Biblical
Prophecies Point the Way
In
respect to the history of Joseph and his posterity the prophets spoke in
riddles and veiled language. This was necessary, for they were contemporaries
with Lehi, and if the meanings of their prophecies were too pointed their lives
would have been in great danger and the purposes of God thwarted. For the sake
of posterity, however, it was necessary for these prophecies to be recorded. The
biblical account of Joseph is one of the most important historical accounts in
the entire Bible. When the patriarch Jacob was nearing the end of his life he
called his twelve sons about him, as was the custom, and conferred upon them a final
patriarchal blessing. This was more than a few feeble words from the lips of a
dying father. In the case of his son Joseph, it took on the nature of
far-reaching prophecy with emphasis on the “last days.” “And Jacob called unto
his sons, and said, gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which
shall befall you in the last days. . . .”
After
blessing all his sons, Jacob turned to Joseph and said, “Joseph is a fruitful
bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall” (Genesis 49:1, 22). If
Joseph was a “fruitful bough,” his “branches” would no doubt refer to his
posterity, and Lehi definitely fulfilled this—especially since he and his
family crossed the sea. That the “wall” stood for the sea is confirmed by
Isaiah:
For
the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine if Sibmah: the lords of the
heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto
Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness; her branches are stretched out,
they are gone over the sea.—Isaiah 16:8.
In
this same reference about Joseph’s clan, we find a strange combination of
names. Herein is an important key to the direction Lehi’s colony may have
traveled. The reference to Moab includes the entire east shore of the Dead
Sea. The place names of Jazer, Elealeh, Heshbon, and Kirhareseth
are important centers where the travelers may have stopped, if only to water
their camels on the way to the Red Sea.
The
prophet Jeremiah speaks of such a colony of people who were told to flee out of
Jerusalem about 600 B.C.: “Flee, get
you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor. . . . Arise, get you up
unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care” (Jeremiah 49:30, 31).
The name “Hazor” identifies still another city where evidently
some of Joseph’s posterity must have lived. These were to flee to a wealthy
nation, far from Jerusalem. . . . Hazor is a village within the environs of Jerusalem.
Like the Jaredites, the Nephites also were being divinely
led to the Promised Land:
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest
Joseph like a flock. . . . Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt . . . and
planted it. Thou preparest room before it and didst cause it to take deep root,
and it filled the land. . . . Rather, we beseech thee, O God of hosts; look
down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine.—Psalm 80:1, 8, 9, 14.
Here we find Joseph’s posterity referred to as the extension
of a “vine” whose roots were in Egypt. They were to be led by the Good Shepherd
and planted in a new land to take deep root and multiply. Lehi’s arrival in
Ancient America fulfilled this. The Psalmist also indicated that the Lord would
appear to these people after they had become entrenched in their new location.
This, too, is confirmed in the Book of Mormon which describes Christ’s visit to
the Nephites after they arrived in the Promised Land (III Nephi 5). The “vine,”
therefore, is an important element in this prophecy.
Identifying the Vine
The book of Jeremiah contains a reference to the vine
of Sibmah: “O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer:
thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer”
(Jeremiah 48:32).
This prophecy, uttered about 600 B.C., deals with the
destruction of Jerusalem. To identify this vine of Sibmah we turn to the history
of the cities named in this verse as given in the Westminster Dictionary of
the Bible. Under the heading of Jazer, we find that it was a city situated
in the south part of Gilead, a territory east of the river Jordan. Manasseh’s
son, Machir, dwelt in this place. At this point, we must bear in mind that Lehi
was a descendant of Manasseh, according to the Book of Mormon. Moses gave the half
tribes of Manasseh all of Gilead for an inheritance which included the city of
Jazer. After dispossessing the Amorites of Sibmah, Manasseh took possession of
that city also, establishing a viable link between the vine of Sibmah and the
posterity of Joseph.
Lehi, as one of Joseph’s posterity, could be called a
vine or branch with ancestral roots in Egypt, for he travelled in or near the
cities mentioned in the ancient prophecies, finally reaching the Promised Land
across the sea. Lehi and his colony certainly qualify as the remnant mentioned
in Isaiah: “For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant; and they that escape
out of mount Zion” (Isaiah 37:32).
The Red Sea
The prophet Jeremiah had known of the departure of
this remnant from Jerusalem and had recorded it in his voluminous writings. His
language in biblical translation lost some important details, but in general he
described the “fall” of Jerusalem and pointed toward the Red Sea as the
direction of the fleeing remnant was to go.
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out.
Surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. The earth is moved
at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red Sea.—Jeremiah
49:20, 21.
Lehi’s migration out of Jerusalem by way of the Red Sea
about the time of the fall of that great city fulfils this Bible prophecy: “And
he [Lehi] came down by the borders near the shore of the Red Sea” (1 Nephi 1:30
[LDS: 1 Nephi 2:5])
(F. Edward Butterworth, Pilgrims
of the Pacific [Independence, Miss.: Herald House, 1974], 123-24, 126-27,
comment in square brackets added for clarification)
