This Chapter reminds us that God is our creator. 1 Nephi 2:12 It is commonly said that Jesus Christ's birth combined divinity with mortality, as His mother, Mary was mortal, and the Son of God's Father was God. But perhaps that's not a 50%-50% combination. Through Mary, Christ also inherited something of the divine, as do we all, our bodies ultimately being the creation of our Heavenly Father as well.
A WORD
I'm interested in the word immovable (1 Nephi 2:10), which Lehi hopes Lemuel will become: "steadfast and immovable" like unto the Valley which Lehi names after him (one of the ancient Near East cultural points the Book of Mormon gets right, according to Nibley in Lehi in the Desert). The word immovable suggests that we should be different from the type of Saints which Paul describes in Ephesians: "tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine." And yet, that's what is interesting to me, because often, entirely opposite metaphors, metaphors of movement rather than immobility, are used to describe religious devotion. For example, the word most observant, devout, practicing Latter-day Saints use to describe themselves is not "observant" or "practicing" or "devout" but "active." Even in this chapter, we see Lehi using a movement metaphor for Laman, who is told to be like unto a river, which is constantly "running" into a source of spirituality.
So how are we to understand these seemingly opposite metaphors? In what way is righteousness based on active participation and running towards our goals, and in what way is it akin to steadfast immobility? I think the key is in personal choice, and the exercise of our agency. A person who is "tossed" to and fro is being tossed by an outside source, being acted upon instead of acting. A person who stands firm for what she believes in, not willing to be swayed by peer pressure or the currents of popular opinion, is choosing to be steadfast, to act and not be acted upon. A person who actively attends his meetings and magnifies his calling is choosing to do so. It is how we choose to exercise our moral agency that matters.
A DOCTRINE
It's fascinating to me that Nephi, always steadfast and immovable, says that upon crying unto the Lord, his heart was softened, so that he believed in the words of his father Lehi. Is it possible that Nephi, perfect in so many things, left Jerusalem with a hard heart, not any more excited upon his family's departure from their comfortable dwelling in Jerusalem than his murmuring elder brothers were? That his heart had to be softened? Apparently. If so, perhaps the main difference between Nephi and Laman and Lemuel was not that he was born more perfect than they, but that he was willing to cry unto the Lord for answers to his questions, and for help in softening his hardened heart. After that, the differences between them, which might not have been that large at first, grew exponentially, as Nephi's choices led him gradually in one direction, and Laman and Lemuel's sent them in another. Again, it's about how we exercise our moral agency. It's all about our choices.
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