Post by Nephi –
Although my father was pleased and relieved that his sons were safe, unlike our mother, his joy of our return was equaled by his excitement to get into the records that were engraven on the plates of brass. He searched them from the beginning.
They contained the five books of Moses which gave the account of the creation of the world which included our first parents Adam and Eve.
The rest of the engravings were a record of the Jews from the beginning even until the commencement of the reign of the same Zedekiah, king of Judah who we just left behind as we fled Jerusalem. These records were very current, they included prophecies of the holy prophets from the beginning until now, including some of the prophecies spoken by Jeremiah who is currently in Jerusalem.
It is only natural for the scriptures to contain both ancient writings as well as the current revelations from God. If God spoke his words by prophets anciently it would only reason that he would do so today. The oddity of the fact that the plates of brass contained current revelations, is not that God will reveal His word to His prophets through all times, but that the records that my Father was reading were taken from Laban’s treasury. Why would a man as wicked as Laban permit the current declarations and prophesies against him and his wicked associates to be recorded in such a permanent manner?
My father, Lehi, also discovered the plates contained a genealogy of his fathers. He therefore knew that he was a descendant of Joseph; even that Joseph who was the son of Jacob, who was sold into Egypt, and who was preserved by God, that he might preserve his father, Jacob, and all his household from perishing with famine.
The records contained the account of Moses’ people being led out of captivity, out of Egypt by the same God that has led us out of Jerusalem. I am tempted to think our exodus may be similar to theirs. I certainly hope not as long.
We also learned that one of the main reasons that Laban had this record was that he too was a descendant of Joseph and that is why his fathers had kept the records. I guess we can be grateful to him for that.
When my father was done with all this, he was filled with the Spirit and he prophesied concerning his posterity.
He said that the contents of these plates should go forth unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and that these plates should never perish. He prophesied many things but I will not record them here in this blog.
With everything we found on the plates, it became very evident that our obedience in securing the plates would make all the difference as we carried them with us to the land of promise.
I am confident that in future blogs, we will see clearly that by our having the commandments of God with us, our posterity in the land of promise will have been greatly blessed.
