Book of Mormon Reading: Ether 12-15

The entire story of the Jaredites is a lesson to me of what happens when a people forget their God.

Here are the final numbers in the final days of the Jaredites:

Team Coriatumr and Team Shiz spend four years (4 years!) gathering together their team, their army, their support. Then, the battle begins:

Day 1-2: Fighting and death all the day long; mourning and howling all the night long.

Day 3: Team Coriantumr writes a note to Team Shiz, "Please, let's not do this anymore. Take my kingdom. Spare our lives." Team Shiz, "Not on your life."

Day 4 - 6: Fight on. Die on. Sleep on swords.

Day 6: More fighting. More bloodshed. More deaths. End of day Team Coriantumr: 52. Team Shiz: 69. (And another night of sleeping on swords).

Day 7: More fighting. More bloodshed. Deaths. Eating and sleeping to prepare for death on the  morrow.  End of day: Team Coriantumr: 29. Team Shiz: 32
(P.S. That's a reduction of 58% of Coriantumr's army and a 46% reduction of Shiz's army in ONE day!)

Day 8: Both armies fight for three hours. Faint because of the loss of blood. Rest up and, with remaining strength, the army of Shiz pursue the remaining of the army of Coriantumr. Into the night.

Day 9: Shiz's men overcome Coriantumr's men, leaving only Coriantumr and Shiz. Coriantumr prevails.

End of the Jaredite civilization.

Contrast that to the building up of God's kingdom:

Suppose for a moment you are a member of a team. The coach beckons you from the bench and says: “You are to enter this contest. I not only want you to win; you shall win. But the going will be tough. The score at this moment is 1,143,000,000 to six, and you are to play on the team with the six points!”

That large number was the approximate population of the earth in the year 1830 when the restored church of Jesus Christ was officially organized with six members. The setting was remote and rural. By standards of the world, its leaders were deemed to be unlearned. Their followers seemed so ordinary. But with them, the work was begun. . . .

If any tasks ever deserved the label impossible, those would seem to qualify. But, in fact, our Lord had spoken: “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

I want to be numbered with those who do not forget who is Lord, their God.