I’ve always found it interesting that, as Nephi was constrained by the Spirit to kill Laban, he used in his reasoning and justification (amongst a few reasons the Lord spoke of) that Laban had taken away Lehi’s family’s property. I’ve often wondered about this. My understanding of future celestial glory is that people would live in a united order, where all things are shared, people are given stewardships of land, but possessions begin to lose their meaning as traditional possessions are held in common to be allotted by Bishops. The early saints experimented with living this order but it was a dismal failure. Clearly the people were not ready for such a jump in understanding and paradigm shift.
I’ve wondered if those on a high spiritual plane, knowing that someday it would be required of them to live in a united order, assign less importance on material possessions. As the saying goes, “You can’t take it with you” after you die so why fret over it now. Of course our possessions give us comfort during our mortal journey, and we don’t live in a united order, so God grants us the right to defend our land and possessions. Later in the Book of Mormon, we’ll see much bloodshed over land and possessions. Of course this is generally motivated on one side by greed, and by defense on the other, buts its interesting that material possessions, which can be replaced or eliminated without too much harm or discomfort are enough to inspire hatred even to bloodshed. Is a human life worth any possession? Obviously many think so, even in our day.
14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.
15 Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law.
16 And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass.
17 And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause that I might obtain the records according to his commandments.
18 Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword.
Again, although this was not Nephi’s principle reasons for deciding to kill Laban (it was because the Spirit of the Lord commanded him to do it), we see another wealth reason. Laban’s refusal to give the records stands in the way of Nephi’s (and his people’s) future wealth, as promised by the Lord. Even though Nephi did this act for the right reason, it’s easy to see how people kill for money, even potential money.
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“Is a human life worth any possession?” It’s interesting to note that in the Book of Mormon account, a material possession (the collection of brass plates) was in fact worth a human life, albeit that possession was only considered by the Lord and Nephi in conjunction with the lives and spiritual welfare of thousands upon thousands of other lives. That made it a fair exchange. Otherwise, Nephi would not have considered it, and would likely have simply pursued his objective of obtaining the plates. It seems Laban was willing to kill for those plates just as the Lord was, although, as you mentioned, Laban would have killed due to greed and jealousy in guarding those plates, and the Lord commanded his servant to kill so that many would benefit. the crazy thing for me is that it was justified. It also illustrates to me another important truth: the Lord would not force a change of heart or magically alter Laban’s agency to just make him a better person. He didn/t even fool Laban into just losing the plates. he just cut his losses on Laban, once it was certain that there was no other way. the tree was just not going to bear fruit worth cultivating. It seemed that Laban had reached a point of no return, and in this particular instance, the Lord called his hand.