“the Lord spake
unto my father, yea, even in a dream”
-how many
visions or heavenly experiences does this make for Lehi in the space of barely
two chapters of scripture? What time
frame do these chapters represent? It
may be impossible to tell but we can surmise that is may have been as short as
a few months and possibly as long as a year.
The point is, Lehi is clearly a spiritually sensitive soul as to have
communication with the heavens on a frequent basis.
“blessed art
thou Lehi”
-there
are no sweeter words that can be spoken than the positive affirmation and
compliment from the mouth of God. Can
you imagine the profound emotional and spiritual joy that must accompany such
praise?
-Consider
the dichotomy between the two reactions to Lehi: God, the ruler of the universe, is expressing
his approbation at the actions and integrity of one of his sons while at the
same moment, the people with whom Lehi most immediately interacts are so angry
with him that they are seeking to kill him.
There are few illustrations that show more clearly the great gulf
between how God views things and how man views them. In mortality it is a rare thing to find favor
in man’s eyes and in God’s eyes.
Certainly in our time when the differences between right and wrong,
between those of faith and those of the material world, are so profound; certainly in such a time, if we find
ourselves applauded, accepted and acclaimed by the masses and by society we are
likely to be out of step with and running contrary to God.
“blessed art thou… because of the
things which thou hast done.”
-Lehi
finds favor because he has acted on what the Lord has given /asked of him. Action, therefore, is primary to the “because
of their faith” endowment. Faith was
never a passive thing, a state of mind or a spiritual attitude. It is not a wish or merely mental
effort. It is “get up and go”. God wants and needs action from his
followers. No one will get to heaven or
experience God’s compliments who has not done something whether it be going on
a mission, crossing the planes, doing your hometeaching, holding family home
evening, going to the temple. Blessings
are reserved for those who DO!
“because thou
hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded
thee, behold, they seek to atake away thy life.”
-God knew
what circumstances Lehi was going to run into.
In fact He knew even before he sent Lehi out to declare repentance that
the people were not going to listen. He
knew it was a futile cause to preach to the people… so why send him?
No comments:
Post a Comment