The Limhites

When Abinadi came to King Noah's people he had a very simple message: Repent or be destroyed. To explain what he meant he had the opportunity to give an eloquent sermon on the Savior, but his underlying message was the same. 

The Lord has asked dozens of prophets to deliver the same message to different groups of people throughout history with varying results. 

When Jonah finally delivered his message to the people of Ninevah they repented and were not destroyed. After giving multiples warnings to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jeremiah, Lehi and others tell Jerusalem to repent or be destroyed but they don't resulting in the Babylonian captivity. I think it's interesting to note that whenever a nation reaps the consequences of their rebellion against God the Lord protects his righteous people. Sometimes he leads them away before things get bad, like with Lot and Lehi. Sometimes he consecrates the circumstances for the good of the righteous like with Daniel. 

In any case, King Noah's people were warned to repent or die. Alma repents, he teaches other people and they repent. Then they all leave. 

As soon as they leave the destruction comes. Once all the righteous people are gone, the Lamanites come to wage war against the Limhites. 

But here is what I love about this story and what it teaches us about the Lord. King Noah, who is very wicked dies. The wicked priests are scattered. The remaining people are enslaved. 

But they learn! 

It's a bumpy ride. They end up being attacked by the Lamanites once, then attacking the Lamanites three times themselves all with disastrous results. But eventually they repent.

What happens when they repent? 

Ammon shows up and they escape without any bloodshed to Zarahemla where they join the church of Christ.

It reminds me of this quote from President Benson: "The Lord will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble."

The Lord is not interested in punitive destruction. He doesn't destroy the people because he's angry at them. He creates circumstances that will lead the people to him, that cause them to turn to him in prayer and rely upon him for their support. And he gives them lots and lots of chances. 

Why did the Lord command the Israelites to kill all those people?

Sometimes when we read the Old Testament we can get the impression of a vengeful, vindictive God. You know, the one that will strike you with lightening if you say something wrong. When the Israelites finally make it to the promised land they seem to leave a trail of blood and suffering behind them.
I love these verses 1 Nephi 17:33 & 35 "And now do ye suppose that the children of this land, who were in the land of promise, who were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous? I say unto you, Nay... But behold this people had rejected every word of God, and they were ripe in iniquity; and the fulness of the wrath of God was upon them."
Nephi clears it up a little for us. The people who inhabited the land before the Israelites had a chance to repent, probably a thousand chances, probably more.
Nephi also says in this passage "the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one." Which of course means that he loves us all and doesn't marginalize anyone. But I think there's another meaning here. As difficult as it is for our Anglo-Saxon culture to understand, the Lords loves us holistically. He loves mankind and He will do things for the greater good of all. Nephi learns this poignantly when the Lord commands him to kill Laban.
Yes the Lord loves us individually more than our mortal minds can understand, but he also loves us collectively as his children. The best chance for all mankind to return to live with him again was for the Israelites, the covenant people of God, to inherit the promised land.
But! As Nephi points out, he gave the wicked people a million and half warnings and chances to repent, to become covenant people, to develop faith in Jesus Christ and come unto him.
Elder Renlund says, "God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were."
In fact, one of the repentant non-Israelites in the area joins the covenant people and becomes the great (many generations back) grandmother of the Savior. Her name was Ruth.

The stupid loser priests of King Noah start a war

This post is about Mosiah chapter 20. Limhi (Noah's more righteous son) has led the people into a peace treaty with the Lamanites. It's not exactly the greatest of terms (half of everything goes to tribute) but at least the Lamanites will refrain from killing them.
After two years a gigantic Lamanite army comes out of the hills to war against Limhi's people. What the heck? Obviously Limhi's people are bewildered and irritated but they rise to the occasion. They fight to defend their families, like lions and dragons.
Finally they capture/find on the ground left for dead the Lamanite king. Upon it questioning he reveals that twenty-four of their young women had been kidnapped recently and the Lamanites attacked the Limhites in retribution.
Limhi is concerned. He offers to search his people to see if they can find the Lamanite's daughters, but Gideon (one of my very favorite Book of Mormon characters) knows who is to blame. Those pesky priests they've been looking for. Kidnapping young women and carrying them off into the wilderness is exactly the kind of thing they would do.
Sure enough when the wicked priests stumbled upon a regularly convened girls-only dance party (what was this exactly?) they couldn't help themselves. After watching for a while, they decided the best thing to do would be to carry the girls off.
I often feel hesitant to label someone as a "bad guy." We all know that people are complex and that there are a myriad of reasons why they behave the way they do, but the priests of King Noah? They were bad guys. They cause so many problems. They come up again and again throughout Mosiah and Alma. Their posterity cause problems for generations. I'm so irritated whenever I read about them.
Anyways, morals of this story. 1) Communicate with people, especially when you're upset. If the Lamanite king had chatted with Limhi before deciding to attack him, a lot of lives would have been spared. 2) Know where your priests are. We all have weaknesses, liabilities or consequences for past mistakes that can harm us if we aren't aware of them. Be vigilant. 3) People will get mad at you, even when you haven't done anything wrong and that sucks. But it's life. We all have to deal with it. If anyone has good suggestions on how to deal with it better let me know, I'm still working on it.

Wicked King Noah

King Noah in the Book of Mormon is an archtypically wicked guy. He is commonly referred to as 'wicked King Noah' and when he orders everyone to leave their wives and kids to die and save themselves, you kind of want to smack him. 

So why is Noah so ridiculous? His father, Zeniff, often talks about doing things "in the strength of the Lord." He wasn't a prophet or anything, but he was a righteous man who feared God and tried to obey the commandments. His son, Limhi, is referred to as a "just man," who is thrilled to accept the gospel later on. So what's up with Noah? 

1) Selfishness - it says in Mosiah 11:2 that Noah "did walk after the desires of his own heart." He gave into lust, having many wives and concubines. He gave into lusts for wealth, taxing the people so he could build fancy buildings and live in luxury. He gave into the draw of all recreation, all the time. He spent his time in riotous living. He gave into gluttony, the scriptures particularly mention. Alcohol. All in all, he behaves the way a stereotypical trust fund frat boy might. Unfortunately he was the leader of a nation and he dragged them down with him. 

2) Idolatry - Noah wasn't worshiping little golden figures or anything, but he put down all the righteous priests (might Abinadi have been one of those?) and set up new ones that would support his lifestyle. He literally reorganized the church to support his sinful behavior. 

3) Pride - when the Lamanites start to bother the people who live on the outskirts of the land, Noah sends an army to chase them off. When they beat this group of disorganized opportunists, they "did boast." Far from the sentiments of Zeniff, who always gave the Lord credit for his military successes, Noah decided he must be the greatest military leader in the world. 

4) Fear - I see fear in all of Noah's interactions with Abinadi. He seeks to destroy him, he throws him into jail. He watches Abinadi literally glow with the power of God and still wants to kill him. In Mosiah 17:11 it says that Noah almost released Abinadi because he feared his words. Noah actions are always motivated by fear. He doesn't have the courage to admit that he was wrong and repent.  This fear continues to be evident when he runs from Gideon and begs for his life and when he commands the people to leave their wives and children and flee. 

5) Short-sighted - not as explicit in the scriptures, when we think about it we can see how shortsighted Noah is. He thinks that chasing off a few raiding parties and building a tower will protect them from the Lamanites. He thinks if he shuts Abinadi up his words won't be real, he thinks that he can lie, cheat, overtax, hang out with tons of women, drink all he wants and be gluttonous without any consequences. 

So, five things for us to avoid if we don't want to turn out like Wicked King Noah, condemned by a prophet, then hated and executed by his own people

Alma's Congregation

I always like to look at what the Church looks like when it is new. There have been many times in the scriptures, after global or local apostasy, that the Church is reestablished or revitalized. What is it that priesthood leaders prioritize in these situations?

After Alma listens to Abinadi and escapes from King Noah's court he establishes such a congregation. He starts out teaching people about redemption and resurrection and the Savior. As their testimonies and appreciation of the Savior grow, they have a desire to make a covenant with God. Covenants are a serious, permanent, sign of commitment and devotion. After experiencing the sweet fruit of repentance, is it any wonder that their love to the Savior would grow to a point that they desired a permanent bond with him?

Alma gives a beautiful explanation of the baptismal covenant in Mosiah 18 but I'll save that for another day, what struck me today was what they did after they were baptized. Here's what they set up:

1) Organization: 1 priest to every 50 members. What was their job? To strengthen the people. To preach repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. They were to continue to support themselves temporally. I love verse 26 which talks all about the blessings they will receive for doing so.

2) Unity: Alma tells them there should be no contention, their hearts should be knit together in unity and love. Just recently I had an experience in fast and testimony meeting that felt like that. A few people got up and expressed deep personal spiritual feelings that I also feel. These people are very different from me in age, gender, life situations and sensibilities, but I felt so understood in that moment. I felt that our hearts with knit together in unity and love.

3) Sabbath: they were to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.

4) Prayer: Alma instructs them to give thanks to the Lord every day.

5) Worship: they should meet together once a week to worship and to teach each other. "And also as often as it was in their power." I like to think that second line refers to meeting of smaller groups or maybe even something that resembles home and visiting teaching.

6) Impart of their Substance: "if he should have more abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of him that had but little but little should be required." He also says it should be given out of their own free will and good feelings. And that they should impart both temporally and spiritually, according to their needs and wants. That's a whole other blog post as well I think.

Between the time that Alma first set up these guidelines and the time that they were run out of town by Noah's army the church grew from 204 people to 450 people. It seems to be good evidence that they were thriving and happy.

A lot of times in my life, when things get a little hectic or stressful I feel a need to get back to basics and I love this blueprint that we have in Mosiah 18.

Having Sealed the Truth of His Words by His Death

After Abinadi's beautiful sermon on Jesus Christ, King Noah  says "we will put you to death because you said that God will come down among the children of men."
They killed him literally because he testified of Jesus Christ. 
I remember a few years ago there was a shooting somewhere and the shooter asked the people if they were Christian and if they said yes, he shot them. I remember thinking to myself, 'Is that really what the Lord expects of me? He wants me, the mother of four young children, to be honest in that situation and die for my beliefs?'
In the United States, where I live, the idea of being killed because you are a Christian seems so far-fetched it's something we don't think about.
This chapter in Mosiah (Chapter 17) made me think of this talk by Elder Dennis E Simmons from April 2004 called "But If Not..."    He cites this scripture in Daniel (3:17-18) Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are threatened with a fiery death, not unlike Abinadi. Their answer is full of faith. They say (with typical teenage boy confidence) God will deliver us from your measly little fire. But if not, we will still not worship your gods. Elder Simmons says "They knew they could trust God - even if things didn't turn out the way they hoped."
The Lord does expect us to be willing to die for our testimonies - with perfect trust in Him that even if we die (or something less melodramatic happens to us) He will consecrate it for our gain and the gain of my family. I could answer a shooter and say "I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I will die so you will know the truth of my words," with faith that either the Lord will deliver me out of his hands or He will take care of my little ones after I'm gone.
It is unlikely that I will ever be in such a situation, usually it will be a more subtle consequence: ridicule, ostracism or mockery. But in either case I know what I will do and that brings me peace. 

Progressive Beatitudes

Do you know the beatitudes by heart? It's something I've always thought that I should do but haven't yet.

1) blessed are the poor in Spirit
2) blessed are they that mourn
3) blessed are the meek
4) blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
5) blessed are the merciful
6) blessed are the pure in heart
7) blessed are the merciful
8) blessed are the peacemakers
9) blessed are the persecuted

The Bible Dictionary tells us that the beatitudes are progressive and interrelated.
thegospelcoalition.org, an Evangelical Christian website, proposes the idea that there are roots, shoots and fruit. The first three beatitudes being the roots, #4 is a shoot and the last four are the fruit. A perfected saint would go through all the steps and would inherit eternal life.
We start at the beginning, with being poor in spirit, and work our way towards persecution.
This has always bothered me. Especially since being a peacemaker comes right before being persecuted. Should I seek persecution? It doesn't seem like something a peacemaker should do, but the Lord says if you are persecuted "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven." (Matthew 5:12)
Then there's this quote from Brigham Young:
"Let any people enjoy peace and quietness, unmolested, undisturbed, never be persecuted for their religion and they are very likely to neglect their duty, to become cold and indifferent and lose their faith."
It's enough to make you want to go out and pick a fight right? But we know that can't be right, that's not what Jesus would do.
I liked this talk from President Hunter. It's a little older, from 1980. It's called God Will Have a Tried People.
In it he talks about the idea of opposition. Persecution is one of its forms, but it can also appear as physical pain, emotional sorrow, wayward children, financial reversals or family disappointments. The idea is that the Lord will try us. I like to change 'blessed are the persecuted' in my head to 'blessed are those who endure through their trials to the end.'