Friday, August 29, 2008

1 Nephi 7:16-EoC

Well, as we can see here, Laman and Lemuel did not take to that discussion lightly. They tie up their brother and leave him for dead in the wilderness. Nephi is amazing. (Have I said that already? : ) He prays to the Lord for help out of his binds. It is interesting that he prayed that he would have strength to burst the chords which bound him. Then it seems that his prayer is answered when the chords were loosed from around him. He did not say that anyone did it in particular, so I think that it was a miracle.

He stands before his family again, and they are probably even more angry that he somehow got out of the fix. However, Ishmael's wife, one of the daughters, and one of the sons convinced them that they shouldn't harm Nephi further. I wonder how they did this? Amazingly enough, their words got to them. I'm thinking that in their anger, their adrenaline was rushing and they were in a fight or flight mode. (Probably thinking about just the fight part.) Once they were calmed by the words spoken by someone other than Nephi, they could think rationally again. They had felt remorse for their actions and apologized to Nephi. Nephi said that he "frankly" forgave them and exhorted them to pray to God for forgiveness from Him. They did so, returned to the tent of Lehi, and offered sacrifices and burnt offerings as thank to Heavenly Father.

Nephi is great at forgive and forget. He must have endured a lot from his brothers. I think that he tells only a fraction of the mean things they did to him. But, I know that if one is a victim of other's wrath, jokes, or persecution, there is solace in the atonement of Jesus Christ. If we pray for help and/or comfort sincerely enough, I know it will come.

No comments: