1 Nephi 7

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Nephi states that they “did speak unto him [Ishmael] the words of the Lord” (verse 4). This shows that Nephi was testifying to Ishmael and that Ishmael also felt the Spirit. From that, Ishmael knew the truthfulness of Nephi’s and Nephi’s brothers’ words. Each time we testify to someone, they can know the truth of our words by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can know the truthfulness of the words of others by this as well.

Laman, Lemuel, and two of the daughters of Ishmael rebelled against Nephi ad the others. The four that rebelled were having a hard time choosing between the words of the Lord and the comforts of home. I am sure that that had to have been a difficult decision especially because all four of them clearly lacked faith in Heavenly Father. A lot of times, though, we need to just give up our want for an understanding of all things and just do what the Lord tells us to. In verse 12, which states “Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.”

After Nephi spoke these words, and a few others, his brothers became exceedingly mad at him for saying that they have no faith and it almost seems like Nephi is saying he is better than them. Nephi tells his brothers and the two daughters of Ishmael that they should not return to the land of Jerusalem because if they do, they will perish. Nephi’s brothers became overtly angry with him and bound him with cords. Their intent had been to leave Nephi in the wilderness for animals to eat him. Nephi, though, asks the Lord to give him strength so that he could break the cords which bound him. Nephi shows us that instead of asking the Lord to change our situation, we should instead ask to have the strength to get through the trial we are facing.  

Because Nephi was faithful and trusted the Lord entirely, the Lord helped him. Nephi knew that just having a little faith in the Lord is enough. Heavenly Father promises us that if we have just a little bit of faith, we can move mountains.

Nephi quickly forgave his brothers for trying to take his life. This is how we should be – quick to forgive one another. I think that if Nephi can forgive someone for trying to kill him, we can most certainly forgive someone for anything they do to us. Nephi then told them that even though he had forgiven them, they still needed to ask for the forgiveness of the Lord. Because of Christ, we can repent and be forgiven for our sins. The Lord has promised us that when we truly repent for our sins, we will be forgiven and He will forget the sin which we committed regardless of how bad it may seem. There is only one sin which He will not forgive and that sin is if you receive a direct witness and still deny Him and the truthfulness of the gospel, like what Laman and Lemuel have done. We should take advantage of the opportunity to repent for our sins. Life is so much easier when we can rid ourselves of unnecessary burdens of sin. One thing to remember is that only Heavenly Father’s opinion counts. So even if someone refuses to forgive you after you’ve truly repented, it doesn’t matter because only the forgiveness of Heavenly Father matters. If you’ve done your best to make up for what you did, the Atonement will make up for the rest and you can rest easy, because you’ve done all that you can do.