God gave to Lehi many dreams and visions. One day a pillar of fire came and rested on a rock before him; and then he heard and saw many wonderful things. The things which he had seen and heard so overpowered him that he went home to his house at Jerusalem, and threw himself on his bed. Then being overcome by the Holy Spirit he was carried away in a vision. In that vision he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded by vast hosts of angels who were singing and praising the Lord. And he saw a holy Being, surrounded by a glory as bright as the sun at noon day, come down out of the midst of heaven. It was the Lord Jesus. Our Savior was followed by twelve others whose brightness exceeded that of the stars. They were Christ's Apostles. These came down and went forth on the face of the earth. And in the vision the Savior came to Lehi and gave him a book, and bade him read it. In that book was an account of events that had not yet taken place. It was full of the woes that should happen to Jerusalem and her people if they repented not of their sins and follies. It told how that great city should be taken by her enemies and destroyed; how numbers of the inhabitants should perish, while many should be carried captive into Babylon. All of which was fulfilled a few years later. These things with others were what Lehi told the Jews; and as they did not believe his words they became enraged at him and ill treated him. How gracious was our heavenly Father to show such great things to Lehi, and to reveal to him so much with regard to the earthly life of our Lord and Savior, whose coming in the flesh was yet six hundred years in the future. Before long the Lord was satisfied with what Lehi had said and done. He told him, in a dream, that as the Jews had rejected his message and sought his life, to leave them to the destruction that would surely come upon them. God then directed him to leave Jerusalem and take his family and journey into the wilderness. This Lehi did. He left behind him his gold and other precious things, and only carried with him what was needful for the use of his family during their travels. Like Abraham before him, he went not knowing whither he was going, but went because God had commanded him; and, like Abraham, he was led by Divine power to a blessed land of promise. When Lehi and his family left Jerusalem they traveled southward to the borders of the Red Sea. There they pitched their tents and rested for a season in a valley near a river which emptied into the sea. In this valley Lehi built an altar, and upon it he offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and gave thanks unto him for his great goodness in bringing them out of the doomed chief city of Judah.