Situational 'Iron'y

In the eighth chapter of 1 Nephi, we read of a dream that Nephi’s father Lehi had while they are living in the wilderness just outside of Jerusalem on their way to what the Lord described as a “promised land.” The dream Lehi recounts for his family is really quite an interesting one—the kind of dream that could leave just about anyone scratching his head. Lehi dreams of being lost in a “dark and dreary waste” (v. 7) before being led to a tree which produced the sweetest fruit he had ever partaken of. His dream also consisted of many other aspects including a large building full of prideful people, a river, a path leading to the tree, a rod of iron that seemed to serve the purpose of a handrail along the path, and many other things. If I had to guess just based off of when my family members have told me some of their dreams, Lehi’s family certainly must have been bewildered.

With that said, I have woken up from dreams before and found myself curious to determine if they may have meant something more, and in a similar manner, Nephi seemed to be interested in gleaning what his father’s dream meant. In a later vision, Nephi learns the interpretation of many of the items in his father’s dream. Some interpretations included learning that the tree and its fruit represented the Savior and the grace He offers all, the river represented the bitterness of hell, the rod represented the “word of God” or His word, and the path represented a life that leads to Christ.

I have studied this dream many times and always found it insightful. However, this time I found it incredibly interesting. As I attended my religion class, a student brought out an oddity I had missed in my previous readings—that being the “rod of iron… extended along the bank of the river” (2 Nephi 8:19). We then discussed how counter intuitive it would seem for the Lord to have His path and word so close to a river representing hell. My mind raced for reasons this could be, but the only satisfactory answers I seemed to generate were along the lines of the Lord can strengthen us even in a world where we are always close to evil. It was just when I had settled on this explanation, though, that I gleaned a humbling new insight.

I think the struggle I have had in obtaining a new insight into this aspect of the dream has been that I have always tried to generate insights from the perspective of someone trying to not fall into the river while holding to the rod. However, the thought was shared (and it has resonated with me since) that perhaps the path and rod do not extend along the river for the sake of those who are already holding onto it—perhaps it is there for the sakes of those floating down the river.

As I thought upon this, I couldn’t help but recognize how silly I had been to not think of this as certainly, all of us, especially me, have fallen into that river representative of hell or a separation from God that comes from sinning at one point or another and during our struggle to get out, we have all surely hoped to grab a hold of something solid. With this perspective, it only makes sense that “the Word” would be close by this river. Christ is always close by willing to help us back on the path. He stands there, just in reach for all who are desperately trying to find something solid in their lives.

I think there is power in realizing that no matter where we seem to be metaphorically located in Lehi’s dream that always in reach is His Word that can lead us ultimately to His grace which certainly is the sweetest of all the gifts of this life.