Our Journeys in the Wilderness

 "Lehi’s Exodus/Into the Wilderness - Tandy Iverson

Lehi's family is a type for the spiritual journey of the Lord's people at large.  Lehi's journey into the wilderness with his family typifies a repeated process both for us individually and as a group of the House of Israel being led along the covenant path.

1 - Lehi must take his family and leave the comforts of home (aka - the world, spiritual and physical Babylon etc.)

2 - Lehi's family journey in the wilderness.  Their travels are difficult and stringent and full of dire circumstances.  Through their suffering, Lehi's family has the opportunity to learn to rely on the Lord. There are many refining purposes to this suffering.  One, it divides the sheep from the goats,  Second, it builds crucial faith in the Lord which is necessary to make the journey and eventually inherit the promised land.  Third, travelers in the wilderness need to learn to not rely upon the arm of flesh.  The Lord explains to them in 1 Ne. 17:13 that one purpose of their sorrows and tribulation is "...and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led."  They need to learn that the Lord is the one and only true deliverer.

3 - Lehi and his family find respite in the Land of Bountiful.    Can you imagine the joy and celebration that ensued upon entering into the Land of Bountiful.  Greenery! Food!  Respite!  This was opposite of their circumstance in the last 8 years. Here they set up their tents and replenished themselves.  I wonder if they thought this was the land of plenty they had been promised.  Perhaps they thought their journey was over. This was not to be. The Lord had other plans! 

4 - Nephi builds a ship and Lehi's family crosses the ocean.  While the journey in the wilderness was meant to cleanse and refine Lehi's family from the previous wicked world in which they lived, a world they were being separated from - a repentance journey of sort - the voyage across the ocean was of a different nature.  This voyage did not at all rely on their own skill set, their typical temporal preparations, their knowledge of the trade routes etc.  Nephi had never built a ship.  They had no idea what was beyond the horizon.  God provided the direct knowledge they needed and supervised their preparations.  The faith they had acquired in their wilderness journey was essential for them to fully trust in the Lord and climb aboard that untested ship build by their prophet brother who had no previous skill in doing so.  They headed out trusting completely in God to get them across who knows how many miles of uncharted waters to a land they had never seen and had no evidence of it's existence.  Kudos to all of them, even Laman and Lemuel, for getting on that boat!  An even greater hats off to another group, the Jaredites, who entered into barges they could not steer themselves!

5 - Lehi's family finally arrives in the Promised Land.   God's promises are sure if we keep his commandments and we are able to do that which is not possible.  We will each have to make a journey that follows this pattern if we are to land ourselves in the Kingdom of God at the last day.  The Saints will repeat this journey personally and individually and as a group of church members and also as members of the House of Israel.  We aren't done yet.  We are sitting in our Land of Bountiful.  We have yet to build the ship and traverse the waters to Zion.  We must be willing and ready to do so both spiritually and physically. 

3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

(Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 17:3)