Glorious Views

When Lehi was giving his final counsel to Laman and Lemuel, he said this to them about Nephi: “Rebel no more against your brother, whose views have been glorious” (2 Nephi 1:24).  I’ve been thinking about that phrase and wondering what Lehi meant by it.  I don’t think that we understand the word “views” in the sense of his opinions and beliefs but rather the visions of God that he had.   In the French translation of this passage it essentially says (if I translate back to English) that Nephi “saw glorious things.”  Certainly his seeing angels and visions and even the Savior Himself was evidence of this fact.      The words “views” was also used in I think the same way by the people of King Benjamin who after making their covenant said, “And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things” (Mosiah 5:3).  Nephi also had “great views of that which is to come”—we just have to read 1 Nephi 11-14 to know that this was certainly the case. 

                I wonder if we can’t understand Lehi’s description of Nephi in a broader sense, though, to include the way that Nephi was able to view so much with an eye of faith.  I’m thinking of the description that Moroni gave of those great prophets who “truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad” (Ether 12:19).  If this characterization fits anyone, surely it fits Nephi.  He was able to view things with an eye of faith, and then go forward undaunted until he accomplished the impossible.  When his brothers were ready to turn back from Jerusalem, he refused to quit and walked into the city by night with an unflappable resolve to obtain the plates, seeing with his faith that “the Lord is able to deliver us” (1 Nephi 4:3).  When his family was ready to give in to starvation after his broken bow, he made a new one and followed his eye of faith and what was written upon the Liahona: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did go forth up into the top of the mountain, according to the directions which were given upon the ball (1 Nephi 16:30).  And when they reached the land Bountiful he had glorious views of a ship that he could build with the Lord’s help, and he did it even though his brothers mocked him for thinking he could achieve “so great a work” (1 Nephi 17:19).  In short, whatever Nephi saw with an eye of faith he worked toward with a perfect resolve until he accomplished the thing before him and truly “saw” what he had only seen spiritually before. 

                Nephi’s visions of the future were certainly glorious, and his views of how to accomplish the impossible whenever the Lord needed him to do something were similarly powerful.  He was able to see ahead with “an eye of faith” in overcoming the great challenges that he faced.  The writer of Proverbs said, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).  Nephi had the vision he needed in the small and big tasks in his life and that literally saved his life.  We must seek to develop that kind of trust and vision to see that “with God, all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).