Talk:1 Ne 17:23-47

These verses suggest that children of Israel were "more choice" (v. 34) than the previous inhabitants that were driven out because the children of Israel were more righteous.

I have a tendency to want to interpret these passages (esp. v. 35) as a sort of extreme type of justice--that God always blesses the righteous an punishes the wicked, or that if two people are equal in terms of righteousness (or wickedness), they will be blessed (or cursed) equally.

Although this may hold true in an eternal sense, it certainly does not always hold true in a temporal sense. This is taking the verses too far. Instead, I think the scripture is making the point that God tends to bless righteous people as a group, not that we can expect perfect correlation between personal righteusness and personal blessings (esp. if we use a narrow definition of blessings that leaves out 'blessings in disguise', i.e. adversity...).

--RobertC 08:44, 13 Aug 2005 (CEST)

On a related note, verse 35 is interesting because it says that the people who lived in the land had rejected every word of God. I think this may be the only place in the scriptures where we find out that these people had the chance to accept the word of God. Anyone know of another? And, together with Jonah teaching Ninevah, I think this may be one of only two places where we learn about people other than the children of Israel having the opportunity to accept the Gospel. Am I missing any?

--Matthew Faulconer 08:03, 14 Aug 2005 (CEST)