1 Nephi 4: Guidance, Protection, Oaths

. . . And we're back!

"Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mighteir than Laban and his fifty, yea or even than his tens of thousands?"

Okay. I have always really liked that little jump across these two chapters. Laman and Lemuel say, how can the Lord possibly deliver Laban into our hands; he is so powerful, and Nephi's reply is: the Lord is more powerful.

So, lets talk about what the Lord can do for us when we are on his side. First of all, he will provide a way for us, as Nephi says. This whole chapter is about Nephi basically saying to the Lord, "I have exhausted all my creative resources. I have no idea how to continue this pursuit, but I will do what I have been commanded and go back to the city." And God does indeed guide him.

Now, there is a big difference between divine guidance and divine protection. In this case, Nephi gets both. But just because God is guiding us doesn't mean that things will always turn out this well. Not that God couldn't always protect us from harm if he chose to, but look at the martyrdom of Christ's prophets and apostles in all ages, and it becomes clear that God does not stand in the way of man's agency.

God does, however, protect us in other ways. Nephi is reminded of the importance of the commandments in this chapter. The Lord tells Nephi that as long as his posterity keep the commandments of God, they will prosper in the Promised Land. The commandments of God are a kind of divine protection.

Now, once again, this isn't necessarily a physical protection. Look at Job, fine upstanding child of God who had everything go wrong for him. So, no, the commandments aren't a perfect temporal protection from all ills. Although, I suspect in a perfect world they would be. No, the commandments of God are the perfect spiritual protection.

Let's imagine a world, for a moment, where everyone kept the commandments of God. Not just commandments like don't steal and don't kill, but commandments like love thy neighbor and love God. With all that love going around wouldn't the world be a better place. We wouldn't have to be worried about people stealing, killing, and coveting, because we would seek the best for both ourselves and our neighbors.Wouldn't everyone prosper if we kept the commandments of God?

Yes.

Life still wouldn't be perfect, but it would be so much better for everyone involved.

Switching gears. I don't know exactly how an oath works, but people in old days obviously took them seriously. I guess in some ways we take them seriously today as well. We have the oath of office for the president and the Hippocratic Oath that doctors must take, but we don't use oaths very often in day-to-day life. Why?

I suppose I could reference Jesus's statement that we should let our speech be "yea, yea" or "nay, nay," meaning that our word should be enough to bind us. But back in the day, oaths were very powerful nonetheless. Later in the Book of Mormon we will see that oaths could be either good or bad, just like anything else. Secret combinations are built on oaths.

Whether or not we should use oaths today is a moot point. However, our word ought to be our bond. When we commit to something, we should darn well commit. People should feel very at peace with our commitment, just as Nephi feels about Zoram's commitment after he gives his oath.