is when Nephi tells us that the area was ‘prepared of the Lord’. Since this place existed for probably thousands and thousand of years, it had to be created by claimant and geography even maybe millions of years ago. It is proof to me that things were planed in such detail before the world was even created that the land and claimant conditions were put into place for Lehi’s groups benefit. In other words, the trip was planned and what would be required by this group millions of years before it happened.

Lehi may have know about it before his birth as did the others and volunteered in the preexistence to accomplish the mission. I see that all is know by the Lord long before anything happens and there are no surprises for him. He is ready for all contingencies and knows how each person will react to the conditions they will be put under and has made the proper adjustments so that the outcome He is looking for happens. The Lord is always in control in spite of what looks like evil having its way.

1 Nephi 17:7 And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.

After a time in the land Bountiful, probably after a time to rest and enjoy the tropical setting, the voice of the Lord comes to Nephi.

It looks like Nephi receives this communication after he prays for it. It was not out of a clear blue sky that this revelation comes. He may have been praying to know what to do next or perhaps the boys were grumbling some about their situation, not sure but the Lord tells Nephi to get to ‘the mountain’ to receive more instruction or an answer to his concerns.

The fact that the Lord refers to the mountain as ‘the mountain’ makes me think that it is a place he has been before or is pointing out a mountain near by that he has been going to pray. I have had thoughts it maybe the mountain where Nephi had his visions of the future back in chapter 11.