Sam: Just and Holy

We know relatively little about Sam in the Book of Mormon, but we do see clearly that he was a righteous man.  When Nephi made known to Sam the things that the Lord had revealed to him, Nephi tells us that “he believed in my words” (1 Nephi 2:17).  In 1 Nephi 3:28 after their failed attempts at retrieving the plates, Nephi recounts that “Laman and Lemuel did speak many hard words unto us, their younger brothers, and they did smite us even with a rod.”  The “us” his description can only mean him and Sam, so clearly Sam was faithful to Nephi and the task the Lord had given them.  Later when Lehi had his vision he said that he had “reason to rejoice in the Lord because of Nephi and also of Sam,” which clearly indicates that Sam was righteous and followed the Lord (1 Nephi 8:3).  Sam and his “family” followed Nephi when he split from his brothers, and Mormon summarized later that “Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam… were just and holy men” (Alma 3:6).  It’s interesting that there is never a reference to the descendants of Sam as a group of people: we read of Lamanites, Lemuelites, Nephites, Jacobites, and Josephites, but no Samites (Jacob 1:3).  Sam’s descendants, as promised by Lehi, were completely mixed with the descendants of Nephi.  And in some sense we are all to seek to be like Sam--most of us won't be the prophet or hold great leadership positions, but we can be "just and holy" and faithfully follow the oracles of God.