Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

3:1-18 - We just ended the 42nd year of the reign of the judges and the GR have run away when Kishkumen didn't return from his mission to kill Helaman. And after the GR fled out of the land, the people had great peace for 3 years, until the 46th year when "there was much contention and many dissensions; in the which there were an exceedingly great many who departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and went forth unto the land northward to inherit the land." Interestingly, it's never specified if the people who left were the ones who dissented, or if the people who left were the ones who were sick and tired of their crazy neighbors. The people who left had implemented a pretty hefty trade with the remaining Nephites because there was a shortage of timber in many areas of the land "and it came to pass as timber was exceedingly scarce in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way of shipping. And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that t...

2:1-5 - Moronihah has driven the Lamanites out of the Nephite lands and allowed them to return home in peace instead of slaughtering them all, which is what pretty much every other military leader would have done. But his respect for life is an exceptional show of faith, because what's the main reason for killing every one of your enemies? To make sure they don't come back to war against you again. But by doing that you are telling the Lord, "hey thanks for all your help, but I'm going to take matters into my own hands to prevent any future attack." But by allowing his enemies to live and return to their homes he told the Lord, "I trust you to deliver us if our enemies come to battle against us again." If we remember the biggest part of the contention was who would be the chief judge of the land, and we went through Pahoran the second who was murdered by Kishkumen while he was sitting on the judgment seat, Pacumeni who was killed during Coriantumr's ...

1:14-21 - I'm at home tonight, on vacation, for the first time in 3 years, so it's going to be a little bit different. We now have Pacumeni as the governor and chief judge after both of his brothers died either executed for treason or murdered, so I would say that Pacumeni is in a pretty precarious situation when he assumed the judgment seat. And so it was that "in the forty and first year of the reign of the judges, that the Lamanites had gathered together an innumerable army of men, and armed them with swords... and with all manner of shields of every kind." Despite their massive losses just a few years ago, the Lamanites still have enough man power to command an innumerable army. In contrast the Nephites have also suffered losses and a lot of their population have left to go live other places, not that I blame them. As usual, the man who is leading them to battle against the Nephites is... wait for it... "a man whose name was Coriantumr; and he was a descendan...

1:1-13 - We are finally out of the Book of Alma! That's not said as a good thing, because of course I love Alma and Teancum and Pahoran and... but it's more of a milestone for me, so that's pretty exciting, plus we are one step closer to the time when the Savior comes!!! So all the big players from the last book have died, Alma, Helaman, Shiblon, CM, Teancum, Nephihah, and Pahoran. The IM starts Helaman off by describing it as "a stark contrast between the fruits of good and evil. We see the results of evil upon society as well as the individual. The personal growth and blessings obtained by Saints who remain faithful in challenging circumstances can provide us with courage to remain true to righteous principles during difficult times. We can contrast the discord brought by wickedness with the great peace and joy obtained by righteousness. Noting these contrasts provides motivation to chart a course based upon principles that will bring happiness and avoid the misery t...

63:1-3 - The war is finally over, after so many years and we are finally at the end of Alma! Alma the Younger gave the plates to his oldest son Helaman, who in turn gave the plates to his younger brother Shiblon. Shiblon got similar but a little bit different advice from his father Alma, and we know that at that point he was a righteous man. But thankfully, we get to hear that he continued in that righteousness "and he was a just man, and he did walk uprightly before God; and he did observe to do good continually, to keep the commandments of the Lord his God; and also did his brother." We also find out here that CM died, which seems to me like he died kind of young so I thought I would speculate and do some math here, just keep in mind that this is in no way official or possibly even remotely accurate. We first meet CM in chapter 43, about 74 B.C., the 18th year of the reign of the judges, we learn here that he was 25 years old when he was appointed chief captain of the Nephi...

62:30-37 - CM has just dealt with the Lamanite prisoners by sending them over to live with the people of Ammon and apparently it's been going well, considering that the next group of conquered Lamanites asked specifically to go live with there, so it seems successful, though a very unorthodox way of dealing with POWs. Now that they have taken the city of Nephihah, and sent the POWs away, the Nephite army has grown quite a bit, and the Lamanite army has been reduced quite a bit as well because of their losses and also the sheer number of prisoners that have been taken. The Lamanites that were left, "were again frightened and fled before the army of Moroni. And it came to pass that Moroni and his army did pursue them from city to city... even down upon the borders by the seashore, until they came to the land of Moroni. And the armies of the Lamanites were all gathered together, insomuch that they were all in one body in the land of Moroni." So the whole Lamanite army has be...

62:1-14 - This is a very long, but very good chapter. We just finished it as a family today and it was just so awesome, so many good and subtle lessons. CM has just received the letter from Pahoran telling him all the crazy things that have been going on in Zarahemla and asking him to come with the army and over throw the king men. So CM gave command to Teancum and Lehi, then took the rest of his army and marched to Gideon, and on the way "he did raise the standard of liberty in whatsoever place he did enter, and gained whatsoever force he could in all his march towards the land of Gideon. And it came to pass that thousands did flock unto his standard, and did take up their swords in the defence of their freedom, that they might not come into bondage." The people want to be free, they want to fight for their freedom, but with the overthrow of the government, they probably didn't know how to join except for walking off into the wilderness and hoping, plus the kingmen proba...

61:1-9 - We have met Pahoran previously, but now we really get to know him, and we can see why I love him so much. CM has just written Pahoran a scathing letter full of accusation and threats, but the way that Pahoran responds is what makes him such a great man and amazing example. Pahoran has remained righteous and faithful to the cause of freedom and to God, and to be accused of that treason but also that the blood of thousands of righteous soldier is on his hands, that would cause many people’s wrath to gather, I know that me personally, I’m not very good at letting things go, I like to do the whole “excuse me?” thing, make people restate their insults to my face, which most times they don’t. It’s pretty aggressive of me, and believe it or not, I’m a lot better than I was, but reading the example set by Pahoran is quite humbling. In fact, this weekend, we read this chapter as a family and had an interesting practical application. I had not only my 2 kids but I also had a friend’s 3 ...

60:1-22 - CM is furious that the war effort is not being supported by the Nephite people or, as he believes, the government, so he writes a "very strongly worded" letter to "Pahoran, in the city of Zarahemla, who is the chief judge and the governor over the land, and also to all those who have been chosen by this people to govern and manage the affairs of this war." Just as a side note, Pahoran responds in the next couple of chapters and it's quite inspiring, but anyway, he goes right into asking "to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state. Can you think to sit upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor, while your enemies are spreading the wok of death around you? Yea, while they are murdering thousands of your brethren?" Let's assume for a second that CM is correct in his accusations, that he is right to assume that all the Nephite leadership is sitting on their "th...

59:1-10 - This is a pretty short chapter, but I’m really hoping that we can get some good stuff out of it because it looks promising. CM has just received Helaman’s epistle and “he was exceedingly rejoiced because of the welfare, yea, the exceeding success which Helaman had had, in obtaining those lands which were lost. Yea, and he did make it known unto all his people, in all the land round about in that part where he was, that they might rejoice also.” Honestly, Helaman’s story and his feat is miraculous, it’s an amazing story that inspires, and hearing about the success that he’s had and especially that the Lord is with the SWs giving them unheard of success, that can be very motivational, it really improves the morale which is vital in war time. So I’m a little bit confused about the next part, because it says that the people who were in the cities of Moroni, Lehi, and Morianton had gone over to the city of Nephihah, and then Nephihah was attacked by the Lamanites and it says some...

58:1-12 -Helaman and his band are now desirous “to obtain the city of Manti,” but they were hindered by a few different things, the first being that the Lamanites had caught onto their little schemes and weren’t falling for the same old stuff anymore. The other thing that was standing in their way was that all their man power was employed “maintaining those parts of the land which we had regained of our possessions.” They didn’t have the resources to hardly even maintain what they had, let alone go for more, so they waited “that we might receive more strength from the land of Zarahemla and also a new supply of provisions from the land of Zarahemla.” So they waited but unfortunately for them, the Lamanites were actually receiving reinforcements and provisions and being strengthened, started making little attacks on the Nephites and that was weakening them. But they still waited and “we did wait in these difficult circumstances for the space of many months, even until we were about to pe...

57:1-36 - So it looks like CM is not the only one that Ammoron has been in correspondence with, because Helaman tells CM that "I received an epistle from Ammoron, the king, stating that if I would deliver up those prisoners of war whom we had taken that he would deliver up the city of Antiparah unto us." This is an interesting move by Ammoron, and to me this indicates that he already knows that Antiparah is a weak spot, it seems to me that he's looking to unload it and still trying to get something out of the deal before it falls and he gets nothing. Helaman's response is different from CM's, and the return epistle is structured in a completely different way. Whereas CM was quick to lecture Ammoron about the immorality of the war, and finally agree to the prisoner exchange on conditions, Helaman basically declines Ammoron's offer saying, basically, "it's ok, I think we're strong enough." Very interesting, you'd think that as the prophet, ...