12 And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos. And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers.
In following the cross references printed in my Book of
Mormon for this and the last few verses, I get the feeling that prophesies
about, and records of the destructions at the time of Christ’s crucifixion are
all throughout the canon of scriptures. I have not made a formal study of this,
but I’m sure that events and doctrines surrounding the Atonement of Christ,
including these destructions at His crucifixion, are the most recorded of
single topics found in the scriptures. After all, the purpose of all scripture
is to testify of Christ and His mission.
I find fascinating the statement in this verse that “because
of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall
be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers.”
This is interesting because the kings got it. They understood that it was a
divine cause making all the destructions. It could just as easily be that they
got it from superstition. The scriptures we have are a record of God’s dealings
with Israel, but surely there were others in the world worshipping God the best
they knew how in sincerity who were not Israelites. The fact that this verse
exclaims that the God of nature
suffers is interesting. The word “God” is capitalized the way references to the
God of Israel usually is, but He is not referred to as the God of Israel, etc.
So it’s a bit unclear who these people on the isles of the sea worshipped.
- Matthew 27:51 (51–54)
- 3 Nephi 10:11
- Moses 7:56 (48–56)
