In this lesson we discuss the value of obedience in the lives of the Lehi's family and in our own. We discuss their exodus from Jerusalem and their many trips back to retrieve the plates and fulfill commandments

1. ALL THINGS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL
GD BoM Lesson 2: 1 Nephi 1-7

2. INTRODUCTION
➤ “The family is central to the Creator’s
plan for the eternal destiny of His
children.”
➤ It is fitting that the keystone of our
religion is primarily written about a family
➤ Can we relate to them?
➤ They live in a corrupt world
➤ They lose wealth and position when
they decide to follow the Lord
➤ They are consistently asked to do
things in a new and unfamiliar way
➤ They have some children who follow
and some who do not
➤ They argue, suffer, repent, forgive,
complain, see miracles, suffer loss, are
blessed beyond expectations

3. WHO WAS LEHI?
➤ We often focus heavily on Nephi. We should admire this
patriarch (GospelDoctrinePlus.blogspot.com)
• was a city-dweller (v. 4)
• that he was well-off (v. 1: "goodly")
• that he listened to the prophets (v. 4)
• that he had great care and concern for his fellow-
citizens (v. 5)
• that his instant approach to worries was to pray (v.
5)
• that he was educated and wrote a great deal (v.
16--see the link in the previous post theorizing that
he may have been a scribe by trade)
• that he was a seer (v. 13)
• that because of his own communications from the
Lord he became a prophet or missionary (in a real
sense they are the same thing) in Jerusalem (v. 18)
• that he was not swayed by public opinion (v. 19)
• that he had a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ
(v. 19)
• and he did not see any success in his mission, and
was even threatened with death for it (v. 20)

4. LEHI LEAVES JERUSALEM AND TAKES HIS FAMILY INTO THE WILDERNESS
➤ 1 Ne 1:6-12 (summarize his vision)
➤ 1 Ne 1:13-15
➤ Why does seeing destruction (13) cause him to rejoice
(15)? What else might his vision have contained (14)?
➤ 1 Ne 1:18-20
➤ Hearing truth causes 2 reactions: humility or anger
(example of Alma vs. the wicked priests of Noah)
➤ How does this happen today?
➤ What are tender mercies?
➤ Elder Bednar quote (next slide)

5. ““I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they
do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often the Lord’s
timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and
acknowledge them.
“… The Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and
individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance,
loving-kindness, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we
receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Truly the Lord suits ‘his mercies according to the conditions of the
children of men’ (D&C 46:15).
-Elder David A. Bednar

6. LEHI LEAVES JERUSALEM AND TAKES HIS FAMILY INTO THE
WILDERNESS
➤ 1 Ne 2:2-4
➤ It’s 200 miles to get to the Red Sea
(12-14 days)
➤ What does he do first?
➤ 1 Ne 2:6-7
➤ The journey must have been
brutal, yet he praises God
➤ Lehi’s parenting tactic
➤ What do we know about Laman
& Lemuel (2:12-13)
➤ How does he speak to them?
(2:9-11)
➤ He must know them, why
bother with hope?

7. DANGERS OF MURMURING
➤ What is murmuring? How is it different than outright defiance? Why does Satan
encourage it?
➤ Elder H. Ross Workman of the Seventy (3 steps to disobedience)
➤ 1. When people murmur they begin to question and then plant questions in
the minds of others
➤ 2. They begin to rationalize and excuse themselves from doing what they have
been instructed to do
➤ 3. They begin to be slothful in following the commandment
➤ D&C 58:29, ‘But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a
commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned’
➤ ATOT: Listening to the Sunday School Podcast. It’s message seemed straight but it had traces
of murmuring against the prophet and leaders. It had seeds of doubt packaged in an obedient
image.
➤ H. Ross Workman quote (next slide)

8. “
I invite you to focus on the commandment from living prophets
that bothers you the most. Do you question whether the
commandment is applicable to you? Do you find ready excuses
why you cannot now comply with the commandment? Do you
feel frustrated or irritated with those who remind you of the
commandment? Are you slothful in keeping it? Beware of the
deception of the adversary. Beware of murmuring” (in
Conference Report, Oct. 2001, 104–6; or Ensign, Nov. 2001, 85–
86).
-H. Ross Workman of the Seventy

9. NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS RETURN TO JERUSALEM TO OBTAIN THE PLATES OF BRASS
➤ What is the antidote to a tendency to murmur? Nephi must have had the same fears
and frustrations in leaving his home.
➤ What did he do? 1 Ne 2:16
➤ What can we learn from his example?
➤ I Ne 3:1-4, Why were they sent back to Jerusalem (14 day journey one way)?
➤ Why were the plates such a big deal? (1 Ne 5:11-12)
➤ Five books of Moses, record of the Jews, Prophecies, Genealogy
➤ What was Laman & Lemuel’s response? 1 Ne 3:5
➤ What was Nephi’s? 1 Ne 3:7
➤ President Ezra Taft Benson put it most poignantly when he said, ‘When obedience ceases
to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with
power’” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1998, 108; or Ensign, May 1998, 82).
➤ Have you had “I will go and do” moments? What did you learn?
➤ Henry B. Eyring quote (next slide)

10. ““Whoever we are, however difficult our circumstances, we can know that
what our Father commands we do to qualify for the blessings of eternal
life will not be beyond us. …
“We may have to pray with faith to know what we are to do and we must
pray with a determination to obey, but we can know what to do and be
sure that the way has been prepared for us by the Lord” (“The
Family” [CES fireside for young adults, Nov. 5, 1995], 1,
www.ldsces.org).
-President Henry B. Eyring

11. NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS RETURN TO JERUSALEM TO OBTAIN THE PLATES OF BRASS
➤ Story summary: 3 attempts to get the plates
➤ 1. Laman tries to reason with Laban (3:11)
➤ 2. They all gather their riches and try to buy the plates (3:22)
➤ After their escape they try to beat Nephi and see an angel(3:28-29)
➤ 3. Nephi goes “alone” (4:6). What was the critical difference with this plan?
➤ How can this type of obedience strengthen us?
➤ What miracles did Nephi experience by allowing the Spirit to guide his actions? I
found at least 6. Nephi couldn’t have foreseen any of these outcomes.
➤ 1. 4:7, his enemy is delivered to him
➤ 2. 4:19, the clothes of Laban fit (Nephi was a young man)
➤ 3. 4:20, his voice was altered
➤ 4. 4:23, he received words to say
➤ 5. 4:31, he received physical strength
➤ 6. 4:35, he was able to convince Zoram with his testimony & oath

12. NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS BRING THE BRASS PLATES TO THEIR FAMILY
➤ Meanwhile back in the wilderness…(sweet example of conflict
resolution in a marriage)
➤ Sariah was scared (25-30 day round-trip journey…that’s a lot of
time for a mom to worry)
➤ She starts to doubt & fear (5:2)
➤ Lehi responds with understanding and faith (5:4-6)
➤ He testifies of having “obtained a land of promise” yet he is still
in the “wilderness”. How does he have both?
➤ He is a prophet, he’s using prophetic future tense. His testimony
of the prophecy is so secure that he doesn’t need to see it
realized to believe it
➤ Their joy is full (5:7)…well almost. She needs grand babies ;)

13. NEPHI AND HIS BROTHERS RETURN TO JERUSALEM FOR ISHMAEL AND HIS FAMILY
➤ 1 Ne 7:1-3, No one murmurs this time (they know they need wives)
➤ 1 Ne 7:4-5, How were they persuaded? How does gaining favor first make a
difference? Why couldn’t they just use a Jedi mind trick?
➤ 1 Ne 7:6-7, If their hearts were softened, why did they rebel so quickly?
➤ Their father had testified that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Now they’ve
gone back 3 times and it’s still standing. That must have sown the seeds of
doubt in them.
➤ What is Nephi’s response? (7:8-12)
➤ What experiences with the Spirit are we ‘forgetting’? How can we reconnect
with what we once ‘knew’?
➤ They bind him with cords and try to kill him. What does he pray for? (7:17)
➤ Why should we pray for strength to endure rather than miraculous escape?
➤ What is Nephi’s response to their hardness? (7:21)

14. CONCLUSION
➤ The scriptures promise that people
will ‘prosper’ in the land if they obey
the commandments of God (34 times)
➤ Prospering doesn’t mean life will be
free from trial. Lehi’s family is a great
example of this.
➤ President Joseph F. Smith taught “The
man who stays with the kingdom of God, the
man who is true to this people, the man who
keeps himself pure and unspotted from the
world, is the man that God will accept, that
God will uphold, that he will sustain, and
that will prosper in the land, whether he be
in the enjoyment of his liberty or be confined
in prison cells, it makes no difference where
he is, he will come out all right” (Gospel
Doctrine, 5th ed. [1939], 257).

15. REFERENCE
MAP
Possible route taken by
Lehi’s family