Nothing Without Adversity - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Nine (Mosiah 9)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/9?lang=eng

Now that we have been introduced to King Limhi and his people, our narrator/abridger Moroni takes us back to how Limhi’s grandfather Zeniff brought a group of Nephites and settled in this Lamanite-controlled land. The story of the three generations that follow span the next 14 chapters, 16 if you count the follow-on story of the prophet Alma (the Elder) and the group of people who fled the larger group because of its wicked leadership before Limhi. Apparently a record was kept by Zeniff’s family line (with a separate one kept by Alma) and was ultimately given to King Mosiah, to combine with the larger record handed down from Nephi and his descendants over—at this point—about 500 years.

So as we rewind to Zeniff’s time, we go back from about 120 B.C. (the time of Limhi and Ammon) to 200 B.C. Zeniff starts as a spy on the first expedition to reclaim the land of Nephi, and when he sees good among the Lamanites, he tries to convince the expedition leader not to fall upon the Lamanites in violence, but to seek negotiations with them. The resulting disagreement leads to conflict among the Nephites who were together on the expedition, and after many are killed, Zeniff and the other survivors regroup at their homes in Zarahemla (verses 1-2).

Zeniff still wants to possess the land of Nephi, so he recruits those who are like-minded, and himself leads the next expedition. A telling remark in verse 3 admits that the people are slow to remember the Lord, and therefore meet with famine and other afflictions on their journey.

Once they reach the same place, Zeniff takes a few of his men and goes into the city to meet the Lamanite king, whose name is Laman. The king agrees to let Zeniff’s people possess some of the land and orders his own people on that land to relocate (verses 5-7). We don’t hear about anything King Laman requires in exchange for allowing these Nephites to come in. That should give us an immediate clue that this might be “too good to be true.”

We then learn that King Laman had a plan all along to bring the Nephites into bondage. After 12 years, they have made the lands that they received prosperous. Before the Nephites get to the point where they are also too strong and numerous for the comparatively lazy Lamanites to overpower, Laman stirs up his people to make war with them. The Lamanites’ main objectives are (first) to ensure that they always have the upper hand in strength, and (second) to enrich themselves at the Nephites’ expense by taking the fruits of Nephite prosperity (verses 12-14).

But initially, even though the Lamanites have superior strength and numbers, they cannot overtake the Nephites’ defense of their cities, because the strength of the Lord bolsters the Nephites. The Nephites gather from their farms into the two stronghold cities of Shilom and Lehi-Nephi, Zeniff arms them for battle, and they proceed to inflict on the Lamanites more than ten times the casualties (3,043) that they suffer (279) (verses 15-19). The Nephites successfully fend off the Lamanites—for now. But they still have cause to mourn great loss.

The Nephites’ illusion of being able to live in a world without serious adversity has been rudely overthrown. It sets the scene for the action that will take place between Nephites and Lamanites for the rest of the book. Because of their proximity, they can’t ignore each other. So, for the next 600 years, either they fight one another, or they find a way to transform their relationships from that of enemies to friends. War will be the rule, and transformation the exception, with transformation only possible through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to hearts open enough to receive it. 

The Nephite Reunion Continues: Sharing Records - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Eight (Mosiah 8)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/8?lang=eng

After Limhi has gathered his people, given them hope, and reminded them of the need to avoid wickedness, he invites Ammon to catch them up on the history they’ve missed of their brothers and sisters in the land of Zarahemla. This includes the heavenly address made to the people three years before by King Benjamin (in Mosiah 1-5) about the power of Jesus Christ and the ability of the people to be transformed in His name (verses 1-3).

Once the people return home, Limhi shares his people’s record with Ammon to catch him up on their history. Additionally, Limhi tells Ammon about a 43-person expedition Limhi previously sent to find Zarahemla (in hopes of getting help to deliver his people from Lamanite bondage). This expedition did not locate Zarahemla, but instead came upon a vast land of desolation and destruction. Limhi regales Ammon with the account: bones of men and animals of innumerable scope scattered everywhere, ruins of buildings, and interesting metal artifacts (verses 4-8).

Among these artifacts, in addition to armor and weapons, there were 24 gold plates with an engraved record (verse 9). Limhi presumes that this record will tell the tale of this unknown civilization and their destruction (verse 12). Limhi has a keen sense for the value of such a record, given the fact that he and his people have learned hard lessons from the wickedness of his father’s reign. He seems to instinctively grasp that the translation of this record will have great importance for the Nephites. Limhi may be especially desirous to benefit from this record because it appears possible that when his grandfather (Zeniff) left the main body of Nephites, he and his people may not have been diligent in taking copies of the then-existing sacred records with them.

Limhi asks Ammon if he is able to interpret languages in order to translate the 24 plates, for none of his people had been able to. Ammon says that he can’t, but tells Limhi that King Mosiah can because he is in possession of something he calls “interpreters.” According to Ammon, a seer can be directed by God to look into the interpreters to translate any kind of ancient record (verses 12-14).

When Limhi responds that a seer is even greater than a prophet, Ammon follows by saying that a seer is, by definition, also a prophet and a revelator. By him, “secret things shall be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light.” There is no greater gift among men (verses 15-17).

From other passages in the Book of Mormon, we get a better understanding of what these interpreters actually were. In Mosiah 28:11-14, we learn that they are two stones fastened into the rims of a bow. In the record eventually translated from the 24 plates, known as the Book of Ether, we learn (in Ether 3:23-28) that the Lord provided a promise to the long-destroyed civilization that the Book of Ether would come forth by the aid of the same interpreters they had, which were known by the name of Urim and Thummim. (See here for a brief Internet description of the Urim and Thummim in the Bible.)

We don’t know how the Urim and Thummim went from the people in the Book of Ether (whom we will later know as Jaredites) to King Mosiah, but it is possible that these interpreters came to Mosiah’s grandfather (the first King Mosiah) when the Nephites learned of this past civilization from an inscripted stone that they brought to Mosiah’s grandfather for translation (perhaps the Urim and Thummim were found along with this inscripted stone) in Omni 1:20-21. The Urim and Thummim are ultimately packed in with the sacred record (the plates) along with some other objects by the final Book of Mormon recordkeeper Moroni around 400 A.D., to be found 1400 some years later (in 1827) by Joseph Smith.

The chapter ends with King Limhi expressing a contrast between the marvelous nature of the Lord’s workings and the tragic foolishness of men and women who reject wisdom and understanding, and thus deny themselves the benefits of the miracles that the Lord accomplishes (verses 20-21).

Reclaiming Lost Brothers - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Seven (Mosiah 7)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/7?lang=eng

Mosiah, the new Nephite king and high priest, does not forget those of his people who had gone back to the land of Nephi (about 80 years before, or 200 B.C.) in hopes of reclaiming lands from which they were driven during the reign of his grandfather (who was also named Mosiah). After three years as king during a time of peace, Mosiah sends 16 strong men on an expedition to learn about what has happened to these people, partly because the other Nephites have been inquiring about their fate (verses 1-2).

The leader of this expedition is a man named Ammon (one of the people of Zarahemla, or Mulekites, whom the Nephites discovered when coming to the land they now inhabit), and it takes the group 40 days to enter the area where their lost brethren have settled. Ammon takes three of his brothers with him to investigate more directly, with the others based at a hillside camp. Ammon’s party happens to come upon the king of the lost Nephites outside the gates of his city, which is known as Shilom. Not knowing who they are, and fearing for his safety, the king has his guard imprison Ammon and his brothers. Two days later, they are brought before the king to explain themselves (verses 4-8).

When Ammon reveals to the king that he is from the land of Zarahemla, the king is relieved and rejoices. The king tells Ammon that his name is Limhi. Limhi reveals himself as a person of great faith, as he immediately perceives that Ammon’s arrival signals the deliverance of his people from the bondage they face at the hands of the Lamanites. What bondage? More about that later. Limhi’s first order of business is to release his four prisoners and treat them and the 12 they will retrieve from the hillside camp as honored guests (verses 9-16).

The next order of business is for Limhi to gather his people together at the temple that they have presumably built during their time in the land (verse 17). It is interesting to consider that our “narrator” Mormon segues pretty directly from the account of King Benjamin addressing his people at the temple located in Zarahemla (Mosiah 1-5) to the account of King Limhi addressing his people (three years later) at the temple located in Shilom. 

What’s the common thread? Righteous leaders recognize the value of gathering near temples, where physical closeness to the structures betoken symbolic closeness to the covenants made within those structures connecting people to their God. And when something momentous is taking place in the shared history of a people (leadership transition, opportunity to escape bondage), the temple is where a leader can bring the people to forge shared commitment to a course of action. Benjamin’s people committed to becoming the children of Christ. Limhi’s people will focus on the need to achieve temporal freedom in order to improve their spiritual state as well.

As King Limhi speaks to his people by the temple, he recounts to his people—and to the rescue expedition led by Ammon—some of the tragic experiences that they have endured. Limhi’s grandfather Zeniff was the leader of the initial group who set out to return to the land of Nephi. The Lamanite king (named Laman) who Zeniff encountered when he entered the land preyed upon Zeniff’s overzealousness to inherit the land. King Laman made a treaty with Zeniff granting him and his people a place to live and possess, but Limhi says that this was part of a deception on Laman’s part to lure Zeniff’s people into bondage (verses 21-22). The rest of the story will unfold in the following chapters.

King Limhi doesn’t dwell on Lamanite treachery. Rather, he focuses on two things. First, his gratitude for the Lord’s blessings, with (as mentioned above) the arrival of Ammon’s expedition as a sign of deliverance. And second, the wickedness that brought his people’s afflictions upon them.

He helps his people understand that the Lord’s intervention is part of a much larger pattern. He does not abandon His covenant people, despite their own failings. This was the case with the Israelites in Egypt who were led back to Israel, and it was also the case with Lehi’s family who were led out of Jerusalem to the promised land in the New World (verses 19-20). Such deliverance points to the even more significant deliverance we all can find through the forgiveness of sin Christ provides as we have faith in Him and repent.

Limhi is very clear about which sinful act propelled his people into darkness. It was their inability to hearken unto the Lord’s words, and their willful rejection and murder of a prophet sent by the Lord to testify of the coming of Jesus Christ and their need for salvation from error through Him (verses 25-32). In coming chapters, we will learn of the courage of the prophet Abinadi, the wickedness of Limhi’s father (and Zeniff’s son) King Noah, and the raising up of another prophet (Alma, the first of two by that name) who will carry forward the message of the first.

Limhi’s closing message is that just as the people suffered greatly from their earlier rejection of the Lord, their turning back to the Lord can save them now (verse 33). 

Benjamin Gives Up Earthly Power - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Six (Mosiah 6)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/6?lang=eng

This is a fairly brief chapter. Yet, there are still important points to note.

The first point has to do with recording the names of those who entered into the covenant with the Lord in the previous chapter. As in Mosiah 1 when King Benjamin explains the importance of the various records on the brass and gold plates that keep sacred matters firmly in their minds, and in other places throughout the Book of Mormon, we see that the Lord works according to order. Keeping complete and accurate records of revelations and of individual covenants and ordinances is crucial to ensuring that those things are also recorded in heaven (verse 1). We learn the remarkable fact that every person of age among the Nephites within earshot of King Benjamin had entered into the covenant and taken upon themselves the name of Christ (verse 2). The power of the moment and the strength found in the people’s unity cannot be overstated.

Benjamin does two things before dismissing the gathering of his people (verse 3). The first is that he consecrates his son Mosiah to be king, and gives him immediate temporal charge over the kingdom. Appointing his successor before his death endows the appointment with legitimacy, and it also gives Mosiah the ability to use his father as a resource as he learns to become a king.

The second thing Benjamin does is appoint priests to teach the people, and in particular to follow up with them regarding the importance of remembering and keeping the covenant they made in chapter 5 to keep all of the Lord’s commandments. At its essence, aside from actually administering the ordinances with their accompanying covenants, this is what the priesthood and Church in our day are intended to do. Provide the structure that we need to remember our covenants. The recurring ordinance of the sacrament is at the center of this process in our day. At this time (124 B.C.), the law of Moses remained in effect, so it is likely that recurring sacrifices continued under priesthood authority to remind people of and point them toward the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I find it interesting that even after giving over the kingdom to Mosiah, Benjamin retains ecclesiastical and spiritual authority to appoint priests. This foreshadows the choice made later in the Book of Mormon by Alma to give up his role as temporal leader and to focus on spiritual leadership. Evidently, Benjamin also believes in the primacy of things spiritual. It is a reminder to us that the priesthood is eternal, and does not end when our responsibilities over worldly things are transferred elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly, Mormon (our narrator) informs us that Mosiah walks in the way of the Lord as his father had taught, and as an example to the people who had all just taken the name of Christ upon them. He also labors for his own sustenance among his people, rather than succumb to a prideful expectation that he is entitled to the fruits of their labors. This heightens the contrast between Mosiah and some who follow him—most notably the wicked King Noah (in Mosiah 11-19).

The Children of Christ - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Five (Mosiah 5)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/5?lang=eng

In these opening chapters of Mosiah, we glimpse something extremely hopeful. That it is possible for sinful men and women to transform themselves. The choice, ultimately, to submit to temptation is ours. And we can fortify ourselves to the point where we are much less inclined to it.

As King Benjamin asks his people whether they believe his words to them, and they respond with a convincing yes, they go beyond an audience that merely accepts a teaching in principle. They are fully committed to the spiritual power of the moment, shown by their proclamation that the Spirit of the Lord “has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (verse 2). The power is such that the people tell Benjamin that because of their faith in what he taught them, God has shown them visions of the future (verses 3-4).

Something marvelous takes place next. The people tell Benjamin that they are willing to enter into a covenant with God. Is the covenant associated with a particular ordinance? Baptism? Something else? The record doesn’t say explicitly. My own feeling is that if the covenant is associated with any ordinance, it is probably beyond baptism, because these people seem like they would have already been baptized given their established patterns of worship. Perhaps it is an ordinance associated with the temple, given that Benjamin in speaking right next to the temple.

Even if we don’t know if an ordinance is part of this covenant, the covenant itself is straightforward. The people agree to do God’s will, and “to be obedient to his commandments in all things…all the remainder of our days” (verse 5). It is pure and total obedience to the Father, of the kind that Jesus showed in carrying out his atoning sacrifice for them and all of us. No equivocation.

In praising his people, Benjamin tells them that through their obedience they will be made free (verse 8). It seems like such a paradox, this idea that following someone else is freedom rather than captivity. Unless we accept the teaching that there is a battle between good and evil going on for our souls, Under this teaching, which has the added benefit of being true(!), the good path is where obedience comes through persuasion from someone who wants us to be happy and to receive everything he has. The evil path is one where we think we are acting perfectly free by “escaping” the obedient, good path, but little do we know we are actually being compelled to act by a miserable being who wants us to dispossess us of all we have so we can be miserable with him. And once we follow that path, we realize that we have weakened ourselves and are prisoners to pain and prone to further weakening unless we make a redoubled effort to get on the good path.

And the rub is this. Every man and woman who comes to earth is a child of a Heavenly Father. We have divinity within us. However, the defining question for each of us once we have come to earth is whether we choose to be a son or daughter of Jesus Christ as well as of Heavenly Father. Becoming the children of Christ, which is what is happening here with the Nephites gathered to hear King Benjamin, means that “your hearts are changed through faith on his name” and “ye are born of him” (verse 7). By covenanting to become like him and being willing to give for others, we actually remove from ourselves the burden of full suffering for our own sins because of what he voluntarily bore. That is part of what being free means, beyond simply being able to choose between two different things. We can be free of sin, free of sorrow, and yes, free of fear. And as we become Christ’s children, we also inherit His name (verse 9). If we don’t take His name, we “must be called by some other name” (verse 10). There is no neutral ground.

As Benjamin finishes speaking to his people, he implores them to retain Christ’s name “written always in your hearts,” to hear and know his voice (verse 12) and be “steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works,” that they may come to know Jesus intimately and that he may “seal you his…that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life” (verse 15). Sounds like a pretty good path to take compared with that other one. To be a Christian, and to embody the characteristics of the best person who ever lived.

Humility and True Commitment Lead to Deep Knowledge - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Four (Mosiah 4)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/4?lang=eng

I’m not sure that there’s a more powerful or speedy response by a people to its spiritual leader in recorded scripture than that of the Nephites under King Benjamin in this chapter. We had seen earlier that the people instinctively responded to Benjamin, but it’s one thing to come to hear the leader speak for a day or two, quite another to make a deep commitment to follow his teachings for the rest of your life.

We get this great show of humility by the Nephites as they fall to the earth after hearing Benjamin share the words from an angel about the absolute necessity of following the gospel of Jesus Christ (verse 1). It seems the people are truly struck by the reality that their choices have consequences, and they want to make the right choices.

Usually, we conceive of repentance as something very personal and private between a single person and the Lord, but here we see that it can also happen in a more communal setting. Presumably many of those gathered had already entered into covenants through baptism, but we in our day can appreciate that recommitment to earlier covenants is critical in dealing with the challenges we constantly face in mortality.

As they recommit, the people are filled with joy and feel peace of conscience. Of course, this assurance in our beliefs is so important in helping us take those next steps along the pathway of faith and righteousness.

At this point, King Benjamin senses that the people are in such a humble and receptive place that he can teach them boldly about things that are critical for them to embrace if they would follow in the footsteps of the Father and the as-yet unborn Jesus. These things include:

• Key qualities that God has (goodness, matchless power, wisdom, patience, long-suffering) and that we need to have for salvation (trust in the Lord, diligence in keeping His commandments, and continuing in faith throughout mortal life) (verse 6).

• Reiterating what the angel told him to relate (in chapter 3) about Christ’s atonement for our sins being the only way to salvation, and our need to repent and sincerely seek God’s forgiveness (verses 7-10).

• Retaining a remission of sins through daily, steadfast prayer and action (verses 11-12). This echoes the “doctrine of Christ” Nephi previously shared more than 400 years before (in 2 Nephi 31:20-21) and that is found in the record Benjamin has kept throughout his life.

• Caring for our children temporally and spiritually, which involves helping direct them away from the devil’s ways of contention and disobedience, and toward the Lord’s ways of love, service and “truth and soberness” (verses 14-15).

• Finding ways to help the needy in our world, rather than finding ways not to help them or to condemn them, under the rationale that we all are ultimately beggars at the feet of God for what we need in life and to reunite ourselves with him despite our tendencies to sin.

Lest Benjamin’s people find themselves overwhelmed by the number of responsibilities he lays at their feet, he leaves them with two guiding principles. They can be summed up as (1) pace yourself and (2) watch yourself. None of us can do everything. One of our Apostles, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, wrote one time (citing author Anne Morrow Lindbergh) that he simply did not have the time or capacity to reach out to everyone to whom his heart responded.

We too must determine those things that are centrally important to accomplish, and recognize that we can only help a little at a time. We can hopefully learn how our actions can inspire others to help a broader circle of people, so that through the ripple effect of our influence we might be able to help more people than we can simply from a time- and energy-limited standpoint. Verse 27 says, “And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.”

King Benjamin Prophesies of Christ - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Three (Mosiah 3)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/3?lang=eng

If you are not familiar with the Book of Mormon and wonder what it really says, the best advice I have for you is to read it. If you read it, you will find that its record-keepers and prophets come back again and again to one central theme: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Savior of the World, and in charge of the great effort to bring Heavenly Father’s children back to Him and to lift them up to their potential to truly become (in the words of Paul in Romans 8) “joint-heirs” to all the Father has and is.

After King Benjamin winds up the immediate business he has with his people, the Nephites, in making sure they understand his love for them, his concern for the state of their souls and his son Mosiah’s role as their new servant-king, Benjamin speaks in a more intimate way, as though the crowd of thousands that had gathered are a small group of confidants that he has brought together to share a very special secret. “I have things to tell you concerning that which is to come” (verse 1). And these things come from an angel.

For those of us familiar with the story of the Nativity (Christ’s birth) in the Gospel of Luke, verse 3 should alert us to what Benjamin is about to share. The angel tells him that he has come to declare “glad tidings of great joy.” Not surprisingly, those glad tidings are a summation of Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, suffering, death, Resurrection, and judgment—about 125 years before Bethlehem, the manger at the inn, the shepherds and the wise men. The glad tidings also make very explicit reference to Christ’s role as the “Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” (verse 8), so we understand that Jesus played an active part in the creation of the world on behalf of His Father.

After sharing this testimony of truth, Benjamin relates what the angel tells him about why it is vitally important for the people of the world (which, of course, includes us and other readers from our day). We learn that the physical reality of Christ’s willing sacrifice has some very specific consequences for men and women everywhere. These consequences may seem miraculous, and at times difficult to believe because of their power to overcome the effects of sin and death.

But in sharing these details with Benjamin (who then shares them with his people and with us), the angel approaches the subject in a way that reminds us of Nephi. He is very straightforward and wants to show that we can understand some important things about how the Atonement of Christ works even if we don’t understand all things about it.

One thing the angel explains is that true prophets share the message that salvation comes through Christ by faith and repentance. Other teachings, such as the law of Moses with its various do’s and don’t’s, only have power for us in the sense that they point us toward the Atonement and how we can make it effective in our lives.

The advice the angel gives is a variation on what Jesus Himself taught in Matthew 18 when he placed a child before his disciples and said that whosoever will humble himself as a little child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It includes some particularly powerful counsel in verse 19 that teaches us how to rid ourselves of a rebellious attitude and to receive inspiration from God rather than repel it:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

This is a reminder to us that whatever we think our limited time on this earth is about, at some level it is essentially a contest between good and evil for our allegiance. Our bodily desires are powerful, and will naturally lead us to do things opposed to God’s plan to get us back to Him unless we choose to focus on following the messages He sends us through the Holy Spirit. The great consolation in this somewhat harsh truth (including the fact that choosing good can feel like something “inflicted” upon us because it can be challenging) is that God is sending us communication that can deliver us from evil if we listen.

But the notion that we naturally dwell on neutral ground and can make a leisurely choice between good and evil like deciding where to shop inside a mall is a false one. We are subject to temptation and will succumb to it unless we act on the heavenly inspiration that (thankfully) comes to each man and woman. Through Benjamin, the angel also reassures us that those who go through life without a full recognition of God’s law—whether they die as little children (verse 16) or just are not properly informed about the difference between right and wrong (verse 11)—will find salvation through the sacrifice Jesus makes for us.

The angel then describes for us the consequences that will surely come if we are unable to put off the “natural man” and choose good over evil. He assures us that the “knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” (verse 20). In a situation where there is general understanding that good and evil exist and are opposed to one another, everyone is accountable.

And then Benjamin (through the angel) is just bearing pure testimony. We will feel the full weight of sin if we don’t repent and turn to Christ. In saying this, Benjamin is following directly in the footsteps of Nephi (in 2 Nephi 33) and Jacob (Jacob 6), who also unfolded a vision of final judgment to us that may seem harsh but is ultimately born from deep love that would have us avoid eternal misery.

Only in the Service of Your God - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Two (Mosiah 2)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/2?lang=eng

The first thing that stands out in this chapter is a fairly obvious one. The people respond to their leader. Though this may seem almost too elementary to mention, experience and history teach that it is rarer than we probably initially think for societies to submit to governance without some kind of compulsion. But here we sense that the Nephites joyfully come when called to the temple by King Benjamin’s son Mosiah. It clearly says something both about their leadership and about the widespread inculcation of virtue among families.

As they bring the firstlings of their flocks for sacrifice, they don’t just do it out of habit or sheer obedience, they do it out of gratitude for coming to the New World, being delivered from their enemies, and having “just men” serve as their teachers and their king, “who had taught them to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men” (verse 4). There is clear symbolic power in the detail that every man pitched his family’s tent with the door pointing toward the temple, signifying where they looked for guidance and direction (verse 6).

  

We sense that, over his lifetime, King Benjamin had inspired his people on many occasions. Yet, the only address Mormon chooses to preserve in his abridgment is this one. There’s this great line at the beginning where Benjamin tells his people that he wants them to really hearken to what he has to say. He wants them to be ready to receive revelation and to be willing to bring their lives into alignment with the message from the Lord he has to share, not to “trifle with the words which I shall speak” (verse 9).

Benjamin first recounts to the people that he has served them selflessly and without enriching himself at their expense. He is quick to say that he does not share these things to boast, but he understands two key truths.

First is that when we serve others, we are really serving God. Perhaps even more accurately, given all we have received from God despite our own imperfections, part of the way back to His presence—to show Him our real love for Him—is to serve the people around us who are also His children. We owe Him that, and it is the least we can do. One of the most-cited scriptures in the Book of Mormon is verse 17:

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

It’s important to understand the context around this verse so that we do not misinterpret its meaning. In some sense, yes, by understanding whom we’re actually serving when we help others, it elevates our vision of that effort. But the word “only” signifies the importance of avoiding an exaggeration of our own virtue. Because of our relationship with our God, it follows that we should be serving each other. Period. That’s the plan and we need not overstate (or understate) the significance of our actions in line with it.

The second truth ties into the first one, and is encapsulated in verse 21 where King Benjamin tells the people if they should serve God “with all their whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.” It might seem a little startling, but in his last opportunity to speak to his beloved people King Benjamin is focused like a laser on telling them what is true and not what is comfortable to hear. Righteous action is important, and it is service to God, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that he’s getting more from us than we get from Him.

Once we accept this vision, hopefully it becomes easier to focus on the immense blessings that it communicates. God does not expect us to be profitable. He just expects us to give all we can in keeping His commandments. If we do it, there are temporal blessings that follow, paralleling the covenant promise to the Nephites that is tied to the New World land they inhabit (verse 22).

Beyond that, verses 23 and 24 tell us why we remain indebted to the Lord. First, He gave us life. Yes, it’s really that simple. Second, when we do something right, we are immediately blessed. Wow. Do we really comprehend this?

We may ask, how are we immediately blessed? My feeling is that two things take place. First, we know that we have made a good choice, and that knowledge is a blessing in itself. Second, we invite the Holy Ghost to dwell with us and to comfort and teach us (in the words of an 1830 revelation to Joseph Smith) the “peaceable things of the kingdom.” Those who have any comprehension of how the Holy Ghost makes you feel when He enters your life will appreciate the magnitude of this blessing. There’s really nothing sweeter on this earth.

Keeping with Benjamin’s intent to speak very straightforwardly to his people, he tells them that he has called them together for one last act of service to them that will allow him to die with a clear conscience that he has done all in his power to protect them from sin and has pointed them in the direction of how to access the Lord’s strength in their lives.

Very literally, Benjamin points them to Mosiah as their new king and teacher. Then he warns them: Don’t choose the way of contention. Don’t follow the misleading call of the “evil spirit.” If you do, you will be in a state of “open rebellion against God” and will withdraw yourself from the Spirit of the Lord, because the Lord “dwelleth not in unholy temples.”

But Benjamin knows that the teaching that truly inspires focuses more on the promise of righteous living than the perils of contention with God and others. So he presents a vision for his people to ponder (verse 41):

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

Securing Righteousness for a New Generation - Book of Mosiah, Chapter One (Mosiah 1)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/w-of-m/1?lang=eng.

The prophet Mormon, who was introduced to us in the Words of Mormon, continues the narrative thread he picked up there. He will be our voice of conscience and reflection over most of the rest of the book.

What strikes me most about this chapter is the message for us about vigilantly preserving whatever we know that is pure and good for successive generations. King Benjamin has “fought the good fight” for his people, the Nephites, in staving off wickedness both externally and from within. As he approaches the end of his life, it’s clear how mindful he is of making sure the legacy of his efforts doesn’t perish with him.

How does this principle matter for us? Is there a kingdom we possess that we’re responsible for handing down? Absolutely. Even if we may not rule over a vast number of people, most of us have relationships and responsibilities that are sacred in nature. People’s lives and destinies turn at least to some degree on how we inspire and instruct them.

To that end, King Benjamin does two things. First, he puts things in order. For us, it is about making sure that the essential, righteous knowledge and traditions of our families are safeguarded and made vibrant and relevant for our children and grandchildren. So that means handing down records—which includes spiritual truth as well as details of lives, events, personalities and struggles. But even more vital than that is banishing contention. Regardless of the content of instruction we provide, if our families and societies are not spiritually prepared to receive that instruction, there’s little point in providing it. So perhaps the most significant observation from Mormon occurs in verse 1 when he tells us that there was “no more contention” among the people of King Benjamin. This sets the tone for everything.

Then we learn of the marvelous things that King Benjamin has done to make sure traditions are handed down. His sons know the language of their ancestors so they can teach and expound the records that the Nephites have inherited, presumably dating back to Adam (verses 2-4). And most importantly, Mormon quotes King Benjamin’s personal charge to his sons to search the scriptural records diligently, and to keep the commandments of God, that “ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers” (verse 7). This charge is given especially to Benjamin’s son Mosiah (the namesake of this component book of the Book of Mormon), whom he anoints as his kingly successor. Pursuant to the custom of the Israelites, the Nephites handle the transfer of power whenever possible before a king dies rather than after.

After putting things in order, the second thing King Benjamin does to protect the legacy of righteousness that has been established among the people is to “give this people a name, that thereby they may be distinguished above all the people which the Lord God hath brought out of the land of Jerusalem” (verse 11). This showcases the prophetic insight Benjamin has. By proposing to literally name (or in some senses, rename, the Nephites), he teaches us how we can use names and identifiers to orient ourselves regarding who we really are in our eternal relationships with the Lord and one another, and to remind and admonish us of the covenants we have made and the promises (from obedience) and consequences (from disobedience) stemming from those covenants. To emphasize the importance of this name for his people, Benjamin has King Mosiah gather the people to the temple that has been built in Zarahemla. This is the first we hear of a temple in this location (Nephi and Jacob had told us about an earlier temple in the land of Nephi from which the Nephites later fled, effectively ceding it to the Lamanites). Having another temple in the Nephites’ relatively new location tells us something about the magnitude of commitment King Benjamin (and perhaps his father Mosiah) was able to ignite within his people.

Enter the Prophet-Historian Mormon - The Words of Mormon

You can read the entire chapter at the following link https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/w-of-m/1?lang=eng.

We fast forward to about 385 A.D. Lehi, Nephi and Jacob have prophesied about the destruction of the Nephites if they fall into iniquity, and now we learn that the prophecy is in the last stages of being fulfilled.

The voice of Mormon, the namesake of the entire record, appears for the first time. We will get to know him well. From this point forward, until near the end of the record when he turns the plates over to his son Moroni, Mormon’s point of view dominates what we read. He abridges the records that were made and handed down through the generations from the time of King Benjamin (about 130 B.C.) to that of the record-keeper (and probable Nephite leader) Ammaron (about 321 A.D.). Then Mormon supplies his own record (running from about 321 A.D. to 385 A.D.). This comprises the heart of the book, and 338 of the book’s total 531 pages, spanning about 515 years. At various points throughout, Mormon takes the narrator’s prerogative to add inspired words of clarification and emphasis. When he does that, it’s a good sign that the Lord wants us to pay special attention to something.

So what does the Lord want us to pay attention to at this point in the book? Maybe first what is mentioned above about the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Nephites’ destruction. As we get into the heart of the book, we will be able to follow the cyclical course of the Nephites’ prosperity, and how often they use their favorable material circumstances as false justification to disengage from the Lord and—through ingratitude and pride—hurt each other and ultimately themselves. Mormon’s casual reference to the destruction as a done deal in the first two verses points up for us the ruinous path of earthly prosperity without regard for the Lord—the true source of all good things.

Secondly, it seems the Lord wants us to recognize—once again—the great miracle that is the unbroken chain of custody over the sacred record. Somehow, each of the men who kept the plates was able to pass it on to someone else who remained faithful to his task and was able to keep alive the promise that eventually it would resurface and awaken future generations to the unrealized promises made to their fathers and still on offer to them (verses 10-11). This is the overarching continuity of the Book of Mormon. Through all the ups and downs, the faithfulness and faithlessness, that record remains intact and in good hands for a thousand years.

And we are reminded that the Lord is very particular in how the record would be received by future generations. Just as Nephi was told by the Lord to make small plates alongside a larger historical record as a way of preserving and transmitting the most precious of his people’s prophecies and teachings, for a “wise purpose” unto the Lord (1 Nephi 19 and 2 Nephi 5), the “workings of the Spirit” whisper to Mormon to organize the small plates with the portion of his abridgment of the larger historical record (with the abridgment on plates made by Mormon himself) in such a way that where the small plates end chronologically, he has inserted this “chapter” to provide us a bridge from the small plates to his abridgment of the larger ones (verses 5-7).

In the last third of this chapter, Mormon returns to the narrative. If you remember from Amaleki’s record in Omni, the Nephite king Mosiah was warned by the Lord to flee the land of Nephi to a new land called Zarahemla. Mosiah died and his son Benjamin inherited the kingdom. Mormon tells us that the Lamanites threaten the Nephites in their new dwelling place, but that Benjamin and his people repel the Lamanites in the “strength of the Lord” (verse 14).

It’s not absolutely clear, but it is possible that the Nephites’ contentions among themselves (verse 12) had made them vulnerable to the Lamanites. Mormon refers to false Christs and false prophets and teachers among the people who instigated the contentions and even dissensions unto the Lamanites. This will be a common pattern we see as the book continues, where the Nephites are their own worst enemies. Those who are raised as Nephites, with the true record of their covenant relationship with the Lord and their family’s heritage of faith, often end up as the most implacable foes of their people—willfully rebelling from that heritage and inciting the Lamanites to come against the Nephites as means of revenge or the acquisition of power or wealth.

Mormon tells us that King Benjamin countered the negative effects of the false prophets and teachers on his people in two main ways. Those propagating falsehoods and blasphemy were punished under the Nephites’ laws. But recourse to law and force only stopped the active spread of error, it did not reverse it. We learn that—as is always the case—the only truly effective way to disabuse the people of their false notions and to bring about true peace in the land was to preach the gospel. In verses 16-18, we find out that Benjamin relies on holy men (prophets and those operating under their authority) to “speak the word of God with power and authority” with “sharpness” to counteract the “stiffneckedness of the people.” With labor, love, the Spirit of God and hope that the people will respond of their own free will and choice, this is the only truly time-tested remedy to roll back spiritual darkness in a society.

The Lord's Plan Plays Out Over Time - Book of Omni

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/omni/1?lang=eng.

The Book of Omni is unique in the Book of Mormon as a compendium of records from several different record-keepers down the generations—from Omni to Amaleki. It helps us trace the passage of time (more than 200 years elapse from start to finish), and makes us wonder about what else we might learn about these interesting chapters in the Nephites’ history at some future point. The lack of detail in Omni should not discourage us, however. As we prayerfully acquaint ourselves with the entire Book of Mormon, we can come to realize that what the Lord includes (and doesn’t include) in the book is suited for our needs in this generation. It’s helpful to remember that even though there is great drama and historical curiosity in the Book of Mormon—as with the Bible—it is first and foremost a source of sacred knowledge setting forth principles that can lead us to salvation and eternal life.

The book is named after the first record-keeper it mentions: Omni, the son of Jarom. Here is a rough timeline of all the record-keepers of the small plates of Nephi:

Nephi (son of Lehi): 599 B.C. (in Jerusalem) to 544 B.C. (in the land of Nephi on the American continent)

Jacob (son of Lehi, younger brother of Nephi): 544 B.C. to sometime presumably in the 500-420 B.C. range (in the land of Nephi)

Enos (son of Jacob): About 420 to 399 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Jarom (son of Enos): About 399 to 361 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Omni (son of Jarom): About 323 to 317 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Amaron (son of Omni): About 317 B.C. to 279 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Chemish (son of Omni, brother of Amaron): About 279 B.C. to ?? (in the land of Nephi)

Abinadom (son of Chemish): ?? (in the land of Nephi)

Amaleki (son of Abinadom): ?? (in the land of Nephi) to about 130 B.C. (in the land of Zarahemla)

Amaleki delivers the completed small plates into the hands of the Nephite king Benjamin (verse 25).

So the first two record-keepers cover a total of 135 modern printed pages spanning maybe 100-180 years, and the last seven (of those, the last five are covered in the Book of Omni) cover a total of eight pages spanning maybe 290-370 years. But again, we learn that the plates themselves were nearly full after Jacob completed his record. What we don’t know, at least not yet, is what these record-keepers or the Nephite kings might have recorded on the other (the larger) plates Nephi created to keep the people’s history. Also, we don’t know whether the Lord provided any instruction to the record-keepers about whether they should create additional plates if they had more to say. We know that Mormon, the principal compiler of the plates and the abridger of the large plates of Nephi, created a new set of plates during his time in the 4^th century A.D. My assumption is that if Nephi could make plates in the 6^th century B.C. after arriving on the American continent, and Mormon could make plates nearly a thousand years afterward, the raw materials and technology probably existed for the other record-keepers to make plates in the time in between, if they had chosen to.

From the different accounts of the record-keepers, we are able to feel the sense of duty that these men inherited and, in turn, passed on. After all, assuming each of them read the records of Nephi, Jacob and Enos, it would have been pretty clear to them that the fate of future generations of Nephites and Lamanites depended on their ability to safeguard and preserve the records for future use. We should also recognize the possibility that the Nephites’ language changed over time, and that these record-keepers’ understanding of the “reformed Egyptian” used by Nephi had become specialized knowledge that was not common among all Nephites in these later generations. In Mosiah 1:2, for example, Mormon hints that King Benjamin had to make sure his sons were taught in the language of his fathers to ensure they could know earlier prophecies.

So hopefully we can appreciate the magnitude of the task these men carried out. Presumably it was not only their responsibility to safeguard and preserve the records, but also to share the records’ content and meaning with the Nephites as they taught rising generations and faced various challenges.

Omni’s brief record is unlike those of his predecessors in that he openly confesses to be a “wicked man” who has not followed the Lord’s teachings as he ought to have. This makes us wonder whether Omni truly was someone who substantially strayed from the path of righteousness, or whether he was just holding himself to particularly high standards of conduct because of his leadership role among the people. Omni writes of fighting “much with the sword to preserve my people,” as well as of “many seasons of serious war and bloodshed” (verses 2-3).

Amaron writes that by 279 B.C., the “more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed” as a consequence of their disobedience to God’s commandments, while also writing that the Lord delivered the righteous part of the people out of the hands of their enemies (verses 5-7).

Abinadom, like Omni, writes of seasons of war and of his own personal part in those struggles.

Despite being named after its first author, the Book of Omni is principally written by its last author, Amaleki (verses 12-30). Amaleki tells us a number of significant things. First, that a Nephite king named Mosiah was warned by the Lord to flee with his people (presumably because of threats from the Lamanites) from the land of Nephi. Next, that the Lord’s word and power led Mosiah and his people until they came to a land where they discovered another branch of Israel who had come separately—by the Lord’s hand—from Jerusalem at the time of its capture by the Babylonians. These people—known as the people of Zarahemla after their leader—join with the Nephites and give their name to the land where both peoples now settle. They are also known as the Mulekites because their first leader was a son of Zedekiah (who was King of Judah at the time of the Babylonian invasion) named Mulek, as is later revealed (in Helaman 6 and 8).

Interestingly, in a section of the Book of Mormon that emphasizes the importance of record-keepers through the generations, we are introduced to the people of Zarahemla, who had gone adrift into contention, unbelief, and general confusion largely because they had no written records. This shows us that even with the problems the Nephites are facing, things could have been much worse without the record Nephi and his brothers obtained some 450 years previously. And the Nephites’ ability to preserve their beliefs, language and culture become the means of saving the people of Zarahemla from drifting further into darkness.

Also, we learn of the existence of yet another civilization. The people of Zarahemla provide King Mosiah a stone with engravings that Mosiah is able to translate with help from the Lord beyond his own linguistic abilities. The engravings tell the account of a man named Coriantumr, who had stumbled into their midst some time ago. We later learn that Coriantumr was one of the last surviving members of a group of people who came to the Americas from the Middle East centuries before. These people are known as the Jaredites, and the Nephites later (we find out a few more chapters along, in Mosiah 8 and 21-22) discover a fuller record of their civilization, and through the inspired translation efforts of Mosiah’s grandson (also named King Mosiah) and the diligent abridging of the final Book of Mormon prophet Moroni, this fuller record becomes the Book of Ether (the penultimate, or second-to-last book within the Book of Mormon).

So the Book of Omni serves as this unique section of the Book of Mormon where time passes quickly, and we discover the intersection of narratives and timelines from each of the three main groups whom we know were led by the Lord from the Holy Land (the Middle East) to the new Promised Land (the Americas): the Nephites/Lamanites, the Mulekites (people of Zarahemla) and the Jaredites.

Finally, Amaleki relates the story of a group among the Nephites who appear zealous—and in many ways overzealous—to recover the land they lost the generation before. How often do we see these disputes materialize today among warring nations and peoples? Human nature changes little, unless proactively and persistently turned in the direction of the divine.

And, poof, we have been transported to a time only a few generations (130 years) before Christ’s birth, and about 160 years before Christ’s appearance to the Nephites. This allows us to dig in to the detailed drama that is to come in the rest of the book, maybe foreshadowing the cycles of obedience and disobedience and the moral challenges to society that we have faced in the 190 or so years since Joseph Smith restored the Gospel, as we anticipate the decisive return of Christ to the earth. 

Great Blessings for Small Acts of Obedience - Book of Jarom

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jarom/1?lang=eng.

We’re in a section of the Book of Mormon where the record-keepers are taking a very long view of events and developments. With Enos and Jarom, we don’t get the same vivid detail that Nephi and Jacob provide. That makes it a little more difficult to apply directly to our personal lives. But by pulling back and helping us understand how civilization under covenant to the Lord gets along over time, Enos and Jarom open a window for us into how the Lord’s love and mercy operate.

What stands out to me in the account of Jarom (Enos’ son) is that the Nephite people are clearly imperfect. Jarom tells us that much needed to be done—presumably in reminding the people of the gospel law and of their covenants—because of their general blindness, deafness, and stiffneckedness (verse 3).

And yet, despite these weaknesses, the Lord showers the Nephites with blessings. Why? According to Jarom, it seems to come down to two things in particular:

1)   Some portion of the Nephites continued to exercise abundant faith and receive the communion of the Holy Spirit. Notably, this includes their kings and leaders, who were mighty in faith and taught the people in the Lord’s ways (verses 4 and 7).

2)   Even though the people had trouble with openness to the word of the Lord, at a certain level, they remained obedient to fundamentals—what we know as the Law of Moses. This of course includes the Ten Commandments as well as many of the other practices governing worship and daily habits that are spelled out in the Books of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and that many Jews continue to this day (verse 5).

We know that the Nephites’ prosperity in the land is based on their obedience (verse 9). It appears as though their willingness to keep the Law of Moses and their basic respect for the Lord (Jarom also specifies that the Nephites did not use profanity or engage in blasphemy) was sufficient to help them multiply on the land, become exceedingly rich and sweep away the invading hordes of their bloodthirsty Lamanite cousins (verses 6-8).

Underlying the Nephites’ prosperity is the continual effort put forth by the Lord’s prophets and those assisting them to remind the people of the Law of Moses and that it points the way to the Messiah. Devoid of that context, we may face challenges in understanding the “why” of the Law of Moses beyond its utility as a code of ethics to provide order on earth. With it, the law is tied to the great work of salvation personified in Jesus. It points us in the direction of His divine qualities, and ultimately, His willingness to sacrifice His entire will to that of His Father because of His love for us. Under Jarom, the prophets, priests and teachers persuaded their people to believe in the Messiah to come “as though he already was” (verse 11).

As the Apostle Paul wrote more than 400 years after Jarom’s time (by Jarom’s own timeline, he finishes his record and entrusts the plates to his son Omni in 361 B.C.), and after the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ had been accomplished (in Galatians 3:24):

Wherefore the law [of Moses] was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

The Law of Moses recognizes that the rest of us need to learn obedience and sacrifice gradually, while showing that the ultimate goal of emulating the Savior remains the same. The great lesson of Jarom—that we can still find great blessings while we are in the process of feeling our way toward the higher law that Jesus kept—is extremely comforting and shows how much the Lord wants to bless us for even the smallest acts of obedience. It also reinforces the inseparability of the Law of Moses from who Jesus is and what He did and still does. Let us never forget that the Passover deliverance of the Israelites from mortal death—so powerfully represented by the Israelites’ reliance on the blood of the unblemished firstborn lamb—points directly to the Lamb of God’s ability to deliver us all from both the grave and our own sins by His own willing sacrifice.