The Dealings of the Lord

Nephi wrote this about his brothers: “And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them” (1 Nephi 2:12). Zeniff later recorded something similar: “And [Nephi’s] brethren were wroth with him because they understood not the dealings of the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened their hearts against the Lord” (Mosiah 10:14). I think that we see evidence of the fact that Laman and Lemuel did not understand the dealings of the Lord in their reaction to the angel. After their two failed attempts to get the plates of brass, the angel told them, “Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.” Their response was this: “How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Nephi 3:29, 31) They did not understand who the Lord was—they did not believe that He had all power and could certainly handle Laban and his fifty. They clearly had not internalized the message of so many stories of their ancestors, from Moses to Joshua and Jonathan and Elijah and many others who had been strengthened by the Lord to overcome a much more numerous foe through His strength. Nephi’s response was indeed to draw on one of those accounts: “Let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea. Now behold ye know that this is true; and ye also know that an angel hath spoken unto you; wherefore can ye doubt? Let us go up; the Lord is able to deliver us, even as our fathers, and to destroy Laban, even as the Egyptians” (1 Nephi 4:2-3). Laman and Lemuel surely knew this story but they had not believed its message and understood not how the Lord could deal similarly with them if they had faith in Him.

               I believe one of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to help us to understand the “dealings of the Lord” by seeing how He blessed and helped the faithful through their challenges. Moroni wrote in the title page that one of the purposes of the book “is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers.” He and the rest of the writers of the Book of Mormon wanted their posterity and all of us to see how the Lord had dealt with them in doing great things, from bringing them miraculously across the ocean to preserving them against the hands of the Lamanites and saving them from destruction over and over again. When Lehi spoke to Laman and Lemuel he “rehearsed unto them, how great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem” (2 Nephi 1:1). When the angel spoke to Alma (the Younger) as he called him to repentance he said, “Go, and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of Helam, and in the land of Nephi; and remember how great things he has done for them; for they were in bondage, and he has delivered them” (Mosiah 27:16). He would later remind his people on numerous occasions to remember that captivity and deliverance and how the Lord had blessed their fathers. For example, he questioned the people of Zarahemla, “And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?” (Alma 5:6) He wanted his people and his posterity to remember the great things the Lord had done for their fathers so that they too could receive His blessings and come unto Him. After the great war between the Nephites and the Lamanites recorded in the later chapters of Alma, Mormon recorded this about the people: “Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land” (Alma 62:50-51). Because they remembered the blessings of the Lord in helping them overcome their enemies, they continued to be blessed and prospered by the Lord in their own lives.

            Ultimately as we read these stories of the scriptures we find that the writers have, as Moroni said, shown unto us “a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Mormon 9:11). And because He did miracles for them, He will do miracles for us as well if we are faithful as they were: “And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles” (Mormon 9:19). The stories of the Book of Mormon should inspire us to know His dealings and that He can do miracles in our own lives, just as He did for them over and over again, if we will believe as they did. He is still a God of miracles who can handle our own Labans today.