A Study of the Book of Mormon

2 Nephi 1:1-6 Lehi's perspective on the family's circumstances is vastly different from that of Nephi's brothers. Where Laman and Lemuel possibly still held begrudgingly in memory the years now distant of their lives in Jerusalem, Lehi considers their present situation. Laman and Lemuel's perceived recollections of what they had had and what they had lost at Jerusalem impaired them from seeing their present situation. Perspective in a person's mind is reality. Laman and Lemuel were miserable because of their skewed perspective. Lehi, on the contrary, has a drastically different perspective of the same situation. Later, Lehi prophesies that none shall be brought to the land that they had inherited except the Lord should bring them.

1 Nephi 16: 1-6 This conversation between Nephi and his brothers, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam, is very genuine. It paints a view of Laman and Lemuel that is not typically understood. They tell Nephi that what he had spoken to them was hard to understand. Nephi said that he knew that he had spoken against wickedness but it seems that it was never his intention to elevate himself above his brothers. In fact, there is such a brotherly bond of love conveyed from these simple verses of communication that I am inclined to be much more sympathetic towards Laman and Lemuel, and even sense something of love that Nephi must have had for his older brothers. Here for one brief moment brothers are talking civilly to each other, and it is beautiful! Yes, Laman and Lemuel made bad choices throughout the accounts of Nephi. They simply could not understand the will of God in all that was happening to them. Clearly, their cursing was passed on to their children, but beyond that I think this is where their co...

1 Nephi 2:10-13 After counseling Laman to always be a source of righteousness, he instructs Lemuel to be "firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!" Clearly these are characteristics that Lehi prized in his own life and in the lives of others. Laman and Lemuel murmured "because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them." So that was their problem--easily diagnosed by Nephi. Yet how did Nephi come to this conclusion? Because they could not understand their position before God, they lacked the perspective to see anything else clearly. Their priorities and prerogatives, the things that they valued as important in their young lives, had been altogether stripped from them in following their father into the wilderness. Of course, they were on the defensive. Their failure to see the larger picture consequently led them to murmuring and violence.