9 And when my father saw that the waters of the river emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea, he spake unto Laman, saying: O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!
10 And he also spake unto Lemuel: O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!
11 Now this he spake because of the stiffneckedness of Laman and Lemuel; for behold they did murmur in many things against their father, because he was a visionaryman, and had led them out of the land of Jerusalem, to leave the land of their inheritance, and their gold, and their silver, and their precious things, to perish in the wilderness. And this they said he had done because of the foolish imaginations of his heart.
12 And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmurbecause they knew not the dealings of that God who hadcreated them.
13 Neither did they believe that Jerusalem, that great city, could be destroyed according to the words of the prophets. And they were like unto the Jews who were at Jerusalem, who sought to take away the life of my father. (1 Nephi 2:8-13)
Nephi recounts Lehi's concern for his two eldest sons. Nephi also suggests the reason for their murmuring, they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them. Neither did they believe that Jerusalem, that great city, could be destroyed (verses12-13). Had they known the dealings of their creator, they would have remembered the flood, the tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord's dealings with Egypt in the days of Moses, and the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians. They would have understood a pattern in which the Lord preserves the righteous and destroys the wicked when they are fully ripe for destruction. They would have seen the similarities between the Lord's dealings with the righteous in these situations and with the commandment of the Lord to Lehi to leave Jerusalem before its destruction.
Laman and Lemuel's belief that Jerusalem was too great a city to be destroyed shows the shortsightedness of their perspective. By the time Zedekiah becomes king, Jerusalem has already began to lose some of its strength and independence. In the thirty years prior to Lehi's departure,
1) the kings of Judah had been controlled by Pharaoh-nechoh, king of Egypt,
2) the Jews had been paying tribute to the Egyptians,
3) Jehoahaz, king of Judah, had been imprisoned by Pharaoh-nechoh,
4) when Jehoiakim was king, the Lord had sent armies of Babylonians, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against the city of Jerusalem to partially sack and destroy it, and
5) the Babylonians had already established political superiority to the Jews as it was Nebuchadnezzar himself that made Zedekiah king in Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 23-25).
It was the rebellion of Zedekiah against Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign that brought the final destruction of Jerusalem, but a familiarity with the politics of Lehi's day makes it clear that Jerusalem was anything but invincible.
Not only were Laman and Lemuel spiritually and politically shortsighted, their wickedness was such that they had a murderous heart. They had considered killing Lehi and later, Nephi. Their concerns were always worldly.
It was the rebellion of Zedekiah against Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign that brought the final destruction of Jerusalem, but a familiarity with the politics of Lehi's day makes it clear that Jerusalem was anything but invincible.
Not only were Laman and Lemuel spiritually and politically shortsighted, their wickedness was such that they had a murderous heart. They had considered killing Lehi and later, Nephi. Their concerns were always worldly.
Reynolds and Sjodahl wrote,
"Note the character of the rebellious sons. Their stubbornness (they were 'stiff-necked' v. 11); their love of money (they regretted the treasure that had been left behind, v. 11); their lack of faith (they were sure they would perish in the wilderness, v. 11); their ignorance (they knew not the dealings of God, v. 12 and they rejected his word through the prophets, v. 13); and finally, their weakness in the presence of the manifestations of the Spirit of the Lord, (v. 14)."
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