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Question: Why didn't God simply preserve Nephi's life using divine power instead of requiring him to kill Laban?
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Question: Why didn't God simply preserve Nephi's life using divine power instead of requiring him to kill Laban?
The Lord actually did preserve Nephi and his brothers two times from being killed by Laban
The Lord actually did preserve Nephi and his brothers from being killed by Laban....twice.
God is not a magician who waves his wand and removes all obstacles. He expects us to do as much as we can. For example, God could have caused Laban to have had a heart attack, or cirrhosis of the liver, and died before Nephi got there, but that is simply not how God works.
If Joseph were making the story up, then why not just have Nephi just find Laban already dead in the street? Nephi's account actually seems to have been written to deliberately provide all the proper legal justification for the act, according to ancient Israelite law. This may not appease the ethical concerns, but, the point is, how did Joseph Smith know ancient Israel law so well? This is evidence that it was written by someone familiar with the legal code of that time and place.
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