Tag: Mosiah
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A wild flock
The description of men as a wild flock who flee from the guiding hand of wisdom is a reminder a flock can only be led as much as they allow. It is not enough to be in the care of a shepherd because the flock may refuse to follow even if the shepherd cares. Sometimes…
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Choose your perspective
When Limhi recounted the suffering of his people it would be easy for them to be discouraged that they were in bondage and could make them feel that God had abandoned them. Even if they recognized that their bondage was earned they could have concluded that there was no path out of that bondage or…
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Taking names
The principle of taking names and recording covenants seems to be natural among those who are following Christ. King Benjamin could have taken a sensus to record the people of his kingdom but that would have nothing to do with a sacred covenant. “If you live within our borders you are included in the sensus.”…
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Reasoning away responsibility
There is an important pattern to notice in the logic of the Lamanites. In their thinking they were consistently victims and they always had someone else to blame. That mental process of assigning volition and responsibility to others provides the excuse to abandon moral boundaries. It is important to recognize two things about this pattern…
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A missing history
We know that the Lord provided two seer stones for the brother of Jared and told him to seal them up with his writings to be used for their interpretation at the proper time (Ether 3:22-28). We also know that King Mosiah had something that he could look into to translate ancient records. While the…
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Blotted out of your hearts
Benjamin cautions the people to take care let the name of Christ be blotted out of their hearts. It seems to me that the name gets blotted out when we choose to make other things preeminent in our priorities. That could be relatively neutral things such as trying to make a living or more destructive…
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See that ye do them
I’m confident that Benjamin waited as he saw his people fallen to the ground in recognition of their need for Christ. In fact, I suspect that he had a similar reaction when the angel delivered the message to him. It’s not that he or they were wicked at the time—they had already gone to the…
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Becoming a saint
Men naturally fall into a state opposed to God ever since the fall of Adam and they remain in such a state unless they shed that nature and become saints who are marked by a combination of mature service in the cause of righteousness and humble submission to the will of God who is shaping…
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Prepared to give thanks
When Mosiah called the people to gather they came with sacrifices, prepared to offer thanks for having the privilege of having a righteous king for their leader. That’s a pretty solid indicator of how righteous they were even before this great sermon.
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What did we lose?
Mormon picks up his abridgement of the large plates of Nephi (after inserting the unabridged small plates) by saying that after all the labor of king Benjamin to establish righteousness among the people of his kingdom he had continual peace all the remainder of his days. Prior to that in the Words of Mormon he…