1 Nephi 3

(July 6, 2015)

                The thing that struck me in this reading that I hadn’t caught before was that the angel specifically said that the Lord had chosen Nephi to be a leader over Laman and Lemuel (and did so because of their iniquities).  This puts a new spin on to everything else that Laman and Lemuel did.  No wonder they thought that Nephi intended to rule over them – an angel told them it would happen (and Nephi clearly must have heard this as well).

                This makes their actions even more in rebellion against God.  When an angel told them a set of circumstances, and they fought against those circumstances, it makes their subsequent allegations that they (and the people of Jerusalem) were righteous, seem more hollow than before.