Thursday, April 2, 2015

1 Nephi 1:4

4  For it came to pass in the commencement of the afirst year of the reign of bZedekiah, king of Judah, (my father, Lehi, having dwelt at cJerusalem in all his days); and in that same year there came many dprophets, prophesying unto the people that they must erepent, or the great city fJerusalem must be destroyed.













     "in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah..."

            -for the correspondent Biblical historical account:  2 Kings 24:10-20 & 2 Chron. 36:9-20

     "many prophets"
            -God get’s his message out particularly when the message is dire.  One wonders if these prophets established any kind of society  -something like a support group or if each was independent and largely oblivious to the others. 

            -one wonders about the progression of Lehi.  We speak of him without reservation as “a prophet” but did he view himself as such and what form did his progression take as he grew into the mantle of a spokesman for God?  He was simply a man, a husband and a father who responded to the messages of the “many prophets” who showed up in Jerusalem.  Clearly Lehi was open to the message and the prompting of the Spirit when the greater majority of his contemporaries were not.

     "there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that ..."
            -Ezekiel was contemporary with Lehi and could easily have been one of those prophets. We know the names of four of the prophets of that day—Lehi, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel. Lehi's call was to lead a colony out of Jerusalem to a promised land. Jeremiah's call was to stay and bear witness of the destruction of Jerusalem. Daniel was called into exile, but he went into the royal courts and there was allowed to get a picture of the grand world view of history. Ezekiel was called to go among the captives and explain to them why this terrible tragedy had happened.
-Religious Studies Monograph Series, Isaiah and the Prophets, Vol. 10, p.77

      “must repent…. must be destroyed”
            -the Lord is not wishy-washy.  He abides by laws that must be carried through.
            -as always, men and women control their own destiny; agency is key here:
people repent = no destruction.

No comments:

Post a Comment