1 Nephi 9

Christlike Attributes

verse 1:

"And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak… and also a great many more things." Blue

verse 3:

"I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should, make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people." Blue

verse 5:

"the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for aw use purpose in him, which purpose I know not." Green

verse 6:

"he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men" Blue

"he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words." Green

Commentary


A short chapter, but one chock full of Christ. I was interested in all the green. It's the first time I've had so much. (Only two sections, sure. But two out of six is a full third of this chapter!)

1 Nephi 8

Christlike Attributes

verse 2:

"Behold, I have dreamed a dream; or, in other words, I have seen a vision." Blue

Commentary
I was really very surprised at this one. This chapter is the vision of the Tree of Life. I expected it to be colored brightly in my scriptures. And trust me, I sure tried to make it so. But as it's written, it's all prose. It's all a story. Where I'm looking for direct references to the attributes of Christ, marking, "And it came to pass that I beheld a tree" didn't actually make any sense at all. Sure, as a good, Sunday School attending girl, I know what that tree means and that it should be marked since it represents the love of God, but it doesn't say that. In good news, I know it will say that in a few chapters when Laman and Lemuel say, "Huh?!" (And really, thank goodness they did.) So it turns out, this is a rather colorless chapter in my Book of Mormon.

And because this entry is so short, I thought I'd share a discovery I made. In general, I am the kind of reader who can easily focus on the story, or rather, the prose, of scriptures. Whenever we're in story-mode, I'm right on board and reading the scriptures is easy. On the other hand, when it starts talking about more abstract concepts (or the poetry, for lack of a better term), my mind starts to wander and I have a really hard time focusing. This has always been the case. I've been struggling my whole life to figure out how to better pay attention to probably the most critical passages of scripture.

This project, however, has made me do a complete 180. Because I know the stories of the scriptures so well, and I know that what I'm looking for for this project generally isn't in the prose sections, I find myself skimming over the stories and instead focusing on the poetry passages—because I know it's in the poetry passages that I find who Christ really is and what I should be emulating. This is a huge accomplishment for me. It was rather startling when I first realized I was skimming stories and slowing down and focusing more on poetry.

Now I know for a certainty that I really was inspired to do this project. And I know it was for multiple reasons. I am so grateful to a Savior who loves me so much and knows me so well as to inspire a project that will help me grow and learn in the many different facets of life that I need so much.

1 Nephi 7

Christlike Attributes

verse 1:

"the Lord spake unto him again" Blue

"it was not meet for him, Lehi, that he should take his family into the wilderness alone; but that his sons should take daughters to wife" Blue

verse 5:

"the Lord did soften the heart of Ishmael, and also his household" Blue

verse 11:

"what great things the Lord hath done for us, in delivering us out of the hands of Laban, and also that we should obtain the record?" Blue

verse 12:

"the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men" Blue

verse 14:

"the Spirit of the Lord ceaseth soon to strive with them." Red

verse 18:

"the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet" Blue

Commentary

I debated making verse 1 two separate entries. But I thought it was important a) that the Lord spoke to Lehi and b) that He thought it was important that Lehi's sons had families. The second entry in verse one seemed a little bit like inferring the attributes of Christ instead of looking at blatant ones, but I'm going to count it anyway.

1 Nephi 6

Christlike Attributes






Commentary

Well, here's something I didn't expect.  A chapter with no references to Christlike attributes.  I'm sure that I could imply some, but that's not the purpose of this blog.  I want the blatant references. It's already a big enough project with just those.  I am a little sad, though, that I won't be able to say, "There is a reference to Christlike Attributes in every single chapter in the Standard Works."  Oh well.

But I'm curious, did any of you see one that I missed?

1 Nephi 5

Christlike Attributes

verse 4:

"goodness of God" Blue

verse 5:

"the Lord will deliver my sons out of the hands of LAban, and bring them down again unto us in the wilderness." Blue

verse 8:

"the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness" Blue

"the Lord hath protected my sons and delivered them out of the hands of Laban" Blue

"given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them." Blue

verse 15:

"they were also led out of captivity" Blue

verse 17:

"he was filled with the Spirit, and began to prophesy concerning his seed" Blue

verse 18:

"these plates of brass should go forth unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people who were of his seed." Blue

verse 19:

"these plates of brass should never perish; neither should they be dimmed any more by time." Blue

Commentary


Well, this is the first chapter (I think) that is all blue. I kind of expect more of these kinds of chapters from the Book of Mormon.

I wasn't sure about marking both verse 5 and verse 8.  They're both saying the same thing about Christ and I usually don't mark the same thing in the same chapter.  (If it says the same thing in a different chapter, I'll still mark it.)  But since one came from Lehi as an, "I know he'll do this" sort of way while trying to comfort his wife and the other came from Sariah as an, "I know he did this" sort of way, I decided to mark both.

1 Nephi 4

Christlike Attributes

verse 1:

"he is mightier than all the earth" Green

verse 3:

"the Lord is able to deliver us" Blue

verse 6:

"I was led by the Spirit" Blue

verse 10:

"I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban." Red

verse 11:

"the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands." Red

verse 13:

"the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes." Red

verse 14:

"Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise." Blue

verse 31:

"also having received much strength of the Lord" Blue

Commentary


Verse 6 made me wonder, if the Spirit does something, is it a Christlike attribute? I talked to BJ about it and he pointed out that I would mark if Christ destroyed the wicked, so I should also mark when He leads the righteous, which He does through the Spirit. So I did.

I chose to make verse 11 red for the same reasoning that I used in 1 Nephi 3:29.

Verse 31 was another difficult decision. I've started to question my logic behind the color blue. Am I marking Christlike attributes that are "nice" and typically of how we view the NT Christ? Or am I marking the Christlike attributes that are "nice" that I can possibly emulate? Because, let's be honest, I can't give anyone strength. So if I'm going with the latter, verse 31 should be green instead of blue. I didn't have a decision, so I just marked it blue because it was a "good" attribute. But now that I think about it more, I realize that the majority of the red things I can't emulate, either. I can't deliver someone into someone else's hands to be destroyed. I can't destroy the wicked. So this is officially going with the former. Red for the stereotypically OT Christ and Blue for the NT Christ. And green for the things that are attributes but aren't "good" or "bad". Which is what I've been doing all along without really realizing it.

Lastly, the sudden lack of markings in this chapter surprised me. In the first 14 verses we have 7 markings. That's one every other verse. Which in general (all 4 chapters I've done) is pretty typical. But then it really gets into narrative of Nephi's encounter with Zoram and stops referring specifically to Christ. It's kind of surprising and kind of not that narrative has less focus on Christ. It'll be interesting to see how much more I learn this time around since I have a harder time focusing on the non-narrative scripture passages.

A few questions I have in general (that have nothing to do with the attributes of Christ):

1. Why in the world did Nephi cut off Laban's head and then take off his garments?  Wasn't there blood everywhere?  Wasn't Zoram even the least bit suspicious when "Laban" showed up with blood on his garments?  Or was that just something common enough to not be worthy of note to Zoram?  (Which, I admit if true, is rather disturbing to me.)
2. Why did Nephi take Zoram with him to meet his brothers?  In verse 36 it says, "Now we were desirous that he should tarry with us for this cause, that the Jews might not know concerning our flight into the wilderness, lest they should pursue us and destroy us."  Ok, that's fine.  But a) hasn't their estate been completely empty for a week or so?  Hasn't anyone noticed?  Were they that anti-social?  Was the society set up so that people often went weeks between social interactions?  Were there servants left behind that lied to anyone that came to visit?  But also, couldn't all of this have been avoided if "Laban" had just left Zoram at the treasury?  Why did he, verse 25, "[bid] him that he should follow [him]"? The only reason Zoram ever suspected it was Nephi that killed Laban is because he saw Nephi's brothers.  Had they just parted ways at the treasury, he wouldn't have had any clue and Nephi's family would still have been safe.

Anyway, nothing really testimony-shattering or -making, but things that have always made me shake my head a little at Nephi's reasoning when reading this chapter.

1 Nephi 3

Christlike Attributes

verse 2:

"I have dreamed a dream" Blue

verse 4:

"seek the records" Blue

verse 6:

"thou shalt be favored of the Lord" Blue

verse 7:

"the lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them." Blue

verse 17:

Jerusalem must be destroyed, because of the wickedness of the people." Red

verse 19:

"wisdom in God" Blue

verse 29:

"an angel of the Lord came" Blue

"the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands" Red

Commentary 

Verse 4 was hard.  Does commanding them to go seek records count as a Christlike quality?  If so, should it be deemed green for purposes of this project?  I finally considered it blue because we are currently commanded to keep a journal and do family history and such.  Records are a very important part of our church and it seems very stereotypically Christlike to make sure that records are kept as a high priority.  And especially that Lehi and his family would have that record to teach their children after they left Jerusalem. 

Verse 29 was even harder, at least the red part.  I mean, delivering Laban into Nephi and Co.'s hands seems like a very nice thing to do.  Especially since it was an essential part of fulfilling His original commandment to get the plates, after their last two fails.  But how is it any different from any other nation or people being destroyed because they were wicked?  It's not.  And destruction is not a typical Christlike quality.  So delivering someone, even a wicked someone, to their death, especially at the hand of an innocent person is going to have to go under red.

This chapter had even fewer qualities to mark.  Only 8 in 31 verses.  That's almost only 1 in 4.  But then again, it was also quite heavy in story. I get the feeling that 2 Nephi is going to get a lot heavier than these.

1 Nephi 2

Christlike Attributes

verse 1:

"the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream" Blue

verse 12:

"that God who had created them" Blue

verse 16:

"mysteries of God" Green

"soften my heart" Blue

verse 17:

"the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit" Blue

verse 19:

"the Lord spake unto me" Blue

verse 20:

"ye shall prosper" Blue

"led to a land of promise" Blue

"I have prepared for you" Blue

verse 21:

"cut off from the presence of the Lord" Red

verse 22:

"thou shalt be made a ruler and a teacher over thy brethren" Blue

verse 23:

"I will curse them even with a sore curse" Red

verse 24:

"they shall be a scourge until thy seed" Red

Commentary


This chapter had far fewer attributes, especially at the beginning.  At first this shocked me because after chapter 1 being chock full, I just expected the rest to be, too.  But turns out, when you get into stories about people, you sometimes go several verses in between attributes of Christ.

Verse 24 was a little hard for me to choose a color.  The Lamanites being a scourge unto the Nephites seems like both a good and bad thing.  In one way, he's giving a blessing to the Nephites, "If you forget me, I'll send you a reminder."  But on the other hand, it's definitely mean, too.  "If you forget me, I'll spank you."  (Ok, not really spank, but you get the idea.)  It just doesn't seem "Christlike."  I mean, that's not how we're taught to treat people.  If you catch someone not living correctly, you're not supposed to give them more trials to humble them.  It's just not traditionally what I consider Christlike, so I put it under red in the end.

Verse 22 I had similar problems with.  Is it really Christlike to put someone over someone else?  Especially if you're taking a younger brother and giving him the rights of the older brother?  But then I looked at it as Christ rewarding someone for being righteous and knowing that He often has someone younger fulfilling something we'd traditionally think is for older people.  Just look at missionaries.  When I stop to think about it, I'm amazed that so many adult, middle aged and old, people get baptized every year because they were taught by 19-year olds.  It boggles the mind.  But that is how Christ works, so ultimately put it under blue.

Maybe I should make a purple category for, "I can see this being blue or red."  And if I do mark something purple, I have to explain it in the commentary section.  :)  I'll still with red and blue for now, but if it happens often, I'll change.