It struck me this morning that like Mormon, Jacob was motivated by the same hope that his brother Nephi had to persuade his people (2 Nephi 25:23), and us, to come unto Christ:
Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to acome unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his brest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not center in, as in the dprovocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the ewilderness.
Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men anot to rebel against God, to bprovoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his ccross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfil the commandment of my brother Nephi. (Jacob 1:7-8)
Not only did he labor diligently with his friends among their own people to persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, Jacob labored diligently to write for the same purpose:
Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first aparents.
For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we aknew of Christ, and we had a hope of his bglory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy cprophets which were before us. (Jacob 4:3-4)
At some point between the time that Mormon recovered the large plates of Nephi and the time when Mormon finished his record, he discovered the small plates of Nephi that contained these purpose statements from Nephi and his brother Jacob. Because the influence of Nephi and Jacob and other Book of Mormon prophets in the small plates is so apparent in Mormon’s book, I believe that Mormon discovered the small plates of Nephi and studied them while he was still in the process of recording the full record of Nephite history on the large plates of Nephi, before he made the abridgment of the large plates of Nephi, and before he made his own book. Whatever the case, Mormon’s purpose for writing was perfectly aligned with that of each of his predecessors.
Mormon finished his record concerning the destruction of his people the Nephites. After writing an epistle to the king of the Lamanites, Mormon and his people gathered together in the land of Cumorah, at the hill Cumorah. Cumorah was a land of amany waters, rivers, and fountains. Mormon gives us many interesting geographical details through his abridgment and his own book, and certainly Cumorah is one of the most interesting places that is mentioned in the Book of Mormon.
Mormon was about seventy-four years old when he and his people gathered together for the final battle in Cumorah. Like Ammaron before him, Mormon was inspired to hide up the Nephite records in a hill, this time the Hill Cumorah:
And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were asacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would bdestroy them) therefore I made cthis record out of the plates of Nephi, and dhid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were ethese few plates which I gave unto my son fMoroni. (Mormon 6:6)
Before hiding the records and conferring the plates upon his son, Mormon prepared Moroni for his duties and instructed him regarding the plates:
And if it so be that they perish, we know that many of our brethren have deserted over unto the Lamanites, and many more will also desert over unto them; wherefore, write somewhat a few things, if thou art spared and I shall perish and not see thee; but I trust that I may see thee soon; for I have sacred records that I would deliver up unto thee. (Mormon 9:24)
The great calamity had fallen upon the Nephites, and Mormon’s description of the terrible scene is unforgettable:
And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the aarmies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful bfear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them.
And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers. (Mormon 6:7-8)
Imagine when the Chinese descend upon us with their innumerable soldiers, perhaps assisted by the Russians and other foreign armies. I hope that we will be better prepared than Mormon’s people were.
The slaughter was horrific. Tens of thousands of Nephites were hewn down. Mormon was injured. His son Moroni survived among the twenty-four remaining Nephites. (There’s that special number again: twenty-four). A few others escaped to the south, and others still deserted to the Lamanites. Mormon’s lamentation still cries from the dust and rings in the ears of those with ears to hear:
And my soul was rent with aanguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:
aO ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I amourn your loss.
O ye afair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have bfallen!
But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return. (Mormon 6:16-20)
Mormon’s anguished cry reminds us of Nephi’s anguish after he saw these things in vision:
And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men.
And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine aafflictions were great above all, because of the bdestruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall. (1 Nephi 15:4-5)
What Nephi beheld in vision, Mormon and Moroni experienced in the flesh. If Nephi was overcome because of his afflictions because of what he beheld in vision, imagine how Mormon and Moroni must have felt.
Mormon finished his lamentation:
And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become aincorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.
O that ye had repented before this great adestruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, bknoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his cjustice and dmercy. (Mormon 6:21-22)
We don’t have to wait until the Chinese, the Russians, or our own fellow U.S. citizens in a civil war, try to hew us down before we repent. Now is the time to do better and to be better.