Let Him Search Them
After describing the great destructions that came upon
the Nephites at the time of the Savior’s death, Mormon gave us this invitation:
“And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let
him search them, and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by
fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of
the earth to receive them, and all these things are not unto the fulfilling of
the prophecies of many of the holy prophets” (3 Nephi 10:14). Mormon was writing hundreds of years later,
and he wasn’t writing for his own people but for us in our day—so I believe we should
consider this an invitation for us. We are
counseled to search the scriptures to see if the great destructions were indeed
prophesied beforehand. So, do we have
any scriptures from before the time of Christ which do indeed prophesy of these
things?
Mormon
did give us some clues about where to search in the scriptures. He said, “Yea, the prophet Zenos did testify
of these things, and also Zenock spake concerning these things, because they testified
particularly concerning us, who are the remnant of their seed. Behold, our father Jacob also testified
concerning a remnant of the seed of Joseph. And behold, are not we a remnant of
the seed of Joseph?” (3 Nephi 10:16-17)
So Zenos, Zenock, and Jacob all prophesied of these destructions at the
time of the death of Christ, and we can confirm that in other passages of the
Book of Mormon. Nephi paraphrased some
of the words of Zenos in exactly that context: “According to the words of
Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a
sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea,
more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel. For thus spake
the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that
day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy
and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power,
by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of
the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up. And all these things
must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos.” This certainly matches the account of the destructions
in 3 Nephi 8-10. We don’t have any
direct citations from Zenock which foretell the destructions, but he clearly spoke
about this time when the Savior died, for he prophesied that the Savior would be
“lifted up” and die (1 Nephi 19:10-12).
Unfortunately, we don’t have the direct words of Zenock and so we can’t
verify what he said exactly about these destructions at the time of the Savior’s
death.
As
far as I’m aware, the words of Jacob that we have in the Old Testament do not reference
this event of destruction among the Nephites.
Captain Moroni did reference words of Jacob, though, when he said, “Behold,
we are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; yea, we are a remnant of the seed of Joseph,
whose coat was rent by his brethren into many pieces; yea, and now behold, let
us remember to keep the commandments of God, or our garments shall be rent by
our brethren, and we be cast into prison, or be sold, or be slain. Yea, let us
preserve our liberty as a remnant of Joseph; yea, let us remember the words of
Jacob, before his death, for behold, he saw that a part of the remnant of the
coat of Joseph was preserved and had not decayed” (Alma 46:23-24). From this we gather that Jacob made a
prophecy about a remnant of Joseph being preserved, implying that some would not
be preserved. Moroni used this to speak
about the fighting in his time, but it might also be relevant to apply to the
time of destruction among the Nephites at Christ’s death when some were
preserved and some were not. Jacob would
have then prophesied of the fact that some died and some were preserved in the
terrible destruction that came to the Nephites.
Again, though, we don’t have the original prophecy of Jacob to
understand exactly what he was referring to.
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