Mormon 4:1 the Nephites did go up with their armies…out of the land
Desolation
The land Desolation and the
city Desolation are the focus of the battles described in Mormon 4. By review,
the land Desolation was that land previously inhabited by the Jaredites (Alma
22:30, Ether 7:6). It was a land of large bodies of
water and many rivers (Alma 50:29, Mosiah 8:8, Mormon 6:4).
A common misconception is
that the land of Desolation was a desolate, barren wasteland. This is not true
at all. The name refers to the desolation which came upon its inhabitants,
And now no part of the land was desolate, save it
were for timber; but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people
who had before inhabited the land it was called desolate (Hel 3:6).
There were many areas without timber apparently because the Jaredites cleared
the land to build their cities, for the whole face
of the land northward was covered with inhabitants (Ether 10:21). But we
should not presume that the land was uninhabitable or inhospitable. Just
because the timber was exceedingly scarce in
46 BC (Hel 3:5-10) doesn’t mean that it remained that way for the next four
centuries. The land may well have replenished itself for we never hear of
Mormon or Moroni complaining that the land northward lacked timber or that it
was an inhospitable, barren land.
Nevertheless, the land
Desolation would again earn its namesake—not because the trees would be chopped
down but because the Nephites would be cut asunder and swept
off…even as a dew before the sun (v. 18). The land Desolation would be
the site of a Nephite “Desolation of Abomination.”
Mormon 4:4 it was because the armies of the Nephites went up unto the
Lamanites that they began to be smitten
“Once
the Nephite soldiers started to wage offensive war they soon became so
bloodthirsty they were concerned only with the taking of human life…The leaders
of this dispensation have also warned against the dangers of starting an
offensive war. President Charles W. Penrose has said:
‘…we
Latter-day Saints must watch ourselves and not give way to passion and desire
to shed blood and to destroy, for that is the power of the evil one. We do not
want to imitate any nation that is bent on a policy of destruction, to destroy
where they cannot rule, to break down and trample under foot where they cannot
dominate. If we have that desire, it is the spirit of the wicked one...
‘There
is a very great difference between arising to go forth for conquest, for blood,
for plunder, to gain territory and power in the earth, and in fighting to
defend our own possessions in the spirit of justice and righteousness and
equity, and standing up like men for those things that we have a right to
contend for.’ (Conference Report, April 1917, pp. 21-22.)” (Daniel
Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p. 301)
Mormon 4:5 it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished
The atheist often bemoans
the brutality of a vengeful God. First, he allows mortals to do such horrendous
things to each other, then, he finally gets mad and kills them all (e.g. The
Flood). It is more logical, the atheist argues, to deny such a Being. Yet, the
vast majority of the time, the wicked suffer at the hands of the wicked, not at
the hands of God. Brigham Young stated:
“Of
one thing I am sure, God never institutes war; God is not the author of
confusion or of war; they are the results of the acts of the children of men.
Confusion and war necessarily come as the results of the foolish acts and
policy of men; but they do not come because God desires they should come. If
the people, generally, would turn to the Lord, there would never be any war.
Let men turn from their iniquities and sins, and instead of being covetous and
wicked, turn to God and seek to promote peace and happiness throughout the land,
and wars would cease. We expect to see the day when swords shall be turned into
ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks, and when men shall learn war no more.
This is what we want. We are for peace, plenty and happiness to all the human
family.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, pp. 366-367.)
But again, we must recognize
the parallel for our day. The Nephite civilization was destroyed by wars in
which the wicked killed the wicked. A similar destruction has been decreed for
the dispensation of the fulness of times. The Lord has decreed
wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear
shall come upon every man; And the saints also shall hardly escape;
nevertheless, I, the Lord, am with them (DC 63:33)…thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of
the earth shall mourn…until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all
nations (DC 87:6).
“’Often,
very often, we are punished as much by our sins as we are for our sins,’ Elder
Boyd K. Packer has written (Teach Ye Diligently, p. 262). As was the case with the Nephites, so often
is it the case that God does not have to personally curse, condemn, or punish
the wicked; their actions and associations produce natural consequences that in
and of themselves become severe punishments.
Many of the destructions, plagues, and atrocities that come upon the
world are a direct result of the wickedness of man. C. S. Lewis insightfully observed: ‘The possibility of pain is inherent in the very existence of a
world where souls can meet. When souls
become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and
this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the suffering of men. It is men, not God, who have produced racks,
whips, prisons, slavery, guns, bayonets, and bombs; it is by human avarice or
human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature, that we have poverty and
overwork.' (The Problem of Pain, p. 89.)” (McConkie, Millet, and Top, Doctrinal
Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 4, p. 228)
Mormon 4:11 it is impossible for tongue to describe…the horrible scene
of the blood and carnage
See commentary for Mormon
2:18.
Mormon 4:12 never had been so great wickedness…even among all the
house of Israel
Only the Lord could know if
the Nephite wickedness had exceeded all previous generations of the House of
Israel. Accordingly, Mormon says that he got his information from the Lord. The
statement is significant because of what we know about the wickedness of the
rest of the House of Israel. The Jews among whom Christ ministered were said to
be more wicked than any other nation on earth, for there
is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God (2 Ne 10:3).
While Enoch saw in vision all the nations of the
earth, he was told that the wickedness of this earth exceeded all other
earths, among all the workmanship of mine hands
there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren (Moses
7:23,36). One particular city among the Nephites had reached a similar
record-breaking degree of wickedness, their wickedness…was
above all the wickedness of the whole earth (3 Ne 9:9).
Well, congratulations to
Mormon’s generation! They win the prize. They were more wicked than the Jews
who crucified Jesus. They were more wicked than any previous generation of
Nephites. They had become the most wicked people in the entire universe!
Mormon 4:14 they…did offer women and children up as sacrifices unto their idol gods
Hugh Nibley
“We’re
getting into the Mesoamerican, Mayan, and especially Aztec, practice of mass
sacrifice of prisoners on a tremendous scale. They did it to the point where it
reduced the population so much. There are some very interesting studies made of
that recently. At the drop of a hat, prisoners had to be sacrificed. It was not
just a sacrifice that was symbolic once in a while; then it became an orgy of
blood. That’s what they used their sacred towers for after that
[development]-sacrifices unto their idol gods. That’s what they did.” (Teachings
From the Book of Mormon, Lecture 105, p. 203)
Mormon 4:18 the Nephites…began to be swept off by them even as a dew
before the sun
Hugh Nibley
“Mormon
said, ‘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].’ A very powerful expression. There's
nothing left. Everything is swept away as the dew before the sun, combing the
land. It wasn't just a spot engagement here and there that would lead to a
conference between the rulers, or something like that. No, it was a total
thing. The most violent element of war, like a violent natural force, like a
plague sweeping a nation, appears when, ‘freed from all conventional
restrictions, it [breaks] loose with all its natural force. It is a natural
phenomenon. There are no more artificial or other restraints. War is much
nearer to real nature in absolutes.’” (Teachings From the Book of Mormon,
Lecture 68, p. 136)
Mormon 4:23 I Mormon…did go to the hill Shim, and did take up all the
records
At this point, it has been
54 years since Ammaron entrusted Mormon as custodian of the plates. He had been
writing on the Large Plates of Nephi for some time, but the many other Nephite
records he had left in the hill. We often underestimate the number of records
Mormon was in charge of. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were given the
privilege of seeing some of these records.
“Oliver
Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates…When Joseph
got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill
Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the
hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and
spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the
light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day.
They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room.
Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there
were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they
were piled up in the corners and along the walls.” (Brigham Young, Journal
of Discourses, vol. 19, p. 40)
Mormon had left these “many
wagonloads” of records in place until this point, but the hill Shim was about
to become Lamanite territory. Mormon had to take possession of them in order to
protect them. A brief review of his custodianship is in order.
Age |
Year |
Event |
Reference |
10 |
321 AD |
Called by Ammaron |
Mormon 1:2-4 |
24 |
335 AD |
Removed plates of Nephi
from the hill, but left most the records in place |
Indirect reference in
Mormon 2:17 |
34 |
345 AD |
Fights battle near the
hill, declares that he had been making a full account on the Large Plates |
Mormon 2:17-18 |
64 |
375 AD |
Removed all the records
from the hill Shim |
Mormon 4:23 |
74 |
385 AD |
Abridges the Book of
Mormon and secures almost all the plates in the hill Cumorah in anticipation
of the final battle (Editor’s note: I know you can’t believe that he wrote
the entire Book of Mormon at this hectic time. If you don’t believe me, then
come to your own conclusion based on Mormon 6:6 and Words of Mormon 1:1-9.) |
Mormon 6:6, Words of
Mormon 1:6-9 |