Thursday, April 9, 2015

1 Nephi 1:8

8  And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a avision, even that he saw the bheavens open, and he thought he csaw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.

            QUESTION:  Why two visions/encounters so near to each other?  The first appears to be related to the latter and more complete vision.  What allowed Lehi to proceed from one to the other or was this added light and truth an inevitability?  This question becomes pertinent to us as we strive for greater knowledge and direction from God.   How can we facilitate a greater and greater endowment of truth from heaven?

       “being thus overcome”
            -I wonder if Lehi had been “less overcome”, or in other words, if he took more lightly or pondered less (i.e. gone about his everyday activities) the thing which he had, in the first instance, been given would the Lord bless him with a further degree of knowledge (this additional vision)?!  How often do we have a spiritual experience and, although we are touched and/or grateful, not take sufficient time to ponder it –we hardly feel we have enough time to write it down.  In this instance we take the things of God too lightly.

    “he was carried away in a vision”
            -most visions seem to take place in the location of the participant:  Moses was not “carried away” but rather encountered God at the place of the burning bush.  The same happened to Paul whose experience on the road to Damascus stayed on the road; likewise Joseph Smith never left the sacred grove.  Even Lehi’s first vision took place on the rock where he was praying.  Why then, in this instance, is he “carried away”?

6 & 8 (Comparative).  I wonder if the content of the two experiences are related?

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