The Jaredite Record: Treasure within Treasure

Book of Mormon Notes - Friday, July 28, 2023, Mosiah 21

This is a great chapter with so many connections between intertwining stories and themes in the Book of Mormon.

King Limhi’s people learned by experience that the Lord’s words are always fulfilled, and that it is futile to seek deliverance in any other way than through the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the Lord could deliver the ancient Israelites from bondage, and only the Lord could deliver Limhi and his people from bondage. After three attempts to attack the Lamanites, King Limhi’s people realized that only the Lord could deliver them, and that deliverance could only come in the Lord’s way and in the Lord’s time.

When King Limhi’s people finally humbled themselves completely and sufficiently before the Lord, then the Lord began to hear their cries for deliverance. Of course, the Lord always hears our prayers. When Mormon mentions that the Lord was slow to hear the cries of the Limhites because of their iniquities, I don’t take this to mean that He wasn’t listening or ready to answer. Quite the contrary, the Lord is always ready to listen and to answer prayers. But I take this to mean that King Limhi’s people weren’t quite ready for the blessings that the Lord had in store for them. A period of trial and testing preceded their deliverance. This pattern is found throughout all of scripture.

The Lord heard the cries of the Limhites, and He prepared a way for deliverance. But as is often the case when we cry out for a change in our circumstances, the Lord answers in His own way and in a way that is best for our eternal welfare. Rather than immediately deliverance the Limhites from Lamanite oppression and bondage, the Lord began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites, to prosper the Limhites, and to strengthen them internally. The Limhites learned to be grateful for their daily bread and to take take of the widows among them. They also grew in unity during this trying time.

Meanwhile, as the Limhites continually watched for the wicked priests of King Noah who had stolen their supplies, the Lord also blessed them with a special visitor. Although the Limhites were not able to exact immediate revenge upon the wicked priests of King Noah, the Lord sent Ammon and his brethren into the land. I find a parallel between this original Ammon and his brethren, to whom the Limhites looked for hope and deliverance from temporal bondage, and the great missionary Ammon to whom the Lamanites looked for deliverance from spiritual bondage.

King Limhi was filled with joy to discover that Ammon and his brethren were not the wicked priests of King Noah, but that they had come from Zarahemla. King Limhi had sent out men on an expedition to find the Land of Zarahemla, but they were lost in the wilderness:

And the king said unto him: Being grieved for the afflictions of my people, I caused that forty and three of my people should take a journey into the wilderness, that thereby they might find the land of Zarahemla, that we might appeal unto our brethren to deliver us out of bondage.

And they were lost in the wilderness for the space of ^amany days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with ^bbones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.

And for a testimony that the things that they had said are true they have brought ^atwenty-four plates which are filled with engravings, and they are of pure gold.

And behold, also, they have brought ^abreastplates, which are large, and they are of ^bbrass and of copper, and are perfectly sound.

And again, they have brought swords, the hilts thereof have perished, and the blades thereof were cankered with rust; and there is no one in the land that is able to interpret the language or the engravings that are on the plates. Therefore I said unto thee: Canst thou translate? (Mosiah 8:7-11)

This episode takes us back to the beginning of Zeniff’s record:

And now, it came to pass that after Limhi had heard the words of Ammon, he was exceedingly glad, and said: Now, I know of a surety that my brethren who were in the land of Zarahemla are yet alive. And now, I will rejoice; and on the morrow I will cause that my people shall rejoice also. (Mosiah 7:14)

Mormon continues the narrative from this point of the meeting between Ammon and King Limhi:

Now king Limhi had sent, previous to the coming of Ammon, a ^asmall number of men to ^bsearch for the land of Zarahemla; but they could not find it, and they were lost in the wilderness.

Nevertheless, they did find a land which had been peopled; yea, a land which was covered with dry ^abones; yea, a land which had been peopled and which had been destroyed; and they, having supposed it to be the land of Zarahemla, returned to the land of Nephi, having arrived in the borders of the land not many days before the ^bcoming of Ammon.

And they brought a ^arecord with them, even a record of the people whose bones they had found; and it was engraven on plates of ore.

And now Limhi was again filled with joy on learning from the mouth of Ammon that king Mosiah had a ^agift from God, whereby he could ^binterpret such engravings; yea, and Ammon also did rejoice. (Mosiah 21:25-28)

If I understand correctly, the twenty-four gold plates and the plates of ore are the same record of the Jaredites that was discovered by King Limhi’s men. What a discovery! King Limhi’s men found the ruins of the ancient Jaredite civilization that preceded them. They needed King Mosiah’s help to translate the record, because he was a prophet and a seer with the gift and the interpreters for translating ancient records.

Can you imagine if someone discovered plates of gold with ancient writings on them that contained a record of a lost civilization? Wouldn’t you be excited to read a translation of such a record? Not coincidentally, the Book of Mormon itself is an even more extensive record that was also engraved upon gold plates. Thus the Jaredite record is gold within gold, treasure within treasure, the word of God within the word of God. And yet so many of us neglect the Book of Mormon, the keystone of our religion, or treat it lightly:

And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received—

Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.

And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.

And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written— (D&C 84:54-57)

President Benson’s stirring questions pertain to us just as much, if not even more, today:

Has the fact that we have had the Book of Mormon with us for over a century and a half made it seem less significant to us today? Do we remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon? In the Bible we have the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word testament is the English rendering of a Greek word that can also be translated as covenant. Is this what the Lord meant when He called the Book of Mormon the “new covenant”? It is indeed another testament or witness of Jesus. This is one of the reasons why we have recently added the words “Another Testament of Jesus Christ” to the title of the Book of Mormon.

If the early Saints were rebuked for treating the Book of Mormon lightly, are we under any less condemnation if we do the same? The Lord Himself bears testimony that it is of eternal significance. Can a small number of us bring the whole Church under condemnation because we trifle with sacred things? What will we say at the Judgment when we stand before Him and meet His probing gaze if we are among those described as forgetting the new covenant?

For these and other reasons, President Benson urges us to make the study of the Book of Mormon a lifetime pursuit.

Just as we can now read the Book of Mormon, a record of the rise and fall of the Lehites, King Limhi and his people looked forward to the translation of the twenty-four plates of gold, or ore, so that they could understand the rise and fall of the great civilization that preceded them. The Jaredite record contains great treasures of truth and testimony, but thus far in the Book of Mormon we only know that there was a land north of Lehite territory that was covered with ruins, bones, and desolation. What happened?

King Limhi and his people made a covenant to serve and obey God even before they were baptized. They wanted to join the fold of God with Alma and his people, but they waited upon the Spirit of the Lord to form a Church and to be baptized. Meanwhile, Ammon and his people and King Limhi and his people devoted themselves to the task of delivering themselves from Lamanite bondage. The Lord was preparing them for this great blessing.