At this rate it will take me all year to blog about the Book of Mormon. But hey, I'm not going anywhere anyway!
Let me just reiterate: I'm not a scholar of any kind (although I do hold a master's degree in technology management) so I don't profess any deep meanings or proclaim any special revelations when I write in this forum. That said, I do try to express the things I think of when I read these chapters because I think others may want to consider them too. I beg your patience and ask that you indulge me in this somewhat. :)
Have you ever designed and built a ship? Ok, let's forget about the ship; have you ever constructed a piece of furniture, sewed a dress, cooked a casserole, or put together a model airplane without any guidance or direction? If so, did anyone who saw the effort and the end result call it exceedingly fine?
Well, neither did Nephi. He was commanded to build a ship; he probably knew a little about boats and had probably been on one before, since he grew up near Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee. But building a ocean-going ship? I bet he had never even thought about building something this complicated in his life. Imagine being responsible for the creation and production of a vessel that will be depended on by your extended family for safety. Nephi, of himself, could not do it. I'm sure if you were to ask him, he would probably tell you so, too.
But he didn't do it alone. He knew he didn't have to do it alone. In the first place, he was guided in the design by He who knows all. Imagine having the Lord as you design partner... Is there anything you couldn't do if the Lord guided you? Nephi knew this, and rather than put off the task or avoid doing it, he said to the Lord, in typical Nephi fashion, "whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship..." (1 Ne 17:9). In the second place, he had the laborers that he needed to do the big job.... even though the Lord had to compel some of them to help.
My point? With the Lord by our side, there is nothing that we can't do. Anything we face will be easier if we are partners with the Lord. A good thing to remember.
Chapter 18 talks briefly about their journey across the great waters which concluded with them making land on this continent. A couple of interesting points:
When it was time to board the ship, it was Lehi that the Lord made his will known through. Lehi was the group's leader. The Lord, in His orderly fashion, directed the group through His mouthpiece. This brings to my mind the orderliness of His kingdom on earth and how it is organized in a functional and orderly manner. We need to trust our church leaders as they speak for the Lord in their ordained positions.
This chapter mentions briefly the birth of Jacob and Joseph, Lehi's youngest sons. Just how old was Lehi at this point? More importantly, how old was Sariah, Lehi's wife? It had been 8 years since leaving Jerusalem when they reached the land Bountiful. Building the ship must have taken a year or two build, so it was probably about 10 years after leaving their home that they embarked for the promised land. During that time Jacob and Joseph were born. How old would that make Sariah? In this day and age we here of women having children in their 40's and once in a while even in their 50's. At the beginning we know that Nephi was probably a teenager; in chapter 2 he says that we was young but large in stature... in my mind this would put him at 14 or older. He was old enough that Laban's servant thought he was a man when they retrieved the brass plates. He was old enough that one of Ishmael's daughters married him, so I would probably say he was 16 or older. If he was 16, his brothers may have been anywhere from 18 to 23 years old. This is all speculation, of course, but if Sariah was 16 when she married and 17 when she had Laman, and if Laman was 23 when leaving Jerusalem, she would be 40 or more at that time. If this is the case, she was 40 - 50 years old when she had their last two sons. Imagine that! Not just having babies at that age, but doing it while in the midst of an 8 - 10 year journey away from their ancestral home! What a sacrifice!
The ship that Nephi and the others built was not made "after the manner of men" but after the pattern the Lord showed Nephi. The ship was driven by the winds; this makes me think of the Jaredites, who's vessels were also propelled by the wind. How did Nephi's ship differ from the traditional design of the day? It must not have looked different that those they knew, but it did make sense to everyone in the party (otherwise they may not have gotten on board). It was probably made to take advantage of the winds. I would like to know what the ship looked like.
One other thing I wanted to make a comment about in the voyage: Singing and dancing. After being in the ship for "many days" I guess Laman, Lemuel and some of Ishmael's sons were feeling pretty comfortable. They began to sing, dance, and make themselves merry. They began to speak with rudeness. My question: Is singing and dancing that bad? Is making your self merry a sin? I have to say no to those questions.... I think that the problem was with their attitude, the attitude of rudeness. Makes me think of "dissing' others for sport, fun and attention. It makes me think of pride and cockiness. The attitude "look at me, look what I have done" will get us into trouble. The next step to this attitude is "I'm better than you" and in putting down others in order to feel important and self satisfied. We all have done things that are commendable. Some of us have done really amazing things and achieved great accomplishments. But if our attitude is toward self-aggrandizing or is self-satisfaction-izing, we tend to renege on our partnership with the Lord. Hopefully none us fall into this alluring trap, as Laman and Lemuel did. They took exception to Nephi's attempts to rein them in, and the whole party was put into great danger from the ocean and the elements. To avoid similar spiritual danger, we need to constantly thank the Lord for the good that is done through us and with the hands that He gave us. As King Benjamin said: "Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you." (Mos. 2:25). By acknowledging Him, we are making good on His investment in His children.
Don
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