Today's Favorite Verse: Omni 1:14

Today's Favorite Verse: Omni 1:14

"And they discovered a people, who were called the people of Zarahemla. Now, there was great rejoicing among the people of Zarahemla; and also Zarahemla did rejoice exceedingly, because the Lord had sent the people of Mosiah with the plates of brass which contained the record of the Jews."

This chapter holds the key to how so many groups of people appear in the remainder of the Book of Mormon. There are five different writers mentioned in this one chapter, which make up 4 generations. One generation had two brothers as writers. It covers about 200 years of history.

King Mosiah was warned by the Lord to flee out of the land of Nephi and into the wilderness. This is where they discover the people of Zarahemla, which are the descendants of Mulek. They came out of Jerusalem at the time Zedekiah, the king of Judah, was carried captive into Babylon. They actually arrived in America not long after the Nephites did. Yet they had not met until this time. 

When the Mulekites left Jerusalem they did not bring any records or scriptures with them. Their language had become corrupted. They had lost their knowledge of God. This verse shows how important the scriptures are to a civilization. The joy they must have felt to have these things restored to them. No wonder with these two groups of people united together, even with the Mulekites larger in number, and this being their land, they decided to make King Mosiah the king over all the people. 

From the Mulekites we found out about the Jaredites that came to this land at the time of the tower of Babel. The Mulekites had found Coriantumr the last surviving Jaredite and their records. Something we later learn King Mosiah being a seer is able to interpret them.

As I was pondering on these various groups of people and their coming and going I could not help but think about the Lamanites. Who have they met that also came to this land? Did they join up with those that crossed the Bering Strait and off the Asian continent? How many races of people are mixed together in the Native American Indians? This country truly is a melting pot of people. Yet the whole of it is reserved for those that worship the one true God. That is the key for any people to posses and prosper on this land.

Day 244 Tami Fitzgerald Harris