A Light in the Wilderness

One of the miracles that Lehi’s party experienced as they traveled to the promised land was that they did not have to cook their meat.  Nephi explained, “And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children.”  After they arrived in Bountiful he elaborated further, “The Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that       ye cook it not; And I will also be your light in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 17:2, 12-13).  So why didn’t they use fire to cook their food?  One likely explanation was that the Lord was protecting them from others in the wilderness; having smoke and a fire could have attracted attention from others in the wilderness who would have been a danger to Lehi’s group.  They surely weren’t totally alone in the Arabian peninsula and no doubt there were marauding bands who were a threat to travelers. The Lord’s instruction to not cook was likely then a great blessing to them.  But perhaps a more important reason for the restriction was to help the group to remember that it was Christ who was to be their light—they didn’t need the minuscule earthly light when the Light of the world was their rearward.  Every time they ate raw meat their thoughts would have been turned to the Savior who miraculously provided the effect of cooking their food without fire. 

               Given this incredible experience of Lehi’s group in the wilderness, it is interesting what Enos mentioned about the Lamanites.  He wrote, “They were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey….  And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us” (Enos 1:20). This was over 100 years after the group arrived in the promised land, and apparently there were many Lamanites who kept a diet of raw meat.  I have to wonder if that practice had anything to do with what the Lord had done for their fathers in the wilderness.  They likely had a skewed version of their history passed down among them, and they may have wanted to show their “righteousness” as compared to the Nephites by practicing that same manner of eating meat as their forebearers.  But, of course, their bodies would not have been protected against the negative effects of raw meat like their fathers were in the wilderness, for the Lord had not sanctioned the practice for them.  Without Christ at the center of their lives, the raw meat they ate was just that and nothing else.  Perhaps not too unlike Laman and Lemuel they may have been attempting to exhibit religious behavior without the righteousness of the heart and a focus on the true light of the Messiah.  Their story reminds us today to put our focus and trust not on some religious performance but on Him who is the Light of the world.