1 Nephi 2-3: Choose to be Chosen

This is a photograph of the words on my friend Kathryn's kitchen wall.  Anyone who knows the Bible is familiar with the concept of being chosen.  It comes up in The Book of Mormon, too.  It can be a threatening concept for those of us who are insecure or proud--if God is doing the choosing, or calling some people chosen, then it means others are not.  Are we in?  Or are we out?  Just like when we were kids picking teams, no one likes to not be chosen.  This has caused a lot of confusion and concern for God's children through the millenia (not to mention wars, violence, and destruction).  Everyone wants to be on God's team, right?  How terrible if He should choose you and not me . . . or me, and not you.

But Nephi makes it clear at the end of chapter 1, that it isn't God choosing, but us!  "The tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith . . ."  He sets the terms and conditions, the incentives and blessings;  but it is we who choose whether we will rise up and claim them or not.  Having faith in Christ and choosing His challenging but rewarding path is what the prophet Lehi did, and his son Nephi.  Thus they were chosen to inherit not only a promised new land, but many opportunities and blessings beyond that.

The older brothers Laman and Lemuel provide the contrast.  They were older than Nephi, and so when their father introduced his plan, they thought about--what?  Maybe their friends, their goals and plans, their expectations of life?  And they did not want to change course.  They liked their lives, and they liked Jerusalem, and they did not believe their father spoke as a prophet or received revelation.  It was certainly inconvenient for them to do so, and I sympathize.  It would be difficult for young men coming into their independence to submit.  But Nephi had the same challenge, and saw an entirely different opportunity.  That is a characteristic of a higher discipleship--a willingness to yield to God's will. Even a willingness to have faith in something you can't see.

Wadi Tayyib al-Ism on the Arabian
peninsula.  Some think this is a good
candidate for the River of Laman and
Valley of Lemeul.

In 1 Nephi chapter 2, vss 9-10, Lehi sets up camp by a river in a valley three days journey out of Jerusalem, and there he sees an opportunity to counsel his elder sons.  First Laman, the eldest and strongest, he adjures to "be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness."  Then Lemuel, the second son, who invariably yields to Laman, he counsels to "be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord."   In this Lehi gave us a type of how our Heavenly Father counsels and guides us.  He knows our individual strengths and weaknesses, and He will direct and guide us according to our needs.  Laman needed to learn to respond to the direction of the Lord, like the flow of a river defers to the lay of the land it encounters.  He could have been a happy man had he not been so determined to control his life.  Lemuel needed to learn to think for himself, to consider things independently, and not just follow Laman wherever he went.  He could have been a happy man had he learned to follow God, and not his powerful and proud elder brother.  Laman wanted to be chosen, I believe.  But he had that other, lower concept of being chosen in his heart--the win/lose one.  He was unwilling to consider that everyone could choose to be chosen. Frankly, he was not that different from many of us, who are tempted to find satisfaction in feeling superior to others. (Just listen to talk radio, for example.)  But win/lose is not God's way, as The Book of Mormon teaches, and the more Laman and Lemuel refused God's path in preference for their own, the less "chosen" they felt, and the more bitter they became.

How often I have been as willful and obstinate as Laman, wanting what I want more than what is right?  Or as distracted and deferential as Lemuel, fearing the opinion of others more than the truth of God.  How often am I too stubborn or fearful to leave my comfort zone and rise up to the standard Christ has set, choosing Him above all, at the cost of everything, if need be?  It was Nephi's and Lehi's and Laman's and Lemuels's privilege, just as it is mine and yours, to choose to be chosen.

We've just celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the United States.  Tomorrow we'll talk about what I call Nephi's Declaration of Dependence.