The Spirit of the Lord Did No More Preserve Them

After Nephi spoke unto his brethren on the ship about their “exceeding rudeness”, he recorded, “Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind me with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness; nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word which he had spoken concerning the wicked.” He then told what the immediate result of this action was: “And it came to pass that after they had bound me insomuch that I could not move, the compass, which had been prepared of the Lord, did cease to work. Wherefore, they knew not whither they should steer the ship, insomuch that there arose a great storm, yea, a great and terrible tempest, and we were driven back upon the waters for the space of three days; and they began to be frightened exceedingly lest they should be drowned in the sea; nevertheless they did not loose me” (1 Nephi 18:9-13). The decisions of Laman and Lemuel to mistreat their family and do much wickedness caused them to lose what was of most importance on the ship: the guiding hand of the Lord. They experienced what the Nephites would later also experience: “And they saw that they had become weak, like unto their brethren, the Lamanites, and that the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples—Therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them by his miraculous and matchless power, for they had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness” (Helaman 4:24-25). When we willingly choose to disobey the commandments of the Lord, after we have been enlightened and know the things that we are to do, we lose the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the protecting hand of the Lord. King Benjamin had taught the same principle to his sons: “Yea, and moreover I say unto you, that if this highly favored people of the Lord should fall into transgression, and become a wicked and an adulterous people, that the Lord will deliver them up, that thereby they become weak like unto their brethren; and he will no more preserve them by his matchless and marvelous power, as he has hitherto preserved our fathers” (Mosiah 1:13). If we want the blessings of the Lord to be upon us, we must strive to live according to our covenants. Laman and Lemuel learned the hard way that the Lord’s matchless and miraculous power would disappear if they turned to wickedness.  

                We see something similar in the Lord’s explanation for why the Saints were kicked out of Jackson County in 1833. He revealed to the Prophet Joseph: “Verily I say unto you, concerning your brethren who have been afflicted, and persecuted, and cast out from the land of their inheritance—I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them, wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of their transgressions;… Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances. They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to answer them in the day of their trouble” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:1-2,6-7). We might argue, though, that the Saints of Jackson County were more righteous than those who drove them out, and surely that was indeed the case. But that’s not the kind of comparison that the Lord makes; He wants His covenant people to be righteous and strive to keep their covenants, and when they do not, His protecting hand is removed from them. Of course, there were certainly those among the Saints that were righteous who suffered because of the general iniquities of the people as a whole, just as Nephi and his parents suffered because of the wicked choices of Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael. But, as Nephi showed, the Lord will always give us power individually as we turn to Him no matter what the world around us is doing. He was given power to endure the suffering for four days, never losing faith, and then ultimately to be freed and guide the ship to the promised land. Perhaps as he was tied up and on the verge of going down with the ship, Nephi thought of what he had seen in vision earlier: “I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14). He needed that power, he surely prayed for that power, and ultimately he received it as the strength of his own righteousness prevailed over the wickedness of his brothers. No matter what others do around us, we must trust that there is safety and power in keeping our covenants with the Lord.