Okay, I'm going to stand on my soapbox here and tell America that your geographic knowledge is severly lacking. Seriously, the statistics are pretty embarassing!
Done with that, now on to the rest of the post. Yesterday, for our family scripture study, we read Alma 22. It's the chapter where Aaron teaches Lamoni's father, who is the king over all the Lamanites about the Gospel. Again, the King fell as if he were dead. The queen at first didn't believe, but once she saw him revived and the King taught her what he learned, she was also converted and they converted many more people in the area around them.
Then for eight verses, Alma talks about the Geography of the area, where all the people who were converted lived... in detail. Eight verses take up a lot of column space in the book! By the time we finished the chapter, my husband said, "Wow, that was some digression!" And even Alma writes in the last verse of the chapter, "And now I, after having said this, return again to the account of Ammon and Aaron, Omner and Himni, and their brethren." (Alma 22:35) I take that as Book of Mormon speak for "excuse my digression."
So as I thought about why Alma would choose to record so much Geography and why Mormon would choose to keep so much of it. After a while, I realized that I didn't know why they did it. But I did know that because they did that it must be important. Which made me happy.
I am a Geographer at heart. I majored in it at college. I love it. And sadly, it's often overlooked, or seen as unimportant. In reality it's exactly the opposite. Geography is at the heart of every issue. I can't think of one branch of knowledge that doesn't use place at some point. The idea of place is Geography.
Having verses of the Book of Mormon devoted to Geography reinforces to me the importance of Geography. And this little "Ah-ha!" moment has reminded me that every verse in the Book of Mormon is important.
I'll be paying a bit more attention as I read to find more Geography gems!
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