The final journey from Jerusalem to the Red Sea was not without the usual friction, and even open conflict, between Nephi and his elder brothers. Laman and Lemuel again vented their anger on Nephi to the point of physical violence.
Why didn’t Laman and Lemuel just get up one morning and make the hike back to Jerusalem? Why their incessant efforts to kill Lehi and Nephi and then go back to Jerusalem? Isaiah 53:9 may give us insight by describing why Jesus was crucified: “because he had done no violence [or evil], neither was any deceit in his mouth.” Few things can stir up anger in the unrighteous as much as confronting the truth. Laman and Lemuel knew that their father and brother were telling the truth, and they were angry because of it. They were jealous and envious and proud. Some of the Jewish leaders had the same problem with Jesus. Nobody welcomed them into the city by throwing down palm fronds in their path. Nobody was being healed by them. There were no great crowds flocking around them to hang on their every word. Something had to be done about this righteous person who always spoke the truth. They had him crucified. The two oldest sons of Lehi had in their hearts to do likewise: slay their father and brother.
The rebels were finally pacified only by the pleading of some of Ishmael’s family. Their hearts were actually softened enough that they bowed down and asked Nephi’s forgiveness. The greatness of Nephi’s soul is again revealed in his terse summation of the episode: “I did frankly forgive them all that they had done.” Even after such rebelliousness, belligerence, rudeness, harshness, and spite, Nephi could frankly forgive. Is not this our own great charge?
The Lord had now warned at least eighteen people to flee from the wrath to come over Jerusalem: Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi; Zoram; Ishmael, his wife, five daughters, and two sons with their wives. We do not know, but there may also have been children from the latter four.
In some ways it must have been a sacrifice for Lehi and his family to leave Jerusalem, but their lives were spared by doing so. What about the other two trips? The main reasons the four men were commanded to trek a thousand miles through the inhospitable desert were (1) records—for knowledge of ancestry and prophecy and (2) marriages—for posterity. What they were doing was tied to the past as well as to the future. They needed to preserve the knowledge and memory of one nation while producing with their wives another, so that the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled.