Lehi’s final address to his children part 1. What does it mean to prosper? We are that we might have joy. Opposition in all things.
Transcript:
[00:00:15] Jason: Welcome to the weekly Deep Dive podcast on the Add add on Education network podcast, where we take a look at the weekly come follow me discussions and try to add a little insight, unique perspective. I am your host, Jason Lloyd, here in the studio with our friend and this show’s producer, Nate Pyfer.
[00:00:32] Nate: Hello.
How are you, dude?
[00:00:36] Jason: Fantastic.
[00:00:37] Nate: That’s all I want to know, man. That’s all I needed to know, is that you’re fantastic.
[00:00:42] Jason: Yeah, I’m doing really good. This week, we get to talk about second Nephi one and two. This is father Lehi. He has a reputation for being an orator, for having this gift to speak to compel Layman and Lemuel to convince and to influence with his words. And we get his words as he addresses his kids tonight, full of power. It should be a fun discussion, and I’m going to take chapters one and chapter two and really just kind of combine them and maybe not draw such a separation, because it’s all one speech, and they really build into each other and fit in a powerful way. Lehi, like we’ve said so many times, an orator. And as you start noticing some of the words that he uses, trembling, the anxiety of his soul, how he sorrows, it’s grasping, it’s powerful, it’s real. But some of the things that he emphasizes, I find fascinating when he talks to Layman and Lemiel, and he says, look, if you’re righteous, my blessing is for you, even my first blessing. And I thought, what does that mean to be his first blessing?
Is that the firstborn? Is he saying layman still qualifies somehow for the firstborn, even though Nephi seems to be running the show and ruling.
Nephi gets the firstborn. But then he even talks to Jacob, and he calls him, hey, my firstborn in the wilderness. And you’re like, wait a second. You’re a firstborn? And he’s like, almost the road.
[00:02:13] Nate: You’re a firstborn.
[00:02:15] Jason: A firstborn for you.
Yeah, everyone’s a firstborn. But you know what? Isn’t that the message of the gospel?
And there’s something powerful to that. Like, I will give you my blessing if you were righteous to be, yea, even my firstborn blessing isn’t that. We’ve looked at Lehi as God being elevated to the status of God dwelling in the tent, and Nephi almost being elevated to the status of the son of God. I will obey my father. I will do as he says.
Not my will, but his will. And being this image of God tied onto the boat and the storm sea and calming the troubled sea, by the way. Right.
Yet even though Nephi is the firstborn in the sense that he’s ruling, he has this gift, all of them still have that ability, that power. And that’s the message of the gospel. We take the sacrament, and if we do these things, we can become Christ was the firstborn so that we could become the firstborn. So there’s some subtle hinting to that and how he’s Oprah Winfreying around these firstborn blessings. Winfrey ying.
It’s a verb.
[00:03:35] Nate: Oh, my gosh. Oprah Winfrey ying the first porn blessings.
Hopefully I’ve already gone back and one for me. Hopefully I’ve already gone back and thrown in a great Oprah drop there. But all right, let’s keep going.
[00:03:49] Jason: All right. Not to take away from the power of his speech, but yeah, and Lehigh is going to drop here. In fact, this is my old scriptures.
In the beginning, I started writing down every time I saw this prosperity promise because it’s everywhere, but it’s super evident here.
And I mean, I’ve just got columns of this. It happens so often. And the prosperity promises, inasmuch as you shall keep my commandments in the land, you shall prosper in the land.
And I think that’s our good diving off point...
