The Iron Rod (1 Nephi 8:8-30)

There is an iron rod along the straight and narrow path leading to the tree of life. There are people walking on this path, holding to the rod. Before they get to the tree, they must go through mists of darkness. Many lose their way.

It’s reasonable to think that some might lose their way in the mists of darkness. Even if you’re holding on to the iron rod (I imagine it like a stair railing), what if you trip or stumble and lose your grip? Lost in the darkness, how are you to ever find your way back? That has always seemed unfair to me.

A few years ago, I found a new understanding of this part of the analogy. If one holds to the iron rod lightly, at arm’s length like you might do with a stair rail, it’s easy to lose your grip if you falter or fall. But imagine instead that as you walk along that path, you keep your body glued smack up against that rod. And rather than just brushing the rod with your fingertips, holding it lightly, you’ve got that rod in a death grip, moving along, hand over hand, never releasing one handhold until the other is firmly in place. If that were the case, it wouldn’t matter how thick the mists of darkness became or how frequently you tripped or stumbled. You’d have a death grip—or in this case, a life grip—on that thing! If that were the case, you’d make it to the tree no matter what.

The iron rod is the word of God—the scriptures, the prophets, personal revelation. If your study of the scriptures is occasional or casual, your hold to them may not be strong enough to see you through the temptations and trials of this life. But if you search them daily, deeply pondering their meaning, if you seek the Holy Spirit to liken them unto yourself, if you hear and obey the prophet’s voice, there will be nothing in this life that is strong enough to make you lose your way.

That is what it means to “press forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.” (1 Nephi 8:30)