Question
Gramps,
I was thinking about the urgent need for Nephi to retrieve the plates of brass and also how the Mulekites lost so much knowledge because they didn’t have plates (history). I wonder, if they had a revelation and wouldn’t need the physical plates to understand the past or the future, why was it so critical for Nephi and Lehi to retrieve the plates in the first place?
Ryan
Answer
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for your question.
We often tend to think that because God is “all-powerful” and He would do things in the simplest manner possible. If that were true on its face, then why are we even going through life at all? Why bother with this mortal life with all its problems and suffering and evil? From our fallible, mortal vantage point we tend to think the easiest way is the best way. Is that true from the Eternal, spiritual perspective?
Surprisingly, the answer is “yes and no.”
The Lord tends to do things that most efficiently achieve as many goals as possible with as little Divine intervention as possible. Yet it’s still important to note that they certainly did receive plenty of Divine Intervention. One of the most important things He wants for us is to learn and grow. And I hate to break it to you: No one who has ever learned anything of spiritual importance because everything was easy. And it is most certainly true that no one grows by having someone else do everything for them.
The Lord gives us the minimum tools that we need to get the job done. He also enlightens our minds as needed. Then He lets us do the legwork relying on His support to get the job done. By moving forward with the plan He has set out, we tend to learn a whole lot more than if we chose our own path. All of this is a great leap of faith. Exercising such faith was required of Nephi before he could even dream of getting to the stage where he could have simply received Divine dictation for a book as large as the Brass Plates appear to have been.
Consider this: If they didn’t go back to get the Brass Plates…
- There wouldn’t have been the story of obtaining them.
- Zoram would never have had the opportunity to join them and be saved from the invasion.
- They would have had no scriptures to read until much later in the journey.
Just in that story alone, there are many truths of life that I’m grateful for having learned through my studies.
That last point (having no scriptures) speaks to how quick everything was. They barely had time to gather provisions to go into the wilderness. Did they even have paper and ink? Remember that any paper outside of Egyptian papyrus was very crude back then. Would they have endured? Absent paper, they often wrote on planks or boards of wood (the passage in Ezekiel is translated as “sticks” – KJV). That would not have been practical due to the required thickness of the boards. And if they even had enough Egyptian papyrus to take with them, that would have been quite expensive indeed. Most people simply didn’t have reams of paper lying around like we do today.
We also need to remember that, while the Old Testament seems like a large library of scriptures, there are many other books that purport divine origin that are not included. Many “plain and precious truths” were taken out. It also included family genealogy as well as other personal records. Even if we don’t include all the later books of the Old Testament (which were written after Lehi’s departure) the writings on the Brass Plates would have been much more voluminous. Writing by hand takes up more space than engravings via “types” or other similar instruments (metal dies used to press or engrave a letter) than handwritten ink on paper. Thus they would have been more compact than ink writing by hand. And parchment had its logistical problems as well.
Then there was the issue of time. They were not in the city where they could just buy food and other necessities as needed. They had to spend quite a bit of time on basic survival. When would they have time to write? Lehi couldn’t have done it. His age would have prevented him from writing for 10+ hrs/day. Nephi was tasked with finding food for their survival. Via word count compared to the translation of the Book of Mormon, it would have taken six to ten months to have simply written it down. Who was going to do the hunting after Laman and Lemuel’s bows lost their spring? To go that long without a copy of the scriptures with them would have been disastrous for the journey. They needed that daily spiritual nourishment that the scriptures provide.
21 And we had obtained the records which the Lord had commanded us, and searched them and found that they were desirable; yea, even of great worth unto us, insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children.
22 Wherefore, it was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us, as we journeyed in the wilderness towards the land of promise. 1 Nephi 5:21-22
I am truly grateful that we live in a modern world where we don’t need to consider such troubles as they had to contend with. And I’m thankful that the Lord provided a way for them in the best manner possible.
Gramps
