Post by Nephi –
Laban had made it very clear he was not going to give up the records merely for the asking. Laban’s anger and his attempt on Laman’s life made that fact pretty clear, and Laman didn’t hesitate to remind us of that as I tried to convince my brothers that we must be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord. I insisted that we would not go down to our father in the wilderness until we were successful in obtaining the records.
I reminded my brothers of the great riches that we as a family had left behind. We determined to go down to the land of our father’s inheritance where the gold and silver had been left behind.
Although we had left considerable wealth behind and in essence had given it up already, you can imagine the reluctance of my brothers to exchange all of it for records they had no interest in to begin with. I reminded my brothers that we had fled into the wilderness and followed our father because of the commandments of the Lord.
I told them to remember that our father knew that Jerusalem would be destroyed because of the wickedness of the people. They have rejected the words of the prophets. Knowing what he knew, if our family should stay in the land after he hath been commanded to flee out of the land, inevitably we would perish along with the wicked. It was imperative that we flee Jerusalem. As Laman and Lemuel have both said, they don’t believe that. They still cling to the belief that Jerusalem is just fine and our father is not all together sane.
It took great persuading to encourage my brothers. I told them it was wisdom in God that we should obtain the records, that they were important in helping us preserve the language of our fathers for our children.
I told them it was important to preserve the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets. We know that since the world began prophets had received the words of God by the Spirit and power of God, even down unto this present time. With the impending destruction of Jerusalem these records would be lost if we didn’t get them.
All of this speaking was simply my effort to persuade my brothers, to be faithful in keeping the commandments of God.
Finally, we were on our way down to the land of our inheritance, and we gathered together our gold, and our silver, and our precious things and headed back up to the house of Laban.
You can imagine how uncomfortable Laman was to again be in front of Laban, but this time we were offering Laban our gold, our silver and some very beautiful precious possessions if he would give us the records which were engraven on the plates of brass.
I’ll tell you more about Laban in a future post, but suffice it to say we were not totally surprised when Laban saw how exceedingly great our property was, he lusted after it, maybe coveted is a better word. He wanted it so bad in fact, he threw us out, and sent his servants to kill us, just so he could get our property.
This time Laman naturally led the way. We all experienced what Laman went through in his earlier meeting with Laban. With Laban’s servants after our very lives, needless to say, we were obliged to leave behind our property, and Laban got what he wanted and we fled empty handed.
With Laban’s servants on our trail this time, we not only fled outside the walls of the city we had to flee into the wilderness so the servants of Laban did not overtake us. We hid ourselves in the cavity of a rock.
You can’t with a clear concious describe Laman as cool, calm or collected. Patience and understanding are seldom used in the same paragraph with his name, but even now his anger surprised me. He was so angry with me, and my father, that despite the hardest words he could muster, he couldn’t be satisfied. His anger toward me and Sam as well, got so violent they beat us with a rod.
Lemuel was no help, he followed Laman and joined in the berating and the beating. As the beating continued the Lord had had enough and sent and angel to our aid. This angel stood before Laman and Lemuel and boldly spoke to them saying:
“Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities? Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.”
After that, the angel departed. Just up and left.
It was almost as if Laman and Lemuel were beyond feeling. The beating stopped, for which Sam and I are grateful, but Laman and Lemuel almost immediately began to murmur. They asked how is was possible for the Lord to deliver Laban into our hands. I’m quoting Laman here, “Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?”
My heart breaks for my brothers, I can understand how it can be hard for the big brothers to be chastened by the little brother and for them to be told that the younger brother has been chosen to be a ruler over them, but when an angel is sent from heaven by God, and the angel says that God will deliver Laban into our hands, why can’t they believe?
Laban is a powerfully bad guy, but more powerful than God? You can see why my heart breaks for them.
