Mormon 3-4

Mormon 3

The Nephites have 10 years of peace, after which the Lord tells Mormon to give them one more chance, and to “Cry unto this people—Repent ye, and come unto me, and be ye baptized, and build up again my church, and ye shall be spared.” (vs. 2)

But Mormon’s preaching is in vain, and the people refuse to recognize God’s role in their success. Before long, the Lamanites come again to battle, and the Nephites are successful again and beat them back 2 years in a row. 

Because of the Nephites’ victories, they become proud, and boastful, and blood thirsty. They swear sacrilegiously by the throne of God that they will seek vengeance by wiping their enemies off the face of the earth.

11 And it came to pass that I, Mormon, did utterly refuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people, because of their wickedness and abomination.

12 Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts.

13 And thrice have I delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and they have repented not of their sins.

14 And when they had sworn by all that had been forbidden them by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that they would go up unto their enemies to battle, and avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren, behold the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying:

15 Vengeance is mine, and I will repay; and because this people repented not after I had delivered them, behold, they shall be cut off from the face of the earth.

16 And it came to pass that I utterly refused to go up against mine enemies; and I did even as the Lord had commanded me; and I did stand as an idle witness to manifest unto the world the things which I saw and heard.

Whenever I read about Mormon, it makes my life seem like a piece of cake. We live in a harsh world and frightening times, where evil is growing and faith is diminishing. It can often feel lonely and uncomfortable being a member of my church - or a member of any faith, I'm sure! - when most of the world doesn’t understand or support what I believe. But then I remember Mormon, and how he was the ONLY ONE of his people who stayed true to God. I have lots and lots of friends and neighbors who live great lives of faith. They may be small compared to the general population, but when we get together the numbers feel great. Mormon didn’t have that.

He pleads at the end of this chapter:

20 And these things doth the Spirit manifest unto me; therefore I write unto you all. And for this cause I write unto you, that ye may know that ye must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, yea, every soul who belongs to the whole human family of Adam; and ye must stand to be judged of your works, whether they be good or evil;

21 And also that ye may believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which ye shall have among you; and also that the Jews, the covenant people of the Lord, shall have other witness…that Jesus, whom they slew, was the very Christ and the very God.

Mormon 4

The Nephites wage war against the Lamanites to seek revenge, and this is the “final straw” that leads to their downfall. Throughout the Book of Mormon, the Lord makes it clear that it’s OK to defend yourself against your enemies, but He will not help out when you aggressively initiate an attack on an enemy, no matter how just revenge may seem. 

4 And it was because the armies of the Nephites went up unto the Lamanites that they began to be smitten; for were it not for that, the Lamanites could have had no power over them.

5 But, behold, the judgments of God will overtake the wicked; and it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished; for it is the wicked that stir up the hearts of the children of men unto bloodshed.

And from here, things get ugly. Awful. Unimaginable. These all seem like understatements. Here, let’s just read Mormon’s own words:

11 And it is impossible for the tongue to describe, or for man to write a perfect description of the horrible scene of the blood and carnage which was among the people, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites; and every heart was hardened, so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually.

12 And there never had been so great wickedness among all the children of Lehi, nor even among all the house of Israel, according to the words of the Lord, as was among this people.

Gratefully, Mormon spares us most of the details, but you can learn a little more if you read the chapter. Mormon also says that “from this time forth the Nephites did gain no power over the Lamanites, but began to be swept off by them even as a dew before the sun.”(vs. 18)

Sorry. I told you this was not going to be a happy book.

Mormon 1-2

Mormon 1

And now I, Mormon, make a record of the things which I have both seen and heard, and call it the Book of Mormon. (vs 1) 

Mormon takes the stage! You already know Mormon because he is basically the narrator, or abridger, of the entire Book of Mormon up to this point. But don’t confuse the entire Book of Mormon with this little sub-book he calls the Book of Mormon. This is his own little book, written about his own time and people, now that he has finished compiling and summarizing the records of his people that were written before his lifetime (starting with Nephi).

Mormon tells us how he got this job. Ammaron was the previous keeper of the records and hid all the records in a cave because he could see that the state of the Nephites and Lamanites was getting really, really bad. But he also noticed the young boy Mormon, who was only 10 years old, was good and responsible. So he tells young Mormon where the records are, but tells him not to get them until he is 24 years old (14 years later)! (see verses 2-4)

So now that Mormon has the plates and is writing in them, he is looking back and writing about the past 14 years before he got the plates. 

Mormons recalls a war between the Nephites and the Lamanites, and a few years of peace that followed. Everyone in the land besides Mormon, as far as we know, is very wicked and faithless. But because of Mormon’s faith he “was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus” at the age of 15 (see vs. 15).

Mormon wants to preach to the people to encourage them to repent, but he is forbidden by God because the people “had willfully rebelled against their God” and “because of the hardness of their hearts.” (vs. 16-17) Witchcrafts, and sorceries, and the Gadianton Robbers are taking over the land.

Mormon 2

When Mormon was 16 years old a war broke out again, and Mormon was appointed as the head of the Nephite armies - at age 16! I’ve always been shocked by this. He says he was “large in stature” and the people must have recognized that he had a good head on his shoulders even though they didn’t believe anything he believed. I wish I knew more of the story behind this!

Mormon describes that his Nephite army is driven back by the Lamanites. These armies are huge – it says 44,000 Lamanites and 42,000 Nephites in ONE battle. “Therefore there was blood and carnage spread throughout all the face of the land, both on the part of the Nephites and also on the part of the Lamanites.” (vs. 8)

The Nephites begin to mourn over their awful situation, and Mormon momentarily gets excited, hoping this is the first step to the people repenting and turning to God. 

“But behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin. And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits, but they did curse God, and wish to die. Nevertheless they would struggle with the sword for their lives.” (vs. 13-14)

The Nephites continue to be driven back for a time, but then Mormon is successful in leading his army to regain their lands and even to sign a truce for a time with the Lamanites and Gadianton Robbers. Enjoy it while it lasts…(hint: not long).