Errors of man

I am a bit ashamed to admit that a new thing occurred to me. I had actually wondered a great deal about why the BoM prophets were always apologizing for their work. But, this morning The nuerons or whatever fired in a way that a new connection was made.

I was thinking about how like us Lehi was in that he lived a normal life (not overly anything or a trouble maker in fact he respected his religious leaders a great deal, and so he apologized for his record's roughness and plainess - the Jews were not particularly plain, they worked hard to obscure thus uncover truth) all his days were spent in Jerusalem, where he obviously intended to stay and aquired wealth.

But, then as he prayed, God spoke to him directly and his life changed drastically and suddenly. He went and told his friends and neighbors that they needed to repent, to the point where they were offended enough to take his life. Still, he, for some reason, did what he was told.

Now, imagine if you or your husband, out of the blue, decided to leave everything and risk death telling everyone the error of their ways because he had a dream.

Ok, as I was thinking about how lives are unexpectedly changed all of the time, it seems to be quite prevelant in scripture stories to the point where I might even say it is a "type" where men are asked to give up their amassed comforts to follow God (the first commandment). Anyway, as I was thinking on that I realized why he spoke in so much apology for his words. Ah hah! Think of his audience.

Growing up, the understanding and intimidation factor was much lower in those who I met with or addressed, but out here, I see it often, how carefully and with greater preparation a group is addressed. I suspect that he was apologizing for the quality of his unedited and unpolished words in contrast to those of the Jews in Jerusalem. His religious world was very different than the one we live in, plus, the fact the it was all translated by inspiration anyway, which was likely not supposed when the words were chiseled rough hewn.

I am reminded also of another artist who noted that we tend to record that which appeals to us, and the regular diet is shown through the words of Isaiah, and Nephi said as much when he said that he wrote the things that seemed to be of most value to him and often he quoted Isaiah saying it was likened unto them and used for THEIR profit and learning.