Struck With Wonder and Amazement

I’ve always found very interesting the reaction of the people at Zarahemla when Mosiah read to them the account of Zeniff, Limhi, and Alma once the peoples of Limhi and Alma had returned to rejoin the Nephites.  We read that the people “were struck with wonder and amazement.”  On the one hand they “were filled with exceedingly great joy” because of the miraculous way that both groups had been delivered by the hand of the Lord, but on the other hand “they were filled with sorrow, and even shed many tears of sorrow” because so many of the people of Limhi had been slain by the Lamanites.  They “did raise their voices and give thanks to God” because of the “goodness of God” in delivering their brethren, and yet at the same time they were “filled with pain and anguish” because the sinful state of the Lamanites (Mosiah 25:7-11).  What amazes me is how deeply their feelings were affected by the knowledge of what had happened as the read and listened to the account.  They felt real joy and pain because of what had happened to a people that they really didn’t know.  Zeniff had left them with his group many years earlier, and these who had returned were descendants that the people of Zarahemla did not know.  And yet despite this, they were deeply affected emotionally because of what had happened to these strangers.  

                Perhaps one of the lessons that we can learn from this short account is that we should feel more deeply about the stories and people of the scriptures.  It seems that this is what Mormon expected of us.  As he wrote of the great wickedness of his day for us to read he said, “And now behold, I, Mormon, do not desire to harrow up the souls of men in casting before them such an awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid before mine eyes” (Mormon 5:8).  He continued by explaining that he spoke to the seed of the Lamanites and other groups in the last days who “know from whence their blessings come.”  He said this: “For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus” (Mormon 5:10-11).  In other words, Mormon expected that for the faithful the account of his people and their death would cause readers “much sorrow.”    Similarly Jacob was worried about his seed who would one day read the record, hoping that the recipients of his words “will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents” (Jacob 4:3).  I think that only through the Spirit and a true understanding of God’s plan will we feel that kind of joy because of the righteousness of people in the scriptural account. 

                I remember my MTC teacher recounting how one of the missionaries he was teaching one day came into class very sad.  When he asked the Elder what the problem was, he answered, “Teancum died today.”  Understanding as we do that the characters of the scriptures were real people who did indeed experience what is recorded in our scriptures, we should likewise be deeply moved--even struck with wonder and amazement--by the trials and triumphs of the scriptural characters.