1 Nephi: Headnote, Part III
“…because he prophesieth unto the people concerning their iniquity and they seek to destroy his life.”
When the prophet Jeremiah—arguably the President of the Church in Lehi’s time—wrote of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, King Jehoiakim was, shall we say, not pleased. He burned the record and commanded that Jeremiah and his scribe, Baruch, suffer a similar fate (i.e. imprisonment, if not death; see Jeremiah 36:21-26, cf. 37:4). While Jeremiah was not there to hear the king’s words, the Lord gave him the sound-byte version:
Likening the scriptures unto myself:
How bold am I, in prophesying unto the people? The prophet David O. McKay popularized the maxim of “every member a missionary,” and as an elder in the Church I am thus doubly “called to the work” (Doctrine & Covenants 4:3). Even when the people sought “to destroy [the] life” of Lehi, Jeremiah, and their contemporary prophets, they kept on going. When the early prophets of this dispensation were tarred and feathered, bruised and even killed, they kept on going. The chances of any of that happening to me are incredibly slim; why don’t I “open [my] mouth” like they did? (See Doctrine & Covenants 24:12, etc.)
“Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?” (Jeremiah 36:29).It didn’t take long for Jeremiah’s prophecy against Jehoiakim to come true, and Zedekiah was installed as his successor—and succeeded where his predecessor had failed (Jeremiah 37:15). So when Nephi says that the people sought to destroy his father, he knew what he was talking about.
Likening the scriptures unto myself:
How bold am I, in prophesying unto the people? The prophet David O. McKay popularized the maxim of “every member a missionary,” and as an elder in the Church I am thus doubly “called to the work” (Doctrine & Covenants 4:3). Even when the people sought “to destroy [the] life” of Lehi, Jeremiah, and their contemporary prophets, they kept on going. When the early prophets of this dispensation were tarred and feathered, bruised and even killed, they kept on going. The chances of any of that happening to me are incredibly slim; why don’t I “open [my] mouth” like they did? (See Doctrine & Covenants 24:12, etc.)
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