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Enos-Words of Mormon | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler, and we're going to be dealing with
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Ennis Jerem Omni, the words of Mormon books that sometimes are
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just passed over because they're these short little books.
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But there's an incredible amount of stuff here which which is
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interesting because they do often get skipped over.
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It creates this vacuum in people's minds of trying to
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figure out who exactly are the mule kites, How do they fit in
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with the Nephites and the Lamanites and the movements?
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Of the people going from Nephite, is there a Hemlin?
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Oh, and what about the plates? There are the large plates, the
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small plates, the brass plates, the plates of Mormon.
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Where do these all fit in and how?
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How? And a lot of people just end up
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not caring when in reality, if you if you dive in deeply into
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Omni and Words of Mormon and start to make sense of these, it
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actually provides a means whereby you can.
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You can find Principles and doctrines more easily in the
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rest of the book because you're not so confused.
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So we're going to cover that today.
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We're going to begin with the book of Venus.
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Can you imagine what it would be like to be the next writer in
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line? And knowing the the line of
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prophets before you, Lehigh was the first one to write
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prophetically and then your uncle Nephi, pretty amazing
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prophet, and then your father Jacob.
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And now it's your turn. How do you feel?
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Probably. Looking at what's been written
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before you thinking. One of these guys isn't like the
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others. Your heart kind of goes out to E
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Nos in this effort of trying to add something meaningful.
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And yet, quite frankly, for for many of us in the Book of Mormon
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audience, E Nos is somebody who we can probably relate to really
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well. Because if you're like me, and
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I'll speak for Taylor, If you haven't seen the Lord like Lehi,
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Nephi and Jacob have envisioned. Second Nephi 11.
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Nephi tells you that he and his brother have seen the Lord, and
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we know Lehi saw the Lord from clear back in chapter one of
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first Nephi. Then E Nos becomes quite
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relatable to us, as we say. How do I, how do I be a good St.
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moving forward without the outpouring of heavenly visions?
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My testimony of the Book of Mormon is very, very simple, and
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it relates to what we're talking about here.
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It's that the Book of Mormon is the most literarily beautiful,
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doctrinally truthful, and everlastingly applicable book
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the world has ever seen. The Book of Venus itself
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actually backs up what I'm trying to to say here, and I
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love Enus because even as a young man, I felt like Enus,
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like I I was inspired by the prophets.
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I wanted to feel like I was embraced in God's love, that I
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had a remission of my sins. And I feel like Enus is this
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incredible model for how we too could trust God and trust the
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words of just parents and leaders who've taught us in the
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language of the Lord. I mean, this is the first verse,
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and I'll let you talk about this a little bit here.
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Jacob has taught Enos his language in the nurture and
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admonition of the Lord. This is significant because we
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all can look in our lives and say we actually probably have
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all been similarly taught by parents or loved ones or leaders
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who are just. And actually it's an interesting
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word, just has a covenant or context, meaning people who
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teach you covenants and covenant or language and how to be in
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covenant with God. And you were making this really
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interesting comment about these two words and there's a little
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connecting word you were talking to me about.
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Look at this. So he he tells us that his
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father was a just man or a righteous covenant keeping man.
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And he is so grateful for that because why?
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What did his dad do? He taught me in his language, in
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my father's language. Now, there are a couple of ways
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to interpret this, and I don't know exactly what Enos meant
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when he wrote that, but it seems to imply that he's probably not
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saying Wow, I am sure glad that my dad taught me Hebrew.
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Because that's the. Spoken tongue of the Nephites.
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The reality is, is if you're born into a family, you, you're
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raised speaking that language. And I I don't know that Enos
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would make a big deal of, wow, I'm glad Dad taught me this,
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this vernacular tongue that everybody around me speaks.
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It could be that he's referring to a language that is much more
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important as far as we're concerned, with reference to the
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Book of Mormon. Because in Mosiah chapter one,
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we find out that the brass plates were written in Egyptian.
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We know that Nephi is writing in Egyptian.
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Later on, Moroni is going to tell us that he's writing in
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reformed Egyptian. So you have this, this language
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skill that is being passed down father to son of the record
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keepers, to be able to read and write in Egyptian, which would
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not have been simple for for Hebrew speaking and writing
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people, it's it's a step up. Now those of us today reading
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this in the Book of Mormon, some of you might be thinking to
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yourself that that's good trivia, but really, who cares?
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The reality is when you open up the Bible or even when you open
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up the Book of Mormon written in kind of archaic English, this is
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not the language in every case, that the children are raised,
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hearing and speaking. And so it can be very, very
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difficult to understand, kind of like reading Old Testament
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Hebrew prophets like Isaiah. It's it's it's hard to
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understand. And it means that parents have
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the opportunity to teach their children after the manner of
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these words that aren't in our common tongue.
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So in my mind when I read this, I put on my cap as a father and
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think, wow, I have a responsibility to teach my
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children in the language of the Scriptures so that they can
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unlock the power that will help them recognize God's revelations
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in their own life and show them the founts from which they can
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receive a remission of their sins to go back to Nephi.
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So I love the fact that E Nos is acknowledging right out of the
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gate the same thing Nephi acknowledged having been born of
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goodly parents, therefore, having been taught somewhat in
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all the learning of my father, I think that has to include
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somewhere the ability to interact with and understand
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scripture. Now look at this next part, and
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also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
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Can you stop and think about what would happen to a child who
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was only ever nurtured, never admonished, They were only ever
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told how wonderful they were given lots of hugs, lots of
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encouragement, lots of propping up, lots of support, Only
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nurturing that child's not going to have a great, a great
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adulthood. And then can you think of what
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happens with a child who only ever gets admonished, he's only
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ever disciplined, or she's only ever corrected and admonished
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and told what she ought to be doing better or differently or
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or for the first time? For me, my favorite word here
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for parents, for teachers is the end, because the Lord does both
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of these with us. And you watch Jesus working with
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his disciples in the New Testament.
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He's got a beautiful balance between these two.
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This is a way that you you raise children, that you teach
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classes, that you see the Prophets working with the
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people. You get the beautiful balance
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between the two. And now we're ready to to go to
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verse 2, which is amazing to me that E Nos has the stage set by
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his father and we would assume by his mother as well.
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But verse two I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before
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God before I received a remission of my sins.
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Often we look at the Book of Venus and think that it's this
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great story about Revelation, and it is.
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There's no question about that. But this was not Enos embarking
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on a journey to seek revelation just for figuring out how to
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hear the the voice of the Lord or to receive answers to
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prayers. It's a story about Enos, who now
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seems to have a prophetic mantle of some sort, and he probably
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feels inadequate, and he needs to know that he's OK with the
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Lord. He wants a remission of his
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sins. He wants to know about his
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condition before God. Similar to Joseph Smith going
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into the Sacred Grove. He simply wanted to know if he
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was going to be able to find forgiveness for his soul.
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What I love that Tyler's taught here is that by small and
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simple, things are great things brought to pass.
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And what Tyler's modeling here is that sometimes we just need
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to slow down a bit and ask ourselves what are the little
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details that are going on in the Book of Mormon That helped me to
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better understand the Lord's purposes.
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And we want to point out a couple of interesting things
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that Anus is trying to convey to us, right?
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I mean, this is his story of salvation that he's putting into
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the text, but he uses a lot of really cool and symbolic
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language. And if you consider he says he
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goes out to hunt, so there's all this hunting language.
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He uses phrases like beasts. And you might look at how does
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he describe his own experience when he feels the remission of
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sins. In fact, if we look down at
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verse three, he says this. I want to hunt beasts in the
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forest, and the words which I had often heard my father speak
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concerning eternal life and the joy of the Saints sunk deep into
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my heart. Now, if you're a hunter, what
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are you trying to do? You're trying to get an arrow to
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sink deep into the heart of an animal and slay the beast.
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And it's interesting that Enus realizes he is the beast.
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His fallen nature needs to have that arrow of God's light and
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love to sink deep in his heart and listen to this interesting
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thing. And my soul hungered, OK?
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When people go out hunting, particularly in Enus's day, it's
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because they're hungry. I didn't have grocery stores.
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You just kind of go find whatever you want in the cold
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aisle or the freezer aisle. He had to go out with patience
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and skill and labour to go find food so he could survive.
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But what he really discovered was it wasn't just feeding his
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body that mattered. He needed to feed his soul, and
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he needed to slay the fallen man, the beast that all of us
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actually have, and let the words that he'd learned from his
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father and his mother penetrate deep into his heart.
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One of the incredible principles here is what it was that changed
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that from hunting beasts to hunting the beast, the natural
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man. Something shifted because he
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went out with a physical need and ended up hunting something
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very differently. Why?
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Notice the wording in verse 3, the words which I had often
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heard my father speak, and turning eternal life in the joy
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of the Saints sunk deep into my heart.
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Elder Neil A Maxwell once said something along the lines of
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some of history's greatest sermons will be preached from
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the pulpit of memory to an audience of one.
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And I think that finds no greater fulfillment than in a
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family setting where children are raised and if they hear
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words often about the joy of the Saints and the eternal life that
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is promised, that that can be registered in the mind.
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And even if that child wanders for days, months, years,
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decades, there will be a time when when maybe the moments
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right and they're engaged in something and it will create
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this moment where as Taylor's talking, their soul will hunger
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and they will, they will reach out for that sustaining hand.
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So the scriptures, like I said, are just so beautiful and
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doctrinally truthful. We can have planned our own
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lives. I mean, we live in a day that I
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don't typically go hunting. And my wife is so proud.
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I come home with venison. I usually just drive down to the
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local market and she's pretty impressed.
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If I get home on time, I'm a bit of a social person and I always
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see people from my ward and getting the milk often takes me
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45 minutes. The point here is that our lives
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in some ways have become really easy, right?
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We don't have to go work hard to go find the food we need, we
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just go to the grocery store. From a spiritual standpoint, are
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we just going to the grocery store and expecting that we can
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find pre packaged testimonies, We can just warm up in the
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microwave, somebody else provide it for us, we just plop it in?
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Or are we really thinking to ourselves, Are we putting the
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time and effort in, like Enos did, to listen to the words of
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inspired parents, inspired leaders, inspired friends who've
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admonished us and nurtured us in the love of God?
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And then we have to realize that, you know, if I put in the
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patience and the skill and the time, I too can have an
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experience like E Nos. Now, what's really interesting
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here is the ancient writers used some very powerful ways of
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expressing stories, and sometimes the way they would
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tell the story is to get us thinking about other stories
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that relate to the one we're reading.
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And one way to do this is by signalling with names.
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For example, Jacob, the father of Enos, was actually named
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after the ancient patriarch Jacob.
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And he's the one who had his name changed to Israel and he
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had twelve sons and that's called the 12 tribes of Israel.
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What's really interesting is Jacob, the Old Testament
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patriarch had a very powerful experience, very similar to
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Enos. And it's back in Genesis chapter
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32, and here is what it says. And Jacob, this is the Old
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Testament patriarch was left alone.
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Now think about Enos in the Book of Mormon.
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He's all alone and there wrestled a man with Jacob until
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the breaking of the day. Well wait a second.
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Wrestling our patriarch Jacob, he wrestled as well.
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And this phrase, a man actually really is referencing God that
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even our our ancestor Jacob also wrestled with God looking for
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something. And eventually what happened is
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he was given an enormous blessing and God said Jacob was
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blessed in verse 29. And what happens here with the
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Enos story that, just like his ancient ancestor, the patriarch
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E Nos is wrestling before God to receive a remission of his sins
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so that he can receive blessings, but it's not enough
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for him to receive blessings. Once he's received that
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remission, he realizes, I want other people to experience this.
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Let's talk timing for a moment. It tells you that he is in verse
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four, He says after telling you that his whole soul hungered.
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He's no longer hunting for beasts, he's he's hunting for
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that natural man, beasts inside. I kneeled down before my maker,
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and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for my
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own soul. And all the day long did I cry
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unto him. And yeah, when the night came, I
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did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.
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Often this will happen where here's a timeline and time is
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ticking forward. And these might be minutes, they
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might be hours. They might be weeks, months, or
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years. Here's the point.
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E Nos heart is soft. His soul is hungry.
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He is desiring. He wants nothing more.
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But God doesn't give him the answer there.
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Why? God doesn't give him the answer
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in mid morning. He doesn't give him the answer
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at noon. He doesn't give him the answer
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in the early afternoon. He's probably up and hunting,
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praying, praying, hunting. He He's wrestling and wrestling
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and wrestling and God is not giving him the answer at these
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points. The question is why?
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Why delay the answer until the end of the day?
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Stop and think about it. The answer when it comes here
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after this long drawn out wrestle.
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How does E Nos feel about the answer here compared to if he
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had just gotten a quick answer here?
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If he kneels down first thing in the morning when the thought
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first crosses his mind and the Lord fills his his soul with
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this sweet forgiveness, it's going to be sweet.
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There's no question about it. But based on my own experience
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of sometimes having to wrestle and wrestle and wrestle and
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wrestle long. Past when I thought it was
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reasonable makes the answer. Incredibly beautiful.
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Just really briefly. When my family and I had the
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opportunity to move from Logan to Provo, from teaching at the
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Institute up at Utah State to now transfer down back in 2010
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to the Department of Ancient Scripture at BYU, we got that
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answer pretty clearly as a family, collectively all of us,
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that we needed to make that move.
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And that answer came in in January of 2010, knowing that we
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would have to be there for fall semester of 2010 in August.
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And we set everything in place to sell the house.
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We priced it right according to a couple Realtors, we fixed it
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up, everything was good. And that home did not sell in
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March or April like we had anticipated and everybody had
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promised us. We lowered the price again.
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It didn't sell in June lowered it did more fix up.
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It didn't sell in July. It didn't sell in the first part
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of August. And I thought something was
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totally broken in me or in the process.
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But I wanted the home to sell. But instead of that God sent 2
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angels he he sent my high priest group leader who said his name's
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Todd Moon who said Tyler. My parents, Kay and Maeva Moon
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live down in Orem. I've told him about your
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situation and they want you to be able to live in their
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basement during the week, and then you can come back home to
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Cashville on the weekend so that you can begin teaching down at
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BYU. The answer came from the Lord,
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but not in a sold home. When I wanted it, the answer
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came through through angels Kay and Meeva Moon and and their son
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Todd, who opened this door for me.
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And then it was months later in December when the home finally
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sold. I learned some things, not only
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about God in those months that the home wasn't selling and I
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thought it should have, but I learned some things about me and
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I learned some things about my wife and about my children, and
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God stretched all of us, and he used that opportunity to
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strengthen our whole family. I think the same thing's
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happening with Enos here. He's not getting a quick, easy
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answer. It's hard fought.
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It's wrestled like Jacob all night long with the Lord.
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It's wrestled so that when it finally does come, oh how sweet
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it is to him and he'll never forget it.
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Just like I'll never forget that experience because of what I
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learned about God and his goodness.
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That word wrestling is really a keyword here.
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I'm a lazy human. I'd rather not have to wrestle
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to make things happen. I just want it all just like,
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just pull out my app and there's there's a solution.
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There's an app for that. That's not God's plan.
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And like Tyler said, I've had many moments in my life where I
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had a plan for myself, and I was more interested in my plan than
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actually letting God's plan unfold.
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And God's plan actually required that.
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He wanted me to wrestle and work and learn and become.
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And only then did I realize fully how powerful the Atonement
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was. I got really happy talking about
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the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His love, But then when it
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came down to actually really experience it, I'm like, wait,
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wait, wait, you're saying I have to suffer and struggle to fully
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feel like, can't I just talk about this in Sunday school?
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And I just got to go home after church and like, call it good
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and God had to teach me lined up online that no, Taylor, there's
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actually a larger plan here. And in the long run, even though
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there's going to be some amazing plot twists here, this will lead
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to incredible joy. Another Elder Maxwell concept
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for you, he said on another occasion.
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With regarding matters of timing, he said it It's usually
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easier to say Lord thy will be done than it is to say Lord thy
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timing be done. And if you consider it, he said,
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How ironic is it that you and I who wear wristwatches, try to
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counsel he who governs cosmic clocks on matters of timing?
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So there's there's a beautiful principle here to to trust him
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more. Trust his that he.
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He knows what he's doing, and he knows how to stretch us and give
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us, give us the the experiences we need to grow and become who
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we need to become. He is far more interested in
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your eternal capacities to grow and and and your potentials than
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he is in your current state of ease and comfort.
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Notice the response that came verse five.
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There came a voice unto me, saying, Anus, thy sins are
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forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed often by the way we'll
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read that, and we'll think, oh, so E Nos isn't terribly unlike
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Nephi before him and Jacob getting these heavenly
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manifestations, because now he's getting this, this heavenly
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voice coming down to him, E Nos thy sins are forgiven thee, and
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thou shalt be blessed, if you want to, to look carefully at
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verse 10. It says while I was thus
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struggling in the Spirit, behold the voice of the Lord came into
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my mind again. You could connect maybe the word
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voice in 10 with the word voice in five.
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I'm not sure that it was an audible voice from heaven in
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verse five. I think when he says it came
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into my mind again implies that you and I can relate an awful
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lot to Enos that sometimes. Elder Bednar has made a big deal
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of this recently, that sometimes we we seek these huge
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revelations. We want to see the angels and we
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want to have the the heavens opened and and be showered with
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these big profound visions, when in reality, if you're doing the
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best you can to keep the covenants you've made, there's a
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promise given to you every week that you will always have His
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spirit to be with you. As long as you're doing those
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three things the best, you're striving to do the best you can
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with those three things in the sacrament prayer over the bread,
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you'll always have His spirit to be with you.
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The voice of the Lord will come into your mind constantly, to
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the point where you won't even recognize that it's revelation
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because you'll just think. It's just you thinking it's kind
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of like error. How many times today have you
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stopped and thought to yourself, wow, I am.
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So grateful for oxygen and air. Probably haven't done that very
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much, but the reality is is you're immersed in it.
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It's constantly around you, and you don't think about it.
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It's probably, for many of you, like revelation, where the Lord
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is guiding you. Now that doesn't mean that there
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aren't times where you're seeking big things like Heinous
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was here, but sometimes we we look beyond the mark without
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realizing that God is guiding us every step of the way.
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This is such a really beautiful and amazing chapter.
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And I love what E Nos has modelled for us, right?
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In some ways he's the everyman. He represents all of us.
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But he also is named possibly after the man of holiness.
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And look at what happens after he's received his beautiful
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experience of feeling God's love and having this unshakable
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faith. I mean verse six.
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I knew that God could not lie, wherefore my guilt was swept
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away. Later in verse 11, he says, I
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heard these words. My faith began to be unshaken in
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the Lord and I prayed unto him with many long struggling.
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Now again, when you're wrestling, it's a struggle.
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It's not this simple thing. And notice that when you are
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embraced in the love of God, you have this automatic and
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immediate feeling to actually want to give it away to
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everybody else. In fact, it's as if, like God,
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you want to be doing his work with him and notice the
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progression. Enos first worries about his own
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soul, and then it's about those he knows the best.
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It's the Nephites. He worries about their souls,
24:46
and God basically makes a covenant with the Enos.
24:48
But as long as the Nephites keep my covenantal instructions,
24:51
which are the commandments, they will prosper in the land.
24:54
Otherwise the land will be cursed.
24:55
And then the Lamanites would cause so many problems for the
24:58
Nephites. Listen to here's Enos.
25:00
He has that pure love that we hear about Moroni talking, about
25:03
where even your enemies you can love them with a pure love, even
25:07
as God loves all of his children.
25:09
And what does He want for them? He wanted for the Lamanites to
25:12
be recovered and Enos, like the patriarchs, like the Covenantal
25:16
patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who
25:19
received these amazing promises from God, received this covenant
25:24
that God was going to bring forth the words that Enos and
25:28
others had preserved to the Lamanites at some future day.
25:32
And the Lamanites will be invited back into the covenant.
25:34
And that is actually happening right now in our day.
25:38
And we get to be part of it with the missionary work.
25:39
It's amazing. So look at this pattern that's
25:43
unfolding here on the page as you study for yourself, as you
25:47
dig in and you discover truths that that we aren't talking
25:49
about and that you're not going to hear in Sunday school.
25:52
Things that can, can distill on your soul.
25:54
Look at the pattern he starts with.
25:57
Cleanse the inner vessel. Start here.
26:00
Try to be clean with his own soul.
26:03
Once the Lord has spoken to him about his own soul, his next
26:07
layer out is the neighbors. Love thy neighbors thyself the
26:12
neighbors closest to him, his the the people of the Nephites.
26:16
So verse 9. He's like he said he's pleading
26:19
for the Nephites. Once the Lord comforts his soul
26:22
regarding the the Nephites, he then reaches out.
26:26
Love your enemies and he loves them, as Taylor said.
26:30
Look at the bottom part of verse 11.
26:32
He refers to them as my brethren, the Lamanites.
26:36
Once you've got a promise and assurance from the Lord on that,
26:40
now he reaches out even further to the records.
26:43
It's not that he cares so much about plates.
26:46
Plates are just made of gold or or metals.
26:50
The plates have no eternal, lasting value in the eternities.
26:56
The fact is is he recognizes the ability that those plates are
26:59
going to have to bless people, children of God through who
27:03
knows how many different times and lands in the future.
27:07
And he's now pleading with the Lord to preserve the record so
27:11
that it can be a means of of bringing people back into the
27:14
covenant with God. So there's a nice little pattern
27:18
for you. Rather than fretting and
27:21
worrying and stressing over things out at these layers,
27:24
start there first, then go with your family and you work out.
27:29
There's a nice little progression there of the
27:31
principles that Ena shows us. Lord, is it I right?
27:37
Start right there. And usually the answer is yes.
27:41
And I actually really don't like it when God tells me that.
27:43
I'm always hoping he's going to say, actually, Taylor, somebody
27:46
else has the problem right now. But it usually starts right here
27:48
with me. Yeah, we want the Lord to just
27:50
pat us on the back and say, no, you're doing wonderful.
27:52
Give the nurture and don't change a thing.
27:54
You're doing great. When in reality, when we're
27:57
honest, we'll go to the Lord and he'll, he'll give us things to
28:00
work on, but he'll also encourage us nurture and
28:02
admonition. Is is alive and well.
28:05
So now let's let's turn our attention to the Book of Jerem
28:09
for a moment. Jerem, he inherits these small
28:13
plates from his father, E Nos, and he feels even more
28:18
overwhelmed than than probably E Nos did based on what he says
28:21
here. Look at verse two.
28:23
And as these plates are small, and as these things are written
28:26
for the intent of the benefit of our brethren, the Lamanites,
28:30
their key audience, Which, by the way, think about that the
28:34
Lamanites were told in the book of Jerem and Omni, the end, in
28:39
the last part of Venus, that the Lamanites want to kill and
28:44
destroy and do everything they can to disrupt the Nephites.
28:49
And yet here are these prophets who are modeling what it means
28:54
to to love your enemies, and to do good to those who
28:57
despitefully use you, or persecute you.
28:59
Look at how Jerem describes them.
29:01
He's writing the plates for the intent of the benefit of our
29:04
brethren, the Lamanites. But then he gives the
29:07
clarification. But it must needs be that I
29:09
write a little, but I shall not write the things of my
29:11
prophesying, nor my revelations. For what could I write more than
29:14
my father's have written? Have they not revealed the plan
29:17
of salvation? I say unto you, yeah, and this
29:19
suffices me. Jerem's conclusion is if you
29:22
read the 1st 138 pages. Of the Book of Mormon.
29:27
You're getting the plan of salvation.
29:29
I'm. I'm not going to be able to,
29:30
really. Add much to that and consider
29:32
the humility. Absolutely.
29:34
He's had prophecies in Revelation, and he's like, it's
29:38
this is not about me, this is not about me getting published
29:41
and look how famous I am because I have this brand new insight on
29:44
Jesus Christ. It's, you know, just follow the
29:49
prophets. And he wants to be a window
29:52
instead of like the wall a window to God.
29:54
And in his day we have to understand.
29:57
Sometimes I think we get this notion that there was the
30:00
prophet Nephi who then gives the plates to Jacob, his brother,
30:03
who then gives them to his son Enos to his son Jerem.
30:07
And those are the prophets. If you look back in Enos verse
30:11
22, there were exceedingly many prophets among us and the people
30:17
were stiff necked people. Hard to understand.
30:18
I guess what I'm saying is, is the society and the population
30:21
is probably much bigger than you give it credit for.
30:25
When E Nos. At this point, you know, 179
30:30
years after he had left Jerusalem, he's saying there's
30:32
there are an exceedingly many or there are exceedingly many
30:37
prophets among us. Means that here's Jerem.
30:41
He's got the plates and he has to write, but he he's like
30:44
there. There's a lot of good stuff
30:46
going on, but there's also a lot of struggles, and you're seeing
30:50
the wrestles and the struggles to just keep the Nephites safe
30:55
in the rest of his book. And it seems to be more of the
30:58
focus of how he's going around preaching to keep the people in
31:02
the way, Which brings us to the book of Omni.
31:06
At this point, there's just so many little things that are
31:09
going on here that are really interesting.
31:11
And we're going to spend a few minutes mapping this out because
31:15
again, this is one of those books that people often just
31:17
like, you know, kind of read this, read through this.
31:20
And there's little details that actually help set up other
31:23
things that are going on in the Book of Mormon.
31:25
And these little books are actually bridges between the
31:28
small plates and the large plates.
31:31
In fact, the words of Mormon are the major bridge that connect
31:33
these two things together. It's fascinating here because if
31:36
you, if you just do some quick math, I'll let we'll let you do
31:40
this on your own. But here you have 5 authors in
31:44
one short book. It's covering 3 pages of of
31:49
Scripture, and you compare what you get in three pages with what
31:58
you got in the previous 140 pages to contrast it with four
32:03
authors, Nephi, Jacob, Ennis and Jerem.
32:08
You can just do a little little contrast, which tells you
32:14
there's a lot. There's a lot of doctrine and a
32:17
lot of the plan of salvation revealed here.
32:19
Not as much here. In fact, in some cases you get
32:21
one verse or two verses and they're not really telling you
32:25
much at all. Omni happens to be our only
32:29
author in the book who uses the word wicked or to self declare
32:33
his his unrighteousness, and we don't know if he's just being
32:38
overly humble or meek. But in verse one it says that
32:43
Omni received the record from his father Jerem, he tells you
32:47
in verse 2. But behold, I of myself am a
32:49
wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the
32:52
commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done.
32:54
But gratefully, regardless of what his his true righteousness
32:59
was from a heavenly perspective he taught his son how to read
33:03
and write an Egyptian to be able to continue this, this tradition
33:07
that's been passed down from the fathers before him, passing him
33:12
on down to chemish. He's the one verse wonder verse
33:15
9. Now I chemish write what few
33:17
things I write in the same book with my brother.
33:19
For behold, I saw the last which he wrote that he wrote it with
33:21
his own hand and he wrote it in the day that he delivered them
33:23
unto me. And after this manner we keep
33:26
the records for it is according to the commandments of our
33:28
fathers. And I make an end people laugh
33:31
at him. But the reality is, is he's
33:33
keeping the commandments of the fathers.
33:35
He's preserving the records. He's he's going to pass that on
33:39
now to his son. He got it from his brother.
33:41
He's going to pass on to his son, who gives you only a couple
33:43
of verses, 10 and 11. Then 12A, Malachi kicks, kicks
33:47
in. This is where our story gets
33:50
interesting. So it's here where a Malachi
33:53
first starts mentioning significant elements involving
33:57
geography. So this is a good place for us
33:59
to pause for a moment and give give a little bit of
34:03
geographical context for what's happening in the rest of the
34:07
Book of Mormon to to help us make sense of this.
34:10
What we've built are some resources based on the internal
34:14
references in the Book of Mormon.
34:16
We didn't go out anywhere on earth and look find oh, I wonder
34:21
where this would actually match somewhere in the Americas.
34:23
Even though it's an interesting question, we just stuck with the
34:26
internal geographical consistencies that are going on
34:29
in the Book of Mormon. So we make this as a
34:31
supplemental useful resource. And as we get further into the
34:35
Book of Mormon, we'll be using this to kind of just show the
34:38
relational connection of what's going on in the Book of Mormon.
34:41
But before we get into modeling that, we want to spend just a
34:44
minute talking about something that the Brethren and official
34:48
essay they put out on Book of Mormon geography.
34:51
We want to. Read just a couple of the
34:52
paragraphs. The the last. 3 paragraphs
34:55
because this really encapsulates the the sentiment here.
34:59
The Church does not take a position on the specific
35:02
geographic locations of Book of Mormon events in the ancient
35:05
Americas. President M Russell Ballard,
35:07
acting president of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, reminded
35:10
members that quote the Book of Mormon is not a textbook on
35:14
topography. Speculation on the geography of
35:17
the Book of Mormon may mislead instead of enlighten.
35:21
Such a study can be a distraction from its divine
35:23
purpose. Individuals may have their own
35:27
opinions regarding Book Mormon, geography, and other such
35:30
matters about which the Lord has not spoken.
35:33
However, the First Presidency in court of the 12 Apostles urge
35:37
leaders and members not to advocate those personal theories
35:41
in any setting or manner that would imply either prophetic or
35:45
church support for those theories.
35:48
All parties should strive to avoid contention on these
35:51
matters. It's fascinating because some
35:54
people are so excited about different specific geographic
35:58
models that every time they open the book Mormon, that's what
36:02
they're looking for, is proof for their particular model.
36:06
When the the leaders of the church are saying let's not have
36:10
it be about the geography and let's not fight, let's not have
36:13
contention about where the book took place.
36:16
And the final paragraph is Speaking of the books history
36:19
and geography President Russell and Nelson taught.
36:22
Interesting as these matters may be, study of the bookworm is
36:25
most rewarding when one focuses on its primary purpose to
36:30
testify of Jesus Christ. By comparison, all other issues
36:35
are incidental. So let me give you the context
36:37
for why we've. Even done this at BYU in our.
36:42
Products that we're. Producing like this, we have to
36:44
stay geography neutral. So though this looks like a
36:47
beautiful map that actually this place would exist somewhere on
36:50
the world, it it's a made-up map, here's what happens.
36:54
There are over 550 specific references to geographical names
37:00
and places and things in the Book of Mormon.
37:02
Often students, so, so I teach a lot of students every semester,
37:07
and every time you come to a description of geography, often
37:11
what happens is the students just zone that out.
37:13
They think it's unimportant. They just skip over it and move
37:16
on. When in reality, if you can go
37:19
into the book and make sense relationally of these different
37:23
geographical features and locations, all of a sudden
37:27
certain truths, certain teachings, certain doctrines,
37:31
symbols that point us to Christ can start to become more clear.
37:36
So it's not the geography is completely unimportant.
37:39
If that were the case, Mormon and the other writers would have
37:42
put nothing of geography in here.
37:43
But they did. The problem is, is when you take
37:47
these little elements and elevate them to the most
37:49
important thing, we don't want to do that.
37:51
So it's intended that you would take this internal map and have
37:56
to pull it and stretch it here, squeeze it here, compress it
38:00
here, twist it there to fit whatever geographical model you
38:04
prefer. And that's totally fine.
38:06
Our intent is not to push a pin in the map.
38:09
Our intent is to say that Moroni is South of Lehigh and Nephiah,
38:14
near the narrow strip of wilderness, because that's what
38:16
the book says, so that students as they're reading this book,
38:20
can make better sense of the places that they're reading
38:22
about. Now let me just.
38:23
Show you just a really, really quick overlay of the whole land
38:27
as it is described in the Book of Mormon.
38:30
You have the land southward and you have the land northward.
38:33
Land northward is often referred to as the land of desolation.
38:37
Huge civilization up there with the Jaredites, and most of the
38:41
Book of Mormon story isn't covered up here until you get to
38:45
the Book of Ether. Most of our.
38:47
Storyline is here in the land of Zarahemla which is north of the
38:53
narrow strip of wilderness that runs from the sea West to the
38:56
sea east, and between that and desolation in the narrow neck of
39:01
land as he describes it. South of that is the land of
39:05
Nephi. So what happens is is Lehigh
39:08
lands at the land of the first inheritance on the West of the
39:11
land of Nephi in second Nephi five we get the split where
39:15
Nephi leaves takes those who will follow him.
39:18
They travel many days, journey into the wilderness until they
39:21
discover a land that they call Nephi, and they build a city and
39:25
call it Nephi. You'll notice we've tried to
39:28
build it up so that it looks higher, because every time you
39:34
go to Nephi, you go up in the Book of Mormon, even though it's
39:38
in the South, you always go up to Nephi and down to Zarahemla.
39:44
They're not looking at a satellite view of their land,
39:46
their their boots on the ground. So they're they're looking at
39:49
elevations. So apparently Nephi is high
39:53
ground, Zarahemla is low ground. That's just one way to keep this
39:56
straight. The Nephites live here for
40:00
almost not quite 400 years, but the Lamanites keep fighting
40:06
them, fighting them, fighting them until the Lord tells King
40:10
Mosiah, the first King Benjamin's father.
40:13
Take all of these people that will follow you and leave depart
40:16
out of this land. Get out of.
40:18
Out of Nephi. So they go north and they travel
40:22
northward and they discover a whole new civilization.
40:27
This is roughly a three-week journey between Nephi and
40:31
Zarahemla. They've been living about
40:33
three-week journey apart from each other for nearly 400 years,
40:39
and they didn't know that each other existed.
40:41
They discover the Mulekites, and they're kind of surprised to
40:45
find out that the Mulekites left Jerusalem right before the
40:48
Babylonian. Conquest in 580-7586 as well.
40:52
Similar time frame to Lehigh's they combine resources, they
40:57
combine their peoples together and King Mosiah becomes the
41:02
collective king over the whole group.
41:05
The Book of Mormon timeline becomes easier to understand
41:09
when you have these geographical references kind of in your mind
41:14
and you can fit them to whatever model you prefer.
41:17
But this is just an example. Of how if you have some
41:20
resources. Just for comparisons of rough
41:24
distances, it will enhance your study of the book and allow you
41:29
to focus more on the doctrine so you're not so confused.
41:32
You can focus more on Christ and understand what he's doing with
41:36
very real people in a very real world setting.
41:41
Now let's transition into talking for a minute about one
41:44
of the unsung heroes of this book, the Prophet Mormon.
41:50
As we begin to discuss this little teeny book called The
41:54
Words of Mormon, let's not forget the the incredible job
41:59
that Mormon did for us to bring all these other stories to life.
42:04
We open up the words of Mormon. This little teeny book that's a
42:08
bridge between the small plates and the large plates or the the
42:12
Mormon's abridgement portion of the Book of Mormon.
42:15
And often people will read through this and go, OK, yeah,
42:18
yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get to Mosiah.
42:20
Right. So we can get into the the good
42:21
stuff, the doctrine. The reality is this Mormon is
42:25
showing us some realities that are associated with the job that
42:28
he has done. And quite frankly, we owe a huge
42:32
look at I found in the BYU archives of gratitude to Mormon.
42:36
So what we have here is a replica.
42:39
These are roughly 6 inches by 6 inches by 8 inches.
42:44
And that's what we know based on first person accounts from the
42:49
time of of Joseph Smith when he pulls them out of the hill
42:53
Kimora, which tells us that anywhere from 1/2 in some
42:58
accounts to 2/3 of the plates were sealed in some way.
43:02
Which means our entire Book of Mormon plus the the lost 116
43:07
pages comes from only that much. Now, most of the time people
43:12
just in general will visualize the plates as being something
43:16
like the large plates of Nephi, and then something like this
43:20
being the small plates of Nephi. The reality is, is we can go
43:23
through and do the calculations based on page numbers to realize
43:28
that it's going to look a little bit different than that in
43:31
reality. And by the way, we owe a debt of
43:33
gratitude to Mormon for what he did.
43:36
He tells us on a couple of occasions that he's not even
43:38
giving us 100th part of what happened among the Nephites and
43:43
the Lamanites, what he's reading in the records.
43:45
And we have a variety of of visions that people have had of
43:50
Mormon's cave, and they describe some things, large, large
43:55
collections of plates. They talk about plates being
43:57
stacked in corners. They they talk about other
44:01
things being there. What we're visualizing here is,
44:04
I don't want to bore you to death, but we've taken what we
44:09
did get from the Book of Mormon added in the 116 pages, which
44:13
translates to roughly 145 pages in our blue Book of Mormon.
44:17
And we multiplied that by 100 and you come up with about 15
44:21
linear feet. So this collection right here
44:24
represents about 15 linear feet worth of plates that Mormon had
44:28
to work his way through in order to give us what we have in our
44:32
Book of Mormon today. Hopefully that gives you a
44:34
better idea of the large collection of the plates of
44:37
Nephi. Nephi being the first writer as
44:42
the king and prophet, he passes them down to the kings and they
44:47
keep adding to them. These are the records of the
44:49
kings. Amalachi towards the end of the
44:53
book of Omni he says I don't have any children and I have
44:57
nobody to give these these small plates to.
45:01
The small plates were handed down through the prophets, the
45:04
large plates were handed down through the kings.
45:08
And so you've got these two records being kept.
45:12
And now Mormon comes along and look at this.
45:15
You're in words of Mormon verse 3.
45:17
Now I speak somewhat concerning that which I've written.
45:20
For after I had made an abridgement from the plates of
45:22
Nephi, down to the reign of this King Benjamin, of whom Amalachi
45:26
spake, I searched among the records which had been delivered
45:29
into my hands. And I found these plates which
45:32
contain this small account of the prophets from Jacob down to
45:37
the reign of this King Benjamin, and also many of the words of
45:39
Nephi. So here's Mormon.
45:42
He's been doing an abridgement, starting with Lehigh.
45:44
That's why we call it the Book of Lehigh.
45:46
That's lost because he's the first one that Nephi recorded on
45:49
plates, and then his own records, the.
45:51
Big record. The large record.
45:54
And he's passed them down. And Mormon has worked his way
45:58
through all of that abridgement process, and he comes down to
46:01
the time of King Benjamin, and he finds this really small
46:05
record among the plates. The large collection of plates.
46:10
He finds the small plates and he starts And he said, wow, this is
46:14
neat. It's got Jacob on it, the
46:16
prophet Jacob and others. And then watch what happens.
46:20
The plates, the things which were written upon these plates.
46:22
In verse four they pleased Mormon, And then in verse 5,
46:26
Wherefore I chose those things to finish my record upon them,
46:30
which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of
46:32
Nephi. And I cannot write the 100th
46:34
part of the things of my people. So it's fascinating to me that
46:39
it seems that what Mormon's doing is he's abridging,
46:42
abridging, abridging, abridging, abridging.
46:44
He finds that and he says, oh I'm going to finish my record.
46:46
He doesn't seem to abridge that everything in first Nephi
46:50
through Omni is first person I Nephi I Jacob Ienus I Jeremiah
46:55
Omniah. I chemish, I am Malachi.
46:58
Mormon doesn't seem to be touching that.
47:00
He seems to simply be putting it with.
47:03
His record, this small set of plates that are about maybe 1/2
47:08
inch to 3/8 inch somewhere in there in thickness.
47:12
So when the prophets say these plates are small, they're
47:14
telling you the truth. They're they're not very big
47:17
compared to the other records. And so now look at verse 7.
47:21
Why is Mormon including those plates?
47:24
I do this for a wise purpose, for thus it whispereth me
47:28
according to the workings of the spirit of the Lord which is in
47:30
me. And now I do not know all
47:32
things, but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come.
47:37
Wherefore he worketh in me to do according to his will.
47:40
It seems that the Lord didn't tell Mormon about the lost 116
47:45
pages in 18281829 time frame. And it doesn't seem that God
47:51
even told Nephi why he needed to make a second set of plates
47:55
after he had gone to the work of doing the first set.
47:58
So Nephi does all of this writing, and these kings do all
48:01
these writing. Mormon does all this abridging,
48:03
Joseph does all this translating, and none of that
48:06
goes live because we lose 116 pages representing Mormon's
48:11
abridgement of the large collection of the Plates of
48:13
Nephi. But thankfully, God gives us
48:16
what in my opinion is a better version of those same years,
48:20
minus a little bit. And we'll talk more about that
48:23
when we get to the lesson next week on Mosiah 1.
48:26
The point is, God knows the future.
48:30
He knows what to have you do in in 550 BC in preparation for
48:35
things that are going to happen in 1828.
48:39
That gives us a pretty firm foundation for our faith to
48:42
trust that God knows what he's doing.
48:44
I think we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mormon the amount
48:49
of work he went to to give us what he did, knowing that we've
48:53
even lost a lot of his abridgement.
48:56
But he he is the one who gives voice to all of these other
49:00
prophets, and he followed that, prompting to grab those small
49:04
plates and include them in the record, even though he didn't
49:07
know why. He trusted that God knew why, so
49:10
he was going to follow that prompting.
49:11
I want to. I want to be more like that in
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my life. And by the way, we often talk
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about wanting to be like or emulate people.
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Ultimately, we want to be like the Savior.
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We want to be like our our Heavenly Father.
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We want to be. We don't often say this, but I
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also want to be more like the Holy Ghost.
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Mormon for me represents this idea of becoming in.
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He's almost invisible. He's doing all this amazing work
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and people don't walk away going, wow, Mormon, that was
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amazing. And yet, God's working through
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him to glorify Christ and glorify God, kind of like what
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the Holy Ghost does. And I want to be more like that,
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Have people recognize God more completely without drawing
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attention to the lens or the instrument through which that's
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being revealed. And finally, we want to just
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encourage you to remember that the Book of Mormon was brought
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forth for our day. And so as you're reading, sure,
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we've talked about all sorts of interesting things, but ask
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yourself, why did God preserve this record for me for right
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now? How can I apply what I'm hearing
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from God today in my own life? And as you do that, you will
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find God's presence, and hopefully it won't be a no
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signal detected where the Spirit's not there.
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But as you open the Scriptures, the signal will be detected and
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you'll fill His love. So go forth, spread light and
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spread goodness, and we'll see you again next week.