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1 Nephi 1:20

"And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

Okay, so in the last post I believe I mentioned that maybe they weren't that different then people today rejecting the prophets, but since this verse is mainly about how people were seeking to kill Lehi, maybe I am wrong about that. I know that the world is supposed to get increasingly more wicked, but I have a really hard time thinking that someday the world will be seeking to kill church leaders. Hard world to imagine. It is interesting that Nephi relates him to prophets of old. Maybe Nephi felt the same way. Maybe someday when we talk about the prophets being rejected and having their lives sought after we will say like prophets of old.

I will be honest, not the biggest fan of the footnote under cast out (Jeremiah 13:11). Not the analogy I would have chosen is all. Other footnotes are interesting if you want to read but don't shed a whole bunch of new insight. The wonderful thing that I would leave this verse with is the organization of this all. I know when Nephi wrote it he probably didn't have it divided into verses or chapters or anything like that, but I love the setup he gives for the rest of the story. The end of this first chapter gives a little teaser which makes me think that he probably wrote this at least a while after the fact. For Nephi to give this summary we can reasonable infer that he sees the moral of the story he about to tell one of mercy from the Lord, over his chosen (or those who have chosen him) because of their faith. It is a nice little snippet to show the overall message of Nephi's work.

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