There are a couple times in the Book of Mormon where the
Lamanites become more righteous than the Nephites. This is one of them. The
Nephites and Lamanites are at peace with each other, and they do business &
trade together and travel freely among each other. That hasn’t really
happened before! But the wealth and prosperity that comes from these
collaborative years begins to foster pride amongst the Nephites, and pride is
always the poison that ruins peace and leads to destruction. A band of the
secret “Gadianton Robbers” re-emerges, who pledge to defend and support each
other in their covert attempts to gain power. This secret society grows until
it becomes very strong among the Nephites, but the Lamanites seek it out and
preach the word of God and squash the growth of the secret band before it
takes over. So at the end of the chapter, the Lamanites are in a much better
position than the Nephites, who are starting to destruct from within.
Nephi, the great missionary, has returned from his
missionary efforts to his homeland of Zarahemla and is weighed down by the
wickedness and corruption that is taking over the Nephites. One day Nephi is
sitting on a tower in his garden, which is apparently right by a major
“highway” of the Nephites, and starts praying his heart out to God, feeling
totally discouraged by the wickedness among his people. Many people traveling on
the highway hear him and stop to listen. Nephi eventually discovers he has an
audience, and turns around to preach to the people who have gathered. Honestly, I’ve always thought that was a little
weird, because why was Nephi praying so loudly and openly when he knew his back
garden was right along a public thorough-fare, but I guess sometimes people
(even prophets) do funny things.
Nephi has been preaching to the crowd of by-standers
outside his garden, telling them about their wickedness and prophesying of their
destruction if they don’t repent. Some people in the crowd (the guilty ones, of
course) are angry with Nephi and try to stir the crowd up against him. Others
in the crowd believe Nephi and tell the others to listen to him and leave him alone. He has
enough support in the crowd that the angry/scheming people don’t dare to touch Nephi,
and he is able to continue preaching. His
primary message is the message all prophets are sent to testify of—that the Son
of God will come into the world.
And while Nephi has the “spirit of prophesy” upon him, he
receives and shares a revelation of political significance:
26 Yea, even at this time ye are ripening, because of your murders and your fornication and wickedness, for everlasting destruction; yea, and except ye repent it will come unto you soon.27 Yea, behold it is now even at your doors; yea, go ye in unto the judgment-seat, and search; and behold, your judge is murdered, and he lieth in his blood; and he hath been murdered by his brother, who seeketh to sit in the judgment-seat.28 And behold, they both belong to your secret band, whose author is Gadianton and the evil one who seeketh to destroy the souls of men.
Five men in the crowd listening to Nephi run to the
judgment seat to see if Nephi’s prophecy is true—to see if the chief judge has
really been murdered. They are shocked to discover the chief judge lying dead,
and fall to the earth with fear and amazement because they now believe Nephi
and everything he has been preaching. Unfortunately for these men, it looks bad
when all the servants of the king come in to find him lying dead surrounded by
these 5 men, and of course they are accused of being the murderers and thrown
in prison.
The next day at the funeral, the crowd from Nephi's house starts asking what happened to the 5 men who
went to see if Nephi’s prophecy was true. At that point they learn that 5 men
were captured at the scene of the crime, and they are able to testify that the
5 men are innocent and release them from prison. But then the people turn on
Nephi, accusing him that he plotted with someone to kill the chief judge so he
could “prophesy” about it and look like a great prophet.
Nephi squashes that accusation with another prophesy. He
tells the men to go to the house of the chief judge’s brother, and accuse him
of the murder. Nephi predicts he will deny the crime, but then if the men
examine his clothing they will find blood on his robes, and if they continue to
accuse the brother he will start shaking and confess. The men go, and the
events occur just as Nephi prophesies, and the brother also says that Nephi was
not involved in any way.
I found a video of this story! Warning: it's definitely old school--probably 20 to 30 years old--so set your expectations accordingly. :)
