1 Nephi 17: 21

21 Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy.

I have heard so many people express the fact that wealth cannot buy happiness. Maybe in the case of Laman and Lemuel it could. More likely, however, they had romanticized their memory of the life of ease and luxury they may have enjoyed before this journey. They seem to be equating hardship with unhappiness, when the real culprit is sin and transgression. Righteousness buys happiness, and “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10).

• Alma 41:10

1 Nephi 17: 20

20 And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions.

I’m sure Laman, Lemuel, and company thought they were really insulting and hurting Nephi, trying to make him feel guilty for bringing them out of Jerusalem. What they didn’t understand is that Nephi had accepted his role as prophet by now. Just like Lehi, Nephi wasn’t about to apologize for being a prophet or obeying the Lord (see 1 Nephi 5:4–5). So that insult missed the mark. The second thing they didn’t understand about Nephi was that he had a totally different take on how the trip affected the women. So while his brethren tried to make him feel guilty about dragging their women through the wilderness (“It’s one thing to get us out here. We’re men. We can handle it. But think about our poor helpless women!”), Nephi had a much different understanding about how well the women were handling the trip (see vs. 2–3 in this chapter. Also refer again to Alma 62:41 for insight on how people going through the same experience come to different conclusions). Nephi knew that through obedience to God, the women were handling the hardships of the journey just fine. If anyone, including the women, was not handling the hardship well, it was due more to disobedience than to the hardship of the journey itself. So Laman and company missed Nephi on those two points, just like in verse 19 when they tried to tell Nephi that he lacked the judgment to build a ship. Nephi might have agreed if he didn’t know he was on the Lord’s errand.

Isn’t this an interesting point in comparing Lehi’s journey to the Promised Land to our own journey through mortality. If anyone, including the Lord’s covenant people, is not handling the hardships of life well, it is more likely due to disobedience and iniquity than to the hardships of life. Just like the women were given strength “like unto the men” (vs. 2), if obedient, we will be given strength to handle temptations and other pitfalls of this life.

• 1 Nephi 17:2–3 (for contrast)
• Alma 62:41

1 Nephi 17: 19

19 And now it came to pass that I, Nephi, was exceedingly sorrowful because of the hardness of their hearts; and now when they saw that I began to be sorrowful they were glad in their hearts, insomuch that they did rejoice over me, saying: We knew that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were lacking in judgment; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great a work.

In their arrogance, Nephi’s brethren totally misinterpreted Nephi’s mood. They thought he was discouraged because he could see that they were right, and building a ship to cross the ocean really was beyond him. Never did it enter their minds that Nephi might actually and sincerely be concerned for their spiritual and physical welfare. Selfish and proud people are notorious for assigning their own motives to everyone else’s actions and decisions. That’s what Laman and company did here. They assumed that Nephi was putting them through this elaborate hoax so he could put them all in a position that he could be their ruler. They thought that by refusing their help they were thwarting Nephi’s plans, and that is why he was discouraged. So they took a few verses to gloat. Unrepentant selfishness and/or pride are probably the biggest reasons people like this will never understand people of God. And yet godly people can understand the proud and selfish ones, to an extent, because they battle with and overcome those very traits in their paths to spirituality.

1 Nephi 17: 18

18 And thus my brethren did complain against me, and were desirous that they might not labor, for they did not believe that I could build a ship; neither would they believe that I was instructed of the Lord.

Nephi’s brethren are about as stubborn as they come. Either that, or they just have short memories. Apparently nothing they had experienced over the past eight years had prepared them for building a ship for crossing the ocean. Not the Laban incident (complete with angel visitation), not the bringing wives incident (where Nephi broke his bonds after they tied him up). The Liahona thing apparently taught them nothing about Nephi’s determination to keep the Lord’s commandments, and the Lord’s determination to make that possible (see 1 Nephi 3:7). Maybe they thought that if they didn’t help, Nephi would just give in, come to his senses, and say, “You’re right. This whole trip was a bad idea. Let’s go back to Jerusalem.” This whole Lehi journey is a great example of how different people can go through the same experience and come to completely different conclusions (see Alma 62:41). Nephi learned from the Lord, his brethren did not.

1 Nephi 17: 17

17 And when my brethren saw that I was about to build a ship, they began to murmur against me, saying: Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters.

These murmuring brothers just don’t get it. They don’t have any vision (see Proverbs 29:18). They are small-minded. I’m sure part of why they started murmuring about building a ship is because they were content with staying there in Bountiful. It was beautiful, they had all the food they needed, and in their minds there really was no reason to move on, especially after the last eight years of living the nomad life. Crossing the ocean also represented their last chance of ever going back home to Jerusalem. I wonder if they had been secretly planning to return after Lehi died. The stated reason for complaining was simply that they didn’t believe Nephi, their pesky little brother, was smart enough to design a ship sea-worthy enough to cross the ocean. The scripture says, “build,” but I think it was more a matter of design. Nephi had already shown that he could work well with his hands. None of these people were lazy; I just think they didn’t trust Nephi to be smart enough to design a ship. That and their vision wasn’t large enough to take in the whole ocean. I don’t think they could wrap their heads around that idea. Once again, we shall see that they underestimate the Lord.

1 Nephi 17: 16

16 And it came to pass that I did make tools of the ore which I did molten out of the rock.

One thing this verse illustrates is that while the Lord “giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them [to] accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7), He will not keep the commandments for us. If the Lord could provide an instrument as delicate and complex as the Liahona, surely he could have provided some axes and hammers. But that’s not how this life works. We may be given the things we can’t provide, but we are expected to provide that which we can provide. In this case, Nephi could make tools; he didn’t need those provided for him. He could not provide the necessary ore with which to make the tools; the Lord provided that part.

This applies to the Atonement and other areas of spiritual progression as well. For example, the people of Alma, when they were in bondage to the Lamanites under the vengeful direction of Ammulon. The Lord could have removed or prevented the burden from the people, but instead strengthened them against the burden. If there had been no burden, there would have been no motivation to move to Zarahemla and organize the church (see Mosiah 24). Another example is the Atonement itself. The Lord, through His grace and mercy, will do for us what we can’t (resurrection, justification), but we must do our part as well (keep commandments, exercise faith, etc). Hence Nephi’s statement that “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). If our emphasis in that last clause is on the word “we” and not “after,” we see the same principle as Nephi making his own tools instead of waiting for the Lord to provide them.

1 Nephi 17: 15

15 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and diligence.

The promise made by the Lord in verse 14 is at least one reason why Nephi kept the commandments: not just the promise of a temporal salvation from Jerusalem’s destruction, but the promise of a spiritual salvation from the World. It’s worthwhile to note that the commandments Nephi strove to keep were according to the Law of Moses. However, where some kept the commandments for Law’s sake, Nephi kept them for the sake of this promise and out of love for the Lord. Paul taught the Galatians that the “law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). This is the reason Nephi kept the commandments. I think he had a pretty strong understanding of the Law’s purpose. As for exhorting his brethren to “faithfulness and diligence,” all of those who are converted are under the obligation to encourage, lift and help those around them. We are all in this life together, and we need to help one another as best we can. Nephi knows that.

1 Nephi 17: 14

14 Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem.

I have to say that this verse has a dual meaning. First, the Lord is telling the Lehites that when they get to the Promised Land they would receive confirmation that they really did leave Jerusalem just before it was destroyed. That confirmation would come much later when they met the Mulekites. This particular group of travelers, however, would still need to take that on faith.

The second meaning relates to this life and our journey through it to our own “Promised Land,” exaltation. Jerusalem, in that case, represents the World, or worldly things, which would be destroyed eventually. As we go through our spiritual journey back to our Heavenly Father we take it on faith that we are doing the right thing by forsaking the World and following Him. We take it on faith that the prosperity of the World will not help us, because there is more to life than “the World” and its type of prosperity or forms of pleasure. We just have to do our best to follow the Spirit and have faith that it is worth it. When we get to the end of our journey (death) we will be given evidence that we did the right thing, and that the World really was destroyed (or would have destroyed us spiritually), and we were able to escape that spiritual destruction by allowing ourselves to be delivered from it by the Lord. That’s the Atonement and the covenants we make with the Lord. At some point, if we endure to the end, and don’t return to the World, we will know we made the right decision. For now, we take it on faith.

• 2 Nephi 1:4
• Omni 1:13–16
• D&C 5:2

1 Nephi 17: 13

13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

The Lord wants it understood very clearly that the success of this journey to the Promised Land depends on Him. The Lehites didn’t need fire, a fundamental part of traveling or camping, because the Lord would provide nourishment, light, and direction, everything they needed if they would just keep His commandments. The comparison to our own spiritual journey to our own land of promise (exaltation) is both clear and irresistible. As we keep the commandments the Lord provides our spiritual nourishment. The Lord taught the children of Israel after their 40 years in the wilderness (and was quoted by Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:4) that the reason he fed them with manna was “that he might make [them] know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3). So the scriptures provide spiritual nourishment to those who “feast upon the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:3). Those who ignore scripture, or the words of Christ, do not get the spiritual nourishment they need to flourish, and spiritually they wither on the vine. This is a major contributor to them falling away from their testimonies and covenants that would have brought them to their Promised Land.

Just as the Lehites depended on the Lord to provide light in their wilderness that would normally come from fire, He provides spiritual light, enlightenment, or revelation to guide us so we don’t have to rely on the philosophies of men to guide us through our wilderness. We need this light for discernment every bit as much as Lehi’s company needed it to help them see in their wilderness. For us the light of Christ “is given to every man, that he may know good from evil” (Moroni 7:16). In fact, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is given as a gift to those who make a covenant with God, we may know the truth of all things. Now that is light.

Finally, if we keep His commandments, we will be following the Lord, and He will lead us, step by step through our spiritual wilderness to our Promised Land. But it has to be His way, or we won’t make it. We need to depend on the Lord for spiritual nourishment, light, and direction, or we will not return to our Heavenly Father. This is, I believe, what the Lord is teaching Lehi and his family, and us, in these verses.

1 Nephi 17: 12

12 For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not;

(vs. 12–13) Nephi had learned early in this trip that when the Lord gives a commandment He provides a way to keep it (1 Nephi 3:7). That’s what the Lord was doing in this case. As to why the Lord limited their use of fire, I can only speculate. Certainly, one of the answers is given in the next verse, and that is for a testimony of the Lord. But I wonder if there wasn’t also an element of safety from other nomadic groups. I’m sure that others living in the wilderness would have seen a fire, maybe for miles. Just because they were in the wilderness does not mean that they were necessarily alone. Maybe one of the hardships of the journey was avoiding or defending from others. So rather than draw attention to them, the Lord makes the uncooked meat nutritious and flavorful so the Lehites don’t have to build fires. At any rate, I’m sure it simplified their lives and their journey to not have to build fires every time they stopped. Not to mention the possibly unsteady supply of fuel for a fire.

As evidence that motive is most important (i.e. why we do something is often, if not always, more important than what we do, as important as that is), we can contrast this verse with the description of the Lamanites given by Enos (Enos 1:20). The Lamanites in this description also ate raw meat, which was part of the reason Enos called them wild, ferocious, and bloodthirsty. What was right in one circumstance, due to the Lord’s commandment, was not right in another. The same could be said for when Nephi killed Laban to get the plates. Because it was a commandment from the Lord, this was not counted as murder, as was Nehor’s murder of Gideon (Alma 1:9 (7–14)). There are many other examples of this concept in the scriptures.

• 1 Nephi 17:2
• 1 Nephi 17:30
• Enos 1:20 (for contrast)

1 Nephi 17:11

11 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beasts; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire.

I think it would be quite interesting to discover how Lehi and his family lived day-to-day before this journey. For example, did Nephi already know how to extract metal from rock? Where did he learn how to make a bellows? Are these things he did back in the family business before they left Jerusalem? Or are they things the Lord taught him to do here on the mount? There is some speculation that they ran an olive vineyard and traded the fruit and oil. Did they make their own tools? I know these are not doctrinally expedient, but they are interesting to think about. It makes the scriptures come alive for me, and is a reminder that these are real people, recording real experiences, but also having many experiences that are not recorded.

1 Nephi 17: 10

10 And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools.

Nephi makes it sound so simple to receive revelation. I wish it were that easy for me. Unfortunately, I have my receiver tuned to the wrong source sometimes. Most of the time I just don’t listen closely enough that I can hear the still, small voice that so often is the way the Lord, through the Holy Ghost, communicates with us. I have had clear and undeniable revelation at times, but not as often as I would like.