3 Nephi 8
5 And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land.
If you do the math, you can see this great storm was
no coincidence. On the other side of the world, Jesus Christ was crucified, and
the earth was mourning. Prophecy to the Nephites was being fulfilled.
The Nephite lands weren't the only ones quaking. In the New Testament, Matthew recorded that the earth was quaking and mourning over in Jerusalem.
Matthew 27:50, 51, 5450 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
The people in the Americas experienced a longer, more intense and violent version of this earthquake & storm. The Book of
Mormon tells us there was sharp lightening and thunder that shook the whole
earth. Earthquakes flattened buildings. The whole
city of Zarahemla caught fire. The city of Moroni sunk into the depths of the
sea. A mountain fell on top of the city of Moronihah and buried it. The storm
was so great that “the whole face of the land was changed (v. 12).” Can you
imagine??
Obviously the people in the city of Zarahemla, Moroni, and
Moronihah were all killed in the destruction, but “there were some cities which
remained; but the damage thereof was exceedingly great, and there were many in
them who were slain (v 15).”
This all took place in about three hours, and then
everything was still and a thick, impenetrable darkness settled over the land.
I hiked with my family to Timpanogos Caves a couple weeks ago. These
awesome caves were discovered in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s in the mountains
near my home and they are now a national monument and the Park Rangers give
cool tours inside. At one point during the tour, they turn off all the lights
and let you experience complete and utter darkness – a darkness that is hard to
achieve or replicate above ground - a darkness that doesn’t have one speck of
light, which means your eyes will never ever adjust and you can’t see your hand
right in front of your face.
THAT is what this darkness was.
20 And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness;21 And there could be no light, because of the darkness, neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all;22 And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land.
I don't think God sent the darkness to be cruel or vengeful - there is always some symbolic or literal purpose in His works. The Son of God, the Savior of the World, the LIGHT of the World had just been crucified. I think the total darkness was a direct parallel to the spiritual/emotional darkness that the world would experience without the light of Jesus Christ.
In this complete and utter darkness, a voice is heard by
everyone.
15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.16 I came unto my own, and my own received me not. And the scriptures concerning my coming are fulfilled.18 I am the light and the life of the world. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.
Pretty powerful! The voice of Christ explains that all the
wicked cities were destroyed in the storm in order “to hide their iniquities
and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the
saints shall not come any more unto me against them.” We often ask how God
could let bad things happen to good people, and I don’t think we will know all
the answers in this life, but this at least illustrates that God is fully aware
of and concerned for the pain that is caused to his children. He goes on to
say:
13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.
I wanted to highlight these two verses because of two really
important principles they teach. First – Christ heals. I mean, imagine what
these people have just been through. Basically they were in the middle of an apocalyptic/Armageddon
type of storm where cities were burned and flooded and buried, and thousands of
people died. The survivors are wounded, and mourning, and frightened, and just
sitting and waiting in pitch blackness. But the Savior heals them –
you will see. He has healed me from all sorts of emotional pain, and I know He
can for anyone.
Second principle—Christ accepts anyone and everyone who follows Him. It’s an open invitation to everyone, and He hopes everyone will accept it.
After three days the darkness disperses, and the earth
stops quaking. The crying and mourning of the people turns into gratitude
and praise to the Lord, and they are about to have the most sacred and
wonderful experience of all the people in the Book of Mormon (stay tuned for
chapter 11!). They say the light comes after the darkest point of night – this is
a perfect example.
I just want to point out something important I learned from
this chapter. It’s usually difficult to understand why the Lord lets awful,
violent things happen. I mean, in this case they mostly happened to the “bad
guys” which is a lot easier to accept, but it can still be hard to picture God
doing or allowing these things. But then you have to realize –wait, God chose
prophets to warn, perform miracles, preach, reprimand, and prophesy over and
over and over again. And the people made a conscious decision to ignore them.
It says in this chapter:
11 And thus far were the scriptures fulfilled which had been spoken by the prophets.12 And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared—14 And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let him search them, and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth to receive them, and all these things are not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy prophets.
In other words, none of this was a surprise – or it shouldn’t
have been. God sent prophets to warn the people and try to get them to change
so many times… and eventually God had to make good on his word and fulfill the
prophecies that the wicked people were deliberately snubbing.
