Gene R. Cook
"Laman and Lemuel were quitters. After just one setback they were ready to give up. They probably continued murmuring and criticized Nephi much as they had criticized their father.
"Now, think carefully about what happened to Nephi and his brothers, because it relates to you. They had a serious setback. They had tried, with their faith, the best they knew how. Would they ever have gone to the house of Laban if they had not had faith that they would obtain the plates? No, they believed they would or they would not have gone. But their attempt was a failure. They had come to the moment of tribulation, a moment almost every one of us faces every day. They needed to make a decision. Would they go on believing in the Lord's word with double the faith they had before, or would they quit? Laman and Lemuel wanted to go back to the tent of their father. But listen to Nephi, who was filled with great faith.
'But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.' (Verse 15.)
"That is strong. Nephi was saying in essence that the Lord lived, and that as surely as He lived and they themselves lived, they would not return until they had accomplished what they had been sent to do. At that particular moment did Nephi have any more knowledge than he had had before in the sense that the task was going to be easy or even that he knew what he was going to do? I do not think so; he was still working with faith. Did he know how he was going to get the plates? No, but he believed he would. He believed so strongly that I feel he understood the great principle that is intertwined throughout this whole experience: When tribulations and problems come, you cannot let your faith weaken, but you must redouble your faith in the Lord. It was situations like this one that Joseph Smith was referring to when he said that when the Lord sees that you are willing to serve him at any price, at any cost, or under any circumstance, then you will have sufficient faith to lay hold upon eternal life, and not until. Nephi was going through that process." (Living by the Power of Faith, p. 44-5.)
Bruce R. McConkie
"This matter of swearing with an oath in ancient days was far more significant than many of us have realized. For instance: Nephi and his brethren were seeking to obtain the brass plates from Laban. Their lives were in peril. Yet Nephi swore this oath: 'As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.' (1 Nephi 3:15.) Thus Nephi made God his partner. If he failed to get the plates, it meant God had failed. And because God does not fail, it was incumbent upon Nephi to go the plates or by down his life in the attempt." (Conference Report, April 1982, pp. 49-50)