Nephi's Sandbox: Modern Times of Change and Transition

2 Nephi 9-18 on a General Level:

Character: In 2 Nephi 9:25-38 we have an account of a man in a position of power laying out some fairly strict moral penalties according to the beliefs held by the general body gathered together.


Audience: In 2 Nephi 9-10 Jacob addresses the remaining members of a familial community after a dissension in which two brothers of their chief leader (Nephi) have split-off from the group and in effect caused those loyal to Nephi to flee for their lives into the wilderness.  The remaining group presumably holds great respect for Jacob as great teacher in the community.


Setting:  At this moment, the extended family of Nephi has arrived in the promised land and presumably settled into societal living but they are still very recent newcomers to the new world.  While in this environment King Nephi, who remembers the old world and grew up there chooses to cite scripture from the words of Isaiah referring to the old Jerusalem and how it will be renewed again as a great sanctuary for followers of God (2 Nephi 12-14)

Likened to "Homeless but Hopeful" by Ally

1.  Although Ally's move wasn't quite the same as Nephi and his family's migration to the promised land, she did find herself in a similarly unfamiliar setting and her discomfort probably coincides with the feelings of Nephi and Jacob in their transition.  She also likely hid at least some of her struggle and discomfort in adjusting to the change from her parents, just as Jacob and Nephi often did from those around them to avoid discouraging them or appearing ungrateful.  As Jacob admitted later, he often felt that he and his people were "a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem."  Despite this they still found the positives in the experience, as Ally did in the beaches of Florida even when she hated almost everything else.

2. Ally speaks with her certain reverence for her father's voice just as the Nephite audience might have when Jacob or Nephi were speaking.  These two prominent men acted as father figures in a sense for the new community.

3.  Although the words of Isaiah were not a physical experience like building sand castles, it seems like Nephi was connected to his homeland as he read them and remembered the learning of the Jews that he was brought up in.  Ally was searched for things that helped keep her connection with home real and alive and when she found it she was maybe even more attached to the sand than she had been before leaving her home in Colorado.