A Vision About Lehi's Family

I realized today as I thought about Lehi’s vision as recorded in 1 Nephi 8 that the focus and purpose of the vision for Lehi was his family.  It appears to me that the primary reason for the vision was to give a revelation to Lehi about his family.  It was Nephi’s revelation that really expanded the scope of the vision as Nephi gave the meaning of the symbols and the dream’s relationship to both the life of Christ and our own life.  Our understanding that the rod of iron represented the word of God and that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world and that the tree represented the love of God all came from Nephi’s words.  Even the fact that the tree represented the “tree of life” seems to have come from Nephi (the phrase does not appear in 1 Nephi 8).  As powerful as the vision is in describing our own lives and challenges in this dispensation, I don’t think that Lehi saw in the vision a universally applicable message; it contained first and foremost a warning for him about his family. 

                  It’s clear from 1 Nephi 8 that Lehi’s focus in relation to the vision was on his family.  He introduced his description of the dream this way: “Because of the thing which I have seen, I have reason to rejoice in the Lord because of Nephi and also of Sam….  But behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because of you” (1 Nephi 8:3-4).  To Lehi the main message of the dream was what it told him about the spiritual state of his family.  As he recounted it he spoke of how in the dream he “cast [his] eyes round about, that perhaps [he] might discover [his] family.”  He found “Sariah, and Sam, and Nephi” in one place, unsure of where to go, and they came forth and joined him at the tree.  In the dream Lehi “was desirous that Laman and Lemuel should come and partake of the fruit also” but they would not come despite his invitations (1 Nephi 8:13-14, 17).  Nephi summarized his father’s account of the dream by saying, “And Laman and Lemuel partook not of the fruit, said my father.”  After telling the details of the dream, Lehi said to his family, “because of these things which he saw in a vision, he exceedingly feared for Laman and Lemuel; yea, he feared lest they should be cast off from the presence of the Lord” (1 Nephi 8:35-36).  In both the way Lehi introduced the dream and in the way he summarized it, the message was about his family.  Lehi loved his children immensely and the dream was a warning to him that he needed to do everything he could to help Laman and Lemuel in their precarious spiritual state.

As President Packer told us about the vision, “You may think that Lehi’s dream or vision has no special meaning for you, but it does. You are in it; all of us are in it” (see here).  The account as we have it from the descriptions of Lehi and Nephi provides for us a powerful warning about the world we live in and how we can stay on the path of righteousness.  But perhaps another message we get from seeing Lehi’s experience as a parent is that the Lord will reveal to parents what they need to know about spiritually protecting their families if they have ears to hear as Lehi did.