Mosiah 21:4 all this was done that the word of the Lord might be
fulfilled
The events of this chapter
are in direct fulfillment of the word of the Lord to Abinadi, Yea, wo be unto this generation! And the Lord said unto me:
Stretch forth thy hand and prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord, it shall come
to pass that this generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought
into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek; yea and shall be driven by
men, and shall be slain (Mosiah 12:2).
Mosiah 21:5 the afflictions of the Nephites were great
In times of trouble, it is
seldom helpful to point fingers, but the Nephites had no one to blame but
themselves. They were being smitten on every hand by the Lamanites because of their
own wickedness, for this is the only way in which the Lamanites could ever
exercise power over the Nephites. As Lehi told Nephi, they
shall have no power over thy seed except they shall rebel against me also (1
Ne 2:23), and They shall be a scourge unto thy seed,
to stir them up in remembrance of me and inasmuch as they will not remember me,
and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction
(2 Ne 5:25). President Benson points out characteristics of the ancient Roman
Empire which apply also to the Nephites.
Ezra Taft Benson
“In
his book Caesar and Christ, Will Durant, in summarizing the causes of
the destruction of the Roman Empire, stated; ‘ A great civilization is not
conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential
causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her
failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming
wars…’ (An Enemy Hath Done This, p. ix as taken from Latter-day
Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 227)
Mosiah 21:6-12 they began to be desirous to go against them to battle
In their last encounter,
Limhi’s people had been fairly successful against the Lamanites (Mosiah 20:11).
Their mistake was to assume that their success was due to their own power and
strength. Now, after suffering more Lamanite-induced affliction, Limhi’s people
become the aggressors. They strike first in three different ill-fated military
campaigns. This behavior was in defiance of the will of the Lord regarding any
military activities. The people of the Lord are not to be the aggressors, Inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense,
neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of
your enemies (Alma 43:46), and they were also
taught never to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it
were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives (Alma
48:14). This law against aggression was repeated to the persecuted saints of
Missouri:
‘Now, I speak unto you concerning your
families--if men will smite you, or your families, once, and ye bear it
patiently and revile not against them, neither seek revenge, ye shall be
rewarded;
But if ye bear it not
patiently, it shall be accounted unto you as being meted out as a just measure
unto you.
And again, if your
enemy shall smite you the second time, and you revile not against your enemy,
and bear it patiently, your reward shall be an hundredfold.
And again, if he shall
smite you the third time, and ye bear it patiently, your reward shall be
doubled unto you four-fold;
And these three
testimonies shall stand against your enemy if he repent not, and shall not be
blotted out…
And then, if he shall
come upon you or your children, or your children's children unto the third and
fourth generation, I have delivered thine enemy into thine hands’ (DC 98:23-29, italics added)
The blood thirstiness of
Limhi’s people was rewarded with pain and suffering so severe that it caused a great mourning and lamentation…the widow mourning for her
husband, the son and the daughter mourning for their father, and the brothers
for their brethren.
Mosiah 21:15 the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their
iniquities
The Lord always answers our prayers—he
just doesn’t do it according to our understanding or timetable. The Lord
answers the prayers of Limhi’s people but he lets them suffer a little for
their iniquities. The Lord has told us not to petition him only when we need
him. Our prayers should reach the heavens in times of plenty as well as times
of trouble. In speaking of the early saints in Missouri, the Lord said, They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their
God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to
answer them in the day of their trouble. In the day of their peace they
esteemed lightly my counsel; but in the day of their trouble, of necessity they
feel after me (DC 101:7-8). Limhi’s people had been guilty of the same
thing—they had esteemed lightly the counsel of the Lord, but in the day of
their trouble, of necessity they felt after him.
Joseph
Fielding Smith
“When we neglect this and other duties
we do not have the same claim on the blessings of the Lord, and he has said if we
are slow to hear him he may be slow to hear us in the hour of our trouble. (D.
& C. 101:7-8.) The Lord was slow to hearken to the Nephites in their
rebellion until they were humbled and so with the Israelites, and this happened
repeatedly. We should profit by their example. In our praying we should seek to
do the will of the Lord and not merely to reap some advantage or gratification
which may not be the best for us. This is a very significant saying: ‘Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me
diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall
be opened unto you. Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name it shall he given
unto you, that is expedient for you; and if ye ask anything that is not
expedient for you, it shall turn unto your condemnation.’ (DC 88:63-65)
Therefore we should not be too insistent, but should pray earnestly seeking
light and to know the will of the Lord, with an unselfish spirit. Then, with
this spirit, will our bodies be filled with light.” (Church History and
Modern Revelation, p. 135)
Mosiah
21:17 every man should impart to the support of the
widows and their children
King
Limhi was a righteous man and accordingly took care of the needs of those who
had lost husbands and fathers in the wars with the Lamanites. He would have
been more wise to have forbidden his people to fight against the Lamanites in
the first place, but at least he understood the principle of righteousness
which James calls pure religion, Pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world (James
1:27).
Mosiah
21:23 the king…discovered Ammon and his brethren
This
marks the end of the flashback. We now return to the same time period described
back in Mosiah 8. The intervening chapters (9-22) were taken from the record of
Zeniff.
Mosiah
21:26-27 they did find a land which had been peopled
Limhi
is looking for some way to deliver his people from the Lamanites. He is hopeful
that he can get assistance from the Nephites in Zarahemla and sends an envoy to
find and solicit help. Unfortunately, all they find is the land of Jaredites, covered with dry bones. It is evident that both
Zarahemla and the Jaredites lived north of the land of Nephi. Although this
little excursion failed to deliver the people from the hands of their enemies,
its importance cannot be understated. Without the efforts of this little band,
the Book of Ether would not have been had among the Nephites. Those in
Zarahemla had interpreted a stone by which they knew somewhat of the Jaredites
(Omni 1:20), but the history and prophecies of the brother of Jared were
contained within the twenty-four plates. It is to this little band of Limhi’s
that we owe this great scriptural find.
“The
twenty-four plates were called The Book of Ether after its author.
(Ether 1:2) Their discovery was not an accident. For, when Ether had finished
his record, ‘He hid them in a manner that the people
of Limhi did find them.’ (Ether 15:33)” (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary
on the Book of Mormon, vol. 2, p. 283)
Mosiah
21:28 king Mosiah had a gift from God, whereby he
could interpret such engravings
The
gift spoken of is the gift of seership. See commentary for Mosiah 8:13-15.
Mosiah
21:33 people were desirous to be baptized; but there
was none…that had authority
Again
we see the wisdom of Limhi. He could have assumed authority and baptized his
people, but he understood that no man taketh this
honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron (Heb
5:4). So many others in the history of mankind have not worried that they had
no authority but started their own churches with their own authority,
doctrines, ordinances, and wisdom. In essence, they were able to create
churches with a form of godliness but they denied the power thereof (JS-H 1:19) because they were
never based on proper authority from God.