1 Nephi 6-10

 A few things stood out to me this week as I read 1 Nephi 6-10 and listened to my regular podcasts.  This week we see Nephi and his brothers go back and get the family of Ishmael as brides and we get an account Lehi's dream about the tree of life.  

Lynn Wilson from Scripture Central suggested that Lehi and Ishmael probably had arranged marriages between their families before all this happened.  This would make the whole story of Ishmael's response to the request to join Lehi's group in leaving Jerusalem much more understandable.  Having Ishmael's older sons, who were already married, come along would also add some needed genetic diversity to the offspring of the group as a whole.  

Last post I mentioned that Tyler Griffith had suggested that Lehi saw the rulers of the temple in Jerusalem as corrupt.  He mentioned that they were probably the ones that threatened Lehi's life for his preaching. This week Brother Griffith suggested that the "great and spacious building"(v 26) mentioned in Lehi's vision might have represented, or suggested to Lehi, the temple in Jerusalem.  This would make sense, since it was the leaders of the temple that probably mocked Lehi when he was preaching in Jerusalem, and the temple was probably the biggest and most grand building Lehi knew about. Likewise, Lehi left Jerusalem and entered the "dark and dreary waste" (v. 8) or the wilderness to escape the established religious leaders. In this context the Lehi's dream could be seen as symbolically recounting and justifying Lehi's exit from Jerusalem and his quest to find the promised land (represented by the tree) and the true gospel, (represented by the fruit of the tree). The iron rod represented faith in the revelations Lehi had received and the mists of darkness represented the trials they would go through.  Of course, I don't see this as the only possible interpretation of the dream, but it might of been one that would have easily come to the mind of Leman and Lemuel.

Finally, I have been noticing references to Jesus in the text this year.  In 1 Nephi 10, Lehi prophecies about the coming of the Messiah.  The idea of a Messiah had been a part of Israelitish philosophy for a long time, but it was not emphasized until the time of Isaiah, 100 years or so before Lehi. In vs. 4-6 Lehi shows that he is beginning to understand what the prophesied Messiah would do.  In Israel the Jews thought that the Messiah would free Israel from political captivity and oppression.  These verses show that Lehi understood that the promised Messiah would offer spiritual salvation instead of political salvation. Since Lehi calls him the "lamb of god" (v. 10) I believe Lehi understood that the Messiah would have to suffer and die to make salvation perfect. I don't think they yet understand that Jehovah and Jesus are the same being. Do they ever figure that out?  We will have to wait and see.