“My Soul Hungered”

Brant Gardner

The key to Enos’s experience is the hunger in his soul. Enos does not have his transformational experience because he thought it might be nice. His “wrestle” before Yahweh (v. 2) was a real effort, not a tossed-off prayer. This desire from the core of his spiritual being must fight through the limitations of his natural man to his spiritual self. His hunger of the spirit was greater than his hunger for food, for he indicates that he prays throughout a day and a night.

Enos does not say what topics engaged him in prayer, but we may assume from his subsequent statements that it was a time of self-revelation, a realization of his standing before Yahweh. It certainly became a time of sincere repentance for the sins of which he became aware.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3

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