Suit up friends, this one is taking me WAY outside my comfort zone. "For it came to pass in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah..." Now I know this is really documenting the timing and what not but there are a couple things that tell me there is something more to this verse than just setting the scene. The word "first" has a footnote that I can't seem to understand. Maybe as I ramble a little the answer will bubble to the top. The references are 1 Nephi 2:4 and Mosiah 6:4. In the 1 Nephi reference it simple talks about Lehi packing up and leaving the land of his inheritance with all of his family...that's it. The Mosiah reference is a date reference. Saying that when Mosiah started his reign it had been four hundred and seventy-six years since Lehi left Jerusalem. So I guess the only commonality between those two is that Lehi left Jerusalem. First of all, talk about a spoiler! Ha ha, just kidding. So here's my official take on it. I'm thinking about what it would be like for a huge city (basically country) to get a new king...especially a bad one that wasn't elected by majority vote. Now I can't say for sure that Zedekiah was a bad king, but I can guarantee there was some drama happening.
If you look at the footnotes surrounding Zedekiah just a line down you will see a whole slew of Bible references. Now what I can piece together from those is this: Zedekiah becomes king at the age of 21. He would reign until is was 32. Now it sounds like Zedekiah was the brother of King Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. Yes, the name should sound familiar. Nebuchadnezzar was the wicked king that tried to burn Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Now, turns out that years after Lehi flees Jerusalem, a land of his inheritance, and leaves behind all of his precious things, that Jerusalem is taken captive by the Babylonians bringing about something we like to refer to as the Babylonian Captivity.
Now, back to the story, I know there is a lot more drama to be hand between Zedekiah and his brother Nebuchadnezzar, but lets skip to the really important stuff. Getting back to the political temperature of the time, we know that Jerusalem has a new king. We know that as these things go there is probably a good period of people testing the waters and trying to see what it will be like under new management. Nephi gives you some awesome insight by saying that Lehi has dwelt in Jerusalem all of his days. So we know that Lehi is an expert on the history of the city and has a fairly good sense of things. Well, apparently, this attracts a slew of new prophets who come to prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem. I assume that Lehi was one of those. The only one that I could find by name is one Urjah. We don't really hear of him, but it seems as though he was at Jerusalem prophesying of its destruction at the same time as Lehi. Let's also keep in mind that this is JERUSALEM. This is and has been the Holy land for ages. For Lehi to pack up and leave because it is wicked probably looks a little crazy to a lot of people.
This is how I like to visualize the whole scenario: Trump becomes president, lots of people are saying he is crazy and that America is doomed, President Monson takes his family and moves to Canada. Definitely an over simplification. Trump would have to have a crazy brother currently running North Korea, but nevertheless the analogy is pretty sound. So we have Doomsday-prepper Lehi fleeing Jerusalem. Oh wait, I'm getting way ahead of myself. Okay, back to the verse: "...prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed." Is how the verse ends. So lets just look at a couple more things before we wrap up. So, skipping ahead to a little bit of a spoiler of my own, it looks like Jerusalem is destroyed around 30 years after Lehi and his family leave. Pretty awesome timing I would say. I think a lot of the things that the Lord promises or that we prepare for may not happen in our lifetime but this is pretty awesome. Well obviously it is awesome. It is in the Book of Mormon.
THE BIG THING:
There are obviously the things that we have learned about over and over again. Continue to follow the prophet. That is probably still the biggest thing. But since this study pattern is about finding the new, I am going to approach this with the big thing that was new to me. God knows EVERYTHING! He knew that this change in leadership is just bad news. He knew that the long-prophesied destruction of Jerusalem was at hand. In fact, God was probably setting all of this up. God is merciful! he sends a whole group of prophets at the very time that people would be most likely to listen (political upheaval) to get people out! Listen to the prophets and be humble and you are guaranteed safety. I don't know if Nephi knew he was setting up this awesome scene with just the right amount of historic context, but something tells be we just think of Nephi as a super nice burly guy, but I think he was remarkable observant, spiritual, and intelligent.
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