1 Nephi 8 – 10
The thing that Lehi did not seem to experience in his own journey was the iron rod. He went through the mist of darkness without knowing what it was but after praying he was able to behold the tree and partake of the fruit. We tend to gloss over lenis own experience in the dream except for his partaking of the fruit as if his own journey to the tree was different than the journeys that he observed afterwards.
Notice that Laman and Lemuel did not partake of the fruit and then fall away – they never came to the tree in the first place.
As Lehi was prophesying that the Jews would return from captivity I wonder if he had the words of Jeremiah on that our if Jeremiah had not yet uttered that prophecy by the time Lehi left Jerusalem.
John the Baptist must have had great knowledge of what he was doing. With all the prophecies that had been made he would not dare, as a righteous man, to say the things he said unless he knew that it was his mission to do so. I say that even recognizing that John the Baptist did not have the words of Lehi – there were plenty of other prophecies about his mission that would make any righteous man not accidentally or flippantly do what he did and say what he said.
I can just imagine Jacob growing up here hearing the words of aegis about the olive tree being spoken by his father while he was a baby sitting on Lehi’s knee as Lehi taught his older brothers.
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