1 Nephi 14-15

15:23-24  And they said unto me: What meaneth the rod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree? And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

This is my favorite verse from today’s chapters. It captures why reading the Book of Mormon and/or the Bible every day is a priority to me. 

Chapter 14 is the last of the chapters describing Nephi's big vision. There are a few concepts worth explaining. First, the Book of Mormon talks a lot about two broadly-classified groups of people. One is the Jews, or the House of Israel (Lehi, Nephi, and their “seed’” or posterity fit into this category). The other is the Gentiles. Pretty much anyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile. In most of the visions and prophecies of Nephi, the Gentiles he sees are the Europeans and the Americans.

The chapter talks about the Church of the Lamb of God and the church of the devil. The church of the devil does not refer to a specific church but to any person, group, organization, or philosophy that works against the Church of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the children of God. 

There is another Bible celebrity appearance in this chapter. Nephi sees John the Revelator in vision, who wrote the book of Revelation in the New Testament, and even mentions him by name (vs. 27). Not only does Nephi see John, but he gets to see all the same visions that John got to see about the end of the world! But he is commanded to not write about them because that is John's job. Also notice that when Nephi talks about “the book that proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew” he is talking about the Bible. Check it out in 14:18-28!

Chapter 15

Nephi’s vision finishes and Nephi returns to the “real world” and his whining brothers. He finds them arguing over stuff they don’t understand that their father has been preaching about. They ask Nephi about the topics they don’t understand, and Nephi’s response is important for all of us (vs. 8-11):

And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us. Behold, I said unto them…Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

Laman and Lemuel had a basic belief in what their father had taught them, but they didn’t believe the Lord would give answers to them. How often am I like that? How often do I believe that God is there somewhere, but if I approach Him with individual questions He wouldn’t answer them for me? He has promised that if I ask in faith and with diligence (meaning I might not get the answer right away) then He will answer me. Same goes for you. I believe that.