Book of Mormon Commentary CofC - Odessa, Missouri Community ...

Book of Mormon Commentary
1 Nephi Chapter 4
NEPHI RETURNS TO HIS FATHER'S TENT, VER. 1-13
1 Ne 4:1 And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been carried away in the Spirit, and seen all these
things, I returned to the tent of my father.
4:1 Nephi "was caught away ...into an exceeding high mountain" (3:38) where he was shown some
visions. The fact that he returned to the tent of his father may indicate he had been caught up in
body as well as in spirit.
Paul wrote of an experience where one {doubtless himself) was caught up to the third heaven. He
said, “whether in the body I cannot tell" (11 Cor. 12: 1-4).
1 Ne 4:2 And it came to pass that I beheld my brethren, and they were disputing one with another,
concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them;
4:2 Their rebellious spirit engendered ill will toward their father and their brother, and it even
caused disputes and contention among themselves. Christ warned that "disputations” and the
"spirit of contention” were not of him but of the "devil, who is the father of contention" {III N.
5:29, 30).
Nephi admitted that the great things of which he spoke "were hard to be understood" (3). Paul
assured us that "the things of God knoweth no man except he has the Spirit of God" (I Cor. 2:11).
1 Ne 4:9 And I said unto them, Have ye inquired of the Lord?
4:9 Having just returned from such a marvelous spiritual experience, Nephi would likely continue
to think of the God who said, "Ask, and you shall receive”. It was incredible to him that his
brothers would rather argue than submit their problem to God. Their answer was, "The Lord
maketh no such thing known unto us" (4:10). The church usually has members who accept God's
promises in principle but are apt to say "these things are not for us." James had such men in mind
when he advised, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering" (Jas. 1:6).
The Lord commended Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery for having inquired of him (D. and C.
6:6a).
When Christ was with the Nephites, he indicated that if his people at Jerusalem inquired they
would be given certain knowledge, but if they "do not ask the Father" eventually the knowledge
referred to would come by means of the writings of the Nephites (Ill N. 7:27, 28), showing, of
course, that if we do not bother to ask God is not bound to give us knowledge.
THE OLIVE TREE, VER. 14-34
1 Ne 4:16 And now, the thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural
branches through the fullness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall have
dwindled in unbelief, yea, for the space of many years and many generations, after the Messiah shall be
manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fullness of the gospel of the Messiah come
unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed;