The Rub al-Khali

This is a message I wrote recently for our church congregation newsletter.

The southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula is dominated by the vast Rub al-Khali—the Empty Quarter. The name is fitting. The size of Utah, Nevada, and southern Idaho, this desert is filled with mountainous sand dunes, rising and falling hundreds of feet in temperatures that top 120 degrees and under skies that can go years without dispensing a single drop of rain.

Few people live in or travel through the forbidding Empty Quarter. But at the close of their overland journey away from Jerusalem, Lehi and his family turned their course in this direction. Nephi records that after traveling southeast along the coast of the Red Sea, their caravan veered east, taking a trail that likely led near or into the Rub al-Khali. In describing this next portion of their journey, Nephi says they “did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness” (1 Ne. 17:1).

Family travel in any wilderness would be a challenge; for that matter, driving an air-conditioned car across Nevada with small children is not always a pleasant picnic. But a family trip through the Rub al-Khali, hundreds of miles across an undulating terrain of hot, blowing sand, with pregnant women and infants, precious little water, and no rest stops or fast-food joints—Nephi’s statement that they faced “much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all” (1 Ne. 17:6) begins to gather new meaning.

But then comes the miracle. “Great were the blessings of the Lord upon us,” Nephi declares (1 Ne. 17:2). The mothers were sufficiently healthy to care for the children. They were nourished and strengthened by God. The Lord “did provide means” (1 Ne. 17:3), and they made it. It took a long time—perhaps even years—but with the help of God they finally reached a haven in the midst of the desert: A lush oasis on the coast of Arabia, nourished by periodic monsoons that created a place where fruit and trees and honey could flourish. “We were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore;” Nephi says, “and we called the place Bountiful” (1 Ne. 17:6).

At times, our lives may seem like the Rub al-Khali. We may feel like we are the children of Lehi wading through much affliction in deep, heavy, hot sands. Water may seem scarce. The incessant wind may blow sand in our eyes. And we may climb dune after dune after endless dune with no relief in sight. At times like these Nephi’s testimony speaks to us: “And thus we see . . . if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them” (1 Ne. 17:3).

When you face such a formidable journey, when you wonder if the desert will ever end, when you feel exhausted from the effort, worn down from the heat and wind, and unable to take another step, remember two lessons Nephi learned in the wilderness: First, God is right there with you in the journey, even when you doubt his presence; and second, for you, as for Nephi, there is a Bountiful waiting somewhere on the other side and if you trust in God and put your hand in his, he will lead you there.