Moroni and the Power of God

The first words of Moroni in the Book of Mormon are recorded in Mormon 8:1-13. He gave a brief update on his condition as the sole survivor of the Nephite people and then it appears buried the record up, perhaps thinking that this was all he would write.  The sense of the verses is of one who is lonely and powerless in a land of wickedness: “I remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people….  I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not, and ore I have none, for I am alone….  I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not.”  He was alone, had no ore to write more on the plates, and was simply waiting for the Lord to take his life. 

               In contrast to the sense of powerlessness in these first verses, the rest of the writing of Moroni has a very different tone and testifies of the Lord’s great power among the children of men.  Moroni apparently found ore to write on, and he picked back up the record and wrote with great energy, telling us that the words of the Book of Mormon would indeed come forth “by the power of God.”  He testified that “the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on” and that “in his name could [saints] remove mountains; and in his name could they cause the earth to shake” (Mormon 8:16, 22, 24).  He bore witness that the Lord is “a God of miracles; even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” and that even today “God has not ceased to be a God of miracles” (Mormon 9:11, 15).  Moroni may have felt vulnerable and powerless as he wandered alone, but he knew that God was not powerless and always had and always would be a God of miracles.  And He gives great power to those who believe in Him: “Whoso believe in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted unto him….  These signs shall follow them that believe—in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover” (Mormon 9:21, 24).  Moroni, though very conscious of his own weaknesses, turned to the Lord and gained great power, power to write some of the most influential words of the Book of Mormon that have changed the life of millions of readers (particularly in Moroni 10). 

            The most important kind of power that the Lord gives us is the power to change and become like the Savior, and Moroni, though surrounded by depravity and inhumanity, showed us how he developed that power to became refined and sanctified before the Lord.  When he went to the Lord in weakness, the Lord declared, “My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”  When Moroni worried how the Gentiles would receive his words, the Lord told him, “If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean.  And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong.”  Through his faith and humility, Moroni had been sanctified.  In humility yet with a perfect knowledge of his own purity, he wrote, “We shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood” (Ether 12:27, 37-38).  His final words to us testified of his ultimate triumph over the natural man and the evils around him, and they stand in stark contrast to the original sense of powerlessness his first words evoked: “I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead” (Moroni 10:34).  He knew that by coming fulling unto Christ he had been perfected in Him, and his words are a testimony to us that no matter how alone and weak we may feel, through the Savior we can overcome all obstacles to our own salvation.  His words cry out from the dust to all of us: “I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever” (Moroni 10:7).