Button Pushing

Just finished up another chat with Nephi, "the diplomat." I really need to stop letting him push my buttons. So Laman, Sam, and I were talking about Dad’s dream and the stuff he taught us about the olive tree. I explained my whole take from my last post—basically the confusion here comes from Dad interpreting certain scriptures as temporal when they’re clearly spiritual, otherwise God would have to be a liar.

Laman was in a pretty good mood (for once) and decided we should try to give Dad the benefit of the doubt. Basically we could try interpreting the scriptures temporally in a way that didn't lead to inconsistencies. Sam chimed in and point out that’s probably a good idea; he’d always felt like Zenos’ parable didn’t work with a purely spiritual interpreation. When I asked what he meant, he said something like, “Well, look at the section on the wild branches being grafted in. What could that possibly mean as an analogy to our spiritual lives?” Which is a good point.

So we were chatting about it for awhile. Dad had mentioned the Gentiles in connection with the wild branches, and we were trying to figure that out when Nephi showed up. He asked us what we were talking about, and we told him.

Nephi: Have you asked God your questions?

Me: Uhhh, not really. If God was here, I’d ask Him. But since he's not here to talk with, we’re doing our best to figure it out.

Nephi: Why don’t you do what God commands? Why would you die because of the hardness of your hearts??

Me: Wooahh, Nephi? We’re trying to understand these things—

Nephi: Don’t you remember what the Lord said? If you don’t harden you hearts, and ask in faith believing that you will receive, while diligently obeying God’s commands, He’s going to answer you.

So timeout from the script for a second for me to just add a quick note. Nephi and Dad hit on this “ask God to receive information” theme quite a bit. But I’m not sure what to do with it. I pray regularly, and I ask questions, and sometimes I feel the Spirit, but answering questions about stuff like the wild branches of the tree and the Gentiles would require God to communicate with me in ways capable of conveying more complex information—full sentences, paragraphs, concepts, etc. I’ve never experienced anything close to that, even when I ask. So what am I supposed to do? Anyway...

Nephi went on to explain his view on things. Basically that the olive tree was the house of Israel. Our family is a broken off branch of that tree. The wild branches are the Gentiles, and in the future, the Gentiles will get the fulness of the gospel and bring it to our descendants who will have lost the gospel by that point. Then our descendants will be grafted back into the original tree, or in other words rejoin the house of Israel. And these things apply not just to our “branch” but all of the house of Israel.

We then asked him about his take on a few of the symbols in Dad’s dream. He basically said the tree was the tree of life, the rod was the word of God, the river was hell, and it separated the wicked from the righteous. And then something about judgment.

Me: Interesting theory...

Laman: Yeah, it seems consistent, but I’m not sure if it’s actually correct.

Nephi: Well, you ought to ask God then, and He’ll tell you.

Me: You keep saying that, but I don’t know if you understand how hard it is for us to do what you’re saying. We’re trying our best here to understand this stuff, but you keep railing on us because we aren’t full-on prophets who receive paragraphs of quotes directly from God. You gotta be a bit more understanding of people, otherwise you’ll be the only one of us who doesn’t end up marrying one of Ishmael’s daughters. Most women (and people in general) would prefer to live and die alone as opposed to living with someone who is always bearing down so hard on them for not becoming their own personal Moses.

Nephi: The things I’m saying are only hard on the wicked—

Laman: —See! There it is again!

Nephi: Righteous people love the message I share because it brings salvation. It testifies that they’ll be lifted up at the last day. The wicked on the other hand always take the truth in a negative light. It cuts them deep. And if you guys were righteous, you wouldn’t be complaining about what I’m saying.

Laman [sarcastically]: Righteous like you??!

Nephi: Laman! It’s not about me! This is about you and the Lord! The Lord has offered you guys salvation! He wants to have a real relationship with you. He wants to talk with you, not just hear you offer up vain prayers to Him. He wants to answer you, teach you, show you, lead you. And I promise you that he will. I’m not a perfect person. I have so many failings I don’t know where to begin. But God is merciful enough to reach down to me and lift me up, and He’ll do the same for you guys. You need to get over me. I’m not important. God is. Please do what He asks. Turn to Him. Come to Him.

Me: You gotta decent point here. I guess sometimes we let you push our buttons, because to be honest, you often come off as a bit…—

Laman: —Self-righteous.

Me: I was trying to think of a nicer way to put that, but yeah, self-righteous.

Nephi: Look, guys, I know I have a tendency to get excited about this stuff, and speak very directly. It’s because this stuff is actually exciting, and the implications are very direct. I wish I could tell you everything I know, but know this: the Lord is leading our family, and if we obey Him, He will bless us.

Laman: Fair enough. I’ll try to do a better job of praying about things when I have questions.

Me: Same here.

Sam: I’ve been doing that all along, but you guys don’t listen to me.

Me [winkingly]: Shut up, Sam!

Sam: You guys are funny. I don’t know what’s going on with Nephi, but as I pray about these things, God has answered my prayers too. Not in ways that allow me to spell out all the symbolism in Dad’s dreams and the scriptures like Nephi can, but in ways that are important for the questions I’m asking.

Sam’s a good guy. He’s been hanging out with Orpah a lot lately. I’m thinking those two will make a pretty good couple. Anyway, back to the discussion. Like I said, I really need to stop letting Nephi push my buttons. I think he has a good heart, he’s just not the most compassionate in the way he talks. I’m gonna try to do better.