Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

10:1-8 - This is the theme for this chapter. We left off with a famine bringing the people who were left of the Jaredites to repentance. Moroni tells us that the king who led them into this great wickedness, Heth "had perished by the famine, and all his household save it were Shez- wherefore, Shez began to build up again a broken people." Very descriptive wording used by Moroni here, those who survived the famine were "a broken people," that seems like an accurate description. Shez was the king and was righteous because "he remembered what the Lord had done in bringing Jared and his brother across the deep; and he did walk in the ways of the Lord." In keeping with the theme of crazy plays for power, Shez's oldest son "did rebel against him; nevertheless, Shez was smitten by the hand of a robber, because of his exceeding riches, which brought peace again unto his father." It's sad that the death of a child brought peace to the king Shez,...

9:1-7 - We’re in the middle of this murderous plot, Moroni having just warned us about the dangers of secret combinations. Just to reintroduce the players here, we have king Omer, who is the king over all the land. Omer is a righteous king and the son of Shule who was also a righteous king. Omer has many children, but the prominent player here is his son, Jared, and Jared’s daughter. Jared enlisted Akish as a secret ally to regain power over the kingdom and promised to let Akish marry his daughter if he would behead Omer, his father. Akish agrees and enlisted all his friends to get this done, surely on the backs of promises such as “when I’m king, I’ll give you…” So Omer is facing mortal peril, “Nevertheless, the Lord was merciful unto Omer, and also to his sons and to his daughters who did not seek his destruction. And the Lord warned Omer in a dream that he should depart out of the land…. And it came to pass that Jared was anointed king over the people, by the hand of wickedness; and...

8:1-7 - I’ve had a kind of difficult weekend. I took two days off of work and felt really just grumpy and irritated, had a couple of run ins with people, it’s been a while since I’ve had that and it felt really bad. I realized that when I’m on my regular schedule, I listen to conference or the Ensign or something like that for over an hour everyday while driving to work, then I do an intensive scripture study and blog post at night, and then I pray not only on the way home from work, which is about 45 minutes, but then I try to have an honest conversation with God when I get home too. So in all, on a work day I usually spend 3+ hours engaged in some sort of spiritually strengthening activity, whereas on the weekends pretty much everything comes to a complete stop, I don’t blog, the only scripture study that I do is with my kids for about 10 minutes every day, my prayers are more lax because I have kids in my face pretty much all the time. In comparison, I spend 3+ hours a day engaged s...

7:1-6 - I’ve had a really difficult last hour or so, I got some really terrible news and it’s difficult because I don’t know the Lord’s reasons, I don’t know exactly what the purpose that this tragedy serves, and I feel sick, but I am grateful for the plan of salvation, I’m grateful that families are forever. This is the first real tragedy that I’ve had to look at through the eyes of “I know that God is a loving father,” it’s new but honestly, comforting. Chapter 7 is interesting; the IM says “A great deal of the Jaredites’ history is covered in chapter 7 of the book of Ether. Moroni recorded only highlights of this history in his abridgement. He emphasized the parallels with his own people and the lessons that would be most valuable for our day.” Moroni continues to describe Orihah’s reign saying that he “did execute judgment upon the land in righteousness all his days, whose days were exceedingly many.” So again, just because he took on the mantle of kingship doesn’t mean that he was...

6:12-17 - The Jaredites have finally landed in the promised land after almost a year at sea, which I couldn’t even imagine. If the Lord wanted to truly test my faith, he would send me across the ocean in a barge, and it would be brutal, literally, it would take A LOT to get me on a boat for more than about 20 minutes. Understandably, when the Jaredites arrived in the promised land “they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, and because of his tender mercies over them.” I would imagine showing up on the shores of the promised land, all my friends and family safe and together, and for 8 barges to arrive together probably around the same time, would have just been too much for my little mind to comprehend the Lord doing that for me. They began to become a civilization, farming, having kids, “and they were taught to walk humbly before the Lord, and they were also taught from on high.” Very reli...

6:1-3 - After the instructions to Joseph Smith Moroni will not "proceed to give the record of Jared and his brother." The IM says, as an introduction to Ether 6, "In Ether 6-10, Moroni told of the Jaredites' journey across the ocean to the promised land. He then summarized the reigns of several generations of kings, contrasting periods of righteousness with periods of wickedness and conflict. Moroni observed many similarities between the Jaredites and his own people, the Nephites. He described the cycle of pride, prosperity, wickedness, and repentance that he had seen in the two nations. He outlined the grave danger we put ourselves in when we allow pride and secret combinations to get control in our society. Both the Nephite and the Jaredite civilizations illustrate the truth that what we sow, we shall reap. Following the Lord brings happiness, while straying from His commandments brings strife and misery." The Nephites and the Jaredites are the main examples i...

5:1-6 - This is a super short chapter, only 6 verses, but the IM has quite a bit on the subject. Moroni says that he feels that he’s “written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory.” Moroni starts this chapter giving instructions to Joseph Smith, kind of like “ok I’ve done my part, so let me tell you what you have to do now.” I know that we’ve discussed before that ancient prophets prayed for Joseph Smith and for his success, so it would make sense that if they prayed for him, they also gave him advice and instruction, if they thought they’d be able to relay it, which Moroni clearly would have. Also I think we talked about how Moroni tutored Joseph Smith way more than we know, right after my 400th post, a guy I go to church with told me a story of when Joseph, Emma, and a couple of other people were riding in a wagon once, and a man walked past them, in era-style clothing, hat and beard and once the wagon past the man, Joseph Smith told his traveling companions “tha...