The Faith of Nephi and Lehi and the Still, Small Voice

Book of Mormon Notes - Friday, December 1, 2023, Helaman 5 (continued one more time)

The Lord preserved and rescued Nephi and Lehi by fire, and His voice commanded their persecutors to repent. Needless to say, with the ground and prison shaking, with a cloud of darkness overshadowing them, and with the voice of the Lord commanding them from above the cloud, these persecutors were quite literally freaking out. There was nowhere to run or hide because the cloud of darkness was so thick, and they were frozen in place because of fear.

We will soon read about a very interesting parallel to this experience in the next book in the Book of Mormon, namely Third Nephi. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lord has something similar in store for us moderns - something like the wind, the earthquake and the fire that Elijah experience, and the cloud of darkness and trembling that the persecutors of Nephi and Lehi experienced - something to shake us out of our complacency and our refusal to hearken unto the voice of the Lord. (See, e.g. 2 Nephi 28 - “the kingdom of the devil must ^ashake”) I hope that it doesn’t come to this, but if the Book of Mormon is a preparation manual for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, then it makes sense that there will be similar upheavals of nature and perhaps clouds of darkness that precede the Lord’s coming… whatever it takes to help us to repent and to pay attention.

Let’s jump ahead just for a moment to consider the parallel between Nephi’s and Lehi’s experience in the prison with the Nephites who survived the calamities just prior to Christ’s descent among them:

And it came to pass that when the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the storm, and the tempest, and the quakings of the earth did cease—for behold, they did last for about the space of ^athree ^bhours; and it was said by some that the time was greater; nevertheless, all these great and terrible things were done in about the space of three hours—and then behold, there was ^cdarkness upon the face of the land.

And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could ^afeel the ^bvapor of darkness;

And there could be no light, because of the darkness, neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all;

And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land.

And it came to pass that it did last for the space of three days that there was no light seen; and there was great mourning and ^ahowling and weeping among all the people continually; yea, great were the groanings of the people, because of the darkness and the great destruction which had come upon them. (3 Nephi 8:19-23)

It’s almost like Nephi’s and Lehi’s experience in the midst of their persecutors was a microcosm or a foreshadowing of this greater event. But the same kind of upheavals of nature followed by darkness is present in both accounts, and the voice of the Lord follows. The voice of Christ spoke to the persecutors of Nephi and Lehi and the voice of Christ spoke to the surviving Nephites. Not only that, but the voice of Christ spoke in the same way to each of these groups, namely, very quietly:

And it came to pass that while they were thus conversing one with another, they heard a ^avoice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a ^bsmall voice it did ^cpierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn. (3 Nephi 11:3)

Why do I think that something similar might be in store for us moderns as we prepare for Christ’s second coming? Besides the fact that the Book of Mormon contains a record of these kinds of events, and the events in the Book of Mormon foreshadow events in the last days, or the days in which we now live, the Lord Himself has also revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith that the testimony of the Lord’s servants will be followed by the testimony of the upheavals of nature herself:

And after your ^atestimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people.

For after your testimony cometh the testimony of ^aearthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.

And also cometh the testimony of the ^avoice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.

And all things shall be in ^acommotion; and surely, men’s ^bhearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people.

And ^aangels shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, sounding the trump of God, saying: Prepare ye, prepare ye, O inhabitants of the earth; for the ^bjudgment of our God is come. Behold, and lo, the ^cBridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (D&C 88:88-92)

The Lord has been speaking in a still, small voice through His prophets, apostles, and servants ever since He appeared to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. In the economy of heaven, God does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough, or a prophet if a priest can do the job.

But what happens when after so many years it appears that the still, small voice is not enough, and when people refuse to hearken to either priest or prophet? What happens when not only a couple of rebellious brothers like Laman and Lemuel, but the majority of people in an entire civilization or the world itself are past feeling? What happens when most people in the world are so busy listening to sounds emanating from their devices or fixated on images that dance across their screens that the still, small voice goes entirely unheeded? The Nephites who survived cataclysmic events, and the persecutors of Nephi and Lehi may have something to teach us about the Lord’s ability to seize our attention when it is absolutely necessary. Apparently 9-11 wasn’t enough, and neither was COVID.

In the midst of their fear and confusion, one of the dissenters who was a Nephite by birth, a man named Aminidab, perceived through the cloud of darkness that the faces of Nephi and Lehi did ^ashine exceedingly, even as the faces of angels - or like Moses. Aminidab cried unto the multitude and told them to look at Nephi and Lehi. After power was given to the people in the multitude to turn and look, and after they beheld the shining faces of Nephi and Lehi, and after they learned that Nephi and Lehi were conversing with the angels of God, the Lamanites asked Aminidab:

^aWhat shall we do, that this cloud of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us? (Helaman 5:40)

This is the same kind of golden question that the people asked on the day of Pentecost after Peter had testified boldly of Jesus Christ:

Now when they heard this, they were ^apricked in their ^bheart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, ^cwhat shall we do? (Acts 2:37)

It is the same kind of golden question that the Apostle Paul asked after he was stunned on the road to Damascus:

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a ^alight from heaven:

And he ^afell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, ^bSaul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am ^aJesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to ^bkick against the pricks.

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, ^awhat wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. (Acts 9:3-6)

In fact, this is the same kind of golden question that opened up the last dispensation and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith:

In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be ^aright, which is it, and how shall I know it? (Joseph Smith - History 1:10)

And it is a golden question for us too, especially when we are ready and have real intent to go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded. (1 Nephi 3:7)

Fortunately for these Lamanites, Aminadab knew what to do:

And Aminadab said unto them: You must ^arepent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have ^bfaith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and ^cAmulek, and Zeezrom; and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you. (Helaman 5:41)

In essence, this is the same response that Joseph Smith received, namely, ask of God. Inquire of the Lord. The people in Aminadab’s crowd began to cry unto the voice of Him who had shaken the earth. The Lord responded not only by dispersing the cloud of darkness, but also by encircling every soul by a pillar of fire. The dispersion of intense darkness followed by great light may also remind us of Joseph Smith’s experience in the Sacred Grove:

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in ^adarkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would ^bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the ^awoods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a ^bbeautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to ^cpray ^dvocally.

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was ^aseized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick ^bdarkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to ^acall upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into ^bdespair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of ^clight exactly over my head, above the brightness of the ^dsun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself ^adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I ^bsaw two ^cPersonages, whose brightness and ^dglory defy all description, ^estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My ^fBeloved ^gSon. Hear Him! (Joseph Smith-History 1:13-17)

Like Joseph Smith, the people in Aminadab’s crowd exerted all their powers to call upon God, and then they were delivered from the darkness. Whereas Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, these ancient Nephites and Lehites saw something different:

And ^aNephi and ^bLehi were in the midst of them; yea, they were encircled about; yea, they were as if in the midst of a flaming fire, yet it did harm them not, neither did it take hold upon the walls of the prison; and they were filled with that ^cjoy which is unspeakable and full of glory.

And behold, the ^aHoly Spirit of God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as if with fire, and they could ^bspeak forth marvelous words. (Helaman 5:44-45)

These people were baptized with fire and the Holy Ghost. The baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost then gave them power to speak with the tongue of angels that Nephi described in his small plates. They were then prepared to listen to the voice of the Lord, which came to them as a pleasant voice, as if it were a whisper, saying:

^aPeace, peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the world. (Helaman 5:47)

Why was there so much trouble and opposition before this miraculous experience? The Lord was working through Nephi and Lehi to accomplish great and marvelous things. The adversary was trying to stop them. This miraculous event, which also included the opening of the Heavens and the visitation of angels, led to the conversion of many Lamanites besides the approximately three-hundred souls who experienced these things together in person. Most of the Lamanites were convinced and converted to Christ because of the testimony of these people, and because of the greatness of the evidences which they had received. Convinced, and converted, the more part of the Lamanites laid down their weapons of war, shed their hatred and the tradition of their fathers, and yielded up unto the Nephites the lands of their possession.

This was a major event in Nephite history that would be remembered ever after. In the Lord’s own words:

And ye shall offer for a ^asacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I ^bbaptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not. (3 Nephi 9:20)

And in Moroni’s words:

Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the ^achange upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the ^bHoly Ghost. (Ether 12:14)

It is important to notice that in each one of these rare, miraculous, and spectacular experiences - with Aminadab and his crowd, with the crowd of people on the day of Pentecost, with the Nephites in Bountiful, with the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, and with the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove - the upheavals in nature, the great opposition, and the thunder and the shaking were not the most important thing. All of the tumult and shake-up served to prepare the people involved to sit still for a minute and listen to the voice of the Lord. Significantly, with the exception of the Prophet Joseph Smith, none of these people were alone when they had these experiences. There were multiple witnesses.

Notice too that it was because of their faith in Christ, their broken hearts and contrite spirits, and their sincere prayer that the Lamanites were converted, baptized with fire and the Holy Ghost, and hearkened unto the voice of the Lord… and they didn’t even know that what they had experienced was the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Some people become so obsessed with spectacular spiritual experiences, miraculous visions, and the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, focusing so exclusively on these events that they fail to understand what each one of the people who actually experienced these things knew so well, namely, that what matters most is the still, small voice of the Lord and His message to them.