1 Nephi 17

We journeyed eastward through the wilderness for eight years under the guidance of God and endured great hardship and suffering. During this time, our wives bore children in the wilds and grew as strong as the men, bearing all the difficulties without complaint. Also during the journey, my mother gave birth to two more sons, who were named Jacob and Joseph2. Our survival on this journey became proof that God keeps his promises to his people, if his people honor his commandments.

Eventually, we arrived at the coastline of a great ocean in a place we named Bountiful for its abundance of fruits and wild honey. At Bountiful, we pitched out tents, rested, rejoiced, and gave thanks to God for bringing us here safely.

Many days after our arrival, God’s voice came to me, saying, “Arise and go to the mountain.”

When I arrived on the mountaintop, God spoke to me again. “You must build a ship according to instructions that I will give to you,” he said. “After that, I will carry your people across the ocean.”

“Where will I go to find iron ore with which to make the tools necessary to build a ship?” I asked. After God told me where to find the ore, I made bellows from the skins of animals and began to make my tools from the molten rocks.

My brothers mocked and ridiculed me when they saw me beginning the task of building an ocean-going ship. “Our brother is a fool,” they said, “if he thinks he can build a ship and cross the ocean.” They, of course, refused to help in any way, and disbelieved that I was being instructed by God.

Again, I was deeply saddened by their lack of faith in God and by the hardness of their hearts. My sadness pleased them because they thought that I had been defeated. “We knew this was too large a task for you,” they said. “You are too much like our foolish father who has brought us to this distant, dreadful place. It would have been far better if we had stayed in Jerusalem enjoying our wealth and possessions, than to endure the hardships we and our women have had to put up with. It would have been preferable to have died. If we’d stayed, we could have been happy. The people of Jerusalem were good people who were wrongly judged by our father, who has brought us to ruin.” On and on they went, complaining about my father and me.

“Do you believe that our ancestors would have ever escaped their enslavement in Egypt if they hadn’t listened to the words of God?” I asked. “Do you think they could have been freed if Moses hadn’t led them out of their slavery? You know it was a good thing for them to have escaped from Egypt. You know that Moses was commanded by God to lead them. And you know that God parted the waters of the Red Sea, allowing them to escape. You know that the Pharaoh’s army was drowned. And you know that Moses’ people were fed manna from heaven in the wilderness. You know that Moses, through the power of God, struck a rock to provide drinking water in the desert.

“In spite of being led and upheld by God, Moses’ people complained about and criticized both him and God. According to his word, God destroyed those who opposed him and led those who obeyed him. God did everything according to his word.

“After Moses and his people crossed the Jordan River, he empowered them to drive the inhabitants from the land, scattering and destroying them. Do you think that those people who occupied the promised land were righteous? No. Do you think that our ancestors would have been more favored people if the inhabitants of the land had been righteous? No. God made all men equal, but he favors those who are righteous in his eyes. The people inhabiting the promised land had rejected him and were full of sinfulness. Because of this, God brought his anger to bear upon them, and blessed our ancestors for their righteousness. This is what gave them the power to obtain the promised land for themselves.

“God made the earth for the possession of his children, but he supports the nations that are righteous, and destroys the nations that are wicked. God rules from the throne of heaven. This earth is his foot stool. He loves those who choose him as their God. He loved our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and remembered his promises to them. That is why he brought them out of slavery in Egypt.

“When his people closed their hearts to him as you are doing now, he straightened them out in the wilderness by sending flying, fiery serpents among them. When they were bitten, he prepared a way for their healing. In spite of the simpleness of his plan, many people perished because they were too stubborn to follow his path. Even after their episodic opposition to Moses and God, these people were still led by God to the promised land.

“Now the time has come when the wicked people in Jerusalem are about to be destroyed. Only a few will be delivered from certain slavery and death. God has commanded our father to journey in the wilderness. Now you plot to kill him just as the people in Jerusalem did. Just like them, you are murderers in your heart. You are quick to sin, and slow to remember your God, even though you’ve seen an angel who spoke to you. He still speaks to you in your conscience. Are you so deaf that you cannot hear his words unless he thunders at you? You know that the power of God’s word can bring about the end of the earth. You know that he can make the rough places smooth, and the smooth places rough. Why then are your hearts so closed?

“My soul is broken with grief because of you. My heart is in pain. I am terrified that you will be forever cast out. Look at me. I am filled with the Spirit of God to the limits of my strength.”

Having said all this, my brothers became very angry with me and wished to throw me into the sea to drown. When they approached to do their deadly work, I cried out to them, “In the name of Almighty God, I order you not to touch me. I am filled with the power of God. Whoever lays a hand on me will wither and perish by the power of God.” I further commanded them to discontinue their complaining and plotting against our father, and contribute their efforts to help construct the ship that God had commanded me to build.

“I can do whatever God commands me to do,” I said. “If he ordered me to turn water into earth, I would be capable of doing it. Given all the miracles that God has shown us so far, how can you doubt that he will guide me to build a seaworthy ship?”

My words and declarations of power confused and frightened my brothers so much that they decided against trying to harm me, for the time being. Shortly after this incident, God spoke to me and said, “If you stretch out your hands towards your brothers, I will give them a shock so that they will know that I am their Lord and God. This will convince them of the seriousness of your words.”

When I did as God had commanded me to do, my brothers were shocked just as he had promised. They fell down before me, saying, “We now know for sure that God is with you because we have been stunned by his power.”

When they tried to worship me, I refused to let them. “I am only your younger brother,” I said. “Worship God, and honor our father and mother instead. Pray that you will live long in the promised land that God is about to give to us.”