Latest / Scripture Central / Helaman 13–16 | Sept 9–15 | John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson | Come Follow Me Book of Mormon

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Helaman 13–16 | Sept 9–15 | John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson | Come Follow Me Book of Mormon · Scripture Central

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Hello, Welcome back to Scripture Central.
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I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson. And I'm Jack Welch and Lynn, we
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are so excited today to be able to talk about Samuel the
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Lamanite. And we have 3 chapters on
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Samuel, chapters 1314 and 15. He is a central prophet here in
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the Book of Mormon. In a way, he's right there in
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the middle of the Book of Mormon.
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Everything that before has LED up to this and everything after
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will then play out as the Nephite nation will eventually
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be destroyed and Mormon will remember these prophecies of
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Samuel the Lamanite. What do we know about Samuel the
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Lamanite? Well, we don't know anything
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really specific, but there are lots of general things, aren't
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there? I mean, we know that he was a
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Lamanite. Here we are at the book, in the
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book of Helaman, it starts out with Nephi and Lehi going down
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to the land of Nephi and converting a lot of Lamanites in
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an amazing experience. And that of course, is following
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up on the Stripling Warriors, where the Lamanites and the
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Ammonites have integrated a lot with the Nephites.
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It's the 86th year of the reign of Judges, so the Lamanites have
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been receiving messages of of missionaries for 86 years now,
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since the time of the sons of Mosiah went back at first.
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So we don't know if he's one of the people of Ammon when he's
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the people that were converted by Lehi and Nephi.
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Those are all possibilities. We don't know.
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How much does he know about the scriptures though?
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Oh, I think he knows them well. In fact, he even quotes King
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Benjamin. He quotes King Benjamin, we'll
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come to that. He quotes Alma.
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The the law list that he gives comes right out of Alma's words
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and twice is mentioned in the book of Alma.
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And he also knows the prophecies that Nephi gives at the end of
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the book of First Nephi. So he's well versed in the
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Scriptures. He must have been raised knowing
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these traditions. But he he appears to be all
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alone. Why is he up on the wall?
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Well, he's cast out. Why do you think he was cast
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out? Oh, because he was offensive to
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people. He was preaching against their
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He was telling him to repent. He was telling him they were
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wicked. And maybe there's another reason
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too. Oh, what do you think?
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Well, he's a solo operator here. Oh, and you need 2 witnesses.
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You need 2 witnesses in order to be saying some of the things
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that he's saying. But in Sarah Zahemla it says
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there were many prophets, including Nephi son of Nephi.
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So he's got plenty of resources, but as he gives his prophecies
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and of course he's a Lamanite and he's a visitor, he's from
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out of town. He's not from Zahemla.
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And so in the ancient world, a visitor would not be quite so
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welcome, and especially when you're all alone.
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What's happened to the two witness rule here?
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And actually he will provide plenty of witnesses, but in a in
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an unusual. Way and he's got to be young
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enough that he can jump up on the wall and jump off the wall,
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but we aren't given his age. No, it says.
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We have no idea how old he was, but I think the location is
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significant. You mentioned that he quotes
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King Benjamin's speech. Where did Benjamin give that
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speech? In Sarah Hemla in the Tower.
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Very same city. So here is Samuel, reminding the
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people of Zarahemla of their own prophetic tradition.
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That's beautiful. I'm glad you pointed that out.
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In verse two we read Samuel the lame knight came into the land
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of Zarahemla and began to preach unto the people.
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And it came to pass that he did preach many days repentance unto
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the people, and they did cast him out and he was about to
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return to his own land. And that's when he's visited by
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the Angel. And verse three talks about the
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Angel and verse seven and verse 9.
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And so he goes back to Zarahemla and they won't let him back in
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through the main door, at least the main gate.
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I assume that part of Moroni's few years before some of the
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preparations were to build those fortifications around the walls
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and it described having wooden pickets across the top of these
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huge pieces of earth works that were used.
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That's good. I hadn't thought about that, but
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certainly Zarahemla has been fortified.
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Yes, I think so. In a a way that would have made
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it hard for Samuel to get back. In, but it does say he's able to
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climb up on the. Wall.
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We have them scaling the walls in other places.
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Somehow they know how to use ropes or ladders or something
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and he gets up there. Don't know how high it was.
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And it says he cried with a loud voice.
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So he's got he's learned how to use his voice in a way that can
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be heard. I have no idea how many people
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are living in Zarahemla, how many people would have come to
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hear him. But I think someone standing on
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the wall calling out would have drawn a crowd.
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That's very an unusual thing to be doing and we don't know the
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timing. It might have been at a time
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when they had gathered for some other reason.
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There's obviously a crowd there and some of them have come with
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weapons, which is unusual for being inside a city, unless
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maybe it's some kind of, it may be some kind of a drill or some
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special gathering. I don't know.
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But you're right, we've got a lot of people, different people.
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And Samuel, I think, has timed his message to be as effective
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as possible. Let's look at one of the
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beautiful ways that Samuel combines his writing into a
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chiastic structure to have a a second witness with each word
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repeated. He starts out in verse 5 through
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9 with the sword of justice, hangeth over this people.
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And then he starts with the prophecy about the 400 years.
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And as you skip down to verse nine, if you've got your
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scriptures out there, you can see that he repeats those same
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things in 400 years shall not pass away.
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I will visit them with a sword and with famine and with
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pestilence. So you see these repeated
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phrases over and over again. But going back up to verse six,
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he talks about this heavy destruction that's going to
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await the people and nothing can save them.
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Save it be repentance and faith Jack.
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It seems so simple to me apply these two principles of the
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gospel. Change your heart, return to
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God, change your behaviors and and develop faith in Christ
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because once you develop faith, then repentance becomes a joy it
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becomes. You know, the Latin word has
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this negative connotation, but I hope as members of the
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Restoration, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we see
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repentance as a joyful, happy, celebratory way of receiving
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forgiveness. I, I, I just, I'm just baffled
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by the ease of the way that more people don't apply it.
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That is a great cause for us to contemplate and think about this
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Savior will say or where your treasure is, there will your
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heart be also. Oh, and that's their problem
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here as well. That's exactly what he attacks,
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is that very thing. Maybe if if your joy is in
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something other than what it should really be, the the joy
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that we feel when we repent and when we do what's right can be
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camouflaged. Satan is a great deceiver and
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especially an imitator. He usurps the role of our Savior
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in any way he can by. Deceiving people say, well, I'm
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happy, but they aren't really, unless they are happy in a way
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that is lasting and enduring. I think Samuel in the Book of
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Mormon teaches that over and over.
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Again. But the center of this chiasmus
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is really beautiful. Verse 7.
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Behold, an Angel. And then he skips a little bit
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ahead, declares it unto me. And he did bring glad tidings.
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And I just am thrilled with this word glad tidings.
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We have echoes of it from other angels who brought so brought
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glad tidings. This is a phrase that any
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Christian should know well. And he wants to share this news
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with them that the birth of the Savior is coming.
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But I want to just emphasize a little bit longer his definition
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of repentance. It's we also find it in the Old
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Testament. We find it elsewhere, but I love
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the way that he uses it here. Repent and return unto your
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Lord. I love that definition for
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repentance. Just return to God.
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It's not just stopping your sin. You can be in prison and and not
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be using drugs. That can be stopping.
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That's not repentance. Repentance is returning to the
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Lord God, and then I will turn away my anger.
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And notice that the Lord there says that He will turn away his
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anger if we return to Him. Now this prefix RE is in in
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English and from Latin is used to mean again repeat you Pete
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again, and to return you turn again and to rejoice you have
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joy again. And so in this verse, when it
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says, if you will repent and return again, it's being invited
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as a continual process. Do it again.
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Do it again over and over. And the more we do it, the
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better we become at it and the closer the Lord is to us.
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And he can then turn away as he says any of the problems that we
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might be having. A few years ago I was teaching a
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class on comparing doctrines between different books of
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scripture, and I pulled this up again to look at how repentance
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is used in the Book of Mormon. And I just want to look
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numerically to see that it's 19 times more often than we find in
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the Old Testament. You know, even though the Book
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of Mormon is an ancient text, it comes from the same people as
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the much of the Old Testament. This is a message of the
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Restoration. And if you have a chance to look
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at this chart here on our video, you can see it's not just in the
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Book of Mormon, but the Doctrine and Covenants and the pro of
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great price are also stronger witnesses, stronger evidences
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that this is a message for us now that repentance is something
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not only as President Nelson has asked us to do every day, every
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time we do something wrong, return to the Lord.
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This is an astonishing statistic when you think of the number of
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times that this word appears. It must have been a word that
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was deeply ingrained in Mormon's thinking, writing.
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He is either quoting or including these words.
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How much he wants his own people to repent and he realizes their
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failure to do that will lead to their destruction.
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I think that accounts for this uniformity of the, the use of
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the word repent throughout the record that Mormon has left for
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us. I mean, why would this be given
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greater emphasis now by Mormon looking back on the history of
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his people and also now the role of the coming of the Savior for
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the people previous to that in the Hebrew scriptures?
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Of course they do repent. They are called upon to correct
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their ways and to make sacrifices, but it is not as
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central to their worship as it will become because of the
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completion and fulfillment of the atoning mission of Jesus
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Christ. Now, looking back on that, the
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factor becomes much clearer. Yes, Amen.
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And that's why the Book of Mormon is so clear.
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This is another testament of Jesus Christ.
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Thank you. Thank you.
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Continuing on, Samuel begins some woes.
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He first has five woes from verses 11 to 19.
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Woe unto him that repenteth not Woe unto this great city,
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Zarahemla. Fire will come down from heaven,
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he says, and destroy this city. I wanted to point out that he
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uses the word her for city, which is in the ancient world
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because you know, in our in English, we don't often assign a
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male, female or gender to our nouns.
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But in the ancient world they do.
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And I had a professor asked me one time.
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He was a wonderful sinful Catholic priest, said could you
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please go through the whole Book of Mormon and see if it is
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consistent that the usage of God is always married to Zion or
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Jerusalem and Israel is the offspring because many other
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Christian faiths have lost that gender specific.
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He said if this is an ancient text, it should be consistent
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and I went through the entire book and there is not one
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mistake. And if this is one of the
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examples, the cities are supposed to be hers if we're
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using in the ancient text. And and what do you think we're
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supposed to get out of this word Woe?
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Oh, good question. So it's a lamentation.
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Well, it is a kind of lamentation, but more than that,
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at this point I think it's a curse.
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Oh, of course. Because in his final after the
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5th woe, he will say cursed be they.
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So it's very explicit woe. We think of woe, you know, just
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hold back or stop, woe to your horse or whatever.
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And that's a part of repentance. But the woe is is a much more
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serious expression of you're in deep trouble and you will be.
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We don't like the word cursed. But he sure uses it a lot in
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this sermon. But we have to recognize that
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the consequences will be severe, and I think that one word helps
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to communicate that. Continuing on in verse 21, ye
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are cursed because of your riches.
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He says the problem is you've set your hearts upon them.
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You have not hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto
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you. And we find ourselves in the
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same time. We often say the history of the
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Book of Mormon before the coming of Christ is going to be
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duplicated in our generate in our world before the coming of
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our Savior. And unfortunately, the riches
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are again the central problem. And that pride cycle factor,
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we'll see that coming up again in 3rd Nephi, the first part of
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that. So it's a persistent human
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problem. And Samuel has arranged his
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sermon here as he's repeating these words of the Angel again
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in a very beautifully poetic form of chiastic repetitions.
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As Jack mentioned, he's giving a double witness here, starting in
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verse 24. You do cast out the prophets, do
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mock them. Then in 25, he says again,
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they've casted out other prophets.
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And in fact, it even says they stoned them.
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They've slayed them. But the center point of this is
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in verse 25. And now as you talk, you say if
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our days had been in the of our fathers of old, you know, if we
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had lived before, we wouldn't have done those bad things.
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We sometimes don't see our own faults.
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It's tragic. And why do you think he's put
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that at the center here? When you talk, you say this.
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You know, if they didn't say that, then they would be able to
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repent. This is the thing that's holding
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them back. Oh, because they don't see their
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weaknesses. They don't see their.
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Oh yes. You know, I often think of
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repentance. As we've mentioned this before,
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we're both musicians. It's fine tuning.
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Sometimes you don't see your faults until you start repenting
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the large things and then you realize, oh, there's fine
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tuning. That I can also change my heart
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if my thoughts are my words. And I think absolutely here, if
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they had recognized that and hadn't turned away from the
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opportunity to repent, then these curses would not have come
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about. And then he gives his third
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cursing in verse 27. You walk after the pride of your
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own hearts. Yeah, you walk after the pride
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of your eyes. And you do whatever your heart
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desireth. And what do you think the big
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problem of that focus on your own hearts and your own self
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might be? Is it not loving other people?
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I was thinking it was the natural man.
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You're not loving God. I think that's of course there
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too, and that's why it's the 1st and 2nd great commandment.
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They go hand in hand together. But if you're selfish and
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looking just about what makes me happy or what makes my world
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what I want it to be, it's my life.
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I can do what I want. And it's true, you can do what
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you want, but it doesn't mean that it will lead to the the the
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best results even that you would have hoped to have.
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And then he begins his lamentation.
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And these laments are a whole section of woes and OS and OS
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starting about in verse 29 all the way to the end of chapter
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13. In the days of your poverty, you
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will cry out in vain. You know, he's he's very clear
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on saying the Land's going to be cursed.
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Your riches are going to become slippery.
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And these lamentations, though, remind me of the Book of
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Lamentation. What are these lamentations in
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ancient literature usually all about?
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They're usually about a funeral. You are lamenting the death of
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someone. You are mourning.
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You go into mourning when you have a catastrophe and someone
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dies. That's a natural human response.
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But this word lament, and Samuel actually uses the word lament at
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one point here. He is lamenting their spiritual
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death and he uses then a literary form because there were
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songs, hymns, psalms, poems, modes of expression, traditional
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chants, and things that people did when they were mourning and
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lamenting and burying their dead.
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Let me mention there is a book that Kent Brown, a wonderful
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scholar, he has a chapter in this book that he did quite a
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while ago called From Jerusalem to Zarahemwa.
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And it's a series of wonderful studies, one of which is on
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Samuel the Lamanite's use of Lamentations.
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Jack, is this available on our archive yet?
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It is great. And so you can go and grab that
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on the on the archive. And I strongly encourage it's a
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wonderful study of the the beauty of these horrible words.
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But you know, when we are in our deepest mourning, we need
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beauty. We we need to be able to know
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that there is beauty with God and this form of lamentation
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can't help with that. But the beauty comes from
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repentance and faith. And going forward, like you say,
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with faith. So the other thing that Kent
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points out, and we will talk about this again when we get to
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the Book of Mormon in several more weeks, Mormon includes the
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words here of Samuel the Lamanite because he will quote
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them in his own book. So when he talks about the
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trouble that he is facing as a leader of his struggling people,
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he will actually say that the prophecies of Abinadi and Samuel
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the Lamanite have come to pass. He has seen those come to pass.
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Well, it's 400 years from this time, so we the dates are
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exactly during Mormon's time. And, and I think by the time
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that Mormon is abridging this material, he has seen this
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problem within his own people. So he's setting this up so that
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we have Samuel's prophecies and his lamentations, just like he
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has Abinadi included prominently in the book of Mosiah, so that
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he can then quote those prophets and testify of their
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fulfillment. In chapter 14, we now turn to a
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prophecy in only a few years, and this one's really an
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exciting one. It's not just coincidental that
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Samuel the Lamanite's prophecies are in 3 chapters 1314 and 15,
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and chapter 14 is the middle. There's more commonality between
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13 and 15 and 14 stands in the center.
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And there are some specific prophecies that he is now
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delivering his very important message.
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So let's see what he says here. In chapter 14, he will actually
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give the people 2 signs and the first one in verses 2 to 8 is
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that within five years then will be the birth of Jesus and there
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will be light for a day and then a night when it will stay light
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and a day. So in the Western Hemisphere
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this night that is light will be particularly noticed.
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It wouldn't be necessarily noticed in the eastern part of
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the world because it's on the 12 hour clock is different there.
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And he also says you'll know it because the rising of the sun,
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the sun will rise, and it is already light.
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So that there's some other factor that is bringing that
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about. So they know that there will be
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a sign that Jesus has come. They know that he will come
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elsewhere. It doesn't mean he's going to
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come to them yet, and there's really no way for them to
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confirm that Jesus has in fact been born.
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And I love the fact that the Lord chose a sign of light.
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He is the light of the world. The birth is bringing the light
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of the world into the world by a sign of light.
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But the next thing in this chapter go down to verse 12.
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We have Samuel quoting from Mosiah chapter 3.
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Verse 8, which you'll remember is when the Angel says to King
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Benjamin the name of Jesus Christ, and it's that name that
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has 10 nouns. He will be called Jesus Christ,
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Son of Godfather of heaven and earth, and the creator of all
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things from the beginning. This formal name that Samuel
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knows because he knows King Benjamin's speech, and he uses
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it here and then goes on to say that you must have faith in this
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Jesus Christ who was coming, and that if you will, this will
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bring remission through his merits.
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And that word remission is also a prominent word in King
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Benjamin's vocabulary. I love Samuel's emphasis on
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remission through our Savior's merits.
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You know all the good we can do is not what saves us.
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We are only saved through the grace of God.
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We have to repent, to come unto Him to receive His grace, but it
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is on His merits, not ours, that we are saved.
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Yeah, that word merit is one we don't use very often, but we get
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merit badges or we get awards or things like that.
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But the for merit, his worthiness, his accomplishments,
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it's not just that he's a nice person, but he has merited these
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things because in the atonement he will win the battle and he
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will then have the merit, the strength to be able to give us
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the forgiveness that we need. So moving on in verses 14 to 19,
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a Samuel that will then talk about the death of Jesus and how
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that is necessary to bring about not just our forgiveness and
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give him those merits, but more than that also to bring about
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the resurrection, to bring all into the presence of God.
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For for Samuel, I think he emphasizes this idea of
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resurrection, not so much just being raised from the dead, but
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being brought into the presence of God.
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That's what resurrection is really all about, or why we are
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resurrected. This point about resurrection
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allowing us to stand in the presence of God is explained by
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Samuel in two ways. First, as the antidote to our
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having been cast out of the presence of God with the fall of
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Adam and Eve, the death of Jesus and his atonement will first
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overcome the fall which will then allow us to enter back into
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the presence of God. But secondly, the second death
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will happen if we are not brought back into the presence
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of God and forgiven through our repentance, so that we are not
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cast out from God's presence again in a spiritual or eternal
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sense. He calls it the spiritual death
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in verse 18. And I feel like I had never
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thought of until you were mentioning this, I had never
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thought of Samuel's words as a temple text.
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But for me, I define a temple text as we are learning the way
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to return back to the Garden of Eden, back the way to the tree
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of life, back to enter into the presence of God.
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And so is he is teaching us how to do that.
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This becomes then a temple text. It does, and it's very powerful
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because of course all will be resurrected.
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That's a gift that we've been given.
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However, not all will dwell eternally in the presence of
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God. Which we call eternal life.
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However, we all must return to our Heavenly Father.
25:59
Every knee shall bow. And that's where another
26:02
function of resurrection is, to allow us then to stand in the
26:05
presence of God, to be judged. OK, Now there's a second sign
26:09
that Samuel will give, and this is in verses 20 to 27.
26:14
And this is the sign of the death of Jesus, that there will
26:16
be 3 days of darkness and Thunder and lightning and
26:21
shaking, earthquakes, trembling, cracks and seams, tempests.
26:25
Yeah. He describes a horrific storm.
26:28
He certainly does, and you wonder where he's getting these
26:32
terms from. I assume from the Angel.
26:34
Perhaps the Angel has given some of these, but they're also texts
26:39
that go back in a very interesting way that I want to
26:42
run through quickly here. Oh, OK.
26:44
If we go back to First Nephi chapter 19, we will find there
26:49
that Nephi gives prophecies about the death and resurrection
26:53
of Jesus, and I think Samuel knows those prophecies.
26:56
Now in First Nephi, Nephi will quote from Zenos and Zenoch and
27:01
other people. It turns out that in the book of
27:04
First Enoch, which is an ancient Jewish text, it was actually
27:09
discovered in the early 19th century, but not studied very
27:13
much because it was discovered in Ethiopic.
27:15
And in First Enoch, you you have a long set of teachings and
27:23
activities and prophecies related to this great prophet
27:26
Enoch. We know about that through the
27:30
Book of Moses. Chapter 78.
27:33
I think there were more things about Enoch on the brass plates
27:36
than have survived in the Book of Genesis.
27:39
One of the things in First Enoch is that there were eight
27:43
heavenly watchers. These are the guards of heaven
27:47
and they're the powers of God and these are the 8 things that
27:53
are mentioned in First Enoch. First of all is his name and his
27:57
name has seen things. So it's wisdom and and knowing
28:01
the name of God that's one of the watching watch cries.
28:05
Earth is power is another name of one of those watchers.
28:09
So the earth and power, the burning ashes of God is the name
28:13
of a third watcher. The 4th one is the Thunder of
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God. The fifth one is the lightning
28:17
of God. The 6th is the mountain of God
28:20
and the sea of God and God will guide is the 8th and final
28:25
watcher. Men, if you go back and look at
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the prophecy of zenith in verse Nephi 19 verses 11:00 to 12:00,
28:34
you notice that several of these words are quoted where the Lord,
28:40
it says, shall surely visit all the House of Israel at that day.
28:44
Some with his voice because of their righteousness unto their
28:48
great joy and salvation. Others he will visit with
28:51
thunderings and lightnings, and power, by Tempest and fire, and
28:55
by smoke and vapor of darkness. There's a lot of continuity
28:58
between Zenith. And this is all given in the
29:01
prophecies of zenith. Yeah, yeah.
29:03
It's not just the allegory of the olive tree.
29:05
We've got Christ. So it seems that Zenith knows
29:08
Enoch and the rocks will rend the groanings of the earth.
29:15
All of these phrases are as you will now see when we go to
29:20
Helaman chapter. 14. And in addition to the words of
29:24
Zenith in First Nephi, I think Samuel also knows Isaiah chapter
29:32
40 verse 4, where Isaiah has prophesied that every valley
29:37
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made
29:40
low. I was always thinking that was
29:42
the 2nd coming, but it also applies here.
29:45
It's right there in Helaman chapter 14 as well.
29:48
So Samuel is combining the prophecy of zenith with this one
29:56
in Isaiah and going now to what he actually says, Samuel
30:01
Bolamonite's prophecy. And as you can see on this
30:04
screen, and you can go through and highlight these various
30:07
words, he prophesized that there will be thunderings and
30:10
lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth will shake
30:14
and tremble. The face of the earth will
30:16
change, and things will be broken up of the earth, the
30:18
whole earth. And below the earth there will
30:19
be great tempests and many mountains made low.
30:22
This is the Isaiah passage. Like unto a valley.
30:24
And many highways broken up and cities become desolate.
30:30
That's Samuel the Lamanite's prophecies, and you can see how
30:33
he is blending these things. Now hold this because when we
30:40
talk in a couple weeks about Third Nephi chapters 8:00 and
30:47
9:00, where the destructions actually occur, every single one
30:52
of these prophesied events will be mentioned in Mormon's
30:57
explanation of what actually occurs.
30:59
Very clear fulfillment of Samuel's prophecies, or Cenus's
31:04
prophecies or Isaiah's prophecies.
31:06
Well, I think we count them as Samuel's prophecies at this
31:09
point because he is certainly drawing upon all of these and
31:15
compiling a prophecy that is specific to those people.
31:20
Now he concludes in verses 30 and 31 to remind the people,
31:27
even though they know there will be these destructions, you are
31:30
free to choose life and not death.
31:35
This reminds me of Second Nephi chapter 27 verse two.
31:40
And he also says that you need to be good and remember that
31:46
goodwill be restored to that which is good.
31:48
But if you are evil, evil will be restored unto you.
31:52
Here he is paraphrasing very tightly words of Alma in chapter
31:57
41, verses three and four in that chapter about the real
32:00
meaning of the word restoration. So once again, we know that
32:04
Samuel had done his scriptural homework.
32:07
He has mastered the scriptures. In this same verse 31, where
32:12
we're talking about choosing life or death, he's talking
32:15
about knowing good from evil. Those are the exact words, which
32:18
then takes us back again to the Edenic text.
32:22
The whole idea that this is preparing to meet God, that part
32:26
of this earth life is agency from the Garden of Eden.
32:29
Again, I think Samuel's audience knew these texts.
32:33
And when they heard them, maybe they hadn't thought about them
32:36
quite this way, or they certainly hadn't connected them
32:39
with the the signs that Samuel is now giving them.
32:43
But I can't imagine a more powerful and more effective way
32:47
for Samuel to have gotten on that wall and said, people
32:52
listen, listen to me. And they remembered and they
32:56
wrote these words down. I imagine that Nephi, who is the
33:02
high priest, maybe had hosted Samuel at his home.
33:07
They both lived in they're they're both he he visited
33:10
Zarahemla. He had to visit somebody.
33:11
And I'm not sure whether someone pulled out their stenography pad
33:15
and quickly wrote this down or how these words were recorded,
33:20
but I think it was through Nephi.
33:21
That they finally ended up in his book anyway.
33:24
Yeah. So Samuel has a relationship
33:26
with him because the text is here.
33:28
That's a very good evidence. Yeah.
33:29
Yeah, That's great. Let's move on to chapter 15.
33:37
And it's Samuel. The Lamanite continues in verse
33:40
two, except you repent. Your women will have great cause
33:45
to mourn in the day. It's not just those of you at at
33:48
war. Those of you that are nursing
33:50
and pregnant, you're going to have a hard time fleeing, you
33:52
know, And I appreciate this sensitivity of this profit to
33:57
the needs of those that sometimes are not mentioned.
34:01
But he goes on to another very small chiastic parallel.
34:04
But it's beautiful in verse three.
34:05
I just love this one. The people of Nephi, hath he
34:09
loved and also hath he chastened them?
34:12
Yeah, in the days of their iniquity.
34:13
And he repeats again, hath he chastened them?
34:16
And then because he loveth them. And one reason why I love this
34:19
because when something happens hard in my life, I just tried to
34:23
remind myself this is a sign that God loves me and it's a
34:26
sign that I can do something better.
34:28
And this process of refining and, and every day trying to
34:34
listen to the promptings of the Spirit and to lean in to the
34:39
things of the Lord is what he's begging them to do from the
34:43
wall. If you're being chastened, it's
34:46
because he loves you. And Lynn, as a mother and
34:49
grandmother, you understand what he's talking.
34:51
About Oh yes. You chasten your children
34:54
sometimes because you love them. Amen.
34:56
Yes, yes. Yes, I know what you're talking
34:58
about. And I think we can glimpse back
35:01
as well to those mothers of the Stripling warriors.
35:07
How did they know what was true? How did they have that kind of
35:12
faith and belief? It was because they knew their
35:16
mothers knew it. And so I think having this
35:20
little connection with the woe unto your women and your
35:23
mother's would be something that Samuel the Lamanite would, would
35:29
be able to reference and people would remember, yes, those
35:34
Lamanite women, they were important in our survival.
35:40
The city of Zarahemla would not have been here if it hadn't have
35:44
been for those mothers. And yet he's now prophesying If
35:50
you don't change, there will be destruction.
35:52
It's been a generation later, but perhaps his grandmother told
35:55
those stories or something. I don't know.
35:57
Yeah, I don't know. Continuing on, in verse 7, let's
36:00
keep reading about the Holy Scriptures.
36:02
He talks about the holy prophets and he says they leadeth them to
36:06
faith on the Lord and unto repentance, which faith and
36:11
repentance bringeth a change of heart.
36:13
So if we want to develop more faith, if we want to be able to
36:16
see where we can repent, the Scriptures right here, these
36:20
wonderful words of God, by studying them, we can develop
36:25
greater faith. It'll help us repent.
36:28
We can see our sins, and hopefully we will allow them to
36:31
change our heart. And Jack, I don't know about
36:33
you, but I have to begin my scripture study with prayer.
36:36
If I wanted to change my heart, if I want them to penetrate in,
36:40
I have to beg the Lord. Please have these words change
36:44
my heart as Samuel requests here in verse 7.
36:47
And open to my heart and soul, which I am always looking for as
36:51
well. What I should learn today, what
36:55
I need to be more conscious of. Drawn to our attention.
36:59
And then not just that, but So what do I do?
37:02
What are the ways that we go now?
37:05
I think this change of heart is a really important part of this,
37:10
that we have to change from our ordinary way of thinking to a
37:15
more way of being can compatible with and receptive of the Spirit
37:25
of the Lord. This mighty change of heart.
37:28
Samuel doesn't stop and tell us what he means by that.
37:32
I think he trusts that his audience knows the speech of
37:36
King Benjamin, which also ends with that mighty change of
37:39
heart. He knows Alma chapter 5, which
37:43
Alma gave in the city of Zarahemlah about the change of
37:46
heart. It's all about repentance, that
37:49
whole chapter. So I think there's one little
37:54
illusion. The Scriptures are so sparse,
37:57
you know, that words were hard to write.
37:59
And they only give us this one little hint.
38:03
And they expect that we'll say, oh, let me stop and think.
38:06
What's that mighty change? Referring Bennett just opens up
38:09
all of these echoes of things that that we've heard before and
38:15
now can build on. I appreciate the fact that he
38:19
also describes his own people. He says the Lamanites are in the
38:22
path of duty. This is chapter 15, verse five
38:24
through 10. He just lists a few things.
38:26
He says they walk circumspectly before God.
38:29
They're keeping the commandments.
38:30
They're living the law of Moses. They're diligent.
38:32
They believe in the Scriptures, they believe in the prophets.
38:36
They've buried their weapons. Now not all the Lamanites did,
38:40
but many, many did and they're firm in their faith.
38:43
And I really appreciate that he is defending his own people
38:48
here. He's saying look at our example.
38:50
And maybe he's hoping that they will say, oh, wait a minute, we
38:55
owe more to the Lamanites than we've we've thought here.
38:59
So why did we cast this one out? Now of course he will flee,
39:04
because at this point they're trying to shoot arrows at him.
39:07
But Samuel's protected. That's chapter 16.
39:15
As we go now to Chapter 16 now, the first thing that we learn is
39:19
that he was protected and this validated the message that he
39:25
had delivered. In fact, it even says when
39:26
people saw that their Angel that their rocks and their arrows
39:29
couldn't kill him, they then were converted and went to Nephi
39:32
for baptism. And you're right, Lynn, some of
39:34
them will repent and will go to Nephi and say, you know, we
39:37
haven't been properly baptized and would like to be baptized.
39:40
But there were others who, who reject Samuel and at at one
39:45
point they, even though they can't hit him, they now say,
39:49
well, why can't we hit? We're, we're good marksman.
39:52
Oh, it must be that he has some kind of a force field shielding
39:57
our weapon. And he they, they attribute it
40:00
to the, the role of the devil. Now that's kind of ironic.
40:06
You'd think that that if they're recognizing some supernatural
40:10
power, they would say, well, maybe it's God before it's the
40:13
devil. And repent.
40:16
But we make excuses that way. And even though very good signs
40:21
are given, but we do have to be careful and particularly have to
40:25
realize that signs are not what we believe in.
40:30
And I think Mormon wants us to know that even the sign that has
40:34
been given here wasn't enough for everyone to enlist and sign
40:39
up and say, I now believe they they are now on notice that
40:46
there will be these signs of the the earth and death of Jesus.
40:50
But as we'll see, they push back on those and they watch very
40:56
carefully. Helium chapter 16 ends with
41:00
counting off the years from the time that Samuel spoke, the 87th
41:06
year, the 88th, the 89th, the 90th, clear to the very end.
41:10
That's four full years. And then will come the 90 and
41:14
1st year, which is the beginning of Third Nephi where they're now
41:19
saying, all right, within five years the birth signs need to be
41:25
given. So the clock was certainly
41:27
ticking. And as a fall back, these people
41:33
are saying even if the sign is given, verse 23 says some were
41:38
now saying, you know, it's not reasonable that Jesus would
41:43
appear just to people in Jerusalem.
41:47
You know, sometimes we make up excuses like this too.
41:51
What God has done doesn't sound very reasonable to us.
41:55
But why is it that reasonability should be the standard?
42:01
What is reasonable to us? It only means we can give a
42:05
reason why we think something should be the way it is or that
42:09
it's happened. But that reason that we give, I
42:12
mean, reasoning itself is not persuasive necessarily.
42:18
I mean, you can give all kinds of reasons for just about
42:20
anything. But we think when we're giving
42:23
reasons, we're being reasonable. And there's much more to it than
42:27
than just that. So they're making up these
42:30
reasons. And I'd, I'd like to point out
42:33
that during these five years, when the birth has not yet
42:38
happened, things are going on in Jerusalem.
42:44
John the Baptist has to be born. Angels will come there too.
42:50
Angel Gabriel will appear, Angel will appear to Zacharias in the
42:55
temple. And, and all of these things
42:58
take some time. But having known that there's
43:03
this five year window, Samuel the Lamanite could confidently
43:06
prophecy that that's the time frame.
43:11
And I will also conclude this little chapter by saying, you
43:15
know, there are things that to me are reasonable about the
43:19
birth of Jesus. And as I've gone through and
43:22
looked at the timing of Jesus's birth, if he had been born 10
43:28
years earlier, the world wouldn't have been ready for
43:32
him. There would Augustus Caesar has
43:36
been on the throne for a little while, but it's only about the
43:41
time of Jesus that you have religious freedom granted
43:45
throughout the Roman Empire. You also, if Jesus were to be
43:50
born 20 years later, now he's growing up at the time when
43:55
there's going to be the Jewish revolt and you can't get much
44:00
proselyting done. In fact, all the Christians are
44:02
expelled from Jerusalem. So there's a window of
44:06
opportunity that happens right here, and things that had to be
44:11
in place in order for Christianity to occur were being
44:17
developed during this time period and during Jesus's youth
44:20
and lifetime. Take something just like Roman
44:23
roads. How were you going to go as
44:26
missionaries, the apostles to all the ends of the earth?
44:30
How's Paul going to be able to travel?
44:32
Except there was an Interstate freeway system called the Roman
44:36
Roads. And I think it goes back to the
44:38
miracle of the timing. God's miracle is in the timing,
44:43
as he knew but used to teach. And so I think that, yes, I'm
44:49
not saying that my reasons now prove that Jesus was in fact the
44:53
Christ, but it seems reasonable to me that he would have come
44:59
when he did, where he did. And for other people to say,
45:03
well, it's not reasonable, I'll grant that, that maybe there are
45:07
other reasons why it doesn't look so reasonable.
45:09
But if you look, there are reasons.
45:13
The Lord is a God of truth. He is God of order.
45:18
And when we can tap into what those orders are, how He is
45:24
proceeding, how He is planning, then we can know by the Holy
45:31
Ghost that His Word is is true, and that these prophecies were
45:38
given for the benefit of anyone who will hearken and listen.
45:43
And we can testify then that these were in fact true signs of
45:49
the most important event that ever happened in the history of
45:53
the world, the coming of Jesus Christ, of which we testified.
45:59
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
46:02
Amen.