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.
