Mosiah 9 - Zeniff
9:1-2 - When I first read this chapter many years ago, I assumed when Zeniff said that he was "sent as a spy among the Lamanites," that it was in the context of the Nephite army, and that he was looking for combatant forces to be encountered. In that context, Zeniff request for a "treaty" to be made with them, it didn't really make sense in the midst of a war. But when reading it this time and also reading the Book of Mormon GD teaching manual (GDM) I see it from a different origin, not military in nature but more colonial. The GDM says "Zeniff was a member of a group of Nephites who wanted to regain from the Lamanites some of the land of Nephi." This tells me that this was a peace time venture, so whatever group that Zeniff was spying for wasn't the military, this wasn't a military strike, and this is more in line with what we learn in Omni 1:27 who teach that the group of people "went up into the wilderness to return to the land of Nephi." Now I'm going to speculate for a minute here based on what I've read, if Zeniff was spying on the Lamanites "that our army might come upon them and destroy them" it seems more likely that this group of people was planning on taking the land that they wanted by force, killing the Lamanites who lived there and taking over, this is why it makes more sense that Zeniff wanted to make a treaty with them instead of launching a military strike. The man who was the leader of the group is described by Zeniff as an "austere and a blood-thirsty man" and described by Omni as "a stiffnecked man," so there is no presupposition that the leader was anything but a warmonger. Ok, let's go back a minute and look at the society that these people were leaving, more specifically, the time period. Mosiah had gone up out of the land of Nephi about half a generation beforehand. In Omni, the last writer Amaleki said that he had a brother who went with Zeniff and never returned, assuming that Amaleki and his brother were only a couple of decades older than Zeniff at the most, it's possible that Zeniff had lived in the land of Nephi before and left with Mosiah, though he was probably young. It says that Zeniff "had a knowledge of the land of Nephi" so it's possible that he lived there and knew it well and longed to return. Then once they reached the city of Zarahemla and settled in, there was a great war between the newly grouped Nephites and the Lamanites, in which I'm sure that Zeniff fought as well as this blood thirsty leader of the initial group. So after fleeing from a land that he obviously loved, and being drenched in the blood of war I can totally understand where there would be a desire to leave and either go back to what you had before, or at least leave where you are now. There are several times throughout the Book of Mormon where, just after winning a major war, groups of people leave to go find greener pastures. This is a sentiment that I totally understand. I've been in war, I know what it's like to feel "anything is better than the constant threat of violence that will follow all my generations," the desire for peace and a new start where not everyone hates you and actively seeks your destruction. I can see how the move would have appealed to many people. Zeniff's probable participation in the war, likely as a spy, speaks much about his character as a person when his heart softened when "I saw that which was good among them (and) I was desirous that they should not be destroyed." It is an interesting poll to take among veterans, not that many will tell you, but I know that the people that you fought against can become a source of constant resentment and terror as, years later, coming in contact with the people who now live in peace brings up memories of fear and suffering. So for Zeniff to be open minded enough to see that there were good parts to the Lamanites and to know that destroying a people, probably many women and children, just to take over there land was immoral, shows that, though misguided, very well intentioned. When Zeniff comes back and proposes that their "ruler should make a treaty with them" instead of just annihilating the civilian population, the ruler calls for his head, and thus shows that an "oppose me and die" attitude prevails with him, so it's not too far fetched to think that he would be just fine destroying a people just to take over their lands. It's unfathomable to me that the only way to save Zeniff, who appears to be the only speaker of reason here, is through "the shedding of much blood; for father fought against father, and brother against brother, until the greater number of our army was destroyed in the wilderness." I'm sure that they loved Zeniff, but it sounds to me like this probably got a little bit more idealistic, because brother usually doesn't fight against brother just to save a persons life. More speculation on my part, but what I think is more likely to have happened is that it wasn't just "I love Zeniff" or "I hate him and want to kill him," what it probably came down to was "I don't think it's ok to murder people and take their land" and "yeah let's kill them all and bathe in their blood." It seems to me that this is a more likely explanation for the massive bloodshed. After the little civil war in the wilderness, Omni says that 50 people returned, one of which was Zeniff, and then it was their job "to relate that tale to their wives and their children." And if they weren't motivated to get out of dodge before this, surely they couldn't stay there now, to face the families of the people who were killed while on your adventure, to face everyday those who thought you were stupid for going out there in the first place, and plus Zeniff felt like he had a surefire plan to get what they wanted peacefully.
9:3-7 - But here is the most interesting part of the whole chapter, where Zeniff acknowledges that he was "being over-zealous to inherit the land of our fathers." There are two types of people in this world, those who can live the self examined life, and those who will not. Truly only real growth and personal development can happen when one can look inward and evaluate. When he first left Zarahemla, I'm confident that he didn't believe that he was being over-zealous, but when we get to this point where they are settled enough to start making records, Zeniff has realized that he perhaps has not made the best choice, and he's willing to admit that, and try to move forward with the consequences of the decision that he made. This acknowledgment must have taken some deep introspection, and brought him to the depths of humility. It's interesting because one of the references for this verse is an April 2003 general conference address entitled "Sweet Power of Prayer," by Elder Russell M. Nelson and when I saw it, I immediately started thinking about what I thought that the talk would say, and basically, I thought that it was going to cite this journey for settlement in the land of Nephi as an example of the bad choices that you make when you don't pray about a decision. Kind of presumptuous of me, the talk actually used it as an example of a time when a people "were slow to remember the Lord our God," but it was just a thought I had, I wonder if they would have gone to the land of Nephi, if that was God's plan for them. Self will run riot at it's finest, perhaps, and maybe that's why I like Zeniff so much, because he is very well intentioned and seems to have made some difficult to get out of choices in his youth, but in the end, recognizes his mistakes and learns and grows from them, turning out to be a great man. And maybe that's what I'm hoping will happen with me, because I've made some pretty awful choices, I still do, but I'm well intentioned and I hope to be triumphant in the end. Just as a side note, like the blood thirsty ruler, I don't think that they thought this all the way out, or maybe they just didn't know and we do because of how much information and technology we have, but taking a small number of people and invading and destroying a city, will call up a military response faster than anything else, and whenever people are forced to leave their homes so that other people can have them, there is nothing but problems and violence that follows. But it seems like they did ok for a while.
9:8-12 - It doesn't say here specifically whether or not the people of Zeniff lived righteously after they moved into their new city, but I assume that they did for a couple of reasons. First the "did begins to multiply and prosper in the land," and as we know, that only happens when people are righteous, because as we've seen many many times, the Lord will not cause his people to prosper when they do not keep his commandments. And the second reason I assume that they were relatively righteous is because they lived in peace for 12 years, and that's kind of a long time for wicked people to not either destroy each other or be destroyed by outside enemies. In fact the people of Zeniff did prosper so much that the Lamanite king "began to grow uneast, leasy by any means my people should wax strong in the land, and that they could not overpower them and bring them into bondage," they were becoming too powerful. The story of the war is so amazing and beautiful, and testifies of the love and strength of God. Here is this little city of Nephites living in the land of the Lamanites, their sworn enemies, and "a numerous host of Lamanites" came against them to battle, and this is what I tell my kids whenever we get to war stories in our study of the Book of Mormon, strategically speaking, should a small unprofessional fighting force be able to win against an entire army? No they should not, but they do, and who wins that war for them? That's right, Jesus. I tell my children that one single man, alone, can win a battle against an entire army if God fights with him, and there are numerous examples of that happening, and this is one of them. Zeniff says that "in the strength of the Lord did we go forth to battle against the Lamanites; for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers." Here is another reason to suppose that the people were pretty righteous, the war wasn't to punish them for wickedness, as is the case so many times, but the small unlikely people won through the strength of God. "And God did hear our cries and did answer our prayers; and we did go forth in his might." Now listen to these statistics, they repelled the numerous Lamanite army out of their lands in only one day, that's pretty impressive. They killed 3,043 Lamanites but only 279 of their people died, and in the context of hand to hand combat, that is amazing, usually it is more equal unless there is a far superior fighting force, and it seems like for them, on that day, there was.
Just a quick FYI, I heard the most amazing talk today. Since I learned so much by listening to the October 2004 general conference yesterday I decided that I would just keep listening to it today, and I got to hear "Where Do I Make My Stand?" by President James E. Faust. I had not heard from him much because he died before I got back into church and learning and all that, but he was funny and it was amazing. I felt as if he was Nephi "one crying from the dust," just to me. The synopsis at the beginning says "to find happiness and joy, no matter what comes, we must make our stand unequivocally with the Lord." It's beautiful, if you have time, go read and listen to it, it's absolutely amazing.
9:3-7 - But here is the most interesting part of the whole chapter, where Zeniff acknowledges that he was "being over-zealous to inherit the land of our fathers." There are two types of people in this world, those who can live the self examined life, and those who will not. Truly only real growth and personal development can happen when one can look inward and evaluate. When he first left Zarahemla, I'm confident that he didn't believe that he was being over-zealous, but when we get to this point where they are settled enough to start making records, Zeniff has realized that he perhaps has not made the best choice, and he's willing to admit that, and try to move forward with the consequences of the decision that he made. This acknowledgment must have taken some deep introspection, and brought him to the depths of humility. It's interesting because one of the references for this verse is an April 2003 general conference address entitled "Sweet Power of Prayer," by Elder Russell M. Nelson and when I saw it, I immediately started thinking about what I thought that the talk would say, and basically, I thought that it was going to cite this journey for settlement in the land of Nephi as an example of the bad choices that you make when you don't pray about a decision. Kind of presumptuous of me, the talk actually used it as an example of a time when a people "were slow to remember the Lord our God," but it was just a thought I had, I wonder if they would have gone to the land of Nephi, if that was God's plan for them. Self will run riot at it's finest, perhaps, and maybe that's why I like Zeniff so much, because he is very well intentioned and seems to have made some difficult to get out of choices in his youth, but in the end, recognizes his mistakes and learns and grows from them, turning out to be a great man. And maybe that's what I'm hoping will happen with me, because I've made some pretty awful choices, I still do, but I'm well intentioned and I hope to be triumphant in the end. Just as a side note, like the blood thirsty ruler, I don't think that they thought this all the way out, or maybe they just didn't know and we do because of how much information and technology we have, but taking a small number of people and invading and destroying a city, will call up a military response faster than anything else, and whenever people are forced to leave their homes so that other people can have them, there is nothing but problems and violence that follows. But it seems like they did ok for a while.
9:8-12 - It doesn't say here specifically whether or not the people of Zeniff lived righteously after they moved into their new city, but I assume that they did for a couple of reasons. First the "did begins to multiply and prosper in the land," and as we know, that only happens when people are righteous, because as we've seen many many times, the Lord will not cause his people to prosper when they do not keep his commandments. And the second reason I assume that they were relatively righteous is because they lived in peace for 12 years, and that's kind of a long time for wicked people to not either destroy each other or be destroyed by outside enemies. In fact the people of Zeniff did prosper so much that the Lamanite king "began to grow uneast, leasy by any means my people should wax strong in the land, and that they could not overpower them and bring them into bondage," they were becoming too powerful. The story of the war is so amazing and beautiful, and testifies of the love and strength of God. Here is this little city of Nephites living in the land of the Lamanites, their sworn enemies, and "a numerous host of Lamanites" came against them to battle, and this is what I tell my kids whenever we get to war stories in our study of the Book of Mormon, strategically speaking, should a small unprofessional fighting force be able to win against an entire army? No they should not, but they do, and who wins that war for them? That's right, Jesus. I tell my children that one single man, alone, can win a battle against an entire army if God fights with him, and there are numerous examples of that happening, and this is one of them. Zeniff says that "in the strength of the Lord did we go forth to battle against the Lamanites; for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers." Here is another reason to suppose that the people were pretty righteous, the war wasn't to punish them for wickedness, as is the case so many times, but the small unlikely people won through the strength of God. "And God did hear our cries and did answer our prayers; and we did go forth in his might." Now listen to these statistics, they repelled the numerous Lamanite army out of their lands in only one day, that's pretty impressive. They killed 3,043 Lamanites but only 279 of their people died, and in the context of hand to hand combat, that is amazing, usually it is more equal unless there is a far superior fighting force, and it seems like for them, on that day, there was.
Just a quick FYI, I heard the most amazing talk today. Since I learned so much by listening to the October 2004 general conference yesterday I decided that I would just keep listening to it today, and I got to hear "Where Do I Make My Stand?" by President James E. Faust. I had not heard from him much because he died before I got back into church and learning and all that, but he was funny and it was amazing. I felt as if he was Nephi "one crying from the dust," just to me. The synopsis at the beginning says "to find happiness and joy, no matter what comes, we must make our stand unequivocally with the Lord." It's beautiful, if you have time, go read and listen to it, it's absolutely amazing.
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