Ishmael has recently died and his children are mourning exceedingly. They regret leaving Jerusalem and wish they still lived in their fine house. I conjecture that Laman and Lemuel’s anger was stirred up as they saw their wives sorrow for the death of their father.
37. And Laman said unto Lemuel and also unto the sons of Ishmael: Behold, let us slay our father, and also our brother Nephi, who has taken it upon him to be our ruler and our teacher, who are his elder brethren.
This shows a great deal of hard-heartedness on Laman’s part. To actually contemplate and suggest killing his own father shows us that he has gone beyond the point of no return. Once murder has entered someone’s heart, it takes an equally powerful force to drag them away from such evil, and he’s already had an angel appear to him, when he was beating Nephi outside Jerusalem when they went to get the plates. He has seen an angel and yet he still chooses to do evil. His heart is truly hard.
38. Now, he says that the Lord has talked with him, and also that angels have ministered unto him. But behold, we know that he lies unto us; and he tells us these things, and he worketh many things by his cunning arts, that he may deceive our eyes, thinking, perhaps, that he may lead us away into some strange wilderness; and after he has led us away, he has thought to make himself a king and a ruler over us, that he may do with us according to his will and pleasure. And after this manner did my brother Laman stir up their hearts to anger.
This is very interesting. Laman’s argument is that Nephi lied to them about being ministered to by angels, and yet Laman himself has seen an angel. He’s conveniently forgetting to mention that fact as he’s trying to convince the others to go along with him. The real truth of the matter is, Laman doesn’t like being told that he’s wicked and needs to repent. He likes being the way he is and has no intention of changing. He’s only behaving himself because he keeps getting threatened, but it doesn’t make any difference to him that sometimes those warnings come to him by the hand of angels. In all this, I tend to envision Lemuel as being a side-kick. We don’t see him initiate actions—he simply backs Laman up. Perhaps this is because of the birth order and he defers to Laman because Laman is the eldest. Or perhaps Laman got all the credit because he was the eldest. Just a bit of conjecture there.
39. And it came to pass that the Lord was with us, yea, even the voice of the Lord came and did speak many words unto them, and did chasten them exceedingly; and after they were chastened by the voice of the Lord they did turn away their anger, and did repent of their sins, insomuch that the Lord did bless us again with food, that we did not perish.
Once again, the Lord has spoken to the brothers and called them to repentance. They turned from their sins, but who knows if they were sincere at that point or not—I tend to think not. The Lord blessed the travelers with food and they were able to end their suffering.
From today’s reading: when we are called upon to repent, do we do it sincerely, or just to get out of trouble for the moment? How can we make our repentance more lasting and meaningful?
Related Blogs:
Scripture Study for Your Children