Nephi's Dream - 1 Ne. 11-14

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This is one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon.  After hearing his father, Lehi, tell about the dream he had and what the Lord showed to him, Nephi asks for and receives revelation via a dream or vision.
There are many things I could say about these chapters, but I want to share the things that struck me this time.


First of all, it comes back to desire.  Laman and Lemuel heard Lehi's narration of his dream just as Nephi did.  They discussed it, argued about it and ultimately did not understand it.  Nephi, though, desired to know more.  He approached the Lord, expressed his righteous desire, and his desire was granted.  Not only did he see the same dream that Lehi saw, he was given an interpretation as well.  He had to desire this light and knowledge; he had to ask for it.  Notice that the Lord asked Nephi twice what he desired.  My reasoning for this:  The Lord expects us to seek him.  He won't force truth onto us, because it won't be meaningful that way, and besides it is contrary to God's laws.  We have to actively seek the Lord's guidance and actively accept it as well.  Nephi did seek actively and was granted great and marvelous knowledge.  Perhaps another reason Nephi had to actively seek to understand the dream:  The Lord requires us to testify after we've  been given truth.  Nephi asked for and was granted a great privilege and as a result, he had to proclaim the truth he was given.  It wasn't easy, but that was the requirement.  Nephi was warned up front, in 1 Ne 11:6,7:

6 ... blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired.
 7 And behold this thing shall be given unto thee for a sign, that after thou hast beheld the tree which bore the fruit which thy father tasted, thou shalt also behold a man descending out of heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God.

I have wondered about this idea of bearing record.  Nephi's narration is a great chance to understand the concept further.  First some facts:

There are 131 verses in the 4 chapters that address Nephi's dream.

The word "behold" or "beholdest" appears in these chapters 46 times.  20 of those times the context was roughly "Understand, now".  We might have said "pay attention to this..." or "Listen, " or "do you understand?".  26 of those times were in the "Look at this" category.  The Lord was telling Nephi "keep a sharp eye, something's going to happen here".  Clearly, the Lord wanted Nephi to get the message.

The directive or commandment "look" appeared 14 times in these chapters and the past tense verb "looked appeared 17 times.  The interesting thing is that Nephi "looked" more than he was directed to "look".  The word "beheld" appears 63 times.  Again this is a past tense action verb.  The word "beheld" was sometimes used with other similar words:  "Looked and beheld" (11 times), "saw and beheld" (1 time).
I think this illustrates that Nephi was eager to see the things the Lord was showing him.  There is a difference between seeing (looking) and understanding what you see.  Nephi  "beheld" things, which I think means he looked and understood what he saw. 


Speaking of the word "saw", it was used 46 times.  The phrase "I saw" and similar variants appeared 37 times, and "my father saw" 7 times. Some of the times the word was used, it was in conjunction with the phrase "bear record", as in "I testify" or "I avow".  This phrase was used  9 times in these chapters.  Nephi told us that he saw what the Lord showed him, that he understood those things, and that he was testifying of specific things that he saw.  I think his testimony was particularly significant when he used the phrase "I saw and bear record" (see 1 Ne 11:32 - Christ was taken by the people and judged of the world; 1 Ne 11:36 - The great and spacious building was the pride of the world, and it fell; and 1 Ne 12:7  - The 12 disciples of Christ who were Nephi's descendants). Nephi was shown great things concerning the coming of the Messiah, the happenings of his posterity, and the restoration of the Gospel to the earth.  He testified of these things to us, readers of the Book of Mormon.


I take this from these chapters:  If you desire righteousness, the Lord will grant your righteous desire.  If you are granted truth, the Lord wants you to share it with others as a testimony of His goodness and mercy.


Don