22 And there were
exceedingly many prophets among us. And
the people were a stiffnecked people, hard to understand.
23 And there was
nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and
contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the
duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these
things - stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the
Lord. I say there was nothing short of
these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from
going down speedily to destruction. And
after this manner do I write concerning them.
24 And I saw wars
between the Nephites and Lamanites in the course of my days.
25 And it came to pass
that I began to be old, and an hundred and seventy and nine years had passed
away from the time that our father Lehi left Jerusalem.
26 And I saw that I
must soon go down to my grave, having been wrought upon by the power of God
that I must preach and prophesy unto this people, and declare the word
according to the truth which is in Christ.
And I have declared it in all my days, and have rejoiced in it above
that of the world.
27 And I soon go to
the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall
rest. And I rejoice in the day when my
mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see
his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed,
there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen.
Enos 1:22-27
Prophets were sent among the Nephites. The reason was the Nephites were “a
stiffnecked people, hard to understand.” Jarom, Enos’s son, will write about this as
well. “Behold, it is expedient that much
should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and
the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness
of their necks; nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has
not as yet swept them off from the face of the land” (Jarom 1:3)
As a side note, this is another indication that there were
others living in the New World when Lehi’s part arrived. Gregory Smith explains,
“Nephi also doesn’t seem to think that it is incongruous - not
to mention slightly ridiculous - that a few dozen of his people want him to be
their king (2 Nephi 5:18). Enos describes ‘exceedingly many prophets among us’ (Enos 1:22). How many prophets can a
population of under a hundred produce, much less require?[1]
Jared Ludlow explains the presence of prophets among the
Nephites.
“In recounting their history shortly after breaking off from
the Lamanites, some early Nephite writers mentioned the presence of prophets in
their midst (see Enos 1:22). One of the prophets’ major tasks was calling
people to repentance and warning them they would be destroyed if they did not
keep the commandments (see Jarom 1:10).”[2]
We’re only in the 2nd and 3rd
generation of Nephites. Yet, they’re
already turning away from God. Enos
tells us that only thing that was effective was preaching that was exceedingly
harsh. Nephi warned Laman and Lemuel.
“AND now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an
end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared
unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear.
“And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that
I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the
righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the
last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth
them to the very center.
“And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing
to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly
before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou
speakest hard things against us” (1 Nephi 16:1-3).
Nephi’s closing words include this about the Holy
Ghost. “And it speaketh harshly against
sin, according to the plainness of the truth; wherefore, no man will be angry
at the words which I have written save he shall be of the spirit of the devil” (2 Nephi 33:5). Mormon tells us that King Benjamin, on
occasion, preached with sharpness because of the stiffneckedness of the people
(Words of Mormon 1:17).
Mormon wrote, “And thus we see that except the Lord doth
chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with
death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they
will not remember him” (Helaman 12:3).
Wealth and prosperity is destructive to the Nephites. Hugh Nibley writes:
“In the Book of Mormon, the destructive power of wealth is
pervasive and inescapable, since, as Helaman discovered, we can always count on
humanity to do foolish things. The question is, what economic system would suit
such people? The Book of Mormon answer is clear: None that they could
devise. The Nephites willfully and repeatedly rejected the way that is shown
them ‘with exceedingly great plainness’ (Enos 1:23); have we any assurance that we,
whom the book is designed to warn against that very folly, are doing any
better?”[3]
The preaching was, on occasion, effective. Jarom would explain, “And it came to pass
that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land;
for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up
unto repentance” (Jarom 1:12). After
Alma2 gave up the judgment seat, “he did … go forth among his
people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto
them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull
down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions
which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it
were in bearing down in pure testimony against them” (Alma 4:19).
Preaching to the Zoramites, Alma2 tells us, “And
now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do
that which was just - yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of
the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them - therefore
Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of
God” (Alma 31:5).
As we approach the end of Enos’s book, John Tanner gives us
insight to why the plates were written in this manner.
“After passing into Jacob’s hands, the small plates became
increasingly focused on the history of Jacob’s family rather than on the
history of the whole Nephite group. Understanding this is critical. Many
distinctive features of the text can be explained by the fact that the record
became primarily genealogical. From Jacob on, the plates were no longer kept by
the rulers (see Jacob 1:9). Jacob and his descendants were not kings. From all
we can tell, they did not play a leading role in political or military matters.
This has major consequences for the record they left. After Nephi, never again
do the authors of the small plates occupy a central position in the government.
Of course, the small plates were always set aside for spiritual things rather
than secular matters (see 1 Nephi 19:1-6; Jacob 1:2), but, from Jacob on, the
small plates were written increasingly from a perspective outside the community’s
official life (see, for example, Enos 1:24).”[4]
Enos tells us he is getting old. He tells us that it has been 179 years since
Lehi left Jerusalem. This raises some
problems. Brant Gardner looks at this
issue.
“One of the most difficult chronological issues in the Book
of Mormon concerns Enos, who nears the end of his life 179 years after the
departure from Jerusalem (see Enos 1:25). Into that 179 years we must fit
the life of Enos and the life of his father, Jacob. Either we have only two
people spanning 179 years, or we must posit a missing generation in which Jacob
the father of Enos was Jacob the son of Jacob, or perhaps Enos the son of Jacob
was the father of Jacob the father of Enos. Each of these suggestions would be
a difficult situation to justify, though either is possible. To make the
numbers work at all, the most favorable scenario would be to have Jacob, and
his younger brother, Joseph, as young as possible prior to the voyage across
the ocean (allowing us to shave up to 8 years from the 179 since they were born
during the family’s sojourn in the wilderness, not by the time the party left
Jerusalem) …
“One possibility [is] that … they could have been twins … No
direct evidence exists for this hypothesis, but some details suggest this is
more than simple wishful thinking. The line of evidence lies in the nature of
the names and the fact that we know that Jacob precedes Joseph. Both of these
sons were born after the retrieval of the brass plates from Jerusalem. It is
important to remember the value of these plates to Lehi … Clearly, the
discovery of Lehi’s ancestry was a transcendent event for him ... When Lehi had
sons born after the plates were in his possession, it was no surprise that he
would name those sons Jacob and Joseph for the two important names in his
lineage. I suggest that the order in which the names are given is important. Of
course, had they been born a year or two apart Lehi might still have used the
names in that order, but I propose that the promises made through the lineage
of Joseph were so strong that Lehi would have used that name
first unless he knew that another son could receive that name. In
other words, we would expect Joseph to be the most important name and
that Jacob would be second. Given Lehi’s age and circumstances, this
is best answered if the two were twins, since it would not be assured that he
would have any more children, let alone that any future child would be male.”[5]
Enos is approaching his death. Through the power of God, Enos had to preach
and prophesy to his people. He declared
the “word according to the truth which is in Christ.” He did this all his day and “rejoiced in it
above that of the world.”
He is ready to go to “the place of rest, which is with my
Redeemer, for I know that in him I shall rest.” Nephi expressed similar feelings. “I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I
glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell” (2 Nephi 33:6).
The Savior taught, “In my Father’s house are many mansions:
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3).
Moroni would also write similar words.
“And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast
prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which
man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot
receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared.
“And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast
loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou
mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.
“And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the
children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they
cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy
Father” (Ether 12:32-34).
Having lived the good life, Enos was ready to meet
Christ.
“After his wrestle with God, Enos expressed the hope that,
at the resurrection, he would ‘stand before him; then shall I see his face with
pleasure’ (Enos 1:27). This passage is
also reminiscent of Jacob’s reunion and reconciliation with his brother Esau
the day after his nightlong wrestle. Jacob said to his brother, ‘I have seen
thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me’ (Genesis 33:10). Just as Esau was ‘pleased’ when
Jacob saw his face, Enos hoped to see the face of God ‘with pleasure.’” [6]
[1] Often
in Error, Seldom in Doubt: Rod Meldrum and Book of Mormon DNA, Reviewed by
Gregory L. Smith, Maxwell Institute.
[2] A
Tale of Three Communities: Jerusalem, Elephantine, and Lehi-Nephi, Jared W.
Ludlow, Maxwell Institute.
[3] The
Book of Mormon: Forty Years After, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute.
[4] Jacob
and His Descendants as Authors, John S. Tanner, Maxwell Institute.
[5] The
Other Stuff: Reading the Book of Mormon for Cultural Information, reviewed by
Brant A. Gardner, Maxwell Institute.
[6] Jacob
and Enos: Wrestling before God, Maxwell Institute.
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