The Book of Mosiah: Gathered in Zarahemla (Come Follow Me study)

This post covers Mosiah 25-29. The Come Follow Me reading for this week is Mosiah 25-28.

Mosiah may genuinely be one of my favorite books in the Book of Mormon. Every time I read it, I am overwhelmed with the awareness of the goodness of God and his hand in our lives. I say this knowing that so many people suffer so many terrible things in this world, and it doesn't seem right, but I truly believe that He suffers when we suffer. In the grand view of the eternities, our life on earth is but a small drop of time. If we can hang on through the tough times, it will get better, and we will return to our Father in Heaven, where all will be well.

Four Sons of Mosiah Kneeling in Prayer

Photo Source: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website

I want to focus today's thoughts on three themes that stuck out to me the most in Mosiah 25-29, the last chapters of Mosiah. These are themes I've talked about before from other verses of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, which just reaffirms for me their great importance:

1. The importance of record keeping. 

At this point in the book, all the people that we know of that are trying to follow God have reunited in Zarahemla:

1. The descendants of Zeniff (Limhi and his people) that left for the land of Nephi and then ended up in bondage to the Lamanites have escaped back to Zarahemla.

2. Ammon and King Mosiah's other men who went searching for the descendants of Zeniff have returned to Zarahemla with Limhi and his people.

3. Alma, the prophet who listened to the prophet Abinadi and led 450 faithful people into the wilderness, and were eventually put in bondage by the Lamanites have also escaped and returned to Zarahemla.

4. The wicked priests of Noah that kidnapped Lamanites and ended up with Alma's people have already gone to Zarahemla and changed their names to Nephites because they don't want to be associated with that evil (Mosiah 25:12)

It is because of these records, and the records that were brought together that Mosiah read to the reunited people, that they, and now us, know of their stories. I love picturing the people gathered together as they gasped and reacted to the history as it was shared to the people. (Mosiah 8-11). I related to to Mosiah 25:8 when it says, "For they know not what to think" as it goes through their emotions of great joy and grew sorrow for what happened to their brethern.

Throughout the Book of Mormon, we get updates on who is keeping the records, and how they are being handed off. Near the end of Mosiah, King Mosiah uses seer stones to translate some of the new records that came into his care from all the people gathering in Zarahemla, and then he entrusts them to Alma the Younger, to both care for and to continue the history of his people. (See Mosiah 28:20)

What experiences are you living through now, and what have you learned from them, that can bless others? What legacy do you want to live behind? I was intrigued as a read someone's hand-written history recently how they divided their history: 88% about their personal work history, 5% listing their trips, 4% listing their church positions and one story of faith, and 3% about family that skimmed over spouse, children, and grand-children. What balance do you want in your history? Or do you have one at all? Even writing an annual Christmas newsletter and binding those together could be a decent history. Think of the book of Enos, where Amaron summarized 320 years of the history of his people in just five verses! (Omni, 1:4-8).

2. The blessings of great faith.

Throughout the Book of Mormon and the Bible, there are great stories of mighty faith, and how the Lord blessed them. When Alma has to deal with people that are taken "in divers iniquities" (Mosiah 26:11) he goes to the Lord in prayer about what to do, rather than taking advantage of his power.

The Lord answers him, "Blessed art thou, Alma, and blessed are they who were baptized in the waters of Mormon. Thou art blessed because of they exceeding faith in the words along of my servant Abinadi. And blessed are they because of their exceeding faith in the words alone which thou has spoken unto them."

Remember, those that were baptized in the waters of Mormon had to leave behind their belongs and flee into the wilderness to practice what they believed.

Another area where I saw great faith was after a son of Alma and the sons of Mosiah repented, the sons of Mosiah wanted to return to the land of Nephi to preach repentance. I'm sure Mosiah would have liked to keep his children near and safe, after all, his sons had to plead "for many days," (Mosiah 28:5). Mosiah trusted in the Lord though, who told him, "Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites." (Mosiah 28:7).

3. The importance of loving everyone and what that means.

Mosiah was a good and faithful man. In fact, it says in Mosiah 29:40 that, "... they did wax strong in love towards Mosiah; yea they did esteem him more than any other man; for they did not look upon him as a tyrant who was seeking for gain, yea, for that lucre which doth corrupt the sou; for he had not exacted riches of them, neither had he delighted in the shedding of blood; but he had established peace in the land, and he had granted unto his people that they should be delivered from all manner of bondage; therefore they did esteem him, yea, exceedingly, beyond measure."

His love was selfless.

In addition, he fought for fairness between all groups. It says in Mosiah 27:3-4, "And there was a strict command throughout all the churches that there should be no persecutions among them, that there should be an equality among all men. That they should let no pride nor haughtiness disturb that peace; that every man should esteem his neighbor as himself, laboring with their own hands for their support.

When men were brought before Mosiah that were doing bad things, he asked Alma to figure out what to do, and Alma turned to the Lord (Mosiah 26). They both sought to be fair.

Conclusion
When the book of Mosiah draws to a close, two great men, King Mosiah, and Alma have passed away.

King Mosiah's legacy is one that was esteemed greatly and loved greatly by his people "exceedingly, beyond measure" (Mosiah 29:40).

Alma's legacy was founding the church in the land of Zarahemla, which you can see best through the son that he raised, who "did walk in the ways of the Lord, and he did keep his commandments, and he did judge righteous judgements; and there was continual peace through the land" (Mosiah 29:43).

Alma (the elder) then died at 82, and Mosiah then died at 63, 509 years after Lehi left Jerusalem (Mosiah 29:46).

What an incredible legacy and a story of great faith among so many.

Come Follow Me: In the Strength of the Lord - Mosiah 7-10

The themes for Mosiah 7-10 that most stood out for me were learning from our parents, faith during affliction, and the importance of record-keeping. I felt the theme in the Come Follow Me manual for this set of scriptures was a great umbrella term for these themes that stood out for me: "In the Strength of the Lord."

Summary of the history covered in Mosiah 7-10
In Mosiah 7-10, King Mosiah sends 16 strong men, led by Ammon, to find out what happened to the men that left to inhabit the city of Lehi-Nephi, who left with Zeniff. They had never heard from them again. What happened is that Zeniff struck a deal to live peacefully in Nephi-Lehi, and did so for twelve years, before the Lamanites attacked them with King Laman's blessing. From then on, the people of Zeniff had to guard their people, and with God's help, they defeated and slayed 3,043 Lamanites in one day and one night but they also lost 279 of their own brethren. They were watchful from that point forward. 22 years later, King Laman's son had taken reign and the attacks began again. By the time Ammon found the people, they are in bondage, paying a 50% tax on all they had to the Lamanites, a heavy burden.

We learn that this land was huge, and it was a miracle that Ammon found them because a descendent of Zeniff, King Limhi, had also sent people out to find the city of Zarahemla - 43 people that were lost in the wilderness for any days and found a city that had been destroyed, but they never found Zarahemla.

Strength in the Lord
Throughout the story, we learn about how turning to the Lord, or turning away from the Lord, had consequences for people. We learn that the reason the Lamanites were so vile against the descendants of Zeniff was that they held a grudge taught to them by their fathers, that they felt they had been unfairly wronged by Nephi. We have a great responsibility to influence for kindness and good instead of nurturing generations-old grudges that can be based on untruths and often the selfish bending of the truth. Why nurture anger when we can nurture Christ-like attributes that seek to serve and bring kindness to others?

Our decisions can truly affect generations to come. We see this as I have mentioned in the past, with the strong leadership of men like King Benjamin and King Mosiah, who labored with their people and taught the importance of faith, hard work, and obedience to God. We see this in the opening lines of the Book of Mormon, as Nephi declares that he has been born to "goodly parents."

We see this as King Limhi joyfully welcomes Ammon into his land after realizing that he, too, is a descendant of Zarahemla. He holds a meeting of all of his people and focuses on a God of mercy that helps his people through their trials. He says in Mosiah 7:18-20:

"O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted ... put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, and fed them with manna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he do for them. And again, that same God has brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem, and has kept and preserved his people even until now; and behold, it is because of our iniquities and abominations that he has brought us into bondage."

Nurturing Strength in the Lord
Bringing these two strong lessons together, that of being an example in teaching goodness, and that of turning to the Lord, we can see examples of how this happens effectively.

During a Sunday School lesson many months ago, a woman in church shared that she has a young daughter that experiences some anxiety. They read together an account of one of her ancestors that shared that she struggled from anxiety, too! Hearing that her ancestor was just like her, but was still a great woman, brought this child a lot of comfort. This wouldn't have happened if the mother wasn't faithfully following the direction to work on family history, if an ancestor hadn't focused on good record-keeping, and if the mother hadn't worked to instill in her daughter that we can turn to the Lord in our struggles.

In another example shared in the Sunday School manual, Elder Donald L.Hallstrom shared his story in "Turn to the Lord," of grandparents that suffered a devastating loss (their only daughter died in childbirth trying to bear twins) and how they turned to the Lord despite their heartbreak. Years later, another descendant died giving birth at 34, leaving behind four children. Says Hallstrom, "With the example that they had seen in the previous generation, my parents - without hesitation - turned to the Lord for solace."

We can always turn to the Lord in our struggles, and like the quote from King Limhi above shows, the timeline of when the struggle will end is not always clear, but the Lord will provide a way and lift our burdens for us as we faithfully trust in him.

Come Follow Me: Mosiah

(Please note: You can click on any image to see it below in larger detail.)

This is the current focus of the Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families reading:

I wanted to recap though, by pointing out that Mosiah is the start of a new section of the Book of Mormon, where the Small Plates that start with Lehi's family leaving Jerusalem now go into the Large Plates that Mormon abridged, with "Words of Mormon" being where Mormon explains the abridgment, like this: Small Plates -> Words of Mormon -> Large Plates, abridged.

What's so fascinating to me about the Small Plates is that that half of the writers wrote very little, even only a few verses so we know that a great deal of time passed and there were probably many incredible stories during those 100s of years that were summed up in one or two sentences, but we don't have those details, except to understand that "we had many seasons of peace; and we had many seasons of serious war and bloodshed." (Omni 1:3).  I've indicated how much time passed and how few of verses were written in the chart above. This makes what few sentences each chose to wrote that much more powerful. I think they chose with care what they finally wrote before they passed the plates along to someone else.

This is so poignant for me now because while the Book of Mormon frequently talks of war, we don't always get to see it from the emotional point of view of the individuals that were living that life. We know it was bad though, as in The Words of Mormon, Mormon laments, "And it is many hundreds of years after the coming of Christ that I deliver these records into the hands of my son; and it supposeth me that he will witness the entire destruction of my people." (Mormon 1:2) 

He ends his short 18 verses about his abridgment by saying in verse 18, "Wherefore, with the help of these, King Benjamin, by laboring with all the might of his body and the faulty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did one more establish peace in the land."

I love this, because we learned that just like our humble Savior, King Benjamin served among his people, and taught his son, the future King Mosiah, to also humbly serve. King Benjamin says:

This message of hope and goodness is consistent as we turn to our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, and other worthy sources, like the Book of Mormon, to guide us through a global crisis that is giving us just the tiniest glimpse of a world at war. Their focus is on keeping the commandments of God, having a home-centered church, and on serving others, because when we "are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). Less than a week ago, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a letter sharing some of their global efforts to bring relief to others, including an invitation for anyone that wants to, to help serve in these efforts by contributing in ways like joining in the effort to make masks.

It's interesting comparing some of the last words King Benjamin spoke to his people in a large gathering and the last words that our previous and beloved prophet, President Monson, spoke to his people in a large gathering. I compared these two especially because in Mosiah 2:30, King Benjamin, recognizing that he has reached the ends of his years on earth says, "For even at this time, my whole frame doth tremble exceedingly while attempting to speak unto you; but the Lord God doth support me, and hath suffered me that I should speak unto you ..." We have seen our modern day prophets in our last days, and the photo I chose to use below is from President Monson's last General Conference talk, when his frame did tremble, too, as he was nearing the end of his goodly life on this earth.

King Benjamin:

King Benjamin goes on to say, in verse 41, "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of neverending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

President Thomas S. Monson in his parting words taught of the importance of studying and pondering the Book of Mormon to protect us from sin and evil and be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit:

I am grateful to read from inspired prophets in ancient times and hear their voice in modern times, that their message is consistent, that we are children of God, and that we can turn to God. I look to the last words that President Russell M. Nelson shared during April 2020 General Conference, in a talk called "Go Forward in Faith,":

      " The many inspiring components of this April 2020 general conference—and the sacred week that we now begin—can be summarized by two divinely decreed words: 'Hear Him.;¹ We pray that your focus on Heavenly Father, who spoke those words, and on His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, will loom largest in your memories of all that has transpired. We pray that you will begin anew truly to hear, hearken to, and heed the words of the Savior.² I promise that decreased fear and increased faith will follow.

      Thank you for your desire to make your homes true sanctuaries of faith, where the Spirit of the Lord may dwell. Our gospel study curriculum, Come, Follow Me, will continue to bless your lives. Your consistent efforts in this endeavor—even during those moments when you feel that you are not being particularly successful—will change your life, that of your family, and the world. We will be strengthened as we become even more valiant disciples of the Lord, standing up and speaking up for Him, wherever we are."

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Want to learn more about my faith?

I believe the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. We learn from people in ancient times about how to be a follower of Christ. You can email me at esumnertime@gmail.com if you'd like me to send you a free copy of this book or to learn more about my faith. You can also visit https://www.comeuntochrist.org/ to learn more about the Savior, Jesus Christ, and how learning about him and what he taught when he was here on earth has enriched my life.