Mosiah 2

It strikes me that King Benjamin’s talk to his people is the model the church uses for General Conference. The Conference Center is right next to the temple and efforts are made to allow everyone to hear, and then it is written and sent to everyone so no one will miss the message. As we are thinking about getting these visiting teaching methods out, this is a model we should think about. Words and writing. I also get out of verse 9 that it is okay to be serious about this. It’s okay to say it is important and please pay attention, instead of being flippant like I tend to do when I am uncomfortable.

I love that the people rejoiced that they had to been taught to keep the commandments that they might rejoice and be filled with love. That is what I want to teach my children about keeping the commandments. Not that they are forced rules, but that they will rejoice and be filled with love if they do. That is how I mother on my better days. These last few days have not been better days, I pray today will be.

I love the part of this chapter where he talks about the Lord’s accounting. He gives us everything and only asks us in return to keep his commandments, which he then blesses us for! I was trying to tell my boys about this yesterday when we were talking about tithing, but I first understood it with reference to the temple when I taught relief society years ago. It works that way with everything he give us, and every part of our life. How merciful and generous is our God!

It is interesting to me that the first thing King Benjamin warns his people against is contentions amongst themselves. It goes back to if we are not one we are not His. And also goes along with prompting I had this morning about being kinder to the people I know.

Mosiah 1

In verse 2 it talks about how King Benjamin had his sons taught in the languages of his fathers so they would be men of understanding. It strikes me that is the point of education. Even if I never have a career other than being a mother, or “do anything” with sociology degree, what I gained was a deeper understanding of the world and an increased ability to understand the ideas of others. And that in itself is a huge blessing. It also makes it feel important for me to keep working on learning Spanish, so I can understand, and for my kids to learn Spanish as well.

It’s also interesting that he didn’t just teach them these things in addition to religious learning, but it was all to know and understand the mysteries of God. King Benjamin kept that eternal perspective in everything he did. Do I?

I love the illustration of how important the scriptures are to help us remember what we know. King Benjamin said that even the Nephites would be just like the Lamenites if they hadn’t had the scriptures with them, and read them and used them and studied them. I know from my own experience it is so easy to get distracted by the unimportant things in the world when you don’t’ take time to immerse yourself in the word of God. Take that precious gift every day and use it to REMEMEBER.

I never realized before that verse 13 is the old king talking to the new king about how to fulfill his responsibility to keep the people safe. 

It was a huge responsibility the Nephite kings had at this point, to be in charge of all the temporal affairs of the kingdom, including wars, and also the plates and also the Church. That is a heavy weight to bare!

The Words of Mormon

I love Mormon’s tender heart. Even though it is hard to carve on the plates, and even though he is writing for a specific purpose, he starts with his concern and love from his son Moroni and his prayers and desires for his survival.

Mormon had been abridging huge amounts of records to make the rest of the Book of Mormon, carefully choosing important historical, and most importantly religious records to be preserved. And he says he can’t write even 100^th of what is there. It must have been such an amazing discovery to him in the midst of all of that to find the small plates of Nephi.

In the end, it comes back to hard work again. King Benjamin didn’t just pray for his people to have peace, he fought and worked, and labored with the faculty of his whole soul. I keep thinking I want things to be too easy as I read the Book of Mormon. I feel like again and again the Lord is telling me to get to work. Clean my house, help my husband, more actively raise my kids, learn things, take care of my body. It’s all work. It’s funny that we imagine Heaven as a place of sitting on clouds. If this life is to prepare us for that, I bet it’s mostly work!

Omni

I wonder if Omni being a “wicked man” was part of what made Jarom so sorrowful. But that constant war also had to mean constant wounds and hardship and death. I am grateful that is not my life.

I wonder how, in a war of an entire nation, the Lord spared only the righteous. But He did, and that is what we will have to trust Him to do again in the last days. I always thought that the righteous would suffer too; it was just eternally okay so they wouldn’t be afraid. But Amaron’s section in this book gives me hope for my family it will be temporally okay, too.

It’s also interesting, that in a time of constant war, it has to take all of your attention. So until Mosiah and his people left there was no more prophesying and the men recording on the brass plates did not focus on the things of God. But once they had gotten reprieve from those things their focus again was on Spiritual matters.

And how awesome is it, that once Mosiah and his people had faith and followed the Lord’s command and left, not only were they safe, but they also received specific confirmation that the truths and prophets they had been following all along were correct when they found the people of Zarahemla who could confirm that Jerusalem had fallen. For generations the Nephite’s had been going on faith. It must have been such an amazing thing to have all their hope and trust so completely confirmed. And made them trust those same prophet’s more when they talked of the coming of Christ and how He would redeem them. And it much have been such a time of rejoicing after so much sorrow for so long.

Amaleki gives the plates to King Benjamin and not his son. But Nephi didn’t give the plates to his son either. Did he not have any sons?

I love that he says all good things come from the Lord. It is such a beautiful thought, and I am glad we believe it. It’s basically what it says in the 13^th article of Faith, that seeking good things is seeking the Lord because they are His.

And I also love this perfect summary of the gospel in verse 26:

 "And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."

Jarom

The last few prophets to write on the plates have been very frustrated with the people. It sounds like they are really struggling. Yet I love that Jarom says that as many are not stiff-necked and have faith (I think in context, those who are trying to be good) have revelation and communion with the Holy Spirit. I love that it is “as many”, not just a chosen few, that God speaks to. 

What a blessing that even the simplest among us can approach our God with confidence of being heard, loved, and answered. Is that the experience my children have with me? It is what they need. My husband, too. I need to listen to everyone more totally and non-judgmentally.

He talks about the Nephites being kept safe because there kings and leaders were mighty men of faith. I am sometimes persuaded that faith doesn’t need to play a role in the presidency and leadership of our government, but I feel this morning the importance of having leaders who know to pray and have practice and faith in receiving revelation. I don’t want them to be my religious leaders, but it is important to have men trying to follow the will of God and seek His guidance in keeping us safe.

Also, I think verse 12 is why we go to church every week and are asked to read scriptures every day, to prick our hearts with the word and continually stir us up to repentance. It’s so easy to forget. I wonder if when we become a more millennial people we’ll go to church less.