It is interesting that the Lord alerted Nephi to the fact that if his own people became dissolute and indifferent to God’s commandments the Lamanites would be a scourge to stir them up to righteousness again. It turned out that this happened repeatedly during the following centuries. He said to Nephi:
“And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people. And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.”