Hello there. I’m Tyler Griffin, and this is Scripture Study Insights by Scripture Central. Today, first Nephi, chapters 1-5. The lens that we’re going to use today as we explore these chapters and dive in is the perspective of questions and answers. You’ll notice as you dive into the scriptures that there are a lot of questions and there are a lot of major assertions and everything in between. Some of the questions that can be asked are who, what, when, where, why, and how. So as we dive into these chapters, it’s beautiful to watch the various characters in these stories as they unfold interact with these major questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. And you watch these shifts occur as questions arise, as they work through the process of faith and discipleship moving forward and get some of those questions answered. You’re going to see that they shift from one side to the other on a moving scale, a sliding scale, each one. The other thing you’ll notice is that rarely in scriptures do people start with all of their questions firmly over in the absolute knowledge category. It isn’t a question. They know the answer to all of those over here.
That’s very, very rare. Most of the time, you’ll know a few things and have a lot of questions. One scripture study technique you can use as you immerse yourself in first Nephi 1-5 is to just read it a little slower and a little more carefully and ponder the question, what is clear to this person and what isn’t clear to thisperson, and then watch what they do. We can learn lessons of discipleship from Nephi, from Lehi, from Sariah. We can learn lessons of how maybe not to respond in certain situations from layman and and others in the story like Laban. For starters, look at the very, very first verse. I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents. He knows a lot about who he is, about his parents, and what his blessing of parentage is in this life. Because of that, he was taught somewhat in all the learning of his father. You notice now that by understanding the who, what then gets answered? What should a good parent do? Teach children somewhat in all their learning. And then he says, Having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, telling us that life hasn’t been easy, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord.
He recognizes God’s hand in his life in spite of some of the struggles and the difficulties that he’s faced. Ye, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceeding in my days. For a more complete discussion of that first verse, you can refer back to our Come Follow Me Insights video from four years ago, where we dive a lot deeper into that verse. For our purposes here, turn the page over and you’ll notice that Nephi begins telling his father’s story about encountering God and having this vision. It’s beautiful to note that God makes very clear what Lehi is supposed to do. He’s supposed to go in and teach the people in Jerusalem that if they don’t repent, they’re going to be destroyed. What God doesn’t give him is a long explanation of, or a handbook, of how to do it. He goes in and he starts preaching to the people. They first mock him, and then he preaches of the coming of the Messiah, and now they want to kill him for blasphemy. Now you can imagine all these questions in Lehi’s mind, in Sariah’s mind.
Why? Why would God have asked us to do that? Now, his life is on the line. I love how God answers some of those questions very quickly in chapter two by saying, Lehi, I want you to take your family and leave. Go out into the wilderness. We end up out in the wilderness in chapter 2, and it’s a beautiful principle that you notice why he left. If you go to verse 3 of chapter 2, it says, And it came to pass that he, speaking of Lehi, was obedient unto the word the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him. I think it’s fascinating to note that Lehi didn’t have all of the answers. Hes he didn’t know all of the where. He didn’t know all of the when. How long was this going to last? He didn’t even know all of the why. He just knew what God asked him to do, and he focused on what he knew rather than putting his focus on what he didn’t know and being paralyzed by the ambiguity of the situation of, I need to leave. They’re trying to kill me, but why should I go there?
How long is this going to take? Where are we actually headed? He went because he was obedient. Now, contrast that for a moment to layman and Lemuel. When you come over to verse 14 in chapter two, it says, It came to pass that my father did speak unto them in the valley of Lemuel with power, being filled with the Spirit, until their frames did shake before him, and he did confound them that they dirst not utter against him. Therefore, or wherefore, they did as he commanded them. You’ll notice, brothers and sisters, that verse 14 ends with layman and Lemuel doing what they were commanded to do, which is exactly how verse 3 ended. Lehi did exactly what he was commanded to do. But the difference is what motivated that obedience. Lehi obeyed because he was obedient to the word of the Lord. He was filled with an obedient spirit. Layman and Lemul obey because their frames are shaking and they’re scared and their father has confounded them, and they basically have no other choice. Something to keep in mind as you read and study and dive deeper into each of these verses, many of which that we’re skipping, is to look for what is the motivation behind the action?
Why is this scripture character acting the way they’re acting? Is it because they’re focused on God or is it for worldly reasons? They have no choice or they’re confounded. Something to consider there is analyze not just scripture characters, motivation for obedience or for why they’re doing what they’re doing, but to then translate that into our own life and say, Why am I doing what I’m doing? Why am I going to church? Am I doing it because I feel confounded to or out of duty or to be seen of people? Is it a socially acceptable thing to do? Is that the only reason I’m going? Or am I going out of a love for God? Is one of the reasons, one of the answers for my obedience is I know who God wants me to become, and I’m striving to build a connection and a relationship with Him. I’m doing these things, whether it’s going to the temple or doing my ministering or serving in my calling or loving my neighbors, serving my family out of a sense of love and obedience to God rather than earthly reasons. Now you get into chapter 3, and this whole concept of questions gets really, really fun because what happens is Father Lehi brings his boys to his tent and says, I’ve dreamed a dream and I’ve got a revelation and it’s been made known to me that you four need to go back to Jerusalem.
It’s about 250 miles away through a really terrible desert area, and you need to go and get the brass plates. They knew pretty clearly what they needed to do. On our scale over here of questions compared to what we know very firmly, you would put this question very clearly on that side of the board. What God didn’t give them in chapter 3 was a fullness of the reasons why. We got a few reasons. We would maybe put that closer to the knowledge side than the question side, but not fully over there yet. Maybe put a period after the question why, rather than an exclamation mark. And here’s the big one. What they didn’t get was the how. So this one, if we were to move this scale, it would be clear over on this side. Again, the what is clear over on this side. We’ll match it up here. And the why is probably closer to the middle ground somewhere. So here we are. We’re headed to Jerusalem. We know what we’re supposed to do. We somewhat know why, but we really don’t know how. And as you study chapters three and four, notice what happens to their efforts to discover the how.
Remember that God could have very easily given a handbook of instructions to Lehi to hand off to Nephi and Sam and layman and Lemuel, on exactly how to get the plates. But he didn’t do that. There’s something about the journey of discovery, the struggle, the wrestle of going through life when you don’t have all the answers. That’s where growth comes. You’ll notice in chapter three, they try two different ways to get the plates, two techniques on the how. With each failure, the first and the second, it pushes this how further and further to the left. They’re left with fewer and fewer resources. They sent laymen in to ask. That didn’t work. They’ve tried to trade for the plates with their gold, silver, and precious things. That didn’t work. Now they’re left with very little as far as bargaining power to get these plates. I love something that Sister Patricia Holland shared on a couple of occasions, something along the lines of, It’s not faith if you have anything else but God that you can rely on. I love Chapter 4 of first Nephi, because as Sister Holland shared, they have to rely on God and God alone in order to get these plates and figure out the final how.
The critical trigger point here is in chapter 4, verse 6. Notice after he leaves layman and Lemuel and Sam in the cave, it’s night, it’s dark, he’s going into the city. Here’s what it says, And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things I should do. I love that faith from Nephi. That’s when scripture study can become more real to us today, as we look at our own life and realize, Wait, God changes not. He’s treating us very similarly to the way that He treats people in antiquity, in these ancient scriptures, that He doesn’t give us all the answers. He often gives you an impression of what he wants you to accomplish, and then he lets you work through the process of discovering what the outcome should be and how you’re going to accomplish that thing which the Lord has commanded you. Verse 7 starts with the word nevertheless. It basically means it’s a cause, counter-effect. What comes before is the cause, and what came before that was He had no idea what to do, but He was led by the Spirit. Nevertheless then puts greater emphasis on what’s coming after. Nevertheless, I went forth.
I love that, that Nephi didn’t become paralyzed by what he didn’t know or by his questions. He moved forward, focused on what he did know, and he knew that God was going to provide a way. He just didn’t know what it was going to look like or how that was going to happen, but he went forth. In your own family, in your own life, in your own covenant path, discipleship, what an amazing thing for all of us individually and collectively to be able to copy and paste that phrase, Nevertheless, I went forth. In the face of all this ambiguity, I went forth so that today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, today we can move forward on the covenant path in greater faith in God, trusting the words that he’s given us through the scriptures and through his living prophets and to be more faithfulful disciples to Jesus Christ. As he came forth, he comes near the house of Laban, and he sees Laban passed out on the ground. Through the course of the next set of verses, what you find is that this question of how gets moved here when he gets the first instruction from the Spirit.
And before you know it, the Lord brings the question how, firmly over in the this is how you’re going to do it, which all of a sudden creates a whole new series of questions where we take the question of why now and the why becomes this huge question for him. On this side, Why do I need to kill Laban in order to get the plates? God, why can’t you make this easier? I love watching as these questions keep moving, sliding across the board of our mind, so to speak, as these stories unfold. The amazing thing to me is that there doesn’t ever seem to be a point in Nephi’s life where all of a sudden, all of the questions, the who, what, when, where, why, and how all end up on this side of the board under the exclamation mark, where all of a sudden, all of his questions are answered, everything’s very clear, and there’s no more challenge or opposition. But rather every answer that he gets seems to be a conclusion to one phase of his journey on the Covenant Path of discipleship that then opens up another step at an even higher level of his discipleship, involving more questions, often different questions, but questions nonetheless.
Now, if you turn over to chapter five, you get the story of Sariah and Lehi, both of which are going through some issues here, struggling with some questions. Sariah, for instance, talks to Lehi and says, Behold, thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness. Her mother’s heart is breaking out there because those boys have not come home in the time frame that they should have been able to return. She now has some questions regarding the safety of her sons. I love how Lehi doesn’t make her feel bad for what she’s feeling. He reassures her questions with his assurances. He tells her what he knows rather than telling her what she should know or making her feel bad for what she’s feeling. I love this principle here, verse 4, It came to pass that my father spake unto her, saying, I know that I am a visionary man, for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision, I should not have known the goodness of God, but had terried at Jerusalem and had perished with my brother.
He’s basically reassuring her. Then it says that in verse 7, When we had returned to the tent of my father, behold, their joy was full and my mother was comforted. You’ll notice all those questions of why are we here and what are we doing, Lehi. All of those things that were firmly rooted in a serious question category for Sariah, have now moved solidly over into the absolute knowledge. Look at how she describes that in verse 8. And she spakes saying, Now I know of assuredty that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness. And I also know of assuredty that the Lord hath protected my sons and delivered them out of the hands of Laban and given power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them, and after this manner of language did she speak. I love that because what that tells us, this is an insight that I learned from Camille, Frank Holtzyn years ago, so. Her point was that up to this point, Sariah didn’t know for herself why they were out here in the wilderness. She didn’t know where they were going. She hadn’t received any witness from God.
She was moving forward on the word of her husband alone. Through this experience, God now makes it known to her and gives her her own witness, her own independent testimony that they are on God’s errand and that they are doing what the Lord wants them to do. That is going to bless this entire group for the next eight years and beyond, especially these eight years traveling through the wilderness. Once we get Ishmael and his wife and his daughters and children out into the wilderness, there are going to be many opportunities for Sariah to share her witness of what she knows, because she’s been through this process of struggling with what she didn’t know and moving forward in faith anyway. She will be able to comfort others as they work through that similar process at their own level with their own questions and their own answers and the Lord’s own timing, but she’ll at least be able to comfort them and help them to move forward on that eight-year journey out to the sea when life is going to get really hard for them. In closing, brothers and sisters, the scriptures aren’t just books of answers.
They’re books of the best questions ever asked as well. And if we spend time in our scripture study looking not just for answers, but looking for relevant questions and how both of those are interacting, and it’s not always just one or the other. Sometimes it’s a sliding scale. Sometimes it’s a degree of certainty, a degree of uncertainty and learning to grow in our knowledge, which as we see the hand of the Lord and the guidance of the Lord in ancient scriptures, it makes it easier for us to see the hand of the Lord in our life today, guiding us in this journey of discovery as we move forward in faith. I love the words from the hymn, Lead Kindly Light. Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom. Lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home. Lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet. I do not ask to see the distant scene. One step enough for me. It’s my prayer for all of us that our scripture study will be exactly that. Illuminate even just one step. Occasionally, you’ll have a view of the distant scene, but for most of us, most of the time, it’s one step enough, that motivation to move forward with greater faith in the savior, Jesus Christ, and to trust Him and to love Him enough to be obedient and to go forth even when we don’t have all the answers.
I leave that with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Know that you’re loved.
This week in the Gospel Explorer, you will find three pathways. The one on the left is a pathway about how we can increase our trust in God. Special emphasis is made within the pathway of trusting God in times of trials. The middle branch is a deeper study of agency. And if you watch this pathway, you will get a master course on agency. The right branch is a doctrineal pathway on how to be led by the Spirit, including several amazing talks by prophets and apostles on how to receive personal revelation. From this branch, there are also some amazing insights and evidences about the slaying of laben, steal and sacrifices away from the temple. While some critics in the past have tried to use these inclusions in the Book of Mormon as evidence of fraudulent work, recent discoveries and scholarship have proven things to the contrary. So if you are interested, these supplemental videos and information may be of interest to you. Thank you again for using the Gospel Explorer and we hope you become closer to your savior through a deeper study of Come Follow Me.
The Power of Questions and Answers in Scripture Study
As experts in the field of scripture study, it is crucial to recognize the profound impact of questions and answers in our exploration of the scriptures. In today’s blog post, we will delve into the significance of utilizing the lens of questions and answers in our study of the scriptures, specifically focusing on the insightful perspective offered in the first Nephi chapters 1-5. By understanding the interplay between questions and answers, we can gain valuable insights into the process of faith and discipleship, not only in the ancient scriptures but also in our personal lives.
One of the remarkable aspects of scripture study is the prevalence of questions and major assertions that shape the narrative. By examining the who, what, when, where, why, and how in the scriptures, we can witness the various characters interacting with these fundamental questions, providing us with invaluable lessons in discipleship. As we immerse ourselves in the text, it is essential to consider what is clear to the characters and what remains unclear, allowing us to glean profound insights into their journey of faith and understanding.
A notable example from the scriptures is the story of Lehi and his family, as they navigate through the challenges and uncertainties of their divine mandate. Despite facing adversity and unanswered questions, Lehi’s unwavering obedience to the word of the Lord serves as a compelling example of faith in action. His focus on what he knew, rather than being paralyzed by the ambiguity of the situation, demonstrates the power of trust and obedience in the face of uncertainty.
Furthermore, the narrative of Nephi and his brothers’ quest to obtain the brass plates exemplifies the dynamic nature of questions and answers in their journey. As they grapple with the “what” and “why,” their efforts to discover the “how” lead them through a process of trial and error, ultimately culminating in a profound reliance on the Spirit. Nephi’s resolute faith and willingness to move forward, even in the absence of complete understanding, embodies the essence of discipleship and trust in divine guidance.
The transformative journey of Sariah, Lehi’s wife, also highlights the evolution of questions into firm knowledge through personal revelation. Her initial concerns and uncertainties are met with reassurance and eventual conviction, as she receives her own witness of the divine purpose behind their wilderness journey. This exemplifies the profound impact of personal revelation in dispelling doubts and solidifying faith.
As experts in scripture study, it is imperative that we recognize the invaluable lessons derived from the interplay of questions and answers in the scriptures. By embracing the process of discovery and growth, we can deepen our understanding of the gospel and its application in our lives. Through the lens of questions and answers, we are invited to embark on a transformative journey of faith, trusting in the guidance of the Lord and finding comfort in the unfolding of divine knowledge.
The scriptures serve both as a repository of both profound questions and transformative answers, offering invaluable insights into the dynamics of faith and discipleship. By closely examining the narratives in first Nephi chapters 1-5, we gain a deeper appreciation for the journey of faith, the power of personal revelation, and the significance of unwavering trust in the divine plan. As experts in the field of scripture study, let us embrace the interplay of questions and answers, recognizing that our journey of discovery and growth mirrors the experiences of the faithful individuals in the scriptures. Through diligent study and contemplation, may we find clarity, conviction, and unwavering faith in our pursuit of gospel truths.
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