There lived on the fringes of Jerusalem in 600 BC a rich, bold and resourceful merchant, a God fearing man by the name of Lehi. This man, under God's direction prophesied of Jerusalem's demise and destruction, a city whose wickedness was so great that God did not only send one prophet to call them to repentance, but as many as seven, Lehi being among them as well as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nahum, Habukkuk, Zephaniah and Zechariah.
Lehi's prophetic calling came in 600 B.C., a time in history when Jerusalem was flourishing not only in prosperity but also in idolatry, immorality and corruption. And simmering below the pulse of the industrious and prosperous Jerusalem lay political unrest which would ultimately punish Israel and enslave those who stoned the prophets. In 600 B.C. Jerusalem was under Babylonian domination. Sitting on Judah's throne was Zedekiah, an appointed puppet king, who unwisely with most of Judah's leadership, formed an alliance with Egypt with plans to overthrow the Babylonian rule. Jeremiah warned against this alliance knowing full well that Egyptians could not back their show of power with physical resources but Zedekiah refused to listen. When Lehi brought his message of doom prophesying that Jerusalem will be destroyed and its inhabitants carried away to Babylon (1 Nephi 1:13,18), the people were outraged and considered him along with Jeremiah and other prophets unpatriotic and guilty of treason. Their solution to this offence was that Lehi had to die (1 Nephi 1:20).
When the call came to leave Jerusalem and establish a colony of higher moral standards than the apostate Jerusalem, Lehi, not needing time to prepare, did not hasitate. The Lord had been preparing him his whole life for such an experience, both temporally and spiritually. According to His foresight, the Lord had strategically placed Lehi in the tribe of Manasseh, which of all tribes lived the farthest out in the desert, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Lehi, therefore became familiar with the dessert and as a merchant came to know the Egyptian culture. He had even given two of his sons Egyptian names and taught them to write in reformed Egyptian. Lehi was also spiritually sound. He knew full well what the God of Israel had done for his people and the wilderness they had to traverse to get to the promised land and he taught this to his children. Nephi often recounted Israel's wilderness experience to his brethren to bring them to the remembrance of their roots and to give them courage. : "Nephi consciously understood that his family was re-enacting a spiritual pattern....[and reminded his brethren of it frequently].....The Mormon pioneers, crossing the American wilderness, called themselves the Camp of Israel and were also aware they were following a pattern laid down before them....In spiritual history, the place of refuge is the wilderness, idealized by Israel as the place to commune with God. Certain profound lessons are learned in the wilderness, especially our complete dependence on God for it is a trackless, difficult place where our own resources prove not to be enough. The wilderness experiences in scripture are for cleansing and clarifying, and it is only after a people has experienced the marrow-deep challenges of the wilderness that they are ready to inherit a promised land" (Maurine Proctor, All Things According to His Will, Meridian Magazine).
Even though Lehi and his family were favoured of God and spared Jerusalem's destruction, they needed the experience of the wilderness to establish a righteous branch of Israel in another land. For this reason Lehi and his family travelled by the banks of the Red Sea for nine whole years before Nephi received instruction to build a ship. If the wilderness is a spiritual oasis where one finds God, this had to be true of this band of followers who had to be taught by what power they were inheriting the promised land. And they did find God in many ways but in one most extraordinary way. They found him in a tree.
Approximately a year before the command to build a ship, Lehi, had a very memorable dream in which he beheld an even more memorable tree, the tree of life. When Nephi, being the dutiful son that he was, inquired of God the meaning of the tree of life that his father had seen, an angel appeared to him to tutor him. When the angel asked Nephi if he knew what the tree represented, Nephi answered that it is the love of God, most desirable above all (2 Nephi 11:22,23). Immediately following his answer he was shown a vision of the Savior during his mortal ministry. It becomes very clear through Nephi's vision that the love of God is manifest to his children through the gift of His only begotten Son thus the tree becomes the symbol of Jesus Christ. Why a tree? Because a tree bears fruit and fruit is something you eat and something you eat becomes a part of you. In other words, you are what you eat. It transforms your very system. What we eat spiritually also transforms us, even to the point of rebirth. This rebirth places us on the path to eternal life. Alma claims that if we plant the word, which is compared to a seed, into our hearts and nurture it, it "shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree spring up into everlasting life" (Alma 32:41).
The symbol of the tree "converges all the meaning of the gospel. It was the tree of life that stood in the Garden of Eden and nourished Adam and Eve. This was a place of unity with each other and with the Lord. After they fell, eating the fruit of a forbidden tree, they came into a world of duality, division, separation from God. The only way to be at-one again with the Lord comes from the events that took place on another tree - the cross, through Christ's atonement and resurrection. Some legends even claim the cross was constructed from a branch of the tree of life. Symbolically, at least, this is true" ("The Vision of the Tree of Life, Meridian Magazine, December 14, 2015)
So it is with us. We all need a wilderness if we are to truly know God. The Lord wants us to find Him in the rough terrain, in the scorching desert, in the endless roads that we might know by whose hand we are led to 'the goodly land'. As prepared as Lehi was, his capacities were not enough. Hence the Liahona to point the way to the most fertile parts of the land where they could hunt for their survival (1 Nephi 16:14-30). It is good to be equipped with a bow but it is the hunt that the Lord provides that makes the hunter.
Every true disciple of Jesus Christ will experience 'a wilderness' before they get to their promised land. What promised land?: "Your promised land. Your new Jerusalem. Your own little acre flowing with milk and honey. Your future. Your dreams. Your destiny. I believe that in our own individual ways, God takes us to the grove or the mountain or the temple and there shows us the wonder of what His plan is for us" (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence, Ensign March 2000, p 10). We do not need to travel the rocky path to the land of milk and honey alone for the Lord has promised "....mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land" (D&C 103:17, 19-20). The barren landscape of our wilderness will serve as a testing ground that will refine us, change us and enoble us if all the lessons are learnt and all obstacles overcome with the help of Him who desires to see the journey completed to the end. And when the moments of doubt and uncertainty would question the worthiness of that journey, we must be like that faithful, bold and resourceful merchant from the outskirts of Jerusalem who stood on the banks of the Red Sea, with no ship in sight, proclaiming: "I have obtained a land of promise" (1 Nephi 5:5).
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