The Journey: 1 if by land (1 Ne 15-17)

I'm sure you've noticed how civilizations go through a cycle of good, blessings, arrogance and unrighteousness, tribulations, repentance and back to the beginning...  It seems that groups of people always wind up doing this.  Lehi's family and their party fall into this cycle for sure.  Laman and Lemuel and those that agreed with them certainly did this.

Lehi is commanded to travel south-east and eventually east, staying in the fertile parts of the wilderness.  They go through difficulties.  At one point, they are lacking food, since all their bows have stopped functioning. When Nephi's bow breaks, he catches grief from his brothers, and even Lehi grumbles.  Nephi makes a new bow and consults the Lord via Lehi, (after some sore repentance) and then procures food for the group.  The group rejoices in the blessings of the Lord. Later, when Ishmael dies, Laman, Lemuel, and some of Ishmael's family get really nasty.  The Lord actually came and talked to them and "...did chasten them exceedingly"    (1 Ne 16:39).  They repent and go on their way.  After 8 years of traveling (probably the cycle was continual through that period) they reach Bountiful - the land by the sea.  We see the bad part of the cycle again...   When Nephi begins building a ship, Laman gets angry and laments: "Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy." (1 Ne 17:21)

Laman's words are truer that he realized.... If they had only strived to serve the Lord, desired to know Him and have Him in their lives, if they had only recognized and embraced His goodness, then they would have been happy, indeed!  Instead, they spent their journeys looking back, wishing they were elsewhere, blaming Lehi and Nephi for their afflictions.

I have thought about this cycle and whether I've been stuck in one myself.  It's not hard to be; we are blessed, we get comfortable, we get sassy or critical or just plain cocky...  At this point if tragedy comes or not, we are not feeling the spirit unless we specifically seek after it.  What are the antidotes to the cycle?  Actively  seeking the Spirit in our lives.  Not being lazy about worship.  Being bold in service.  Sharing ourselves and our possessions as much as is possible.

There are a couple of good dressing-downs in these chapters.  By far, my favorite is when Nephi tells Laman and his cohorts "Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God...";   "...The Lord commanded my father that he should depart...  and the Jews also sought to take away his life ; yea, and ye also have sought to take away his life; wherefore, ye are murderers in your hearts and ye are like unto them." (1 Ne 17:45, 1 Ne 17:44). 

It always amazes me that Laman and Lemuel see an angel but later turn to their anger and rebellion.  The Lord chastises them but they later return to their rebellion.  The Lord shocks them, but they later return to their baser selves.  If we can understand why a person (such as ourselves, to one degree or another) does this and how to break the cycle, we stand a better chance at the true happiness which Laman missed out on but must have been evident in Nephi's life on the very same journey.

Don