Thursday, December 27, 2007

Lehi's Vision and Preaching (1 Nephi 1)

Listen now!This chapter is the introduction that Nephi, a son of Lehi (1 Nephi 1:1), who was a prophet around the time of Jeremiah and the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem (see 1 Nephi 1:4 and cross-reference to Jeremiah 52:3-5), wrote to chronicle their history and spiritual matters.

In this chapter, we find out that Nephi is the writer, mostly writing from his own perspective. Lehi has just had a vision where he saw God, Jesus Christ, and those who would be the twelve disciples, and received a mission to preach to the people of Jerusalem that destruction would come upon them unless they repented and listened to the prophets. He also predicts the coming of the Messiah, or Jesus Christ.

The Jews of that time had fallen away from the ideals of the law of Moses and their government and political systems had become corrupt, so they were not very receptive to his message. They made threats to kill him because of his prophecies and persecuted Lehi and his family.

All of this occurs about 600 BC.