Come Follow Me 2020, LDS Sunday School Lesson provided by The Practical Dreamers

For those wishing to better understand these chapters, I strongly recommend Elder David A. Bednar’s October 2011 Conference talk, “Lehi’s Dream: Holding Fast to the Rod.” I draw on ​ ​ concepts from his talk several times in the lesson below.

Part One: Invite Sharing

The is perhaps one of the most familiar stories in the entire . And I think we can sometimes have very clear ideas about what the different symbols mean, and what lessons we are supposed to get from these chapters. As such, lessons like this can seem like an exercise in repetition – valuable to reiterate what we know but nothing too surprising. I hope today we can move beyond that a bit, and find something perhaps a bit new and thought-provoking in this wonderful vision. With that in mind…

Question: What stood out to you while reading the tree of life vision this week? ​ Question: What challenged you to do better? ​ Question: What from these chapters needed clarification? ​ Part Two: Teach the Doctrine

2.1: First of all, it’s visions not vision ​ ​ ​ So we sometimes call this section of the Book of Mormon the “tree of life vision” but actually as we all know it’s two different visions. Lehi has a vision in chapter 8 which he shares with his ​ ​ family, prompting Nephi to pray about it (in 1 Nephi 10), and then Nephi receives a vision/revelation reiterating but also clarifying and expanding on what his father saw (1 Nephi 11-14). We will come back to this, and a subtle but important difference between the two, later in the lesson if we have time. For now, we’ll use the singular vision even though we know we’re ​ ​ talking about visions, since there are really best thought about in tandem. ​ ​ ​ 2.2: The Path and the Building

We’re familiar with the tree (the love of God/Jesus Christ), the fruit (the gospel/blessings of the gospel), the rod of iron (the word of God), the mists of darkness (temptations, 1 Nephi 12:17) and the great and spacious building (‘the world’). I want to delve a bit more into the great and ​ spacious building. ​ Sometimes we think of Lehi’s dream as being primarily about how Church members (people on the path) have to be wary of the mocking of “the world”/great and spacious building so they don’t fall away from the gospel. We don’t think of ourselves as in the great and spacious building – it’s those baddies out “in the world”, it’s not me. ​ Question: Where did the people in the great and spacious building, who are mocking the people at the tree, come from in the first place?

To answer that, let’s note that we start the dream with “numberless concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree” (1 Nephi 8:21).

Question: What does this imply about most human beings?

It’s actually a really optimistic commentary on humanity. It says that huge groups of people – maybe even most people – are, at least to start out, trying to find God. They want to find the ​ ​ ​ ​ Path. We’re not delinquents that only search for God when He forces us to – we’re naturally drawn to the Light. So what happens?

These “numberless” people soon divide into four groups:

Group 1: 1 Nephi 8:21-23 – Starts on the path, the mists arise, they fall away. ​ Group 2: 1 Nephi 8:24-28 – Goes along path with the rod of iron, partakes of the fruit, but falls ​ away when they are mocked by the people in the great and spacious building.

Group 3: 1 Nephi 8:30 – Press forward, holds fast to the rod, partakes, does not fall away. ​ Group 4: 1 Nephi 8:31-33. Fourth group. Let’s read about this one. ​ Can someone please read 8:31-33?

Question: What do you notice about the desires of the fourth group?

Right. They either stop (or never started) wanting to find God as their highest goal. Maybe they don’t even realize it. But they set their hearts on that building – which Nephi tells us was the “pride of the world” (1 Nephi 11:36). They are “feeling their way towards the great and spacious building.” And clearly some of them – and it looks like some of Group 1 and Group 2 – eventually get to that goal. “And great was the multitude that did enter that strange building.”

So, in other words, where did the people in the building come from? They’re us! Or rather, ​ ​ they’re human beings who started out either trying to find the path, or at least in the same starting place as those trying to find the path – and then they ended up in this building, mocking people who are finding Christ. So we tend to think of this vision through the lens of a Christ’s Church/the world dichotomy, but we might better think of this as a story about the diverse way that human beings – including you and me – can end up – and that one of the options is we get so far off base we end up actively working against Christ. Our actions can take us places we didn’t expect.

With that in mind…

Question: Why might people in Group 4 have TRIED to find the great and spacious building? When there was clearly a beautiful tree everyone could see?

Although we are definitely not all born into situations where the gospel is available, we are all ​ ​ born as human beings with the light of Christ that drives most of us (according to this vision) to seek God, to seek light, to seek goodness. So what’s up with these people – apparently lots - who seem to go against their own inner light and seek that big building.

Let’s read 1 Nephi 8:26-27. Why might the building have been appealing?

The building was high in the air. We often think of this as meaning the building is foundationless – and it is – but it also means there’s a hierarchy here. The building has this prestige, this status in the world. In fact, Nephi tells us it’s the “pride of the world” in 1 Nephi 11.

They are also wealthy. They have a “manner of dress [that] was exceedingly fine.”

Question: Why do we seek after wealth and status? What is that about us?

I think Nephi is right to call this building of status and wealth “pride” and I think it’s worth noting that President Benson taught us that pride is really enmity with other human beings, and at the risk of sounding like Jedi master Yoda (not adorable Baby Yoda, but his geriatric possible relative) that this enmity, this contention or division with other humans, is very often rooted in our fear. We want to be safe, we want to be secure, and we seek that with status and wealth and social networks. We think if we can accumulate enough stuff, status, and social networks we’ll be safe, when really what we need is the Savior.

Question: Why might seeking wealth and status as ends to themselves land us in the great and spacious building?

So having wealth is not on its own evil – and in fact we can definitely turn around and use that to help others, so it can be helpful. Also, most of those reading this lesson plan by virtue of where they live and having a computer are “wealthy” compared to large portions of the human population. So this is not some anti-money diatribe. In fact, it would appear that Lehi was quite wealthy. However, the scriptures across the standard works do make it very clear that seeking wealth, and particularly seeking wealth as an end to itself, will very quickly take you down spiritual paths you don’t want to go (not to mention the effects it will have on human beings, which the scriptures also condemn).

Question: How do we know wealthy Lehi did not have wealth as his end goal?

He gave it all up when God asked him to, fleeing Jerusalem.

By the way, it’s notable that the dream does not just say the people in the great building have wealth, but that they had these outward signs of wealth in their fancy clothing. The Book of Mormon will bring up this idea again and again – with fine clothing being basically a synonym for wealth inequality and pride. That’s probably partly because, in this case, it’s a dream so we need something visual to tell us fast that they’re rich. But I think it’s also significant that in the Book of Mormon clothing is so often the sign of wealthiness because it implies people using their wealth intentionally to show off to others, and that very quickly leads to “I’m better than you.” And this is very often Christian Nephites doing this to other Christian Nephites, as we will see later.

Question: Are we immune to this in the Church? Do we ever have status hierarchies in our branches, wards, stakes?

Question: Why do we try to show off?

Question: Do we do this showing off thing and seeking after the world thing even if we’re not seeking for or attaining wealth?

Definitely. Other things can serve as fine substitutes for fine clothing if we’re not wealth-inclined. Status, notable ancestry, education/degrees, jobs, “righteous” children, accomplishments in or out of the church, nationality, racial superiority. We’re more than willing to find reasons to put ourselves above other human beings, which I think it the most central characteristic of the great and spacious building.

Now let’s go back to Group 2 – the people who weren’t seeking the building, but ended up there ​ ​ anyways.

Let’s read 1 Nephi 8:25-28 again.

Group 2 seems to have joined the building because they were mocked.

Question: Why would you, after being mocked by a group of people, want to join them? This is an age-old story of peer pressure, of acculturation. Even though it’s an old story, we fall for it.

We are told the people in the building were, again, high in status. We are also told they mocked.

Question: Does this sound like the world? Does this sometimes sound like us?

If we stop thinking of this dream as church vs. world and instead think of it as those coming closer to Christ or closer to worldly honors, then we can see that we, all of us, sometimes mock those at the tree. We put down people that are making sincere efforts to better themselves, to better their family. I’ve done it. You may have done it. Let’s not do it.

Question: How do we avoid mocking others?

Question: How can we become immune to being affected by the mocking of others?

2.3: The Tree and the Fruit

(You might skip this section if you feel your ward or branch would not benefit from it, since this is a fairly familiar symbolism).

Let’s start by talking about the tree and the fruit. In this vision, Lehi sees a tree with amazing fruit, he eats it, and then he invites his family to eat it. We’re very familiar with this, but let’s just take a second to review it.

Can someone please read 1 Nephi 8:10-11? What stands out to you about the fruit?

Write on board:

-Desirable because it makes you happy (v. 10)

-Incredibly sweet (v. 11)

-Gives you “great joy” (v. 12)

Okay, we’re going to come back to that.

So, in 1 Nephi 11 we learn about this tree and the fruit.

Can someone please read 1 Nephi 11:21-22?

So we often say the fruit is the love of God, but that’s not quite right, or at least, we need to ​ ​ complicate that a bit. It’s actually the tree itself. But that’s what Nephi learns by the end of ​ ​ chapter 11. Before he ever straight up learns that the Tree of Life = Love of God, Nephi asks the Spirit what the tree is and is shown a vision of Jesus Christ coming to earth through Mary (1 Nephi 11:13-20). It’s then that Nephi realizes this tree everyone is trying to get to in the ​ ​ ​ vision is God’s love.

Which raises some questions.

Question: So, is the tree God’s love or is the tree Jesus coming to earth?

Yes.

The answer (of course) is both. It’s John 3:16-17 – Christ coming to earth is the ultimate expression of God the Father’s love for us.

Question: Why? Of the many ways God shows His love for us – from creating the world to sustaining our lives to providing us with food to giving us families – why is Jesus Christ coming to earth this ultimate expression of His love for us?

In the Atonement, God the Father shows that whatever mistakes we have made, He wants us back. He loves us as completely and beautifully as He did in the premortal life, before we came down here and made a mess of things (see Jeremiah 1:5). He loves us still the same, He wants us back, He sent Christ.

In the rest of chapter 11, Nephi sees the ministry of Jesus Christ, including His healing and His calling of the twelve apostles, and His atonement.

Question: We know that the Atonement is a/the supernal expression of God’s love. But how are Christ’s healings and teachings in the gospels also an expression of that love?

Christ’s mortal ministry was brief and confined to a specific area. He did not heal every sick being on earth even during that specific time period. So why heal at all? I believe one reason is that Christ shows us the love of Heavenly Father – what Heavenly Father would do on earth if He were a human - which we are to carry forward to others in our own human lives. Jesus is that bridge for us to understand how God’s love is lived out among humans. We are to go around helping those we have access to, those we are surrounded by, those who approach us needing help.

Question: Okay, but if the tree of life is God’s love, what’s the fruit?

Does this mean simply consuming the love of God?

Here are the thoughts of Elder Bednar on the topic: “The fruit on the tree is a symbol for the blessings of the Atonement. Partaking of the fruit of the tree represents the receiving of ordinances and covenants whereby the Atonement can become fully efficacious in our lives.”

So the tree is Christ/God’s love, and the fruit is the Atonement, and eating the fruit is “receiving the ordinances and covenants.” Sounds like the gospel (in the truest sense of that word – salvation/exaltation through faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Spirit, and enduring to the end).

So back to our list earlier:

-Desirable because it makes you happy (v. 10)

-Incredibly sweet (v. 11)

-Gives you “great joy” (v. 12)

Question: How does the Atonement make us happy? Why does it give us great joy? Why is it incredibly sweet?

We might say that the Atonement allows humanity to become what humanity always was meant to be – godly.

Random Question: Is eating fruit hard work?

It’s a silly question. Generally speaking: no, eating fruit is not hard work. Maybe pomegranates.. But this is an interesting metaphor because so often the metaphors we use to describe our covenant path are about hard work (Paul’s “run the race” for example) but here we fall down and eat fruit.

Question: Why might receiving the gospel have been compared to eating fruit and not something, um, more difficult to do?

Here’s my thoughts: I like that it’s receiving the ordinances and covenants. This is not us ​ ​ heroically working super hard to make.salvation.happen. It’s using our agency to receive ​ something that the tree (Christ) made possible. ​ ​ This doesn’t mean there’s not hard work in this vision. Hard work is all over the place – but it’s interesting where/when that hard work takes place. It’s hard work, apparently, to walk the path (and hold fast to the iron rod). It’s also hard work, apparently, to not fall away when you’re mocked, as so many people do in this vision. But the receiving of the gospel itself is an act of beautiful receiving, like eating a delicious fruit. ​ ​ I also like how Elder Bednar says that eating the fruit is the ways we receive the ordinances and covenants so the Atonement becomes “fully efficacious” because the Atonement of Christ ​ ​ blesses all of humanity – for example, all of humanity will be resurrected - but following the gospel can bring about the full blessing of the Atonement. ​ ​ Now, an interesting thing here. The tree is the “love of God”.

Question: does that mean only those who get to the end of the path and fall down and eat fruit have God’s love?

Obviously not! God loves the entire world (John 3:16-17). He loves us perfectly as the Father of ​ ​ ​ ​ all.

But, one of the greatest manifestations of His love – Jesus coming to earth, and the blessings of the atonement that come about as a result – are something we need to choose to receive. God is not going to throw fruit at you.

2.4: “The Iron Rod is the Wooooorrrrrddddd of God!” *Collapses from over-singing* But What Does That Mean? ​ ​ Now I want to get into another symbol we feel is very familiar, but dissect it a bit.

We all know what the rod of iron Lehi saw is right? Nephi tells us in 1 Nephi 15:24 that it’s the “word of God.”

Now I want to ask a question. We always then immediately say “so the iron rod is the scriptures”? No, we’re told it’s the word of God.

Question: Are there forms of the “word of God” which aren’t scripture, and which we might need to also cling fast or hold fast to in this life?

I think this is first and foremost about scriptures, and that’s how it’s generally been interpreted, including by apostles, so I do not want to detract from that at all. I do want to suggest two possible additional meanings, since visions often have layered meanings, that actually fit really well with the scriptures. ​ ​ #1: The inspired words of prophets.

Notice I do not say “all words of prophets” since as taught us, prophets are not always speaking as prophets. But sometimes they speak as inspired by God and for us as ​ ​ Latter-day Saints, those words become incredibly valuable in helping us press forward to Christ. D&C 1:38 teaches us this exact idea, that prophets can and do at times speak God’s word to us. In fact, the D&C itself is a good example of the fact that much of the scriptures were, originally, uncanonized prophetic revelations. So listening to the prophets and trying to hear God’s voice through them might be considered part of the iron rod.

#2: The Holy Spirit.

God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit, and although we need to be careful to not put that above other forms of God’s word such as the standard works, He certainly works in tandem with ​ them. For example, we have a great deal of personal insight and revelation which we may need ​ ​ to additionally “hold fast to” if we expect to get to and stay at the tree of life, because we may experience unique trials in our lives which do not have a crystal clear answer in the scriptures, so we need to pray about them. Or we need to pray to stay true to scriptural principles in very complex, challenging circumstances.

2.5: Filthy Water and Continuing Revelation

It’s notable that Nephi’s vision does not just clarify the meaning of what Lehi had already seen, but also fills in some additional details. For example, Lehi had seen “a river of water” (1 Nephi 8:13-17) which runs along the iron rod and which some people drown in. But then when Nephi has his vision he learns that the water is “filthiness; and so much was his [Lehi’s] mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water. And I said unto them that it was an awful gulf, which separated the wicked from the tree of life” (1 Nephi 15:27-28).

So Nephi noticed something about the tree of life vision that Lehi did not just not know, but actually missed because he was so focused on other things. ​ ​ Question: Bearing in mind that Lehi was a prophet, and Nephi is his essentially prophetic successor, what might this teach us?

We speak of continual revelation. One of the implications of this is that there are elements of the doctrine which we understand better than those who came before us. And this is nothing new. The entire Old Testament is a history of prophets gradually revealing/learning more details about the Messiah, and then, when Christ came in the New Testament, He was still very different than many people expected!

In D&C 138, Joseph F. Smith receives a revelation about Christ’s ministry to the spirits in prison (which we first learn about from the apostle Peter in 1 Peter, so ~2,000 years earlier) which greatly clarifies how this actually took place. And it is unclear, given how they describe the afterlife, whether the Nephites had any clear understanding of what we would now call the three degrees of glory, although they clearly understood the distinction between pre-resurrection afterlife (spirit prison/paradise) and post-resurrection afterlife, at least as early as Alma the Younger (see Alma 39-42). So in the gospel we are often coming to understand that we only understood things partially previously, or that there were some additional details to fill in.

Question: If this is the case, what kind of an attitude should we adopt towards revelations we have received, whether personal or through the prophets and scriptures?

3: Bear Testimony, Conclude

It’s also worth pointing out that another perspective on this dream is to say that although we often speak of ourselves as holding to the rod and progressing along the path, in a very real way as members of Christ’s Church, if you have been receiving the ordinances in sincerity and living in the covenant, you are already at the tree. The trick now is to stay there, to not kick yourself out ​ ​ ​ ​ of the covenant. There are lessons for us in each part of this dream. I hope you can keep dwelling on this and consider – how am I like the people on the path? What are my mists of darkness? How am I like the people at the tree? How do I ignore the mockers? How am I like the people in the building? How did I get there, and how do I leave the building?

Christ wants us to experience the tree, to experience fully His atonement and love and grace. I testify of this.