Welcome to Part 2 with Dr. Gay Strather, First Nephi Chapter 6 through 10.

Gay, as we go through this, I just maybe ask you to comment on the items and the different things that are seen.

Just like you said, Yea, as the family part of the dream seems to transition into the very

macro part of the dream between verses 18 and 19 that's when you have all these other

symbols you might say appearing so when he says I held the rod of iron

extended on the bank of the river. What comes to mind when you think of those two things, the

rod of iron and the river?

As in most things, river could have positive and negative connotations and symbols often do that so if I'm

remembering correctly later Nephi is going to say that it was dirty water and that Lehi didn't see it quite as well.

Clearly I think the rod is not just to keep them on the path but to help prevent them

falling into the river. The other thing I think about particularly if we see it in a

more negative sense is this seems to me to be

a barrier between the Tree of Life and the great and spacious building.

Even though it might come from pure water, a fountain that is good,

but it becomes impure as it goes down and...

Yeah, tainted.

So in some ways I see the river, this is coming back to my thoughts about the tree of life

in the Garden of Eden.

In some ways I wonder whether this river might be analogous in some way

to the cherubum and the flaming sword, to keep the fallen people out of the way so that they don't become

eternal or eternal life in a fallen state. Somehow the people in the Great and Spacious Building

would have to leave the building and make a journey and maybe through the dark

...