And it came to pass that we went up unto the house of Ishmael,and we did gain favor in the sight of Ishmael,insomuch that we did speak unto him the words of the Lord.(1 Nephi 7:4)
This verse does not say that Nephi and his brothers gained
favor first and then spoke to Ishmael
and family the words of the Lord.
Rather, that word “insomuch” means “to the extent of, to the degree of.” It means that they gained favor to the
extent that they spoke the words of the Lord to Ishmael. It shows that Ishmael responded most to
the words of the Lord, rather than the wisdom of man; he was a righteous man
and he recognized by the feelings and thoughts he had when the Spirit confirmed
what Nephi and his brothers must have said about the imminent destruction of
Jerusalem, the wickedness of the people, and the necessity of leaving to
preserve a righteous remnant. It
shows us that Ishmael was definitely a worthy man to be taken on the flight out
of wicked Jerusalem. The Lord knew
what he was doing when He chose Ishmael and his family.
So, I guess the question should be asked of us, “Do we,
like Ishmael, favor those who speak the words of the Lord to us?”
1 comments:
Actually, a straightforward reading is that they did gain favor first, and to that degree that they gained favor, they spoke the word of God to him: if they gained much favor, then they spoke much of the word of God to him.
The proper dictionary to be using is the Webster's 1828 edition, which uses this:
INSOMUCH', adv. [in,so, and much.] So that; to that degree.
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