1 Nephi, ch 13

Today TB and I read Nephi 13 and again I had one of those light bulb moments while reading it to him. I picked up on the details that I missed every other time I've ever read it. I've only read the Book of Mormon all the way through once. Last year I got pretty close, when we were told to try to read it before the end of the year. But I've read the first few books over again, many times and I'd never realized that Nephi's vision was about the coming of the Catholic church, and about the loss of many of the simple truths that were once in the Bible, and about the coming of the Book of Mormon and how it would restore those truths as well as serve to prove the Bible as true.

Many people think that we don't use the Bible and only pay attention to the Book of Mormon. They think that we dismiss the Bible or that we don't even use it. But I really liked that this chapter points out how the purpose of the Book of Mormon was to bring back the things that were lost from the Bible, and to prove the Bible as true.

Now many of us know that early European Kings took things our of the Bible to allow them to do what ever they wanted, like divorce their wives and marry another woman for no valid reason other than their lust. They threw out anything that didn't suite their purposes. I really liked how this chapter discusses that. I love when scriptures can be supported by history. And I also liked that this chapter talked about how important the Bible was to the Gentiles and how it's distortion caused so many to stumble, but how the "other book" would come forth and restore all that was lost.

But something else that stood out was that the Lord went first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles, but when he comes back he'll come to the Gentiles first and then to the Jews. I've heard before about the last being first and the first being last, but I never knew what that meant. It said that he'd come to the Gentiles first and but that He's go to the Jews after.

This is a really long and detailed chapter, and it broke things down in a simple way that I'd never understood before. I'm starting to see why we are advised to read together as a family. I feel better about my child's choices, and I've had the ability to understand in a way that I never did before, because I have to explain what we've just read to my child. It's really exciting and I can't wait to read the next chapter just to see what I can uncover next.