When Nephi earlier inserted language associated with the Liahona to Jehovah’s guidance of Israel, we are on notice that this scriptural story has two faces, one looking to Israel, and one to Lehi’s family. When we hit this point in the story, the story is accomplished history for Israel, but in the future for Lehi’s family. Nevertheless, when Nephi wrote it, it was also accomplished history.
The short comparison is that just as the children of Israel entered their promised land, so too would Lehi’s family. It appears significant that Nephi mentions that Israel had to remove the Canaanites from their promised land. That appears to foreshadow others in the land into which Lehi’s family would arrive.
The most interesting part of this comparison, however, is the departure from the typical rhetoric of Israel’s conquest of their promised land. Nephi specifically notes that the people will be removed because they are, at that time, less righteous. However, Nephi makes a qualification that is never made for the Canaanites. Nephi emphasizes that Lehi’s family is not “more choice” than they, and that God “esteemeth all flesh in one.” In Nephi’s telling, it is important to note that it is not the inherent difference of the people, but only the degree to which they follow Jehovah. Regardless of Israelite, or the New World populations they would face, Nephi declares: “he that is righteous if favored of God.”
When Nephi wrote this, he was in the New World, and living among many of those who might have been displaced, but who had become righteous and part of the Nephite people. It was therefore important to note their essential equality, as they would form an important part of God’s people in the New World.