In 2 Nephi 26:3 Nephi states: "And after the Messiah shall come there shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection . . ." According to McConkie and Millet, the promise of a sign of confirmation is typical of divine instruction. The Old Testament establishes the pattern . . . [In the New Testament], Luke's Gospel begins with Gabriel's striking Zacharias dumb as a sign of the verity of the birth of a child of promise to him and his aged wife (Luke 1). Christ himself decreed that the coming forth of the Book of Mormon would be the sign of the Father's work--the work of gathering in the last days (3 Nephi 21:1-7). In his instruction to Joseph Smith, Moroni promised him a sign by which he might know that all that had been promised him would come to pass: many would seek to overthrow his work, but it would increase the more it was opposed (Messenger and Advocate 2:199). Events of such transcendent magnitude as the birth, death, and resurrection of the Messiah must not go unnoticed and unannounced. (See Helaman 14:1-6; 3 Nephi 1:8.) [Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1, pp. 300-301] [See the commentary on 3 Nephi 21:1-7]