1 Nephi 10 is kind of overlooked by us today because it is
pretty much a summary of Lehi’s prophecies at that point in time. It is almost like a chapter heading
itself, except it is longer.
The notable thing about this chapter is its lack of
notability. There is nothing that
surprises us because we know that it all happened as Lehi said. Jerusalem was destroyed. The
Jews were carried away to Babylon and later brought back. The Savior was born. A prophet came to prepare the way for
the Messiah and said what it was predicted he would say. That prophet baptized
the Messiah and witnessed who it was.
The gospel was preached to the Jews, the Jews dwindled in unbelief, and
they killed the Messiah. The
Messiah rose from the dead and made Himself manifest to the Gentiles through
the Holy Ghost. Israel was
scattered again.
Again, we know all this happened, and it may be really
tempting for unbelieving readers to say that Joseph Smith just wrote a summary
of important events in the Bible and this wasn’t really prophecy. But I think that fails to understand
the function of the chapter. If
the object was to commit fraud and fool us into believing, it is too
obvious. It is too easy for a
suspicious person to “detect” and disbelieve, therefore it is really prophecy,
and it is instead allowing the reader to choose whether to believe or not,
meaning it is a test of the reader more than a test of the writer. You have to believe in modern prophecy
and seership in order to believe in ancient prophecy and seership.
So we must think about the function of this summary. For Nephi it may have acted as a way to
preserve the most salient elements of his father’s prophecies, and for him
these were points of faith. And
considering he was writing this all while looking in retrospect of the
prophecies, and since he was about to tell us about his vision/interpretation
of Lehi’s dream, it seems that he picked out the points that corresponded to
his vision, which makes him and his father two witnesses as to the truth of the
future-history he is about to reveal.
In essence, Nephi sets his father as the first witness of the future and
himself as the second. (He does
this most clearly when he quotes from Isaiah then quotes his brother Jacob, and
then calls attention to those quotations as 2 witnesses in addition to his
own.)
Now, one thing that puzzled me was why it was important to
reveal so much information about John the Baptist to the Lehites and at this
stage of time. Usually the focus
is on the Messiah, so why does the prophetic eye fall upon John the Baptist in
such detail?
Right now my best answer is this—I think it is a sign that
in spite of being scattered physically from Israel, it was for the Lord to show
the Lehites that they were still grafted into Israel spiritually and that to
those who are a part of Israel there is no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge
of the counsels and will of the Lord in any time and place. It is a manifestation of the grace and
generosity of the Lord in bestowing knowledge that will connect His people’s
together though they may be separated by hundreds of years and thousands of
miles.
For those of us who believe in prophecy, this chapter is a
sign to us that prophecy is real.
The Lehites knew about John the Baptist long before he lived and far
away from where he lived. The
prophecy coming true is confirmed to us in a totally different book—the Bible.
It also helps give us confidence that the other prophecies
Nephi shares that have yet to happen will come to pass.
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