Mosiah 7-17

As I thought about how to share my thoughts with you I kept coming back to a blog with a short text from it so you can choose how much you want. Read just the text, read a portion of the blog or all of it, it’s your choice. I hope you are finding time to study on your own and with your family. There is such peace in the scriptures, in the spirit that accompanies them and the words themselves, the stories of the past where there was trouble and the Lord was there for His people.

I already had a blog set up that I’ve never really used so I’m going to just use this space as hopefully this is a temporary thing. As always, please share your thoughts here or in our group text, we really do love to hear from you.

Last week and this week are the story of Zeniff’s people. This is where I start to get my stories mixed up. Anybody with me? Here we have King Noah and Abinadi and Alma, but wait, I thought Alma was with Mosiah wasn’t he? Yep, you are right, but how does he get there? Mosiah contains the records of 2 other people (all Nephites but in different areas) that were all happening at the same time. There are a lot of timelines and maps available but in my short search I didn’t find the setup I really wanted. So, I created my own. Sometimes there is so much great doctrine mixed in to the stories we lose track of the story by the time we get back to it and sometimes as we study doctrine found in the Book of Mormon we jump around in the stories and that can make it a little confusing, so hopefully this clarifies things. Once you have the story straight you can get lost in the wonderful doctrine and know where you are in the story.

Now on to the doctrine!

One thing to think about as you read the story of Noah and Abinadi, who are the Noah’s and Abinadi’s in your life? Who is influencing you to do wickedly and who is encouraging repentance and righteousness? And who are you going to listen to?

Another thing that I hadn’t realized is, this people hadn’t been wicked for generations as we might assume from how wicked they sound at the time of Noah, they were a righteous people not long ago. Zeniff, King Noah’s father, was a righteous king. When King Noah took over and replaced the righteous priests with his buddies that were, “lifted up in the pride of their hearts.” (Mosiah 11:5) and “did speak flattering things unto them.” (Mosiah 11:7) the people listened to them and “became idolatrous, because they were deceived by the vain and flattering words of the king and priests” (Mosiah 11:7) 

How much those around us can change us and how important is it to surround ourselves with people who respect our values and choices rather than ridicule our beliefs and try to push us to disobey the Lord. Are there those in your life that “speak flattering things” to try and get you to disobey? “It doesn’t really matter what you do,” “Your parents just want to control you,” “It’s more fun to….” Have you heard any of these? Have you listened? Sometimes we do listen, we think it does sound fun. Like Alma we can always choose to listen again to the Abinadi’s in our life. The last chapter in this study section we learn, “But there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had testified against them; therefore he began to plead with the King that he would not be angry with Abinadi, but suffer that he might depart.”

Another part of this story that I love to pull examples from for my life is when Limhi’s people try to find Zarahemla again. They came from Zarahemla 2 generations ago, but it must have been very hard to travel this area because people were always getting lost and finding other lands. So King Limhi sends 43 people out to find Zarahemla that they, “might appeal unto our brethren to deliver us out of bondage.” They wander in the wilderness for many days and hard as they might try they never find it. Instead they find a land, “covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.” There they also found a record of those people and brought it back with them. We learn later this was the land of the Jaredites and their record is included in the Book of Mormon as the Book of Ether, named for the last Jaredite prophet, abridged by Moroni.

In The Book of Mormon Study Guide general editor Thomas R. Valletta it says of this story, “It is quite probable that those forty-three men returned to King Limhi thinking they had failed because they had not accomplished their intended mission, which was finding Zarahemla. It is also quite possible, however, that the Lord had a very different mission in mind, finding the Jaredite record, and in that they were very successful. Have there been times in your life when, despite your best efforts, everything seemed to go wrong? Is it possible that the Lord had a different direction in mind for you, or other lessons He wanted you to learn, that would bless your life or the lives of others more than what you had in mind would do?” (344)

To that I would like to add. Their goal was not lost in the Lord. He knew Ammon was coming.

Now my favorite point of the gospel, the changing of hearts!

Mosiah 13:11 “And now I read unto you the remainder of the commandments of God, for I perceive that they are not written in your hearts;”

Mosiah 13:27 “And now ye have said that salvation cometh by the law of Moses. I say unto you that it is expedient that ye should keep the law of Moses as yet; but I say unto you, that the time shall come when it shall no more be expedient to keep the law of Moses.”

Mosiah 13:28 “And moreover, I say unto you, that salvation doth come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses.”

Mosiah 13:32 “And now, did they understand the law? I say unto you, Nay, they did not understand the law; and this because of the hardness of their hearts; for they understood not that there could not any man be saved except it were through the redemption of God.”

“The ordinances and performances were teaching instruments of the law” and “It was to help them to get a handle on their lives so they could begin to focus on the basic fundamentals that would lead them to Christ.” (Brandt, “The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ,” 136).

Are the commandments “written in your hearts?” Are you following the law but not understanding the purpose of the law? Are you allowing your actions in following the law to change your heart? Is your focus on the things that will lead you to Christ?

One more quick point, because this confused me.

Mosiah 15 Those first few verses sound a lot like the trinity don’t they? But we know Heavenly Father and Jesus are separate, so what’s this talking about?

My Book of Mormon Study Guide says, “Which member of the Godhead was Abinadi referencing? (15:1) Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament and was known as Jehovah. When Abinadi taught that ‘God himself shall come down among the children of men,’ he was referring to Jehovah and His mortal ministry (see 1 Nephi 11:16-33, 19:10).

“What does it mean that the Savior subjected the flesh to the will of the Father? (15:2) This phrase means that ‘the will of the Son was swallowed up in the will of the Father. That is, the flesh became subject to the Spirit, the mortal subject to the immortal. ‘I seek not mine own will,’ Jesus explained, ‘but the will of the Father which hath sent me’ (John 5:30). Further, ‘I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me’ (John 6:38)…. Jesus did what Elohim would have him to do: he carried out to the full extent the terms and conditions of the plan of the Father’ (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary, 2:229-30)” (370)

That clears things up, no wonder people are so confused. I’m so grateful for the restored gospel and a living prophet along with the spirit so we do not have to rely on our own understanding.