29 But if ye will not hearken unto him I take away my first blessing, yea, even my blessing, and it shall rest upon him.
I wrote mostly about an inheritance of physical things in
verse 28, but this verse turns my attention to where it probably should have
been in the first place: an inheritance of priesthood authority. The cross
references provided at the bottom of the page for this verse make it clear that
Lehi is really talking about presiding or maybe just having priesthood
authority. If we are talking now about conferring the high priesthood as
suggested in Abraham 1: 2–3, then it could be bestowed on anyone deemed worthy.
So there could be more than one high priest at a time, or at least more than
one person ordained to the high priesthood. That makes verse 28 more
meaningful, that Lehi really could have been addressing all the adult males in
context of receiving his first blessing, which he further describes as “even my
blessing” in this verse. The blessing that Lehi had was the priesthood, and
that is something all worthy men in the company could have, but could be taken
away because of iniquity, as suggested in this verse. I think, but I’m not
sure, that the priesthood was usually passed down father to son, for the most
part, or at least kept in the family, so to speak. If that’s the case, then it
gives some credence to the notion that Ishmael’s sons had married Lehi’s
daughters, assuming he had daughters. Of course, there is no record of this
union between the families, but it has been speculated by some scholars. It
would also explain why Lehi takes the next three verses explaining how the
righteous Zoram fits into the picture, as somewhat of an exception to the law
of inheritance, not being related by blood or marriage.
- Genesis 49: 3 (3–4)
- D&C 68: 17
- Abraham 1: 3
