28 And now my son, Laman, and also Lemuel and Sam, and also my sons who are the sons of Ishmael, behold, if ye will hearken unto the voice of Nephi ye shall not perish. And if ye will hearken unto him I leave unto you a blessing, yea, even my first blessing.
With my current understanding of birthright traditions, as
described in other places in scripture, this verse seems problematic, at least
on the surface. The confusion starts with the inclusion of Lemuel, Sam, and the
sons of Ishmael. So I’m not sure which is the right idea, but I will attempt to
describe a couple of different possible ways to understand this.
Traditionally the first blessing, or birthright would go to
the eldest son, giving him a double portion of the inheritance. Certainly this
tradition has been broken in the past. We don’t have mention of Adam and Eve’s
other children by name, only those in the patriarchal lineage. So we can assume
that Cain was in line to receive the birthright, at least until he killed Abel.
Is it possible that part of Cain’s jealousy of his younger brother was due to
Abel’s accepted sacrifice putting him in line to receive the inheritance
instead of Cain? If so, this is the first recorded incident of a younger brother
jumping ahead in the inheritance line. Another example is Jacob receiving the
first blessing instead of Esau. Isaac could have revoked that when he realized
what happened, and that he had been deceived, but he didn’t, giving the
inheritance to the second son. Jacob’s son, Reuben, forfeited his birthright to
Joseph through his iniquity. So there is certainly history behind the
birthright going to someone besides the oldest. In fact, in the case of Joseph,
apparently for some reason besides iniquity, he gave his first blessing to
Ephraim instead of the slightly older twin brother, Manasseh.
I suppose one possibility of Lehi’s blessing in this verse
being conditional is to give the birthright to Nephi in a way that he hoped
would cause the least amount of jealousy among his other sons. If that was the
intent, it didn’t work, as described in 2 Nephi 5: 3. So one point of confusion
is that Lehi can’t give his first blessing (birthright) to all of his sons.
This is why I think we need to look at other interpretations of this verse.
Another possibility is that the verse could actually be two
verses. The first sentence directed to all the sons; the second sentence
directed to Laman only. It almost reads as if Lehi starts talking to Laman,
then he adds the other sons to include them in his declaration that they would
not perish if they followed Nephi (the prophet). The problem with the second
sentence being directed to all of them is that Sam actually did follow Nephi,
but Nephi was the one who became king (see 2 Nephi 5: 6, 18). So he did not
receive the first blessing, even though he followed Nephi. The second problem
with the second sentence applying to all of them is that the sons of Ishmael
rightly could not be included in any discussion of Lehi’s birthright. Presumably
one of them already possessed the birthright of Ishmael.
Yet another way to look at this (although less likely in my
mind) is that Lehi was speaking of eternal inheritance in the Kingdom of God.
In that case, all his sons (and us as well) can receive the first blessing of
all the Father has if we follow the prophet. If not, the blessing is taken from
us and given to the prophets themselves. John teaches, “the testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19: 10). So as prophets in that sense,
all believers in Christ can inherit the first blessing. I’m sure that’s reading
too much into it, but it would explain how all Lehi’s sons could be eligible
for the first blessing.
- 2 Nephi 5: 3
