Omni 1:20-30
Before we get into today’s reading, there are a few things that I have been thinking about that I want to discuss. First kind of ties into today’s reading, and that is the initial purpose of the plates as from the perspective of the Book or Mormon writers. This thought process started as we were reading scriptures today, me and my kids. We read 1 Nephi chapter 9, and it’s short, only 6 verses, but it is Nephi telling us about the two separate sets of plates that he has created, the large plates for the “account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people,” and the smaller plates “are for the more part of the ministry.” So here we get that there are two sets of plates, but both are named the plates of Nephi, that can be kind of confusing, and that one is for historical recording and the other is for the things of God. So maybe we could liken that to one being Time magazine and the other being the Ensign magazine. But here’s what caught my attention, in verse 5 we read “wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not,” but by the time that we get to Jarom some 200+ years later, the purpose of keeping the records is “for the intent of the benefit of our brethren the Lamanites.” It’s just interesting to me to see the shift in generalized knowledge of the purpose of the plates, at least among the church leadership from the time of Nephi to the time of Jarom. Another interesting facet to this, is that we see the Book of Mormon as being a large, continuous record, and perhaps I have always assumed that the writers in Omni who just gave it a few words, were just disinterested, but here we can see in Omni 1:30 that “these plates are full” so it would seem that there is just a tiny bit of space left in the plates for the last couple hundred years, so I can see how the writers at that time, even though they were probably mostly righteous, they were probably hesitant to fill the remaining little bit of space with what they felt had already been covered, so that makes sense from that point of view. Another concept that I had been pondering today was from last night’s reading, where, I assume, that Zarahemla steps aside and let’s Mosiah be the king of the people as they joined together. I saw this to be a very humbling example of greatness, but by taking the true descendants of Nephi into their fold and adopting their beliefs, language, and name, calling themselves Nephites, even though they aren’t technically the people of Nephi, this is similar to the adoption of the gentiles into the house of Israel when they believe in the gospel. We can see numerous examples of times when a group of people adopt the beliefs and culture of the people of God, and this is one of them. Even though the people of Zarahemla are Israelites, they reject the disbelief of God that had been adopted and became a part of the people of God, and it was just a good example to me of what it’s like to give up all your old beliefs and culture and truly taking the gospel into your life and “becoming” different people. And the final point that I was pondering was the importance of the scriptures as was taught yesterday by the people of Mulek. I was listening to the most recent general conference on my way to work today and I heard the talk by President Boyd K. Packer called “The Key to Spiritual Protection.” And the little one sentence blurb at the top summarizing the talk says “Peace can be settled in the heart of each who turns to the scriptures and unlocks the promises of protection and redemption.” And the basis of the talk, that I understood, was that we live in perilous and scary times but we can find peace in the gospel. In the talk President Packer says “the scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection. They contain the doctrine and law and ordinances that will bring each child of God to a testimony of Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer.” But then he told a story that I’ve never heard before, or anything like it, and it struck a chord with something that I said last night about by just reading the scriptures with the desire to learn, the Spirit teaches us personally. He says that he was sent to give counsel to a stake that was “struggling with tensions” and he consulted with Elder S. Dilworth Young of the Seventy on what to tell them and Elder Young said “tell them to read the scriptures.” President Packer asked which scriptures, and Elder Young answered “it really doesn’t matter. Tell them to open up the Book of Mormon, for instance, and begin to read. Soon the feeling of peace and inspiration will come, and a solution will present itself.” That was very powerful to me; just reading with desire and true intent is enough to start on the path to personal revelation. So when the people of Mulek left Jerusalem without any scriptures, they not only didn’t take the true teaching and doctrine of God, but they left behind the opportunity to learn by the Spirit that comes with simple study. It was a very interesting insight for me.
1:20-22 – The people of Zarahemla gave Mosiah a stone “with engravings on it; and he did interpret the engravings by the gift and power of God.” Apparently, the people had found a man wandering named Coriantumr, and he lived with them for “the space of nine moons.” This Coriantumr was the last king of a people who were settled in another part of the Americas, who had all killed each other off. That is an interesting story that we can get into when we get to Ether, but I always wondered once everyone was dead except Ether and Coriantumr, if they ever reached out to each other and stayed together as the only people they had, or if they each went their separate ways and stayed alone, until Coriantumr found the people of Zarahemla. Verse 22 says that “the severity of the Lord fell upon them according to his judgments, which are just; and their bones lay scattered in the land northward.” Even though not explicitly stated, from this we can infer that the people fell into wickedness, refused to repent and were destroyed. Of all the writers that we’ve had so far, even just in the book of Omni, we haven’t had the destruction of a people because of their wickedness described in these types of words before. There is no out right statement of why they must have been destroyed, or how they were destroyed, only that they are all now dead in the land northward. The term “severity of the Lord” has not been used in the record yet, and most other writers have been very clear in saying that basically “the more wicked part of the people were destroyed,” another example of a different writer with his own phraseology and ways of description.
1:23-25 – Here is a more accurate setting forth of the generations and showing where Amaleki lived in relation to Mosiah. He says that he “was born in the days of Mosiah; and I have lived to see his death; and Benjamin, his son, reigneth in his stead.” So as we discussed yesterday, the more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed during Amaron’s time, but it wasn’t until Amaleki was born 3 generations later that Mosiah was warned to leave the land of Nephi and eventually became king over the people in Zarahemla, who adopted the Nephite beliefs, name and culture. We can assume that the Lamanites took over the land of Nephi and destroyed all the remaining Nephites who didn’t go with Mosiah because they didn’t “hearken unto the voice of the Lord.” But even though they ran away, pretty far away I’m assuming, in verse 24 Amaleki tells us that there was “serious war and much bloodshed between the Nephites and the Lamanites.” It’s just so interesting to watch the pattern over the space of hundreds of years, Nephi leaves L&L but they follow him and try to kill the Nephites, then Mosiah leaves the land of Nephi and goes away, but the Lamanites STILL follow him and try to destroy the Nephites, and apparently they have a marginal amount of success, but they are only able to destroy the wicked Nephites, even though I’m sure that the Lamanites see it as military success but only the righteous can understand that they were vulnerable because of the wickedness of the people. Amaleki continues that “the Nephites did obtain much advantage over them; yea, insomuch that king Benjamin did drive them out of the land of Zarahemla.” From this I suppose that we can infer that Benjamin was a righteous king and that the people were worthy of the Lord’s protection at the time of this battle. Amaleki also tells us explicitly that he knew “King Benjamin to be a just man before the Lord.” Amaleki knows that he is about to die and he exhorts “all men to come unto God, the Holy One of Israel, and believe in prophesying, and in revelations, and in the ministering of angels, and in the gift of speaking with tongues, and in the gift of interpreting languages, and in all things which are good; for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord; and that which is evil cometh from the devil.” It’s interesting because as I read this, I don’t know, I think that perhaps I’ve become a little complacent with the deep meaning and purpose of the scriptures. I have an amazing life, I’m very blessed, and I think today I have not taken the thought or preparation needed to fully understand and retain the message. I went into today’s reading thinking that it was only going to be a history lesson but I was wrong. I do believe in prophesying, revelations, ministering of angels (though I’m not really sure what this means,) the gift of speaking in tongues and interpreting languages. I deeply believe that these things are true, but in my complacency, I forget why it’s so very important that this message is included in the very little space that is left of the plates. So of course I cross referenced this verse and something that came up was an October 2001 general conference address by none other than President Boyd K. Packer called “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” And I had to read it through a couple of time before I really felt the meaning of why this message is so important for people to hear and take to heart. In the talk he says something interesting, that after the printing of the Book of Mormon initially, “if the content of the book did not doom it to remain obscure, the account of where it came from certainly would. Imagine an angel directing a teenage boy to the woods where he found buried a stone vault and a set of golden plates.” This made me think about all those “Best Seller” books, and what makes them so, and surely this isn’t a riveting account of fast and furious action, the type of stuff that usually makes books best sellers, and the story that came out about how Book of Mormon came to be, yeah, there’s no way that logically Joseph Smith could have imagined and written the Book of Mormon and that it ever could have had the life changing reception that it has without the truth and Spirit of God behind it. Now, he continues, as of 2001, “108,936,922 copies of the Book of Mormon… have been printed. It has been published in 62 languages, with selections of it in another 37 languages, and 22 more translations are in process. Now 60,000 full time missionaries in 142 countries pay their own way to devote two years of the lives to testify that the Book of Mormon is true.” How? How could there be any way possible for this book with weird origins ever have gained prominence without the true message of God? It couldn’t. You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. This many people could only have been convinced and given of their substances and been grateful for it, because of the blessings and assurances that God has poured out abundantly upon them. But why this phrase? Why this message? President Packer talks about a refugee family in post WWII Germany devastated by death and famine and cruelty, contemplating suicide as their only escape from the pain and horror of this life, when they learned of the church and were baptized. “Soon their lives changes. The grandfather found work as a baker and could provide bread for his family and also for Elder Schreiter (the missionary who had baptized them,) who had given them the ‘bread of life.’” I imagined being in that family, at that point of desperation where suicide was the most comforting answer and I imagined reading that there were prophets, revelations, ministering of angels, and a truly loving God. This would be SO vitally important in finding comfort and the will to live, to have the hope that there is something better, that death is not the only solution. This verse could change lives, give hope to the desperate, and faith to the tried. And then I thought about the story that my 6 year old son told me today, that there are only 2 boys in his class at school who go to church, and not even the same church, but after hearing another boy take the Lord’s name in vain, the two boys went to him and talked to him about Jesus. My son, at 6 years old, stood up for what he believed him and it sounded like they weren’t scolding this other boy, but just telling him how special Jesus is to them. I thought that as a child first growing my testimony, I would be comforted to hear that those blessings and miracles still exist and that I should believe in them because a prophet of God told me that they were real.
1:26 – This is a very powerful verse as well, and really an excellent last testimony of Amaleki. There are a couple of points here that stand out, first, as Amaleki asks “I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.” Again, to get a deeper understanding of this I think I have to look at it from the point of view of someone who might be hearing this for the first time, someone who doesn’t know where they can turn for peace. “Salvation” and “redemption” are words that convey hope for the fallen and rest for the weary. It reminds me of the phrase “Return with honor,” and you’re not really concerned with your honor until you have done something dishonorable. As a child, I didn’t understand why it would matter is I returned to God with honor, because I didn’t have the understanding of what it would be like to return to him with dishonor. Opposition in all things right? But once I lived a life of complete and utter dishonor, only then did earning back the right to walk into the Judgment Day with my head held high become so important. Likewise, I could imagine here that only after we see and fully understand our fallen state do we seek to be redeemed and saved. And at this point we can feel his mercy and love fully, because being redeemed and saved requires a change of heart, and we can’t do that on our own. I mean, we can try and seek to be better, but without the Holy Ghost and the love of God, there is no way that we can feel the peace and wholeness that we desperately seek. The second point is “enduring to the end.” I believe that we have discussed the idea before of what “enduring to the end” means. And I don’t think that it means suffering until you are allowed to die, I think it means thriving where you are until you are called home. Standing firm and strong in what the Lord has revealed to you to be the truth. To constantly work to grow closer to Christ, and to be grateful for the opportunities to do so, even though they may be so intense that you feel like you’re drowning. This is a key lesson for me, as I often feel this way. Anyway, this verse is so powerful that there are 29 citations for it, and that’s kind of a lot. One of them is an October 2004 general conference address entitled “Press On,” by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. He says “enduring to the end is the doctrine of continuing on the path leading to eternal life after one has entered into the path through faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. Enduring to the end requires our whole heart… enduring to the end means that we have planted our lives firmly on gospel soil, staying in the mainstream Church, humbly serving our fellow men, living Christlike lives, and keeping our covenants. Those who endure are balanced, consistent, humble, constantly improving, and without guile. Their testimony is not based on worldly reasons- it is based on truth, knowledge, experience, and the Spirit.” Beautiful! I think that that speaks for itself. And the third point in this verse is the admonition to “offer your whole souls as an offering unto him.” An April 1997 general conference address entitle “A Small Stone” by Elaine L. Jack, she teaches that “the Prophet Joseph Smith described offering ‘your whole soul’ as serving God with all your ‘heart, might, mind, and strength.’ It is to put on the altar of God your time, talents, gifts and blessings, your willingness to serve, to do all that he asks.” It seems as if “offering your whole soul” and “enduring to the end” are very similar in execution. And it would seem to me that Amaleki says that by offering your soul and enduring to the end, which is the way that you come unto Christ. That’s a very easy to follow path, and very beautifully said.
1:27-30 – Amaleki is quite the historian it seems, he wants us to know what has transpired within his people, just how interesting it is to see the movements of the people. Here he talks about a man named Zeniff, who he doesn’t name but is discussed later, Mosiah chapter 9 I believe. I love Zeniff, for many reasons, and I’ll probably have to wait to discuss it when we get there, but I love his story, I love his attitude and I love his perspective. From what we read here it would seem that the people who went back to inherit the land of Nephi were more desirous for the land and their “rights” to it, and that their leader was a monster, a bloodthirsty man, and caused the death “Lord of the Flies” style with those he was in charge of caring for. But then after most of them had killed each other off, they came back to Zarahemla and took more people back out with them. It seems like such a selfish and difficult group of people, but then when we hear it from Zeniff’s side, it’s a totally different story. It’s truly amazing, and maybe a lesson to us to not be so quick to judge others or their motives.
1:20-22 – The people of Zarahemla gave Mosiah a stone “with engravings on it; and he did interpret the engravings by the gift and power of God.” Apparently, the people had found a man wandering named Coriantumr, and he lived with them for “the space of nine moons.” This Coriantumr was the last king of a people who were settled in another part of the Americas, who had all killed each other off. That is an interesting story that we can get into when we get to Ether, but I always wondered once everyone was dead except Ether and Coriantumr, if they ever reached out to each other and stayed together as the only people they had, or if they each went their separate ways and stayed alone, until Coriantumr found the people of Zarahemla. Verse 22 says that “the severity of the Lord fell upon them according to his judgments, which are just; and their bones lay scattered in the land northward.” Even though not explicitly stated, from this we can infer that the people fell into wickedness, refused to repent and were destroyed. Of all the writers that we’ve had so far, even just in the book of Omni, we haven’t had the destruction of a people because of their wickedness described in these types of words before. There is no out right statement of why they must have been destroyed, or how they were destroyed, only that they are all now dead in the land northward. The term “severity of the Lord” has not been used in the record yet, and most other writers have been very clear in saying that basically “the more wicked part of the people were destroyed,” another example of a different writer with his own phraseology and ways of description.
1:23-25 – Here is a more accurate setting forth of the generations and showing where Amaleki lived in relation to Mosiah. He says that he “was born in the days of Mosiah; and I have lived to see his death; and Benjamin, his son, reigneth in his stead.” So as we discussed yesterday, the more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed during Amaron’s time, but it wasn’t until Amaleki was born 3 generations later that Mosiah was warned to leave the land of Nephi and eventually became king over the people in Zarahemla, who adopted the Nephite beliefs, name and culture. We can assume that the Lamanites took over the land of Nephi and destroyed all the remaining Nephites who didn’t go with Mosiah because they didn’t “hearken unto the voice of the Lord.” But even though they ran away, pretty far away I’m assuming, in verse 24 Amaleki tells us that there was “serious war and much bloodshed between the Nephites and the Lamanites.” It’s just so interesting to watch the pattern over the space of hundreds of years, Nephi leaves L&L but they follow him and try to kill the Nephites, then Mosiah leaves the land of Nephi and goes away, but the Lamanites STILL follow him and try to destroy the Nephites, and apparently they have a marginal amount of success, but they are only able to destroy the wicked Nephites, even though I’m sure that the Lamanites see it as military success but only the righteous can understand that they were vulnerable because of the wickedness of the people. Amaleki continues that “the Nephites did obtain much advantage over them; yea, insomuch that king Benjamin did drive them out of the land of Zarahemla.” From this I suppose that we can infer that Benjamin was a righteous king and that the people were worthy of the Lord’s protection at the time of this battle. Amaleki also tells us explicitly that he knew “King Benjamin to be a just man before the Lord.” Amaleki knows that he is about to die and he exhorts “all men to come unto God, the Holy One of Israel, and believe in prophesying, and in revelations, and in the ministering of angels, and in the gift of speaking with tongues, and in the gift of interpreting languages, and in all things which are good; for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord; and that which is evil cometh from the devil.” It’s interesting because as I read this, I don’t know, I think that perhaps I’ve become a little complacent with the deep meaning and purpose of the scriptures. I have an amazing life, I’m very blessed, and I think today I have not taken the thought or preparation needed to fully understand and retain the message. I went into today’s reading thinking that it was only going to be a history lesson but I was wrong. I do believe in prophesying, revelations, ministering of angels (though I’m not really sure what this means,) the gift of speaking in tongues and interpreting languages. I deeply believe that these things are true, but in my complacency, I forget why it’s so very important that this message is included in the very little space that is left of the plates. So of course I cross referenced this verse and something that came up was an October 2001 general conference address by none other than President Boyd K. Packer called “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” And I had to read it through a couple of time before I really felt the meaning of why this message is so important for people to hear and take to heart. In the talk he says something interesting, that after the printing of the Book of Mormon initially, “if the content of the book did not doom it to remain obscure, the account of where it came from certainly would. Imagine an angel directing a teenage boy to the woods where he found buried a stone vault and a set of golden plates.” This made me think about all those “Best Seller” books, and what makes them so, and surely this isn’t a riveting account of fast and furious action, the type of stuff that usually makes books best sellers, and the story that came out about how Book of Mormon came to be, yeah, there’s no way that logically Joseph Smith could have imagined and written the Book of Mormon and that it ever could have had the life changing reception that it has without the truth and Spirit of God behind it. Now, he continues, as of 2001, “108,936,922 copies of the Book of Mormon… have been printed. It has been published in 62 languages, with selections of it in another 37 languages, and 22 more translations are in process. Now 60,000 full time missionaries in 142 countries pay their own way to devote two years of the lives to testify that the Book of Mormon is true.” How? How could there be any way possible for this book with weird origins ever have gained prominence without the true message of God? It couldn’t. You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. This many people could only have been convinced and given of their substances and been grateful for it, because of the blessings and assurances that God has poured out abundantly upon them. But why this phrase? Why this message? President Packer talks about a refugee family in post WWII Germany devastated by death and famine and cruelty, contemplating suicide as their only escape from the pain and horror of this life, when they learned of the church and were baptized. “Soon their lives changes. The grandfather found work as a baker and could provide bread for his family and also for Elder Schreiter (the missionary who had baptized them,) who had given them the ‘bread of life.’” I imagined being in that family, at that point of desperation where suicide was the most comforting answer and I imagined reading that there were prophets, revelations, ministering of angels, and a truly loving God. This would be SO vitally important in finding comfort and the will to live, to have the hope that there is something better, that death is not the only solution. This verse could change lives, give hope to the desperate, and faith to the tried. And then I thought about the story that my 6 year old son told me today, that there are only 2 boys in his class at school who go to church, and not even the same church, but after hearing another boy take the Lord’s name in vain, the two boys went to him and talked to him about Jesus. My son, at 6 years old, stood up for what he believed him and it sounded like they weren’t scolding this other boy, but just telling him how special Jesus is to them. I thought that as a child first growing my testimony, I would be comforted to hear that those blessings and miracles still exist and that I should believe in them because a prophet of God told me that they were real.
1:26 – This is a very powerful verse as well, and really an excellent last testimony of Amaleki. There are a couple of points here that stand out, first, as Amaleki asks “I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.” Again, to get a deeper understanding of this I think I have to look at it from the point of view of someone who might be hearing this for the first time, someone who doesn’t know where they can turn for peace. “Salvation” and “redemption” are words that convey hope for the fallen and rest for the weary. It reminds me of the phrase “Return with honor,” and you’re not really concerned with your honor until you have done something dishonorable. As a child, I didn’t understand why it would matter is I returned to God with honor, because I didn’t have the understanding of what it would be like to return to him with dishonor. Opposition in all things right? But once I lived a life of complete and utter dishonor, only then did earning back the right to walk into the Judgment Day with my head held high become so important. Likewise, I could imagine here that only after we see and fully understand our fallen state do we seek to be redeemed and saved. And at this point we can feel his mercy and love fully, because being redeemed and saved requires a change of heart, and we can’t do that on our own. I mean, we can try and seek to be better, but without the Holy Ghost and the love of God, there is no way that we can feel the peace and wholeness that we desperately seek. The second point is “enduring to the end.” I believe that we have discussed the idea before of what “enduring to the end” means. And I don’t think that it means suffering until you are allowed to die, I think it means thriving where you are until you are called home. Standing firm and strong in what the Lord has revealed to you to be the truth. To constantly work to grow closer to Christ, and to be grateful for the opportunities to do so, even though they may be so intense that you feel like you’re drowning. This is a key lesson for me, as I often feel this way. Anyway, this verse is so powerful that there are 29 citations for it, and that’s kind of a lot. One of them is an October 2004 general conference address entitled “Press On,” by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. He says “enduring to the end is the doctrine of continuing on the path leading to eternal life after one has entered into the path through faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. Enduring to the end requires our whole heart… enduring to the end means that we have planted our lives firmly on gospel soil, staying in the mainstream Church, humbly serving our fellow men, living Christlike lives, and keeping our covenants. Those who endure are balanced, consistent, humble, constantly improving, and without guile. Their testimony is not based on worldly reasons- it is based on truth, knowledge, experience, and the Spirit.” Beautiful! I think that that speaks for itself. And the third point in this verse is the admonition to “offer your whole souls as an offering unto him.” An April 1997 general conference address entitle “A Small Stone” by Elaine L. Jack, she teaches that “the Prophet Joseph Smith described offering ‘your whole soul’ as serving God with all your ‘heart, might, mind, and strength.’ It is to put on the altar of God your time, talents, gifts and blessings, your willingness to serve, to do all that he asks.” It seems as if “offering your whole soul” and “enduring to the end” are very similar in execution. And it would seem to me that Amaleki says that by offering your soul and enduring to the end, which is the way that you come unto Christ. That’s a very easy to follow path, and very beautifully said.
1:27-30 – Amaleki is quite the historian it seems, he wants us to know what has transpired within his people, just how interesting it is to see the movements of the people. Here he talks about a man named Zeniff, who he doesn’t name but is discussed later, Mosiah chapter 9 I believe. I love Zeniff, for many reasons, and I’ll probably have to wait to discuss it when we get there, but I love his story, I love his attitude and I love his perspective. From what we read here it would seem that the people who went back to inherit the land of Nephi were more desirous for the land and their “rights” to it, and that their leader was a monster, a bloodthirsty man, and caused the death “Lord of the Flies” style with those he was in charge of caring for. But then after most of them had killed each other off, they came back to Zarahemla and took more people back out with them. It seems like such a selfish and difficult group of people, but then when we hear it from Zeniff’s side, it’s a totally different story. It’s truly amazing, and maybe a lesson to us to not be so quick to judge others or their motives.
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