1 Nephi 5

“And it came to pass that thus far I and my father had kept the commandments wherewith the Lord had commanded us.” (1 Nephi 5:20)

v. 1-10: It’s too bad the only Sariah story we have in the Book of Mormon is her doubting. I bet she was a really cool lady. Nephi and the boys must have been gone a really long time otherwise she wouldn’t have freaked out so much. Maybe much of their time was taken up in the journey, which, in all honesty was probably just as dangerous as confronting Laban. The other thing is, I bet that Lehi and Sariah was familiar with who Laban was since he was such a powerful man, which would only add to her anxiety. My guess is part of the reason the Lord made them take an extra trip back to Jerusalem is so that Lehi and Sariah could go through this experience which greatly strengthened their faith. This is also a very interesting family because nowhere else in the scriptures can I think of a father/son prophet combination like this. Both of them had their separate trials they needed to face. Poor Lehi all alone in the wilderness with his wife and daughters and no football to distract him…

v. 11-13: The plates contained a different version of the Old Testament which went from Genesis part-way through Jeremiah. It’s important to remember that these are the scriptures that all the Nephite prophets have to refer to and to teach the people. It also demonstrates the truth that it’s not the amount of scripture that is important, if you have the living oracles of God. They only had maybe half of the scriptures we have today, yet it was enough to give them the gospel.

v. 14-16: Lehi learns his genealogy, another reason for why having the plates was necessary, I don’t know how much of his genealogy Lehi knew, but apparently the fact that he was a descendant of Joseph was news to him. It’s interesting to think about the value that they put on knowing their family history, I mean, they had to kill a man to get it! (Also, I wonder how closely Lehi and Laban were related, since they were both descendants of Joseph.)

v. 18-19: These plates of brass were blessed to never dim with age, and will one day be revealed to the world in their entirety.

v. 21: They needed a copy of the scriptures in order to preserve the commandments for their children. Imagine trying to pass down the Law of Moses by word of mouth. Not so easy to do.