In the Agony of His Soul
Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, December 3, 2023, Helaman 7
Who wrote these prefaces to the different sections in the Book of Mormon? This new preface looks like it could have been written by Nephi, son of Helaman, just as the original Nephi wrote the preface to his small plates. But it also could have been Mormon. This new preface seems to mark a transition from the writings of Helaman to the writings or the account of his son Nephi. In fact, the preface calls this account “The Prophecy of Nephi, Son of Helaman”.
Remember the preface to the Book of Helaman. In that preface, Helaman, or Mormon, or whoever it was, wrote that the Book of Helaman would contain an account of the Nephites, and specifically an account of their contentions and dissensions, but also the prophecies of many holy prophets, before the coming of Christ. Therefore, besides Helaman’s prophecies, this prophecy of Nephi, his son, falls into this latter category of the prophecies of many holy prophets. As I reread the preface to the Book of Helaman, it seems to me that Mormon, the great abridger and prophet-historian, wrote it, and therefore it would make sense that Mormon also wrote other prefaces, including the preface to the prophecies of Helaman. I don’t know, but this makes sense to me.
This section of the Book of Mormon, the Prophecy of Nephi, covers 10 chapters, Helaman 7 through 16. As we’ve learned in the previous chapters, the Nephites had grown exceedingly wicked, and they had tested the Lord’s patience to the utmost. Thus God threatens the people of Nephi that he will visit them in his anger, to their utter destruction except they repent of their wickedness. How does God do this? He mercifully works through his prophet and servant Nephi to deliver the required message.
Only a couple of decades before the birth of Jesus Christ, in the 69th year of the reign of the judges, Nephi returned to the land of Zarahemla from the northern territories because his preaching and prophesying had been rejected there. It sounds like his brother Lehi may have remained behind to continue preaching. Nephi had been in the north for about six years, but it was a very difficult mission. The people arejected all his words, insomuch that he could not stay among them, but returned again unto the land of his nativity. Remember the awful wickedness, and the awful state of which Mormon wrote - that awful state that foreshadows our own awful situation, of which Moroni wrote? Well, Nephi saw that his own people in a state of such awful wickedness, and that this iniquity had come upon them in the space of anot many years, that his heart was swollen with sorrow within his breast.
Have you ever felt sorrow like this? I believe that we have each felt sorrow and remorse for our own sins, which godly sorrow that leads to repentance is a gift from God. But Nephi’s sorrow was even greater and more Christlike, because he felt sorrow, and responsibility, for the sins of his people. Nephi’s lamentation from his tower in his garden points us to Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane and upon the Cross. It might also remind us of the great-hearted Enoch. In one of the greatest accounts in all of scripture we learn how Enoch’s heart, like the heart of the great-hearted Nephi, and like the heart of our Holy Father in Heaven Himself, was swollen with sorrow within his breast:
And after that Zion was taken up into aheaven, Enoch bbeheld, and lo, call the nations of the earth were before him;
And there came generation upon generation; and Enoch was high and alifted up, even in the bosom of the Father, and of the Son of Man; and behold, the power of Satan was upon all the face of the earth.
And he saw angels descending out of heaven; and he heard a loud voice saying: Wo, wo be unto the inhabitants of the earth.
And he beheld Satan; and he had a great achain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with bdarkness; and he looked up and claughed, and his dangels rejoiced.
And Enoch beheld aangels descending out of heaven, bearing btestimony of the Father and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion.
And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the aresidue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?
And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst aweep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?
And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of aearths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy bcreations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;
And thou hast taken aZion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, bjustice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst cweep?
The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own ahands, and I gave unto them their bknowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his cagency;
And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should alove one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they bhate their own blood;
And the afire of mine bindignation is kindled against them; and in my hot displeasure will I send in the cfloods upon them, for my fierce anger is kindled against them.
Behold, I am God; aMan of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my bname, also.
Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the acreations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great bwickedness as among thy brethren.
But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?
But behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a aprison have I prepared for them.
And athat which I have chosen hath pled before my face. Wherefore, he bsuffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my cChosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be in dtorment;
Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands.
And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Enoch, and atold Enoch all the doings of the children of men; wherefore Enoch knew, and looked upon their wickedness, and their misery, and wept and stretched forth his arms, and his bheart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook. (Moses 7:23-41)
What if the earthquakes and commotion and upheavals of nature that preceded Christ’s coming among the Nephites, and the same that will precede Christ’s Second Coming, are brought about by the eternity-shaking yearning bowels and eternity-wide swelling hearts of people like Enoch? Nephi, son of Helaman, was one of these Enoch-like individuals whose heart swelled wide as eternity, whose bowels yearned, and who shook eternity with his own Godly weeping. Like Enoch, Nephi understood the wickedness of his people, and he knew their wickedness and their misery, which caused him not only to weep, but also to pour out his soul in prayer to God.
What did Nephi see that caused him to pray so fervently and to cry out in the agony of his soul?
And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats—having ausurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men;
Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go aunpunished because of their bmoney; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the cworld, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills (Helaman 7:4-5)
In other words, Nephi saw the same things that anyone who is paying attention can clearly see in our own time. He saw the state of such awful wickedness of his people. He saw the secret combinations among them. He saw the gross injustice that was caused by the wickedness of the people, and particularly because of the Gadianton robbers who had usurped power and authority.
When I consider the state of such awful wickedness, the secret combinations, and the gross injustices caused by the wickedness of the people, and particularly by the modern Gadianton robbers who have usurped power and authority, my heart also swells with sorrow within my breast, and I feel to exclaim, along with Nephi, in the agony of my own soul:
Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have ajoyed with him in the promised land; then were his people easy to be entreated, bfirm to keep the commandments of God, and slow to be led to do iniquity; and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord—
Yea, if my days could have been in those days, then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren.
But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with asorrow because of this the wickedness of my brethren. (Helaman 7:7-9)
As Nephi prayed and poured out his soul from his garden tower, certain men passed by and saw him and they ran and told the people what they had seen. A crowd began to gather near the base of Nephi’s tower, curious to know the cause of so great mourning for the wickedness of the people.
I don’t have a garden or a tower, and I have a considerable distance to travel upon the strait and narrow path before I reach Nephi’s prophetic stature. But when I imagine the mobs (not the many good and faithful readers of my Substack and subscribers to my YouTube channel) that might gather to read my Substack or to watch my YouTube videos, I feel to exclaim along with Nephi:
Behold, awhy have ye gathered yourselves together? That I may tell you of your iniquities?
Yea, because I have got upon my tower (my platform - Substack or YouTube) that I might pour out my soul unto my God, because of the exceeding sorrow of my heart, which is because of your iniquities!
And because of my amourning and lamentation ye have gathered yourselves together, and do marvel; yea, and ye have great need to marvel; yea, ye ought to marvel because ye are given away that the devil has got so great hold upon your hearts.
Yea, how could you have given way to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to aeverlasting misery and endless wo?
O repent ye, repent ye! aWhy will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you?
It is because you have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not ahearken unto the voice of the bgood shepherd; yea, ye have cprovoked him to anger against you.
And behold, instead of agathering you, except ye will repent, behold, he shall scatter you forth that ye shall become meat for dogs and wild beasts.
O, how could you have aforgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you?
But behold, it is to get again, to be bpraised of men, yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the criches and the vain things of this world, for the which ye do murder, and plunder, and steal, and bear dfalse witness against your neighbor, and do all manner of iniquity.
And for this cause awo shall come unto you except ye shall repent. For if ye will not repent, behold, this bgreat city, and also all those great cities which are round about, which are in the land of our possession, shall be taken away that ye shall have no place in them; for behold, the Lord will not grant unto you cstrength, as he has hitherto done, to withstand against your enemies.
For behold, thus saith the Lord: I will not show unto the wicked of my strength, to one more than the other, save it be unto those who repent of their sins, and hearken unto my words. Now therefore, I would that ye should behold, my brethren, that it shall be abetter for the Lamanites (or for other people, foreigners or people from other faith traditions) than for you except ye shall repent.
For behold, they are more righteous than you, for they have not sinned against that great knowledge which ye have received; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them; yea, he will alengthen out their days and increase their seed, even when thou shalt be utterly bdestroyed except thou shalt repent.
Yea, wo be unto you because of that great abomination which has come among you; and ye have united yourselves unto it, yea, to that asecret band which was established by Gadianton! (or whoever the modern day Gadiantons might be…)
Yea, awo shall come unto you because of that pride which ye have suffered to enter your hearts, which has lifted you up beyond that which is good because of your exceedingly great riches!
Yea, wo be unto you because of your wickedness and abominations!
And except ye repent ye shall perish; yea, even your lands shall be taken from you, and ye shall be destroyed from off the face of the earth.
Behold now, I do not say that these things shall be, of myself, because it is not of myself that I aknow these things; but behold, I bknow that these things are true because the Lord God has made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be. (Helaman 7:13-29)