The Sad Tale of Coriantumr, the Last Jaredite King

At church recently, I was reading something in the Book of Mormon about repentence. I try to pay attention to the thoughts that may pop into my mind when I am reading the scriptures, because I know that's how you open yourself up to guidance from the Holy Ghost. I try to listen to those thoughts and follow them where they lead me. At church, I especially try to listen, because I feel like perhaps the Spirit may be more abundant there, and perhaps I might be in a better place to be influenced by it, if I am receptive.

I was in Alma 13, and it was talking about King Melchizedek (in the Bible), and how he preached repentence to his people:

17 Now this Melchizedek was a king over the land of Salem; and his people had waxed strong in iniquity and abomination; yea, they had all gone astray; they were full of all manner of wickedness;

 18 But Melchizedek having exercised mighty faith, and received the office of the high priesthood according to the ^aholy order of God, did preach repentance unto his people. And behold, they did repent; and Melchizedek did establish peace in the land in his days; therefore he was called the prince of peace, for he was the king of Salem...

And then it continues:

 27 And now, my brethren, I ^awish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great ^banxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not ^cprocrastinate the day of your repentance;

 28 But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and ^awatch and pray continually, that ye may not be ^btempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be ^cled by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, ^dmeek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;

 29 ^aHaving faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the ^blove of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his ^crest.

 30 And may the Lord grant unto you repentance, that ye may not bring down his wrath upon you, that ye may not be ^abound down by the chains of ^bhell, that ye may not suffer the second ^cdeath.

I really think that's strong imagery, "the chains of hell"...how sins and the things of our lower nature really are like chains that need to be broken.

So all this talk about repentence and not procrastinating the day of your repentence reminded me of Coriantumr, the last Jaredite king. For those of you who don't know, the Book of Mormon talks about a number of civilizations in the ancient Americas, and labels one of them as "the Jaredites". Eventually, the Jaredite civilization became utterly consumed in both wickedness and civil war. The Jaredite king at the time was one Coriantumr, and he fought to preserve his kingdom against those who were trying to take his throne. From Ether 13:

19 And it came to pass that the sons of Coriantumr fought much and bled much.

 20 And in the second year the word of the Lord came to Ether, that he should go and ^aprophesy unto ^bCoriantumr that, if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people—

 21 Otherwise they should be destroyed, and all his household save it were himself. And he should only live to see the fulfilling of the prophecies which had been spoken concerning ^aanother people receiving the land for their inheritance; and Coriantumr should receive a burial by them; and every soul should be destroyed save it were ^bCoriantumr.

 22 And it came to pass that Coriantumr repented not, neither his household, neither the people; and the wars ceased not; and they sought to ^akill Ether, but he fled from before them and hid again in the cavity of the rock.

And so the wars went on. And on. And on. And on and on and on. You gotta hand it to Coriantumr, he was a real trooper! He endured so much strife and bloodshed and disruption. But there was no peace for him. No peace in the sense that the wars were continuing and tearing the civilization apart, and no peace in the spiritual sense as well. It all could have been so much easier, if he had but repented of his sins. But he ignored the warnings and procrastinated his repentence. He apparently thought it wasn't important enough to repent, that he could do things on his own, that he didn't need God. It was his pride. But he suffered, through it all. And in the end, it was too late. The prophecies began to be fulfilled. From Ether 15:

1 And it came to pass when Coriantumr had recovered of his wounds, he began to remember the ^awords which Ether had spoken unto him.

 2 He saw that there had been slain by the sword already nearly ^atwo millions of his people, and he began to sorrow in his heart; yea, there had been slain two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children.

 3 He began to repent of the evil which he had done; he began to remember the words which had been spoken by the mouth of all the prophets, and he saw them that they were fulfilled thus far, every whit; and his soul ^amourned and refused to be ^bcomforted.

He attempted to make peace with the challenger to his throne, but the challenger would not have peace unless Coriantumr submitted himself to him so he could kill him with his own hands, because the challenger was after Coriantumr for more than his throne, but also for personal revenge. And so even though Coriantumr sorrowed for his sins, the gears were already in motion for the destruction of the Jaredite civilization. I don't know if Coriantumr repented or not, or if he attempted to repent at that time. I don't know the status of what his personal salvation would have been. But the fate of the Jaredites was sealed. They gathered together all the men, women and children, every last person of their nation, for a period of four years, to gather their last remaining strength...and this lead to an apocalyptic last battle, in which the prophecy was fulfilled. Coriantumr had won the war - but he was the only Jaredite left standing. Because everyone, friend or foe - every last one of them but him - had died.

That's a pretty dark story, wouldn't you say?

But it sure gives you cause to think about the consequences of sin. It is, of course, an extreme example of the consequences of procrastinating repentence and delving further and further into wickedness...but even though it's an extreme example, it's also a relatable one - because we all procrastinate our repentence. We are all, in a sense, Coriantumr. The modern prophet Spencer W. Kimball made big point about the idea of repentence, about how it ultimately should not be a cause for sadness and grief - but for joy. Because in repenting, you cast away your sins and turn to a loving God who will forgive you, embrace you and heal you. And as your continue to repent, you find joy and peace in it, because you improve upon yourself, and because the Lord continues to forgive you, bless you and uplift you. And because as you purify yourself, you become filled with his light. You draw closer to him, and he draws closer and closer to you. And for that reason, Kimball said sincere repentence ought to be a daily routine - considering how weak, forgetful and imperfect we mortals all are. Wise words.

I've never gotten to the point of repenting on a daily basis. But I have to say, I can't deny that's a noble goal. And I can say that I've personally tasted God's forgiveness before, in that I knew through spiritual manifestation that he had forgiven me. And I've got to say, it was the most uplifting, purifying and joyous feeling. When the scriptures talk about being spiritually "reborn" - it really, truly does feel like that. It's incredible. All of that was a long time ago, but I haven't forgotten it, because it was so remarkable....and being the imperfect soul I am, I know it certainly couldn't hurt to try and revisit that type of experience.