Mosiah 2 & 3

Mosiah 2

Mosiah does as his father, King Benjamin, directs and gathers all the people around the temple to hear his father’s final speech. Families sit together in tents surrounding a tower King Benjamin speaks from so more people can hear him. Still, the crowd is too big for everyone to hear, and so King Benjamin’s words are written down and circulated to all the people. And it is well worth it—King Benjamin’s speech is one of the iconic sections of the Book of Mormon, full of precious gems. Here are some of my favorites:

SERVICE

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

18 Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

King Benjamin taught this principle by example. It is simple but powerful, because I have often wondered how I can serve God—and then I remember this verse. The best way to serve Him is to serve His children. That is what He wants most.

GRATITUDE and OUR DEBT TO GOD

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

I think this principle isn’t meant to scare us or make us “give up” because we can never re-pay God, but is meant to inspire gratitude, humility, and reverence in us. Life is hard, and I can choose to focus on that… or I can choose to recognize the reality of how much God has given me, and how much He continues to give me as I choose to follow Him.

CHOICE & CONSEQUENCES

36 And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved—

40 O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand, I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.

These scriptures have always been powerful to me. Basically I have a choice to obey what I know is right or not. But if I chose not to, the companionship of the Holy Spirit must depart from me, and has “no place in [me] to guide [me] in wisdom’s paths that [I] may be blessed, prospered, and preserved.” Why would I ever think it is worth it to forfeit that blessing?

I have always been intrigued, too, by King Benjamin’s invitation to “awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.” Basically he says just look around you! Look at the people who have chosen to reject what is right and good. Are they happy? Do you really want to follow their example? The proof is in the pudding, basically. People I know who aren’t living the way they know they should are constantly battling to find an alternative way to be happy that never seems to satisfy. And on the flip side, the happiest people I know are the best people I know. Just like King Benjamin says:

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

Mosiah 3

King Benjamin’s speech continues. In this chapter he shares a joyful prophecy that was given to him by an angel:

5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

 6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

 7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

 8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.

9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.

 10 And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.

I love these clear prophecies of the coming of Christ that were given just 125 years before his birth.

I've been asked what I believe happens to people who don’t even know about my church, or those who don’t even know about Jesus Christ. Verse 11 teaches the answer: because of Christ’s atonement, the Lord can mercifully forgive those who “sin” without knowing Him or His commandments:

11 For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned.

We also learn that the Lord’s atoning sacrifice covers all children, and they are innocent:

16 And even if it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved [without the Atonement of Christ]; but I say unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins.

18 For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy;

All things are made possible by the Atonement of Christ. He is fair, merciful, and kind and will save all men who will allow him… including those who don’t know Him because they don’t know any better. But ultimately we all need Him.

17 And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.

But for any of us, in order to access the power of the atonement of Christ we must become as a child:

 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.