BOM 1 Nephi 4

Today, I’m commenting upon 1 Nephi 4.

The story of Nephi’s beheading of Laban is a fairly horrifying one — almost as much so as Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his own son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19).  And it’s perhaps especially uncomfortable in light of the stories and images currently coming out of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL), which beheads innocent people in order to make sick and nihilistic public statements.

There’s no point in trying to minimize the horror of what Nephi is asked to do, and what he eventually does, in this chapter.

And aren’t we all too familiar with people (from ISIS and al-Qa‘ida to Jim Jones, Jeffrey Lundgren, and Utah’s own Lafferty brothers) who kill on behalf, and sometimes, as they claim, at the directly revealed behest, of God?

Such people could, and do, draw inspiration from the stories of Abraham and Nephi.

And yet, most people would probably agree that, if an order came directly and indisputably from the Creator of the Universe, the Author of the Moral Law, it should be obeyed.  (There are a few who would disagree, but I think I’m correct on this.  Remember, I’m stipulating, for the sake of argument, that, in my hypothetical illustrative case, the source of the order is, definitively, God — not madness, not a demonic impersonator, and not mere greed or ambition rationalizing or propagandizing in its own interest.)

But how to tell?  How to be sure that it’s really God, and not one’s own deranged mind, not self-interest, not irrational rage or hatred?

This is a subset of the general problem that faces all of those who believe in revelation — but probably not only such believers.  How can one be sure that one’s inspiration is coming from an external, credible, moral-trustworthy source, rather than from pathological desires or merely environmental influences or habits?  Even without claimed revelation, I must be confident that my decisions are based on sound reasons rather than on thinking tainted by irrationality, personal interest, or prejudice.

The difficulty is real — and the greater the stakes involved, the more urgently needful it is to get things right.

I’m struck that, even after Nephi receives the divine command, he resists carrying it out.  He doesn’t simply say, immediately and with gusto, “Right!  Off with his head!”  And, even after he’s been told three times to kill Laban, he goes through a rather complex chain of reasoning (1 Nephi 4:10-18) before he finally complies with the directive.

Even making allowances — as I think we should — for Nephi’s relatively less humane ancient culture, he doesn’t kill Laban lightly, without reluctance or reflection.

Still, this is a problematic and worrisome scriptural model.  We should be exceedingly careful in the ways we think about it.

Posted from Washington DC