Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 2: "Chasing a Dream"
Chapter Summary:
"Lehi takes his family into the wilderness by the Red Sea—They leave their property—Lehi offers a sacrifice to the Lord and teaches his sons to keep the commandments—Laman and Lemuel murmur against their father—Nephi is obedient and prays in faith; the Lord speaks to him, and he is chosen to rule over his brethren. About 600 B.C."
This part of the story starts with another dream or "vision" of Nephi's father, Lehi, in which god tells Lehi that he has done well to warn the people of Jerusalem of their impending takeover by the Babylonians (score 1 for retro-fitting prophecy), and because of this the wicked people of the city want to kill him. This is clearly feeding into the whole persecution complex that so many believers hold (persecution implies that Satan is trying to thwart your efforts because you are helping god; this means you need to double down and persevere so that god can reward you in heaven for being such a good little helper). And again, Nephi takes his father at his word. Accepting second-hand revelation without question seems to a theme in this book. Almost an expectation.
Furthermore, god warns Lehi to take his family to the wilderness to save his life from the mob, and because god is going to destroy Jerusalem very soon (approx. 13 years in the future...). Keep in mind this is all done because Lehi believes for some unexplained reason that god talks to him in his sleep. It should be noted that Joseph Smith's own father also claimed to receive revelation from god through dreams, including dreams featured in the Book of Mormon itself. But we will get to that in future chapters. This is only one of several parallels between Joseph's life and the characters and stories in the Book of Mormon.
One might ask, what did Lehi's children, other than Nephi, think of all this? Were they all so easily taken in by their father's dreams? We are not told what any of the female members of the family thought of these events, and frankly this isn't surprising given what we know about ancient Judaism and Mormonism concerning the roles of women in the church and society. But we do get quite a bit of info on Lehi's other sons: Laman, Lemuel, and Sam (all of whom are older than Nephi, which seems to draw another parallel to Joseph Smith's life since he also had older brothers and was called to be a prophet much like Nephi, and whose older brothers--especially Hyrum Smith--became subservient to Joseph within Mormon-dom.).
Much like Joseph's older brother Hyrum, Nephi's older brother Sam sides with him. But Nephi's other two older brothers are not convinced that their father really is inspired to take them to the desert to save their lives:
"...for behold [Laman and Lemuel] did murmur in many things against their father, because he was a visionary man, 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."
As expected, the doubters in the story are portrayed negatively, presumably to discourage readers from doing the same. Keep in mind that up to this point no one has offered a single way for anyone to verify Lehi's claims. All we have are the good, obedient brothers who accept everything without question and the naughty, doubting brothers--who still did as their father asked, mind you--who think their father simply has a vivid imagination.
In verse 16 Nephi finally tries to verify his father's claims, however he does so through prayer. This is very common within Mormonism. If you have a question about something--especially something spiritual in nature--ask god in prayer and he will give you the answer through your "feelings and thoughts". In other words, if you think a thing is good and you have a good feeling about it, that is the same thing as god telling you it is good. Sounds like a reliable, error-proof method of verification to me.
And wouldn't you know it, god did tell Nephi that Lehi was truly inspired, just like Nephi had suspected all along. Later, Nephi relays this message from god to his brother Sam who also takes it at face value. Shocking. But alas, Laman and Lemuel do not simply believe Nephi (and why should they?), which is one of the reasons god chooses Nephi to be the ruler of the people once they get to the promised land (aka America) rather than his older brothers.