A Brief Explanation

Right before the table of contents in the Book of Mormon, there is a page titled A Brief Explanation about The Book of Mormon.  A seemingly boring page that I think is very helpful to our understanding of what we are reading.

I can't tell you how long it took me to comprehend (or how often I remind my kids as well as Primary kids that I teach) that the Book of Ether, which is placed near the very end of the Book of Mormon chronologically takes place first.  It is a record of a people, the Jaredites, that were brought to the Americas at the time of the Tower of Babel who war until they wipe themselves out.  It is placed near the end because the Plates of Ether were found by people in the days of King Mosiah and kept with the records until Moroni abridged them (yes, Moroni abridged the the Plates of Ether, not Mormon which is one of the cool factoids contained on that "brief explanation" page that I used to skip all the time).  The page also discusses the large and small plates of Nephi along with Mormon's role in the abridgement of the Book of Mormon.

The last record of metal plates listed as part of the Book of Mormon are the ones I always forget about being a contributing factor.  I don't know how I forget about The Brass Plates.  I love the story of Nephi and his brothers returning to Jeruselum to obtain them.  The Plates of Brass are often quoted from and commented on, giving us additional insight into biblical prophets like Isaiah.  Although I must admit, even with Jacob's comments on Isaiah it can still be very confusing.  My favorite is when prophets quote from books of scriptures that were in the Brass Plates, but are not in the Bible, like Zenos.  It is so cool to think how many writings are out there that we don't even know about.

That's about all I have to say on that often ignored page, but I have one more brief explanation to give.  In writing this blog, my main worry is that I will ramble and bore people, so I really am attempting to keep each post concise.  Please forgive me when I fail.

I also fear I will write about things that only apply to me.  I will try not to do that but the scriptures stories really can teach us things that apply very specifically to our own lives and studying my scriptures is often more about need than habit.  If I find that I'm feeling depressed, anxious, stressed, if I can't sleep, or find my temper is shorter than usual I try to remind myself to turn to the scriptures.  As you can guess, that leads me to them pretty much every day, so I started picking them up early in the morning, before anyone else in the house was awake, but sometimes I may not get to them until right before bed.  Although I usually fall asleep quickly if I do that, not because they are boring, but because they are peaceful.  They bring me peace.