The End of the War
I’m impressed by what happened at the end of the great
war between the Lamanites and the Nephites.
The war appears to have ended in the 31st year of the reign
of the judges in Alma 62. At the end of
the chapter we read, “And Helaman died, in the thirty and fifth year of the
reign of the judges” (Alma 62:52).
A few verses later in the next chapter we
learn, “And it came to pass that Moroni died also. And thus ended the thirty
and sixth year of the reign of the judges” (Alma 63:3). Then in the next we read that before the 40th
year sometime “Pahoran had died, and gone the way of all the earth” (Helaman
1:2). So within a short time frame after
the end of the war, Helaman, Moroni, and Pahoran all passed away. We know that Moroni was 25 years old in the
18th year of the reign of the judges, so he was likely about 43 when
he died. I would guess is that Pahoran
and Helaman were likely young as well.
What impressed me about this was simply that it seems that the war took
everything out of them. Once it was
over, they simply didn’t have much more time to live because they aged so much
from the strain. These three were under
intense and prolonged stress throughout the whole war, and their physical
bodies must have simply gotten worn out.
Though there were breaks in the war, it lasted 18 long years. If they weren’t fighting during that time
then they were preparing to fight and strengthening cities and working
endlessly to protect the Nephites from the Lamanites. The war likely would have been lost without
these three men, and it’s no wonder that they all passed away shortly after the
war even though they were fairly young.
It reminds me of Joseph Smith’s words from Liberty Jail. He was speaking in particularly of the
problems in Jackson County, but they are certainly applicable here: “We should
waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of
darkness” (D&C 123:13). Moroni,
Helaman, and Pahoran all wasted and wore out their lives in the effort to
preserve their freedom and their faith from the Lamanites.
I'm reading the same part of the Book of Mormon right now - I really appreciated your post as I was thinking about all 3 of these heroes dying young, and dying within a short time span. I wondered about their short life spans and your post was the one that feels right: thank you!
ReplyDeleteAnother thought: the lifespans aren't necessarily that short compared with some of their contemporaries. Scipio Africanus, the great roman general died in 183 BC at age 53 after the Punic campaigns; and Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China died in 210 BC, age 50, after uniting all of China under one flag... Great men in those days didn't seem to enjoy their "golden years..."
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts Björn. That's really interesting to see similarities in contemporaries of these three Nephites who lived across the world.
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