Ammon's meeting with King Limhi was a miracle and a turning point for the Nephites in the land of Lehi-Nephi. They had been seeking for deliverance from Lamanite bondage for a long time, and when Limhi discovered that Ammon and his brothers had come from Zarahemla, he rejoiced because he believed that this was their chance to escape from Lamanite bondage.
Limhi spoke to his people about many things, but Mormon informs us that he could only record a small part of Limhi's words. Limhi wanted his people to know all about their friends and relatives in Zarahemla, and Limhi invited Ammon to rehearse Nephite history in Zarahemla to his people. Ammon also rehearsed to Limhi's people the last words of King Benjamin, that powerful speech that caused a great mass conversion to Christ among the Nephites in Zarahemla. Ammon taught King Benjamin's speech and explained it to the people of King Limhi so that they would understand. There is no record of the people's reaction to Ammon's teachings from King Benjamin, but perhaps these teachings helped to prepare the people of King Limhi for their conversion and escape from the Lamanites.
Just as the people of King Limhi learned from Ammon about the people of Zarahemla, Ammon and his brothers learned from King Limhi and his people about their own history from the days of Zeniff to the present. Ammon read the record that these Nephites had kept. There are so many intersecting meta-narratives in the Book of Mormon, each with a unique story and lesson. How could a farm boy in his early twenties have ever come up with even one of these meta-narratives? The answer is that he didn't come up with any of them, because they are the direct translation from a carefully compiled ancient record.
Speaking of meta-narratives, the next meta-narrative is one of the most significant in all of the Book of Mormon because it connects us to yet another ancient civilization on the same continent that preceded the Lehite civilization. King Limhi desired to know if Ammon could interpret languages because his people had discovered an ancient record that was engraved upon plates of gold. Think of this: we are reading a translation from plates of Gold about another earlier set of plates of gold that required translation. What might Joseph Smith have learned in the process of translation about the role of the Book of Mormon and his own prophetic role from this story?
Limhi's people suffered in bondage, and Limhi grieved for the afflictions of his people to such an extent that he finally commissioned an expedition to find Zarahemla again. King Limhi sent 43 of his people on a journey into the wilderness to find Zarahemla in order to request aid and deliverance from the Lamanite bondage. These men who went in search of Zarahemla were lost in the wilderness, and they never found Zarahemla. But they were diligent, and they found something even more significant. They found the ruins of the great Jaredite civilization.
This great civilization was in a land among many waters, and a land that was covered with the bones of men and beasts and the ruins of buildings of every kind. The ruins of this civilization gave evidence that these people had been as numerous as the hosts of Israel. Limhi's men brought with them evidence from the ruins of this civilization, including large breast plates of copper and brass, swords, and especially 24 plates of gold that had engravings of a strange language upon them.
King Limhi was eager to have these plates translated because he desired a knowledge of the remnant of the people who had been destroyed. King Limhi was particularly curious about the cause of their destruction. This is an amazing fractal-like message in the Book of Mormon because we, like King Limhi, are curious to know the cause of the destruction of the Lehite civilization. Thus we moderns study a meta-narrative of the Book of Mormon, or in other words, by studying King Limhi's response to the 24 gold plates, we glimpse the response of the people of one great civilization to the destruction of another great civilization that preceded theirs. We can learn from their response even as we respond to the unfolding of the story of the rise and fall of the Lehite civilization as well as to the Jaredite civilization that preceded them.
Limhi was looking for someone who could translate the 24 gold plates into their language, and Ammon could not do it. Nevertheless, he knew someone who could translate ancient records, a man who had a great gift from God that enabled him to translate ancient records. Again, consider the great meta-narrative here: the Prophet Joseph Smith, with his great gift from God, translated the Book of Mormon and what insights he must have gained from translating this portion of the Book of Mormon about the gift of translation and seership.
King Mosiah in Zarahemla, the son of King Benjamin, was the man whom God had endowed with the gift of seership, prophecy, and translation. As part of this gift, King Mosiah had access to instruments that enabled him to look and to translate all records that are of ancient date. King Mosiah was the man who could translate the 24 gold plates. His method for translation was by means of sacred objects called interepreters. No man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.
Thus King Mosiah was a seer, as was Joseph Smith after him. King Limhi's response to Ammon's teachings was to exclaim that a seer is greater than a prophet. Ammon explained that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also. The gift of seership is a great gift:
"And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God." (Mosiah 8:16)
Why is the gift of seership so great? It isn't just because seers can know the truth of things past, present, and future, and it isn't just because they can reveal secret things or bring hidden things to light. It isn't just because things which are not known shall be made known by them, and things which could not otherwise be known. The gift of seership is so great particularly because God provided a means by which man, through faith, might work mighty miracles, and thus become a great benefit to his fellow beings. This is a great description of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Thus, as Joseph Smith translated these particular passages in the Book of Mosiah, he learned that he was becoming a great benefit to his fellow beings through his gift of seership and translation. Joseph Smith was being trained in his own mission even as he was instrumental in bringing to light the Book of Mormon for the benefit of the children of Lehi and for the benefit of all who would study it.
Limhi was ecstatic to discover these things and to learn that King Mosiah could translate the 24 gold plates. King Limhi thanked God and considered that a great mystery was contained upon those plates. He was especially ecstatic that God had prepared a way through seership and the interpreters for His mysteries to be unfolded. And this is exactly how the mysteries contained in the Book of Mormon have been unfolded. Should not our own enthusiasm for the Book of Mormon be similar at least to the enthusiasm of King Limhi?
King Limhi marveled at the works of the Lord. He marveled at the Lord's patience with His people. King Limhi could not fathom how anyone would not want to learn from the mysteries contained upon the 24 plates of gold, or how anyone would not seek wisdom or desire that wisdom should rule over him. King Limhi saw how the Lord's people, and particularly his own people, had been like a wild flock that flees from the shepherd, is scattered, driven, and devoured by the beasts of the forest. This sounds like a great description of King Limhi's own people because they had been like a wild flock, and they were being devoured, metaphorically speaking, by the Lamanites.
I don't know about you, but I'm excited to learn from the translation of the 24 gold plates and to know all about the great civilization that was destroyed. Think about it: If you stumbled upon a long lost civilization, covered with bone and all kinds of armor and weapons, and if you discovered a record engraved upon metal plates, wouldn't you want to know what was written on those plates? I sure would. And this is a great symbol of the Book of Mormon itself, an even longer record that was engraved upon metal plates and delivered by an angel of God to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
These things are true, and yet so many have invented countless ways of dismissing the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon without ever truly investigating his life or the revelations that he brought to light. When I think of such willful ignorance I feel to exclaim along with King Limhi:
"O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them!" (Mosiah 8:20)
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