Go and Do

We often quote Nephi’s famous “go and do” declaration in 1 Nephi 3:7 that he would fulfill the Lord’s commandment to obtain the record.  I’m not sure, though, that we always associate it with the incredible faith and perseverance that it took on his part to actually make it happen—he proved in deed that his words were not hollow.  After traveling approximately 200 miles with his brothers, probably over the course of two weeks or so, their first attempt at obtaining the plates turned out to be a disaster with Laban nearly killing Lemuel.  At that point, the older brothers were ready to throw in the towel: “My brethren were about to return unto my father in the wilderness.”  But Nephi, true to his original conviction, wouldn’t go even after that, saying, “As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us” (1 Nephi 3:14-15).  So, they came up with another scheme and courageously returned to the man who had tried to kill Laman, offering their riches for the plates.  Again Laban sought to kill them, and they barely escaped with their lives, losing their gold and silver but still coming up empty handed.  At that point they left Jerusalem completely and “fled into the wilderness” though it’s not clear how far that was.  Nephi once again nearly died but this time at the hands of his brothers, and was saved by an angel who encouraged them to “go up to Jerusalem again” to get the plates (1 Nephi 3:27-29).  True again to his declaration that he would go and do what the Lord wanted, Nephi went and risked his life one more time to bring back the plates to his family, finally succeeding in the dead of night.  So when we quote Nephi’s “go and do” verse, we should remember just what kind of faith and determination he backed those words up with. 

                One of the messages of this story of Nephi’s dogged perseverance in obtaining the plates is that we cannot give up on bringing the scriptures to our own family and children.  One of the thoughts that Nephi had as he considered the Spirit’s direction for him to slay Laban was this: “I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise. Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law” (1 Nephi 4:14-15).  He was looking forward to his children and his seed as he realized that obtaining the scriptures was essential for their salvation.  That was part of the motivation that helped him fulfill his mission.  As we seek to bring the scriptures into the lives of our children we may feel a bit like Nephi as our first and second, and sometimes many more, attempts fail to successfully read and ponder the scriptures with them.  Sometimes we may even want to run into the wilderness for our lives too as chaos and fighting erupts among the children when the scriptures are brought out.  But Nephi’s message to us parents is that we never give up on getting the record to our children.  We may have to come up with expensive sacrifices and we may even need the help of angels from time to time, but we cannot stop trying to bring the words of the Lord unto the hearts of our children.  Like Nephi, we must “labor diligently” in regards to the scriptures to “persuade our children… to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God” (2 Nephi 25:23).