Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 3: "Brass Tacks"
Chapter Summary:
"Lehi’s sons return to Jerusalem to obtain the plates of brass—Laban refuses to give the plates up—Nephi exhorts and encourages his brethren—Laban steals their property and attempts to slay them—Laman and Lemuel smite Nephi and Sam and are reproved by an angel. About 600–592 B.C."
This chapter gets a little more exciting as Lehi sends his 4 sons back to Jerusalem to attain the "brass plates" which apparently contain the Old Testament up to this point in time (approx 600 BC). This is important to Lehi because it contains his genealogy and the law of Moses which will be the governing law in the promised land. Keep in mind while reading this part of the story that god is supposed to be all-powerful and all-knowing and is thus capable of doing whatever he wants, and that the following is the best scenario he could come up with.
The 4 brothers decide through casting lots that Laman should be the one to go up to Laban, the high-ranking official who owns the brass plates, and ask him to give the plates to them. Seriously. Naturally, Laban declines the request and accuses Laman of being a robber.
Discouraged, the brothers try a new plan: they gather all of Lehi's old possessions (i.e. gold) which they could not take with them when they left the city and use them to buy the plates. But this didn't work either as Laban had his guards chase them down to steal their stuff.
The brothers take sides and quarrel over what to do next. The ever-doubting Laman and Lemuel want to go back to their father empty-handed, while Nephi and Sam want to keep trying. Go figure. Laman and Lemuel become angry (as doubters so often do) and begin beating Nephi and Sam with a rod. Ordinarily such abusive behavior would not warrant deliverance of the victims by god, but since they were on god's errand he decided to intervene by sending an angel to stop the beating and to chastise the older two brothers for doubting and rebelling against Nephi. Finally, Laman and Lemuel have a fairly valid reason to believe all this stuff is actually divinely mandated. But even so, they start to "murmur" shortly after the angel leaves. This is often used by Mormons as an example of why it is futile to ask god for a sign--it won't stick. It does seem strange to me that they would really argue the point that subtle "feelings and thoughts" affirming a given thing which a person wanted to believe in the first place is more compelling than a sign from god like an appearing angel. Perhaps this speaks more to the generally drab appearance of angels than it does to the alleged fading spiritual impact of such an occurrence...