1 Nephi 7

“...the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him…Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.” (1 Nephi 7:12)

v. 1: It would make sense that while Lehi is prophesying about his seed that he would receive a revelation that his children are to marry before they leave. He sons can’t have posterity by themselves after all. I think it also very interesting that Lehi is commanded to bring Ishmael and his family. This is just speculation, but I assume that two families would already know each other fairly well. I may be wrong, but my guess is that all the righteous people hung out. Who knows? Ishmael may even have been a prophet with Lehi crying repentance to the people? Brigham Young taught that Ishmael was of the tribe of Ephraim, and we know that Lehi is of the tribe of Manasseh (Alma 10:3) so now the prophesies concerning the seed of Joseph and their inheritance can be fulfilled.

v. 2: It would be just as dangerous for Nephi and his brothers to return to Jerusalem this time, if not more dangerous, because of the death of Laban and the impact that it may have had on the city, in addition to the regular dangers of the wilderness.

v. 3: So why did Nephi and his brothers have to make this trip twice? Why didn’t they just grab Ishmael and his family when they got the plates, or even when they left the first time? This is one of my favorite little gems of the Book of Mormon. When Lehi and his family first left Jerusalem they did not have Zoram with them. We learn later that Zoram also took one of the daughters of Ishmael to wife. These things had to happen in the order that they did because if not, one of Ishmael’s daughters would have been without a husband! Maybe the family would not have come if one of the daughters was to be left out, and then everybody would be out of luck!

v. 4: Again, we don’t know if they already knew Ishmael and his family, we don’t know how long they were there. I like to think that Nephi and his brothers dated Ishmael’s daughters during this time, so it wasn’t this awkward matching up thing in the wilderness.

v. 6: It mentions the two sons of Ishmael and their families. So we can read into this that Ishmael’s family also included in-laws. It seems likely then that Lehi’s daughters were already married and brought their families with them in the wilderness.

v. 7: Laman and Lemeuel (with their girlfriends, now) rebel and try to convince everyone to go back to Jerusalem (abandoning their parents and sisters in the wilderness). Again, this makes me think that the reason Lehi was able to convince them to make the dangerous trip back in the first place was that they thought maybe they could convince the others to change their minds once they were back.

v. 8-15: Nephi chews them out hard-core. He’s pulling out all the guns on this one: you’ve seen an angel, we’ve been delivered from Laban, if you stay with us you will inherit a land of promise, if you go back, you’ll die, and the guilt trip of: you’re the older brothers it’s you who should be an example and not me.

v. 14: (As a side note, Nephi mentions that Jeremiah is case into prison-which helps us with the time frame of what’s going on-but also reveals the fact that they knew him and he was an important figure in their lives. Lehi may even have prophesied with Jeremiah. Who knows?)

v. 16-18: Laman and Lemuel are not happy with this conversation and decide to tie Nephi up, kill him, and leave his corpse to be eaten by animals. Nice guys, huh? They succed in tying him up, and Nephi prays for the strength to “burst his bands.” His prayer is answered, but not in the way that he had asked for. Instead of breaking his bands, they simply fall off. I think this experience gives us insight into the character of Nephi, he wasn’t like: “God do this for me.” He was like: “God give me the strength to do this.” But in this case, God was happy to do the work for him, it was apparently not necessary for him to break his own bonds. (Perhaps to show that it was God that did it, and not him?)

v. 19: This is proof that anger makes you stupid. Don’t be angry. Laman and Lemuel just watched Nephi pray, be miraculously released from bonds, then stand up and start to preach to them again, and what’s their response? Oooh, Let’s try to kill him again! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. But this time one of the daughters of Ishmael (I’m gonna go ahead and say that it’s the same one who ends up marrying Nephi) and her mom and brother stepped in and managed to talk some sense into them. A great example of the power women can have that men do not.

v. 20-21: The women get to them, Laman and Lemuel ask Nephi (apparently very sincerely) for forgiveness and Nephi “frankly forgave them,” a term I think suggests immediately and unconditionally. Which is really amazing seeing as Nephi knows exactly how wicked his brothers’ hearts are, but you can’t but hope that people will change. Often it takes many failed attempts before people finally succeed in changing.