Chapter One - Plates, Prophets, and a Family Fleeing Jerusalem

CHAPTER ONE

Plates, Prophets, and a Family Fleeing Jerusalem

1 NEPHI - 2 Nephi

The world is ending, at least for Jerusalem.

It’s the year 600 BC.
A man named Lehi lives in the city.
He sees visions. He’s warned by God.
Jerusalem is going to fall.
The people won’t listen.
He tells them anyway.
They want him dead.

So God tells Lehi to leave.

He packs up his family, his wife Sariah, sons Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi, and runs into the wilderness.
No destination. Just obedience.

They live in tents.
They survive off raw meat.
Lehi is guided by a strange ball called the Liahona. It points the way, but only works when they’re righteous.

Lehi has another vision, of a tree full of fruit.
It’s the love of God.
He sees some people eat it.
Others mock it and walk away.
Some get lost. Some fall.
Some stay faithful.

He tells his sons.
Two of them, Laman and Lemuel, don’t care.
They think he’s dreaming.
They complain constantly.
They’re older, bitter, and love to argue.

But Nephi, the youngest, believes.

God speaks to him directly.
Nephi is promised that his descendants will be blessed.
But only if he stays faithful.
If not, they’ll fall, and Laman’s people will rise instead.

God commands them to go back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates from a man named Laban.
The plates contain scripture.
They belong to Laban’s family, but God says they need them.

The first attempt fails.
The second attempt fails.
Laban threatens to kill them.

Then Nephi goes alone.
He finds Laban passed out drunk in the street.
God tells him:
Kill him. Take his clothes. Take the plates.

Nephi hesitates, then obeys.

He cuts off Laban’s head.
He puts on his clothes.
He impersonates him.
He gets the plates.

They escape.

Then God commands another detour, they need more family.
They return to Jerusalem again to find Ishmael, whose daughters will become their wives.

Laman and Lemuel rebel, again.
They tie up Nephi and leave him to die in the desert.
God gives Nephi strength to break the ropes.
He forgives them, again.
This will become a pattern.

Years pass.
They’re still wandering.
Still guided by the Liahona.

Then God tells Nephi to build a ship.

Nephi builds it.
He has no experience.
His brothers mock him.
He shocks them with divine power.
They fall to the ground.
They help him finish it.

The family sets sail across the ocean.
During the journey, Laman and Lemuel get drunk and tie Nephi to the mast.
A storm hits.
They almost die.
Only when Nephi is freed does the sea calm.

Eventually, they arrive.
A promised land.
A new world.

Lehi dies.
The family splits.

Nephi takes his people and flees again, this time from his own brothers.

The Nephites follow Nephi.
The Lamanites follow Laman and Lemuel.

They become enemies.

Nephi creates new records.
He carves them into plates.
Scripture. History. Prophecy.
It’s not clear how much of it is for God… and how much is to defend himself from the story his brothers would tell.

The Book of Mormon has begun.
With a ship, a murder, a vision, and a family that will never fully reconcile.