I Could Do Them

As I read 1 Nephi 17 today, I was struck by how much faith and confidence Nephi had despite such a difficult task he had before him. Faced with brothers who knew him well and yet still did not believe he could build a ship, Nephi showed incredible trust that through the Lord’s help he would be able to do it. Laman and Lemuel said to him, “Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters…. We knew that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were lacking in judgment; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great a work” (v17, 19). Undeterred, Nephi recounted Israelite history and then declared to his brothers, “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto them that they should murmur no more against their father; neither should they withhold their labor from me, for God had commanded me that I should build a ship. And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?” (v49-51) Here he was away from civilization, with no tools but the ones he could make himself, with brothers who did not believe in him, with presumably no shipbuilding experience, and yet he was fully confident that he could make a ship to carry his family across the waters with the Lord’s help. His words to his brothers remind us of his most famous statement about accomplishing hard things: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7). How do we develop that kind of faith to do the difficult tasks that the Lord gives us?

            For me there are two things that stand out about Nephi’s life which suggest how he developed such strong faith. The first is simply that he sought the Lord diligently through prayer. He recounted, “I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.” Nephi cried to the Lord, a phrase that likely suggests many long prayers to his God for knowledge and assurance. The Lord eventually said to him, “Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart” (1 Nephi 2:16, 19). Because Nephi sought the Lord diligently through prayer, he developed incredible faith and was blessed by the Lord. And clearly that was not a one-time thing. In the account at Bountiful he recorded that he went up the mountain and “cried unto the Lord” before the Lord spoke to him (1 Nephi 17:7). Undoubtedly what he was describing there was more than a one-minute prayer to the Lord, but as he would say later in another difficult situation, “I, Nephi, did cry much unto the Lord my God” (2 Nephi 5:1). Nephi had great faith and confidence in the Lord because he had prayed so earnestly and so often to Him.

            The second thing that stands out to me in Nephi’s life which surely gave him great confidence and faith was his focus on the scriptures. Even before he had the brass plates, he knew the scripture stories, rehearsing them to his brothers to motivate them (e.g. 1 Nephi 4:2-3). Once risked his life to obtain the brass plates, and then he “searched them” and clearly used them to get strength. He repeatedly quoted them to his brothers, telling them the Israelite history and reading to them from the prophets. He related, “Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, did teach my brethren these things; and it came to pass that I did read many things to them, which were engraven upon the plates of brass, that they might know concerning the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old. And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah” (1 Nephi 19:22-23). He also described the effect of the scriptures to his brothers this way: “Whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction” (1 Nephi 15:24). Nephi was certainly one who hearkened unto the word of God and held fast unto it, and he was protected from all the fiery darts of the adversary throughout his life because of it. His faith came from his diligent seeking of the Lord through prayer and his devotion to the words of the scriptures, and surely we can increase our confidence and trust in the Lord as we seek to do likewise.