Rather than continue to dissipate his forces by continually withdrawing, Mormon decides to make a final stand. He has made successful defensive stands before, and certainly has some level of hope that he might do so again. To gain the opportunity to make this last stand, he writes to the king of the Lamanites to set the place and accept battle at that location. An agreement of a place and time for war, particularly by the one being attacked might seem rather strange in a Western tradition. It was, however, quite a part of the Mesoamerican tradition of warfare. By Aztec times it was an ideal more than a reality, (Ross Hassig. Aztec Warfare. University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, p. 48), but the ideal itself suggests that there must have been some reality attached to the practice at some point. Indeed, Ixtlilxochitl makes a very direct indication that such was the case:
“Topiltzin, seeing himself so oppressed and that there was no way out, asked for time, for it was a law among them that before a battle they would notify each other some years in advance so that on the both sides they would be warned and prepared.” (Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. “Concerning the Tultec kings and their destruction.” Translated and cited in Milton R. Hunter and Thomas Stuart Ferguson. Ancient America and the Book of Mormon. Kolob Book Company, Oakland, CA, 1950, p. 383).
Textual: Mormon returns to his more historical narrative. However, it is interesting to note that this chapter will also end with the same kind of forward-looking text as he wrote in the last chapter. The structure of the last two chapters of Mormon wrote was remarkably parallel. They both begin with history, and both end with a personal message to the future readers. In most cases of parallel construction we can assume that the parallelism was intentional, and part of the overall message. This may be an exception to that general rule.
The reason for not seeing the parallel structures in the final two chapters as significant for a constructed theme is that the parallelism has no identifiable purpose. There is nothing in the shift from narrative present to narrative future that is suggestive of any type of development in the two chapters. Indeed, the seam between history and admonition to the future is rather distinct.
What we have in these final chapters is a man nearing the end of his purpose, and that purpose looks to the future. The dramatic contrast between this last hopeful “message in a bottle” that will be sent to future generations sharply contrasts with the finality of the hopeless task he sees before him. Our evidence from Mormon’s text is that he is naturally more of an optimist than a pessimist, but his current world supplies him nothing on which to base his optimism. That optimism, that hope, is all directed to the future, and as Mormon writes, it is increasingly the future in which his only hope lies. Mormon ends his last two chapters by looking forward because that is increasingly where his mind and heart are looking.
There are several evidences that Mormon worked from at least an outline during the construction of his text. His outline certainly included a final chapter, but just as we have seen him insert new texts or mental threads into that outline, he does so now. The outline certainly discussed current history. Mormon’s heart is writing the notes to the future.