“Laban was angry”
-here we
have another example of anger being related to a wicked man and
wickedness. (See 1Nephi 1:20 notes).
-why does
this request make Laban angry? From the
record we have, I don’t see anything that Laman did that would merit Laban’s
anger like it was. Sure Laban was a
wicked man consumed with greed, pride, a bloated feeling of self-importance and
drunk with the love of power and worldly things, but with all these
characteristics we can guess that he did not esteem the scriptures to be
important (surely he did not spend much time reading and pondering them) enough
that Laman’s request centered around an object he valued highly. So why, then did he become so infuriated at Laman’s request? Could it be that Laman actually had a
backbone and approached Laban with words such as, “the Lord has sent me to
claim the plates of brass and commands you to deliver them to me”… that would
have sparked this kind of reply from Laban?
“he would not
that he should have the records”
-as
above, why did Laban not want Laman to have the records? It is curious to me that Laban should put
such a high priority on them when he did not use them for the intent for which
they were written (to study and as a behavioral standard/guideline).
-Laban,
although mostlikely ignorant of his situation, is on the wrong side God. He did not want to deliver the record to
Lehi. Contrast this with God’s objective
and plan for things: “the Lord hath
commanded thou and thy brothers (to) seek the records, and bring them down
hither”. God wants the records with
Lehi. Laban wants the records to
himself. This is a tug of war not unlike
the ones that frequently play out in the lives and hearts of men (you and I
included). God wants one thing, we want
something else (we want what we want).
Too often we do not realize that we are standing in opposition to
God. In fact we may hardly give God a
second thought, we are so occupied with our own wants, wills and desires. And when someone does tell us that our way is
divergent to Gods and that we had better shape up, we get mad, defiant and
become ideal manifestations of the natural man.
“thou art a
robber and I will slay thee”
-these
two short accusations reveal much about Laban’s character and evidence what a
wicked man he was. In these declarations
he breaks a number of God’s commandments and the moral code which is supposed
to bind the people of God together:
"thou
art a robber" = lie/false witness; violation of the 9th commandment
"I will
slay thee" = attempted murder; violation of the 6th commandment
(vs. 25: “he
did lust after” our riches) = lust after riches, violation of the 1st
commandment
(vs. 25: “he
might obtain or property) = steal; violation of the 8th commandment
-here we
gain a peek into Laban’s soul. He
commits two serious sins: he bears false
witness by saying that Laman was a thief and he attempts to murder him. Those both reek of a dishonest, narcissistic
soul who is not in tune with the Spirit (which would have, in fact may have
been, whispering to him to deliver up the plates) We can safely discern Laban’s
conniving and vicious nature.
-projection
is one of the most frequent and predictable qualities of the natural or carnal
man. Laban is a theif at heart; a
condition which will manifest itself in 12 short verses (Nephi 3:25). He is a robber and yet he accuses Laman of
the exact same act. His accusation alone
is evidence that he knows robbery is wrong.
Yet he engages in the very same action he supposedly decries. The truth is, in his moral relativity,
robbery is only wrong when the wrong is committed against him. Robbery is just fine when he is the one
prospering from the action.
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