Nephi's people Separate

2 Nephi Ch 5

The Nephites separate themselves from the Lamanites, keep the law of Moses, and build a temple—Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cursed, receive a skin of blackness, and become a scourge unto the Nephites. Between 588 and 559 B.C.

About 30 years have passed and Nephi is explaining how his people have seperated themselves from his brothers' people. I don't know if it's just me, but chapters like this, at first glance, don't seem to have a lot of spiritual meat. I read it and I was still hungry. So, then I remembered in earlier chapters when Nephi (I think) talks about writing on two sets of plates. One for spiritual matters and one for secular. So, I figure there must be some wisdom in his writings about his people seperating from the Lamanites. First Nephi becomes the leader of all the people. But then, his brother's families become jealous and say "wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to ^brule over this people."

So, Nephi, Zoram, Sam , Jacob and Joseph, along with their families head for the wilderness. Once they arrived they set up "the church" since the first thing he mentions is they kept the commandments and observed the statues of the Lord according to the law of Moses. They planted seed, and raised livestock. Apparently, they were there for some years.
The next part I struggled with initially. The Lamanites become cursed. It talks about how their skin is made dark. So, I was thinking "Why is dark skin a curse?" I started feeling a little confused, wondering why dark skin was a curse. But, then as I continue reading, I realized the outward change of their skin wasn't the curse. It was simply a sign to set them apart from the Nephites. Genealogy and family lines and priesthood are a huge part of Jewish history. So, I'm thinking that this may have something to do with that. But, it's something I'm g0ing to do some more reading on. I know the Lord doesn't care about our outward apperance, only the inward. So, I'm thinking the change in apperance was so the Nephites could differentiate themselves from the Lamanites.
I continue reading and then it dawns on me that everything has a spiritual element. Nephi is talking about all their day to day work. The swords and buildings that his people made. He talks about the temple they build, that it's modeled after Solomon's temple. Just like our mundane daily routines, everything has a spiritual element. For Nephi and his people, their lives reflected their faith that they were following the Lord's counsel. For us, today, it's the same.
All and all this chapter feels like a "support" chapter. It's setting up the initial seperation of the Nephites and Lamanites. There are little clues about their daily lives and possibly proofs that they existed. But I think the main spirtual elements I read are 1-the Lamanites are cut off because of their pride and wickedness and 2-The Lord was mindful of the Nephites, and gave inspiration to Nephi to protect them.