Nephi Practically the Leader--Commanded to Build a Ship--Directed to
the Ore out of Which to make Tools--Makes a Bellows--Obtains
Fire--Fault-finding and Ridicule of his Brethren--His Sadness and
their Elation--They Grumble at and Reproach their Father and Him--He
Reasons with Them--Enraged, They Attempt to Throw Him in the
Sea--Nephi full of Power of God--They dare not Touch Him--They are
Shaken Before Him--Fall down to Worship Him--Told by Nephi to Worship
God--Nephi Shown by the Lord how he should work Timbers, etc.--Not
Worked after the Manner taught by Men--Helped by his Brothers--Ship
Finished--Laman and Others Acknowledge Nephi's Ability to Build a
Ship--Mountains as Places of Worship.
After the colony reached the land Bountiful it is noticeable that the
practical leadership devolved upon Nephi, and it continued to be so
from that time onward. He had grown strong in body--a stalwart,
vigorous, energetic, untiring and undaunted man--but he had also grown
in the knowledge and gifts of the Lord. There seemed to be no bounds
to his faith. He honored his father, Lehi, and still, doubtless,
looked to him for counsel. But Lehi was growing in years and was
probably not fitted to take upon him the burden of active labor.
They had now enjoyed a lengthened rest in this charming land; and the
time had come for action. It was to Nephi the Lord revealed that which
was next to be done. He commanded him to go up into the mountain. When
he reached there he cried unto the Lord. The Lord said to him:
"Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show
thee, that I may carry the people across the waters."
This was indeed a formidable undertaking for a man with such an
experience as he had. He probably knew but little or nothing about
ships or their method of construction or the use of tools. But he
manifested neither hesitation nor reluctance about undertaking the
labor assigned him. He had no doubts of his ability to accomplish it.
He knew, as he had expressed himself, that the Lord gave no
commandment without preparing the way by which it should be fulfilled;
and had He not told him that He would show him in what manner to build
it? The Lord directed him to where he could find the ore out of which
to make tools. Then Nephi made a bellows with which to blow the fire,
out of the skins of beasts. Fire he obtained by striking two stones
together. As we have already remarked, the Lord did not suffer them to
make much fire as they traveled. He had promised to make their food
sweet, so that they would not need to cook it. He had told them also
that He would be their light in the wilderness and would prepare the
way before them if they would keep His commandments, and they should
be led towards the promised land. They were to know that it was by Him
they were led. When they should arrive at the promised land, they were
to know also that He had brought them out of Jerusalem and had
delivered them from destruction.
Nephi had no sooner commenced his labors by obtaining ore out of rock
and out of that making tools, and to make his preparations to build a
ship, than his brethren began to find fault with and ridicule him.
Why, said they, our brother is a fool; he has an idea he can build a
ship and also cross this ocean of waters! They neither believed he
could build a ship nor that he was instructed of the Lord; and they
declined to do any work of that kind. This unbelief and hardness of
heart on their part caused Nephi to be very sorrowful. They noticed
his sadness; but mistook the cause. They supposed it was because they
had discouraged him and he had become convinced he could not build a
ship. This idea elated them, and with an air of triumph they taunted
him. We knew, said they, that you could not construct a ship; for we
knew that you did not have sufficient judgment; you cannot accomplish
so great a work. They reproached him with being like their father, in
being led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart. They recited
their imaginary grievances against Lehi for leading them out of
Jerusalem and bringing upon them the suffering they and their wives
had endured since leaving there. Warming up with their complaints,
they said it would have been better for their wives to have died
before they left Jerusalem than to have had such afflictions as they
had borne. While they were suffering all these hardships in the desert
they might, they said, have been happily enjoying themselves at their
home in Jerusalem. As for the people of Jerusalem, notwithstanding
their father's condemnation of them, they declared they knew them to
be a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the
Lord, and all His commandments according to the law of Moses. But
their father had led them away, because they had hearkened to him, and
now here was Nephi, their brother, just like their father.
Nephi, according to his custom when they grumbled and found fault,
commenced to reason with and teach them. He cited to them the history
of the children of Israel under the leadership of Moses, what the Lord
had done and the mighty works He had enabled Moses to do. He did not
spare them in his rebukes. He said they were like the Jews, who sought
to take his father's life; they also had done the same thing, and they
were murderers, he said, in their hearts, and they were like the Jews.
Said he: "Ye are swift to do iniquity, but slow to remember the Lord
your God." He told them they had seen an angel and he had spoken unto
them. They had heard the voice of the Lord from time to time; but they
were past feeling; they were hard in their hearts. Nephi felt their
conduct so acutely that he told them his soul was rent with anguish
because of them; and he feared lest they should be cast off for ever.
He was so full of the Spirit of the Lord while speaking to them that
his frame had no strength.
The only effect his words and remonstrances appeared to have upon them
was to enrange them. They went so far as to attempt to throw him into
the depths of the sea; but as they advanced towards him for that
purpose, he commanded them in the name of the Almighty God not to
touch him; for he was so filled with the power of God, even unto the
consuming of his flesh, that whoever should lay his hands upon him
should wither even as a dried reed, and he should be as naught before
the power of God, for God should smite him. He had so much power on
this occasion that they dared not lay their hands upon him or even
touch him with their fingers. They dared not do so either for many
days. The Spirit of God was so powerful, and it wrought upon them in
such a way, that they dared not do this, for fear they should wither
before Nephi. In the meantime, Nephi had told them they must murmur no
more against their father, and they must not withhold their labor from
himself. The Lord had commanded him to build a ship. If he should
command him to do all things, he could do them. Even if he should
command him to say to that water, be thou earth; if he should say so,
it would be done. If the Lord has such power and had wrought so many
miracles among the children of men, how is it, he asked, that He could
not instruct him how to build a ship? Nephi said many things unto
them. The Lord told him to stretch forth his hand again to his
brethren, and though they should not wither before him He would shock
them, "and this will I do," said the Lord, "that they may know that I
am the Lord their God." Nephi did so, and the Lord did shake them, as
he had said he would do. This had a great effect upon them. They
acknowledged that the Lord was with Nephi and that it was by the power
of the Lord they had been shaken; and they fell down before him and
were about to worship him; but he would not suffer them. He told them
he was their younger brother; they should worship the Lord their God,
and honor their father and mother, that their days might be long in
the land which the Lord, their God, should give them. Ready to kill
him, as they were at one moment, at another they were ready to worship
him. Strange inconsistency! But there is no consistency about people
when they lose the Spirit of God. No man can tell what he himself will
do when he is forsaken by that Spirit; and no one else can form any
idea as to what vagaries such a person will indulge in, unless it is
revealed to him.
Some manifestation of power was necessary at that time to subdue these
rebellious spirits and bring them into line, so that they might assist
in the work to be done. We presume that this occurrence made a great
impression upon them, and that they did not shake off very quickly the
remembrance of it; for we are told of no more outbreaks during the
building of the ship. One might think that after such an extraordinary
manifestation of power as they witnessed through Nephi it would
forever cure them of indulging in such a spirit of rebellion and
murder; but, as we shall see as we proceed, it did not. Their hearts
became so impenetrable to all heavenly influences that the effect upon
them of even such a display of power as they had witnessed and felt
upon that occasion, was not very lasting. They had rejected the Spirit
of the Lord, and had become the servants of that evil one, whom they
were willing to obey; he had power over them and they were led and
prompted by him. Respecting that evil one, the Savior has said, that
he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and he leads all who
yield to him to be as he is.
The Lord showed Nephi from time to time how he should work the timbers
of the ship. They were timbers of curious workmanship, and his
brothers helped in this labor. They were not worked after the manner
which was learned by men, neither was the ship built after their
style; but it was built by Nephi in the manner shown to him by the
Lord. It would, of course, be well adapted for the service required of
it. Even Laman and the rest who shared in his dissatisfaction had to
acknowledge this; for when the ship was finished, and they saw how
suitable it was and how fine the workmanship was, they had to admit
the truth of that which Nephi had told them, that the Lord could teach
him how to build a ship; and they humbled themselves before the Lord.
While engaged in this labor, Nephi went often to the mountain and
prayed unto the Lord, and great things were shown unto him. It is
worthy of remark that men of God frequently availed themselves of
mountains as places of worship, to which they could go to pray and
commune with Him. At such heights and to such men it seems as though
the vail between heaven and earth becomes thinner and more easily
pierced. The men who have written the most about God, and who have
communicated His will to their fellows, have been men who communed
with Him in solitary places. By withdrawing to the loneliness of the
wilderness or to the mountain top, away from the haunts and tumult of
men, they could there obtain the seclusion necessary for the
concentration of faith by which they could draw near to and commune
with Him undisturbed. Sublime and elevated thoughts are appropriate to
such places. In the desert, in the wilderness, and upon mountain
peaks, nature is witnessed in all its simple yet impressive majesty,
and its solemn stillness is favorable to thanksgiving and prayer, and
man is brought nearer to his Creator. The Savior Himself "went up into
a mountain apart to pray," and brought His disciples, Peter, James and
John "up into a high mountain apart," when He was transfigured and had
His interview with Moses and Elias.