Chapter 11
Nephi persuades the
Lord to replace their war with a famine—Many people perish—They repent, and
Nephi importunes the Lord for rain—Nephi and Lehi receive many revelations—The
Gadianton robbers entrench themselves in the land. About 20–6 B.C.
Contentions among the people continued. Civil wars broke out
among the Nephites. The Gadianton robbers were responsible for this conflict.
Seeing this, Nephi cried to the Lord.
He pleaded with the Lord, asking him not to destroy the
Nephites by war. He asked the Lord send a famine into the land. He hoped this
would cause the people to repent and turn to the Lord.[1]
“Researchers have indeed found evidence for changes in
climate; drought afflicted parts of the area beginning as early as the first
century B.C. and grew worse until A.D. 300–400 before starting to reverse
itself around A.D. 500. Perhaps the severe drought recorded in Helaman 11:4–13
and the deforestation of the land northward emphasized in Helaman 3 were
precursors in the Nephite record of the advent of this era of climatic stress.”[2]
The Lord, having promised Nephi he would fulfill his every
request, send a famine among the Nephites. Civil wars ceased. It was a major
famine.
Three years later, the famine continued. There was no rain
and the crops planted by the people did not grow. Not only did the Nephites
suffer, the Lamanites also experienced the drought. Thousands did in the wicked
parts of the land.
The Lord used famines in Biblical times. For example, Elijah
asked the Lord for a famine.
“AND Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word”
(1 Kings 17:1).
James would write about this famine. “Elias [Greek for
Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly
that it might not rain: and it brained
not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17).
Isaiah wrote about famines. “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand
shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold,
at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish
stinketh, because there is no water,
and dieth for thirst” (Isaiah 50:2).
As the people saw the death and suffering they remember
Nephi’s words. They began to turn to God. They begin to ask their leaders to go
to Nephi. Acknowledge he was a man of God. Ask him to end the famine lest they
be destroyed.
The Nephite leaders did as the people asked. They went to
Nephi, telling him the people had repented of their sins and humbled themselves
before the Lord. They asked him to pray to the Lord that the famine would end.
Nephi agreed. He went before the Lord in prayer. He told him
the people had repented. They had gotten rid of the Gadianton robbers. They
have buried their secrets in the earth.
He asked the Lord to turn away His anger as the people had
repented. They had destroyed the wicked men. He asked Him to let His anger be
appeased by their actions.
Nephi asked the Lord to listen to his prayer, that the
famine end because of his words. He
asked that He send rain to the land. Let
the crops grow and the famine end. The
Lord listened to his request for a famine to end the wars. He is sure the Lord will end the famine. The people had repented and the Lord said he
would spare the people if they did this.
“Yea, O Lord, and thou seest that they have repented,
because of the famine and the pestilence and destruction which has come unto
them” (Helaman 11:15).
After nearly four years of famine, the Lord caused rain to
fall upon the earth. Crops grew and
trees bore fruit. The people rejoice and
thanked the Lord for ending the famine.
Nephi was esteemed as a prophet and a man of God, having received great
power from Him.
Mormon then mentions Nephi’s brother, Lehi, who had not been
mentioned much in the book of Helaman at this point. “Lehi, his brother, was not a whit behind him
as to things pertaining to righteousness” (Helaman 11:19).
[1]
This is occurring around 20 B.C.
[2] Last-Ditch
Warfare in Ancient Mesoamerica Recalls the Book of Mormon, John L. Sorenson,
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9/2 (2000): 50.
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