The Sunday School lesson for this week is entitled “All Things According To His Will”. One question that I wanted to ask was why Laman and Lemuel continue to rebel and defy the Lord even after all the spiritual experiences that they went through. Let’s look at the first one:

1 Nephi 3:29-31:

And it came to pass as they smote us with a rod, behold, an angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them, saying:

“Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities? Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.”

And after the angel had spoken unto us, he departed. And after the angel had departed, Laman and Lemuel again began to murmur, saying:

“How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?”

How could they have just seen an angel from God and still continue to question and complain?

Neal A. Maxwell had a good grasp of the situation. Here is what he said:

Their contrition never lasted very long, such as in the interval between the appearance of an angel and when Laman and Lemuel resumed murmuring (1 Ne. 3:31). Under duress, once they even superficially acknowledged that they “knew the Lord is with thee [Nephi]” but they soon became exceedingly “rude” in their behavior on the ship (see 1 Ne. 17:55; see also 1 Ne. 18:8, 9). Their periodic violence indicated their resentments weren’t merely abstract, intellectual differences.

Laman and Lemuel were intimidated by Laban’s power, but their fear of power merely showed the power of fear. Since “perfect love casteth out all fear,” their limited capacity to love was thereby very evident (see Moro. 8:16; see also 1 Jn. 4:18). Though unprincipled, most sadly, they were unloving!

Hence, encrusted Laman and Lemuel seldom responded to the tenderness of others. They were strangers to empathy, that eternal attribute. When Lehi exhorted them with all the feeling of a tender or trembling parent, the effects were usually more resentment, evoking cruel responses to parents and siblings (see 1 Ne. 8:37). When Nephi displayed sorrow over their behavior, Laman and Lemuel were “glad” that he was sorry (see 1 Ne. 17:19). Admonitions were bad enough, but to have them come from Nephi!

Easily riled and quick to complain, they could scarcely remember their last rescue long enough to meet their next difficulty. Instead, lacking gospel perspective, the situational cares of the day, like worry over a broken bow, of all things, dominated the things of eternity. Ours, too, is a day of every-man-for-himself situational ethics, as if the Ten Commandments came from a focus group!

(October 1999 General Conference)

I think that we all know people who are like Laman and Lemuel. The ordinary everyday happenings in their life are turned into catastrophes. They are unable to keep an eternal perspective and remember the words of the Lord when he tells us not to worry or be afraid.