Limhi's Humility

I have written before about the humility that was required of Limhi to accept the solution of Gideon. He had to give up any hope of avenging themselves against their enemies, give up their lands, and just walk away. He undoubtedly wanted to triumph over his enemies and preserve their possessions, but he humbly walked away instead to save the lives of his people. There is another way in which this showed great humility on his part, for he was essentially giving up his opportunity to rule as king. When his people went back to Zarahemla, they became subject to King Mosiah. Mormon did still call him “king Limhi” after they arrived in Zarahemla, but he essentially disappears from the scene and I think it is safe to assume that Limhi became subject to Mosiah as well. That certainly took great humility that his father did not have—to give up his opportunity to rule for the good of his people. Noah, on the other hand, had done everything for his own benefit without regard for the welfare of his people, even leaving them to die to save his own life. Limhi gratefully did not walk in the ways of his father.

               I think the final two mentions of Limhi in the book of Mosiah are a fitting final description of what he did. He mostly disappeared in the text after their arrival in Zarahemla, but he was mentioned two more times. After Alma’s group arrived there as well and then “it came to pass that after Alma had taught the people many things, and had made an end of speaking to them, that king Limhi was desirous that he might be baptized; and all his people were desirous that they might be baptized also. Therefore, Alma did go forth into the water and did baptize them” (Mosiah 25:17-18). To his great credit, Limhi’s desire was not to rule—it was to be baptized and join the church. Like Lamoni and his father would a few decades later, he was willing to give up earthly status for heavenly blessings. The final reference to Limhi in his lifetime was in this description of Mosiah: “He took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi” (Mosiah 28:11). So not only did Limhi give up his kingdom to Mosiah, he humbly gave the records of the Jaredites that his people had found to Mosiah in order to be translated. We have the account in Ether today thanks in part to Limhi’s actions to preserve and pass along the records to Mosiah. We have another detail here that is telling: the plates were made of gold. Limhi could have kept them and used them for their physical worth, and surely that’s what his father would have done. But his priority was spiritual things, and he valued more the knowledge that might come from the record than he did the material worth. Because Limhi was not “over-zealous” for material things like his grandfather, he proved a great blessing for his people and humbly put the things of God first in his life. And maybe it's not by chance that the letters of his name are found in the word humility.