Lesson 44 - The Departure into the Wilderness

We learned in our last lesson that the Jews at Jerusalem sought to take the life of Lehi, because he bore a message from God which foretold evil to them, unless they repented. It would seem that the wicked who have no desire to repent, almost always act as though the prophet who brings a divine message of chastisement, is responsible, and not they themselves, for the woes pronounced against them. They have, as a rule, sought to slay the servants of God who prophesied of sorrow and trouble, as though the servant and not the Lord was the one who ordained and executed the punishment. So it was with Lehi, but the Lord preserved him from the hands of the wicked; and blessed him, because he had declared the things which He commanded. And the Lord warned Lehi in a dream to leave Jerusalem, and journey in the wilderness, and go where He should direct him. All this Lehi did. He left his home in Jerusalem, with all the riches it contained, and taking his family with him he went into the wilderness. He took nothing with him except such things as were necessary, as provisions and tents, for the comfort of himself and family, which consisted of his wife, Sariah, and his sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi. Which way they traveled we are not informed, but in a few days they reached the borders of the Red Sea, most probably that portion known to us as the gulf of Akabah. They may have journeyed from Jerusalem to the south end of the Dead Sea, thence southerly by the wady (valley) of Arabah, or they may have taken a somewhat more westerly route.