Finally, Lehi comes to his youngest son, Joseph. Young Joseph, like Jacob, was born during the trek through the wilderness. And it was no casual accident that Lehi named this son Joseph. Lehi had already seen in vision the rising up of a great prophet named Joseph in the latter days. Furthermore, Lehi had learned from the brass plates that both he and Ishmael were descendants of the great Joseph who was sold into Egypt. It seemed especially appropriate to give this little boy who was born in the wilderness that name of Joseph. Addressing this youngest of his children, Lehi says:
Of course, Lehi knew from the 2,600 years of prophetic vision that his own descendants would go through a travail both good and bad. The greatest promise he could make to young Joseph was the fact that his descendants would not be entirely obliterated during the long epic of apostasy when great civil wars would break out among Lehi's descendants somewhere between 300 and 400 A.D.