This week, we get to study 1 Nephi 6–10 and focus on Lehi’s dream. If you have read these chapters many times, the Come, Follow Me manual challenges us this time to think about the vision the way Lehi did—within the context of our families and those we love. This approach will help us see symbols like the iron rod, the great and spacious building, and the tree of life in a new light, revealing deeper lessons that apply to our daily lives.
Segment 1
Our Savior from Self-Doubt by Gaylamarie Rosenberg
Segment 2
Scriptures:
A Brief Explanation About the Book of Mormon (The plates that make up the Book of Mormon)
CR: 1 Nephi 6, 1 Nephi 9
1 Nephi 14:18-27 (Revelation)
Ether 3:19-28 (A sealed portion)
1 Nephi 9:5 (A wise purpose)
Segment 3
Scriptures:
1 Nephi 7 (Nephi’s brothers persecute him)
1 Nephi 6:4 (Nephi’s intent)
Words of the General Authorities:
In God’s eternal plan, salvation is an individual matter; exaltation is a family matter. (Russell M. Nelson, “Salvation and Exaltation”, April 2008 General Conference)
Eternal life means to become like the Father and to live in families in happiness and joy forever. (Henry B. Eyring, “The Family”, CES fireside 5 Nov. 1995)
Baptism is the gate to the celestial kingdom; celestial marriage is the gate to an exaltation in the highest heaven within the celestial world. (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, referenced in Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, Section 132 Marriage: An Eternal Covenant)
In marriage and family life, we learn and grow together as God intended. In our families we cannot hide from who we really are as we strive to become who we are destined to become. In essence, a family is the mirror that helps us become aware of imperfections and flaws we may not be able or want to acknowledge. No one knows us better than a spouse and the other members of our family. Thus, the family is the ultimate mortal laboratory for the improving and perfecting of God’s children. (David A. Bednar, “The Divine Pattern of Eternal Marriage”, September 2020 Ensign)
Pride not only isolates one from others but from himself and his possibilities. (Neal A. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, page 38)
The Lord provides ways to pay our debts to Him. In one sense we ourselves may participate in an atonement. When we are willing to restore to others that which we have not taken, or heal wounds that we did not inflict, or pay a debt that we did not incur, we are emulating His part in the Atonement. (Boyd K. Packer, “The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness”, October 1995 General Conference)
Segment 4
Scriptures:
1 Nephi 8:9 (Prayer unlocking mysteries)
1 Nephi 8:10-12 (God’s love makes us happy)
Hebrews 12:2 (Christ endured for us)
D&C 84:88 (On our right and left hands)
1 Nephi 8:30 (Fall down to partake of the fruit)
Hebraism:
1 Nephi 8:2 ex: Dreamed a dream = “Cognate Accusative” when a verb and object share the same root or origin. Also found in Genesis 37:5 when Joseph of Egypt says he “dreamed a dream”
Gen. 1:11 ex. Let the earth bring forth grass = Let the earth grass grass
Gen. 9:14 ex. When I bring a cloud = I will cloud a cloud
Numbers 30:2 ex: Swear an oath = Swear a swearing
Segment 5
Scriptures:
1 Nephi 8:19-21 (The iron rod leads to the tree)
1 Nephi 8:15 (We are beckoned to the tree)
Words of the General Authorities:
Lehi’s message is to stay by the tree. We stay because we are converted unto the Lord. Alma taught, “Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God.” (Alma 5:7) As we yield our hearts to God, the Holy Ghost changes our very natures, we become deeply converted unto the Lord, and we no longer seek the spacious building. If we stop doing those things that bring about deepening conversion, we regress spiritually. Apostasy is the reverse of conversion. (Kevin W. Pearson, “Stay by the Tree”, April 2015 General Conference)
When a seal is put upon the father and mother, it secures their posterity, so that they cannot be lost, but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father and mother. (Joseph Smith, “Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”, as quoted by David A. Bednar, March 2014 Ensign)
You parents of the willful and the wayward! Don’t give them up. Don’t cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours—long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of Right, and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge brings the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend. (Orson F. Whitney, “A Word for the Wayward”, April 1929 General Conference)
Segment 6
Scriptures:
1 Nephi 10:4 (The coming of Christ)
1 Nephi 10:6 (Rely on this Redeemer)
1 Nephi 10:17-22 (Understanding from the power of the Holy Ghost)
Savior of the World:
1 Nephi 10:4
1 Nephi 13:40
John 4:42
1 John 4:14
Words of the General Authorities:
The tree of life, “whose fruit was desirable to make one happy” Read it carefully; then read it again. (Boyd K. Packer, “Lehi’s Dream and You”, BYU Speeches January 16, 2007)
View transcript here.