Post by Sam –
Our little brother Nephi is quite amazing sometimes. He is undaunted in his willingness to follow our father and the Lord. I hope he never changes, even though we face stiff resistance from Laman and Lemuel and Ishmael’s sons because of this steadfastness. We were enjoying a period of peace as we were camped in the land of Bountiful, when Nephi received a call from the voice of the Lord to go up to the mountain and cry unto the Lord. Nephi of course did so and once there he was commanded to build a ship. Not that Nephi had ever built a ship, but this was not too much of a stretch, especially when the Lord is the architect. The Lord told Nephi that this ship would carry all of us across the sea.
Our father has provided us, his sons, with ample opportunities to learn trades, craftsmanship and the such. Nephi however took it all to heart better than the rest of us and actually became quite proficient with many of these trades, including metallurgy. His first reaction was naturally to get instruction from the Lord as to where he would get ore to molton so we could make tools to be used in building the ship. Seems like an innocent question but with Nephi’s faith it was simple for the Lord to just tell him. There is plenty of wild game around from whose skins he made bellows to blow the fire. Keep in mind that we had very little fire as we traveled in the wilderness. The Lord made our food sweet that we did not need to cook.
Once the bellows was complete Nephi’s striking two stones together got a nice fire burning. It was interesting how intimately involved the Lord was with our journey. He was our light in the wilderness and He prepared the way before us. He made it very clear that as we kept His commandments He led us towards the promised land and He made it very clear that it was He that was doing the leading. This land of Bountiful is Promised land enough compared to the wilderness we have journeyed through these past 8 years. I almost hesitate to want to continue this journey, especially facing the unknown across these waters.
The Lord however has been quite clear that after we arrive in the promised land, we will know that He, the Lord, is God and that He has delivered us from destruction, bringing us out of Jerusalem. Nephi knows this as surely as anyone can know something. That really is why he strives to keep the commandments and then exhorts us to faithfulness and diligence with such great energy.
Well, we now have tools to build a ship. The ore became metal and the metal became tools.
As Nephi learned these skills, I wonder if he ever thought he would be building a ship, on a beach, in a far away land with tools he made himself, with ore shown to him by God, in a manner the Creator of the world would show him. It is almost to much to comprehend.
(Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 17:7 – 16)
