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).