The First Destruction of the Jaredites

Recently I have been reading the Tennis Shoes adventure series by Chris Heimerdinger to my children. They are fictional stories interwoven with real people from the Book of Mormon. In book we are on, Drums of Desolation, the characters are among the Jaredites at the time of the righteous King Omer and the evil usurper Akish. The author commented in one of his notes, “When Latter-day Saints think of the Book of Mormon, they generally recall that it tells of two distinct destructions of civilization or tribe.” There he referred to the destruction of the Nephites and that of the Jaredites at the time of Coriantumr. He continued, “But there was another destruction, earlier than the others, and nearly equivalent in the totality of its devastation. This destruction occurred in the days of Akish.” The account does not actually tell us how many were killed, but it does tell us that nearly all were destroyed. Omer and the small number of righteous had escaped and were living separate from the main conflict that was taking place between Akish and his sons. We read, “And there began to be a war between the sons of Akish and Akish, which lasted for the space of many years, yea, unto the destruction of nearly all the people of the kingdom, yea, even all, save it were thirty souls, and they who fled with the house of Omer” (Ether 9:12). This was several generations, perhaps hundreds of years, since the Jaredites had arrived in the promised land, so surely this equated to a large society (though likely not as large as the Jaredites or Nephites were by the end of their civilization).

I have written before about how I admire Shule (described in Ether 7) for his faithfulness and the trials that he had to pass through. Omer was the son of Shule, and life was no easier that that of his father’s. Omer’s son Jared rebelled against him and “he had gained the half of the kingdom. And when he had gained the half of the kingdom he gave battle unto his father, and he did carry away his father into captivity, and did make him serve in captivity.” Omer dwelt in captivity “half of his days” which appears to have been a very long time. Eventually two of his sons, Esrom and Coriantumr, “were exceedingly angry because of the doings of Jared their brother, insomuch that they did raise an army and gave battle unto Jared” (Ether 8:2-6). Jared eventually agreed to give up the kingdom back to his father but unfortunately this did not end the conflict. Jared’s daughter conspired to get the kingdom back for her father, and the wicked Akish became the mastermind of a plot to kill Omer and the latter lost his kingdom for a second time: “Therefore, behold, it came to pass that because of the secret combinations of Akish and his friends, behold, they did overthrow the kingdom of Omer.” But Omer was saved by the Lord: “Nevertheless, the Lord was merciful unto Omer, and also to his sons and to his daughters who did not seek his destruction. And the Lord warned Omer in a dream that he should depart out of the land; wherefore Omer departed out of the land with his family” (Ether 9:2-3). There he and his family who were righteous were protected and kept from the violence that engulfed the rest of the Jaredites as Akish battled his own sons. Eventually after they were nearly all killed, Omer again regained the kingdom (for the third time) and finally died in peace. What a sorrow-filled life! How he must have mourned for the wickedness of his own children and grandchildren with both family and friends trying to kill him for power and causing enormous suffering among the people as a whole. But to his credit he was a righteous man and the Lord showed through his life that He will protect and preserve His righteous people from the wickedness and destruction of the world.