Keeping His commandments, another type

———————————————————–

I thought I would ponder for a minute that incredible moment in Nephis life when he broke one of Moses Commandments.

Our story begins with Nephi “creeping” into the city Jerusalem, not knowing before hand what he should do.  He does so following the spirit.  Like the perfect Tom-Tom that spirit takes him exactly where he should go.  To his surprise he finds a dunked man passed out in the street who happens to be Laban, the very man whom he needs to confront.  There he lies, inebriated, already incapacitated.  The Lord provided the means for fighting his battle in such an easy and simple way.  Indeed, like the Gentile guardians of the scriptures in the last days given to us from Isaiah, Laban is drunken with his own wine.  Not only is he drunken and misled but he is like a sleeping dog who cannot bark, loving to slumber.  Just a while before this he was the opposite, barking, mislabeling NEphi and his brothers as robbers and thieves and commanding his armies to destroy them.  Now, when the spirit provides the time, the covenant keeper of holy writ is found laying face down in the dust, likely choking on his own vomit.

Upon walking up to that lifeless watchman Nephi does a curious thing first.  He notices the sword of Laban right off and serendipitously draws it from its sheath.  It almost seams that he does so in a sort of lust, wishing to see it and admire it.  Why the sword?  Why was this the first thing he did?  Why did he so quickly reach down to a drunken man and take his means of defense from him?  The way he does so, describing its attributes, lends me to think that the idea was in his mind, to take advantage of the situation now while he could.  That would of course be murder.  Or we could see that Nephi was doing what the spirit prompted, and that same spirit could have been the instigator which drew his eye toward labans sword.  Either way, NEphi found himself standing over the drunk man with his sword in his hand, and the moment must have been very poignant for nephi.

Then the spirit Says something to Nephi…  “Kill Him”.

Nephi Responds. “Never at any time have I shed the blood of man.”  and then he shrank from the task at hand.

The Spirit says again, “Behold the ^aLord hath ^bdelivered him into thy hands.”

At this thought Nephi begins to rationalize, or justify, that thought.  “He had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.”

It is odd to me that Nephi gives these reasons in his mind. By themselves, none of those reasons; sought to take away my life (past tense), didn’t keep the commandments, stole my stuff, had ever qualified as a good solid reason to kill someone.  They were merely the words of a Man trying to get himself up the gumption to do something that was VERY difficult for him.  HE had to rationalize the moment.  But, lest we think that Nephi merely talks himself into it the spirit gives to him a rather lengthy and wordy diatribe;

“Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands;  Behold the Lord ^aslayeth the ^bwicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is ^cbetter that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in ^dunbelief.”

This is not the work of the mind, or the work of a ‘feeling’ that this was the right thing to do.  Rather, this was a conversation with the spirit of God.  The Lord even gives him a reason in the commandment, tells him that this is the purpose of Laban being here.  Again, this is a conversation.

At this a thought comes to and of NEphis mind; “Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my ^bcommandments, they shall ^cprosper in the ^dland of promise.”

The impetus for thinking this in my opinion was that he had just been Commanded by the voice of the Lord!  he had received a commandment and it was now his duty to follow through.  He goes on to explain that they need the scriptures for establishing a people in the new land.  And indeed they do.

“Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own ^asword”

The deed accomplished, Nephi goes about clothing himself with LAbans clothes.   He goes to the treasury, finds Labans servant gets the plates and gets out of town.  On doing so he ends up also bringing Zoram with him, of necessity, thus introducing a larger Gene pool into the land of Promise.

There are some parallels that I want to point out before I move on of the Servant and NEphi.  Often in his books NEphi  fulfills this type, he does so well here.  HE enters the wicked city which had forfeited its right to the land of promise.  They had been a covenant people and had been given charge over these truths and records.  They fell from that lofty perch like an eagle shot with a scatter-gun off a telephone pole.  This city is a parallel of a people today who were the salt of the earth, gathered a people and had scripture given to them to govern their affairs.  Having set up their own system of governance and misread the scriptures they set themselves up as a light on a hill, bragging on their rameumptums that they are the chosen people, God will not destroy.  The servant, Nephi, comes into their midst unaware of nearly all of them.  The first few times he comes to them and declares the conditions of their deliverance (NEphi and his brothers going ot labans house), but is unsuccessful or at least ineffective.  HE is kicked out and persecuted, even beaten with a Rod and saved miraculously by an angel like the suffering servant.  Finally, after suffering this marring, the Lord endows him with power.  HE creeps into the city and the Lord leads him directly to the means of accomplishing the command.  HE finds the man with the keys to scripture within that city, laying face down.  HE is drunk and passed out. Like a dog asleep that cannot bark.  The spirit tells him exactly what to do, in conversation.  The spirit provides the means to accomplish it.  Here it is the Sword, Labans own sword, it representing the power of God to accomplish the work..  NEphi here serves a type to us of HOW the servant will accomplish this work.  HE will use the power that was invested at one time in Laban to cut off and remove the people who rely on that power.

Having taken the sword and transferred that power through Gods direction, NEphi then  receives the Mantle of the leader of the covenant people.  IT is given to him, every whit of clothing or Garment is taken from laban and given to Nephi.  The Gentile covenant people are then left there, naked in the streets of their own Babylon, left without keys or revelation or scripture.  The Sword too is taken and the power of protection is completely removed from them, which NEphi later wields in the defense of his people.  Zoram represents those of the Gentile covenant people who recognize that the mantle has changed places.  They may not recognize the servant, but they do recognize the change, they follow the scriptures out of Jerusalem.  As the Lord tells us in the 3 Nephi 16, some of the Gentile people will repent and do exactly this, leaving with the Servant into the wilderness.

The point of this post goes beyond this type though, which type NEphi repeatedly points to throughout his writing.

In following the voice of the Lord, he kept the commandment.  HE broke the commandment to Not kill, the commandment to Not steal, the commandment to not lie, etc…  But he stayed true to the voice of God.  He followed and kept the commandments in that way, the higher law, the one Moses followed.  This is the way shown us by father Adam and that of Abraham.  “Abraham received all things, whatsoever he received, by revelation and commandment, by my word, saith the Lord, and hath entered into his exaltation and sitteth upon his throne. (DC 132)”

To do the works of the Lord, we must learn to recognize his voice, literally.  We must be able to hear that direction and follow directly.  Feelings and impression don’t cut it, direction and discourse do.  By so doing we will be led to become different from the world, the pharisees, and even from those who follow the ten commandments.  We will become like Abraham and indeed Christ, by literally hearing and following the commands of God.  This kind of priesthood, the ‘power’ of it, only comes directly from him, not through man.  IF we listen hear and follow he will prove us worthy of that power, as he did nephi with the sword and Abraham with his son.  By so doing we keep the commandments and will indeed prosper in the Land, or receive our inheritance of a seed and land for eternity as Abraham did.

Christ’s words and a relationship with him are really the only way.