Nephi indicated earlier that he would seek to make it clear to the reader that “the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance” (1 Nephi 1:20).
Here was an occasion when Laman and Lemuel sought to do bodily harm to their younger brothers, and an occasion when the Lord delivered his servants in a miraculous manner, thus verifying the words of the prophet Nephi. “I will go before your face,” the Savior explained to a group of his latter-day servants. “I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (D&C 84:88.)