Pirates!

The First Book of Nephi

Chapter 18

"The ship is finished—The births of Jacob and Joseph are mentioned—The company embarks for the promised land—The sons of Ishmael and their wives join in revelry and rebellion—Nephi is bound, and the ship is driven back by a terrible tempest—Nephi is freed, and by his prayer the storm ceases—The people arrive in the promised land. About 591–589 B.C."
-Introduction to 1 Nephi Chapter 18




For those who have just joined us:
So, there's this guy named Lehi, and he's a prophet, and God tells him that Jerusalem is going to get destroyed, so he better get his family OUT!  So he takes his family into the wilderness, and then there's all sorts of drama.  His sons are constantly rebelling.  One of his other sons becomes a prophet, too.  His sons are commanded to go back to Jerusalem and almost die trying to obtain a set of scriptures.  They pick up a few other people from Jerusalem, all the sons get married, Lehi starts to have grandchildren, they reach a body of water, and now, his prophet son Nephi is commanded to build a ship, but guess what? His other sons rebel again!  And that's what you missed last time in the Book of Mormon!


Now where were we?
Nephi, Lehi's righteous prophet son, finished building the ship, finally, with no thanks to his wicked brothers, Laman and Lemuel.  The caravan of the family made the preparations to leave, collecting food and supplies and seeds and other such things.

During all of the commotion that had been going on, Lehi's company had grown.  There were of course Lehi, the prophet, and his wife, Sariah, then his four sons that our story has centered around so far: Laman and Lemuel--the rebellious older sons, Sam--the good kid who stayed under the radar, and Nephi--the 'I will go and do' prophet.  Lehi also had daughters, though nothing much is ever said about them.  When they went back to Jerusalem, Nephi had become friends with a servant named Zoram, and he had joined the group, and then on a second trip back to Jerusalem, they picked up the entire family of a man named Ishmael, who's sons and daughters married Zoram and Lehi's sons and daughters.  Then, with all of the time spent wandering in the wilderness and building a ship, Lehi and Sariah were blessed with two more sons, Jacob and Joseph.  So it must have been a fairly large ship for all of these people.

As they sailed through the sea, Nephi's brethren and Ishmael's children found ways to entertain themselves, dancing, drinking, rudeness. Nephi was quickly alarmed, and he was worried that God's judgment would come upon them, and he rushed to speak with his brethren to tell them to stop, but as always, they would not listen. They mocked their younger brother for telling them what to do, and in their anger, they bound him so he couldn't move and they tied him to the mast of the ship.

They commandeered the ship, mutiny against their captain Nephi, their father Lehi, and against their Lord. God will not bless us for disobedience. Their compass, that ball of curious workmanship, ceased to direct them. It would no longer show them the way they needed to go. On top of that, a storm came and waves crashed and their ship was driven back in the wind. There was the constant fear of drowning. And Nephi was stuck to the mast of the ship.

For 3 days, the ship was shoved around by the storm as it continually got worse, and Laman and Lemuel and their disobedient families' fear grew and grew. Lehi, who was getting rather old by now, begged his children to loose their brother and tried to tell Ishmael's children too, but nothing. On the fourth day of the storm, it grew worse, or as Nephi said exceedingly sore, and they realized that the storm and lack of direction was because of their rebellion against God, and once they knew that, they loosed Nephi and begged for mercy from God. Nephi fell to the deck of the ship, his ankles and his wrists swollen and sore, but he got to his knees and prayed, praising God.

The storm calmed, the compass began to work and direct them again, and they were quickly brought to their promised land.

To read the actual scriptural account, go to 1 Nephi 18.

So What?

So this family is thrown into a dangerous storm and lose divine guidance because a couple of the angry sons tie up the other one?  What are supposed to learn from that?

Well, don't go commandeering ships unless you've got God on your side.

No, don't do that.

We can learn how God's guidance, or the Holy Ghost, works in our lives.  When we pay attention to God and the tools He gives us, like prophets and the Holy Spirit, we are guided to where we need to be.  We are able to do amazing things! We can build huge ships!  We can traverse dangerous terrain and surf the oceans!  But when we are disobedient, when we don't pay any head to God or to His prophets or to the scriptures, we get lost.  We wander into those dangerous life threatening storms.

You have to remember that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and He's not doing this to torture us.  It's like a parent with their children.  The children are tired of listening to what their parents say, and they ignore their cell phone, and they go to a dangerous party where there's things that sound like so much more fun.  And then what happens?  Storms!  What happens when they get home much much later than their curfew?  Their parents of course are going to be frustrated and angry and worried, but are they still going to love their child?  Yes.  Yes they are. They might take away their cell phone until they're ready to behave and listen, but the parents still love the child. 

And God is our Heavenly Father, and He loves you!