How? The murmuring question of Laman & Lemuel

Laman & Lemuel have a pretty bad reputation in the Book of Mormon...and with good reason! But how often are we guilty of asking the SAME question they did while murmuring?

The question is:

HOW?

Let me set this up.

In the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon, Nephi & his family leave Jerusalem, travel about 3 days before Lehi receives revelation in a dream that his sons need to travel back to Jerusalem and get the brass plates (basically the Old Testament up through Isaiah) from a wicked king.

Fast forward 3 day journey back and the boys try not once but twice to get the plates from the wicked king Laban. The second time they lose all their gold and silver and are chased off the property and nearly killed.

Screenshot from "Nephi and the Brass Plates" by Living Scriptures

Everyone's a little stressed out by the experience and Laman and Lemuel begin beating Nephi and Sam (why it's their fault I don't know but Satan has a way of making people think they'll feel better by blaming others...that's another story.)

So in the middle of Nephi and Sam getting beaten up, an angel appears to L&L and says (my words) "Hey! Knock it off! Don't you know you'll be bowing down to Nephi in the future?? Go back one more time and (actual words now) 'the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.'"

And this is where we are too often guilty of the murmuring attitude of Laman & Lemuel: v31 "How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands?" followed by a very logical excuse "...he can command fifty, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?"

WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME!

We have a task in front of us or feel like we should do or pursue something and instead of pressing forward we ask "How is it going to work? What do I do when this happens? But how am I supposed to do this when I have all of this other stuff going on?" Blah blah blah.

INSTEAD, let us adopt the attitude of Nephi and say "Let us go up again...let us be faithful...[the Lord] is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban...?" Nephi doesn't ask how or need all the details from he beginning, he just decides to GO FOR IT!

Spoiler alert: Nephi gets the plates on his next attempt and everything works the way it was supposed to.

So next time we're tempted to question HOW, let's instead start and let the Lord reveal the how through the process.

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See 1 Nephi ch 3

Animated depiction from the Living Scriptures if you get the 7-day free trial here