Jarom & Omni

So as most of you already know I am an early morning scripture study person.  I feel like my brain is most alert then, don't know why, all I know is night time scripture study always results in mm being asleep in my chair, bed, or whatever surface I am sitting on.

Here is my view this morning since as of yesterday all seminary teachers are to work from home now. Makes for a quick commute from my bed which is pretty nice, I think I counted an entire 6 steps.

Well lets dive in.  Today we are studying Jarom and Omni, pretty short books that are straight and to the point. It sounds like there isn't much room left on the small plates of Nephi. Remember Nephi made two sets of plates, the small and large plates "for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not" (1 Nephi 9:5).  If you need a visual I included the awesome picture of the relationships of all these different plates with the final outcome of The Book of Mormon.

Two things that stood out to me from Jarom were:

FIRST: Jarom 1:3 where it states "God is exceedingly merciful unto them" this group of stiff necked hard heart group of people.  Did you know that mercy means: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm or performed out of a desire to relieve suffering; motivated by compassion.

Our Heavenly Father and Savior are so merciful to us even when we are knuckle heads.  It had me wondering what recent little mercies I have seen at this time where it doesn't necessarily feel like there is mercy anywhere. Where things like the earthquake send me over the edge and the aftershocks keep me awake all night trying to figure out if I am shaking or if the world is shaking (like the one on Sunday night). Yet there has been so many signs of mercy. One of which has been my ability to secure things for the grocery store that I need.  So between me and my parents who live just down the road we have tried for the last two weeks to just have one person go out and get what we need from the stores.  As you know they are crazy busy and you can't usually find half the stuff you went to get.  Well last week my dad drew the straw to be the official grocery store shopper that week.  He reached out to ask me to send him a list of what I needed and he would pick it up for me.  I sent a list of the things I wanted.  He swung by my house on the way home and handed me the bags and said "I got everything from your list.  Going to the store for a single mom is way different then going to the store for your mom and me." I asked him what he meant by this and he proceeded to tell me that half the stuff he wanted for his own home he couldn't find or get but everything I wanted they had. He proceeded to tell me how he got the last package of dishwasher detergent in the entire store and it was the kind I wanted and how he got the last two pouches of beef broth as well (making honey balsamic roast this week).  I hope you take a moment to ponder what mercy has been extended to you the last week? I promise it has been there.

SECOND and final thing Jarom wrote that stood out to me was the echoed repeating phrase of The Book of Mormon, "Inasmuch as ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land." (Jarom 1:9). The phrase is found throughout The Book of Mormon and was first promised to Lehi and his family as they traveled in the wilderness towards the promise land.  Being the nerd I am I had to look up prosper and it can mean a lot of different things like success in material terms or financially, which I think is the one a lot of us gravitate towards.  But did you also know that it means to flourish physically or spiritually and that it could also mean to be made successful. Successful in what? Probably anything Heavenly Father deems important. Have you ever prospered or seen prosperity come into your life because of your obedience to commandments? 

Quick final thoughts on Omni:

Look for the promise about prospering in the land, it is mentioned again in Omni but this time in warning form.

Remember how Nephi had to leave his brothers in the land of their first inheritance because they were being so wicked and wanted to kill him (2 Nephi 5)? Well this group after many generations is getting wicked and are currently ruled by king Mosiah (King Benjamin's dad) and he is warned to take the righteous with him and get out.  So they leave and discover another group of people in the promise land, the people of Zarahemla (a group believed to have been decendants of Mulek who left Jerusalem in 587 BC, just 13 years after Lehi and his family left).  There history is recorded in (Omni 1:12-17).  Now this group had lost religion and language because they had no record with them so Mosiah and his people taught them their language and the gospel.  After this was done Zarahemla presented Mosiah with a large stone with engravings on it and Mosiah did interpret the record found with Coriantumr (people of Jared, Book of Ether).

Now that your head is probably spinning what other stones are you familiar with that had engravings on them and where used for interpretation/translation? Sound at all like Joseph Smith? 

Well that is more than enough for today, see you back here tomorrow.