Living With Vision: Lehi's Dream

We talked about vision this week, living with it and living without it. Lehi's vision sets the tone for the entire narrative. It is first and foremost a family affair, with the members of Lehi's own family playing all of the principal roles. His reaction to it is personal. It is Nephi who, through his interaction with the Spirit of the Lord, sees that the meaning of the vision is cosmic in scope; it involves the whole plan of salvation, hinging on the birth and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When he asks the meaning of the things his father saw, his Spirit guide says simply, "Look." And so he might say to us.

Nephi makes what is, in my opinion, the most breathtaking leap of understanding recorded in the scriptures, when he looks upon a young girl, holding a child in her arms in Nazareth, near his old home town. When the angel first asks him if he understands the "condescension of God," and then tells him that this young woman is "the mother of the Son of God in the flesh," Nephi suddenly understands the meaning of everything. It is the love of God.

We won't ever be alone, and this life is not a random set of experiences with no purpose. God himself was willing to be born in a barn, live as a homeless person and eventually suffer every pain and temptation in order to redeem us. That is what the Book of Mormon and every work of scripture is all about. Feeling the joy of this deliverance is partaking of the sweet, delicious fruit. Offering it to our children and loved ones is the purpose of our existence. Christ is the tree of life.

Symbols and Semitic Connections

Here are the main symbols of Lehi's dream along with the interpretations of the symbols as given to Nephi:

Dark and Dreary Wasteland: 1 Ne 8:7                   (What do you think?)          

Large and Spacious Field: 1 Ne 8:9,20                   World: 1 Ne 8:20                 

Tree of Life: 1 Ne 8:10; 11:25; 15:21-22               Love of God: 1 Ne 11:21-22

Fruit of the Tree: 1 Ne 8:11-12                               (What do you think?)

Fountain/River of Filthy Water: 1 Ne 8:13; 12-16   Hell/depths: 1 Ne 12:16, 15:26-36

Rod of Iron: 1 Ne 8:19                                            Word of God: 1 Ne 11:25; 15:23-25

Mist of Darkness: 1 Ne 8:23                                    Temptations: 1 Ne 12:17

Great and Spacious Building: 1 Ne 8:26                 Pride, worldly wisdom and

                                                                                   vanity: 1 Ne 11:35-36; 12:18

Each of these symbols has connections in the literature that Lehi and Nephi would have been familiar with at the time. (And that Joseph Smith would have known nothing about, by the way.) Ancient legends included a tree of life that offered both water and fruit, mists of darkness and a spirit guide to take the hero through the dark and threatening wasteland.  

—  Dreamed a Dream” ~ Hebrew “cognate accusative” dreamed a dream, built a building, sacrificed a sacrifice – uncommon in modern languages but would have been common in Lehi's time

—  Dark and Dreary Wasteland ~ Narrative of Zozimus (600 BCE) has him going through a wilderness praying and receiving a spirit guide

—  Mary as the Mother of God ~ In Ancient Israelite tradition in the Northern Kingdom, the “Sacred Tree” symbolizes Asherah, wife of God and symbol of divine wisdom

—  White Tree/White Fruit ~ 7 th BCE texts describe sacred tree, white fruit

—  Filthy Water = Muddy Wadi. Awful Gulf: “In the Orphic gold plates… the avoidance of the spring on left = the avoidance of suffering, or hell.”

       Combo Living Fountain/Tree of Life: Babylonian creation myth has tree of life “bathed in watery             white vapors,” both a source of food and water

Here is an interesting article about these connections: Lehi's Dream and Ancient Symbols 

Ne 8:9,20  World: 1 Ne 8:20