5 And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.
I think that Laman and Lemuel are not the villains they are made out to be. In fact, I think they are not too different from most people. They obviously struggle with pride and selfishness, but I think that it’s something they struggle with at this point in their lives. And even though they have done some pretty harsh things, they haven’t yet given in totally like they would later. So Nephi is thrilled when they repent. And it is apparently a sincere repentance because Nephi had such “great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.” They were not yet to the condition Mormon experienced nearly 1000 years later, when the people’s sorrow was just because they couldn’t find happiness in sin, like they wanted to. The day of grace was not yet passed for Laman and Lemuel, as it was for the Nephites of Mormon’s time (see Mormon 2:11–15)
I have been pondering Laman and Lemuel since I started this journal. They are often painted with the broad brush of wickedness, but that has to be an oversimplification. 1 Nephi covers about ten years of history until the last couple of chapters when he is quoting Isaiah and preaching. Most of what we read concerning those ten years is the very significant events. This chapter is a good example of that. Later on I’ll write about the broken bow of Nephi. There were other trials during this time in the wilderness (see verse 20 for example), but only a few of these trials are described in any detail. So how did the members of this company behave outside of those extreme cases? My guess is that it wasn’t all that bad, since they relied upon the Liahona to guide them, and it only worked when they were obedient and heeded it’s instruction.
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