Chapter 3
Mormon cries
repentance unto the Nephites—They gain a great victory and glory in their own
strength—Mormon refuses to lead them, and his prayers for them are without
faith—The Book of Mormon invites the twelve tribes of Israel to believe the
gospel. About A.D. 360–362.
The Nephites experienced ten years of peach. He had his
people prepare their lands and their arms for when the next battle occurred.
During the ten years, Mormon was commanded to call the
people to repent, be baptized, and rebuild the church. This is the only way
they will be spared from calamities to come. “And now behold, saith the Lord,
concerning the people of the Nephites: If they will not repent, and observe to
do my will, I will utterly destroy them, saith the Lord, because of their
unbelief notwithstanding the many mighty works which I have done among them;
and as surely as the Lord liveth shall these things be, saith the Lord” (Helaman
15:17).
“For a time Mormon attempted to preach to the people, but he
was eventually forbidden, ‘for behold they had willfully rebelled against their
God’ (Mormon 1:16). Though they were past feeling, Mormon was not. He could see
that even in their occasional victory ‘we were left to ourselves, that the
Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us’ (Mormon 2:26). The effects of atē[1]
were being felt. For a time Mormon held his silence. Then the Lord commanded
him to preach again (Mormon 3:2—3).”[2]
Mormon failed to changes the hearts of the Nephites. Here we
see the Lord will do all He can to gives us a chance to repent and live His
commandments. Even at the height of their wickedness, the Lord delayed the
prophesied destruction, giving them one last chance to repent. “And from this
time forth did the Nephites gain no power over the Lamanites, but began to be
swept off by them even as a dew before the sun” (Mormon 4:18).
After the ten years of peace had passed, the Lamanite king
sent Mormon an epistle telling him they were preparing for war.
Hearing this, Mormon moved his people to the land Desolation,
to a city by the borders. In that area, the was a narrow pass leading to the
southern lands.
“And it came to pass that they did not head them until they
had come to the borders of the land Desolation; and there they did head them,
by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, yea, by the sea,
on the west and on the east” (Alma 50:34).
A possible geography
of Book of Mormon lands[3]
Arriving, Mormon placed his armies in strategic places, preventing
the Lamanites from taking Nephite land. “During the ten years that followed,
the Nephites made great preparations for defense, at the end of which, on
receipt of a letter from the king of the Lamanites formally declaring war,
Mormon ordered the people ‘to gather themselves together’ again, this time at
their southernmost city ‘at the land Desolation . . . by the narrow pass which
led into the land southward,’ where they ‘did fortify against them with all our
force’ (Mormon 3:5—6), hoping to stop them at the pass.”[4]
“[The northern wilderness] was apparently heavily populated
during the days of General Mormon, as evident in the Lamanites’ attacks against
the Nephite stronghold at Desolation (Mormon 3:7; 4:2, 13, 19).”[5]
[1] A spiritual blindness that impels the individual or
society toward its doom.
[2] Hubris and Atē: A Latter-day Warning from the Book of
Mormon, Richard D. Draper, Maxwell Institute website.
[3] Searching
for Book of Mormon Lands in Middle America, John E. Clark, FARMS Review 16/2 (2004): 6.
[4] An
Approach to the Book of Mormon, Strategy for Survival, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell
Institute website.
[5] Searching
for Book of Mormon Lands in Middle America, John E. Clark, FARMS Review 16/2 (2004): 39.
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