Latest / Scripture Central / Mosiah 11-17 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

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Mosiah 11-17 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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How many times have you had a question, a concern, an issue
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come up and your knee jerk response was oh, I wonder what
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so and so would say about that. So we either Google it or we
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text someone or we call someone when seeking truth.
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A trend that we have is to turn horizontally, looking for
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answers. Somebody's going to be able to
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tell me what to do or what this means.
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A former friend and a colleague of mine, Tom Cherrington, used
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to use the phrase if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
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Google. That seems to be the the
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prevailing philosophy in our world is if you're lacking
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wisdom, there are lots of experts, lots of prophets out
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there who will tell you how to live, or or what decision to
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make or what is right or what is wrong, versus turning vertically
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saying what would God have me do?
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Truth is not something that is determined by public opinion, or
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by by number of likes or number of followers or or a 'cause that
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gets a whole bunch of people really excited about it.
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Truth is defined by God. Truth is things as they are, as
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they were, and as they are to come.
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And that doesn't change with public opinion.
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So you can think about what would happen if we got all of
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the inhabitants of the earth. All how?
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How many? Seven point something.
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Billion people on the earth to all vote against gravity.
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What would change? Gravity wouldn't change.
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What if we got everybody to vote against the existence of God?
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Would he somehow, all of a sudden stop existing?
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The reality, brothers and sisters, is truth doesn't
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change. We change based on what we
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believe or the degree to which we understand and tap into
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truth. But we can't change truth based
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on public opinion. So as we jump in here, we're
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going to be talking about what is the role of a prophet in
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helping us know what truth is. Not seeing the Prophet is just
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another source among many horizontal sources of of
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potential truth seeking in the world, but rather tapped in to
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the ultimate source of truth that God will guide us through
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His living prophets. I love the word prophet.
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In some of the ancient languages, it actually means
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somebody who speaks forth. Now obviously we're speaking
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forth right here, but it's actually somebody who's speaking
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forth truth on behalf of God. Look, God could show up at any
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point and spend time with us, but it's interesting.
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God wants to empowers of us with agency, and he sends servants to
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do his work. Now there's some things that
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only he can do, right? The atonement.
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But he sends prophets to teach, and our duty is to learn to
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listen. And we live in an age where
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there are more voices than ever before and there's more
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accessibility to voices and one of the challenges we face, and I
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see this when I teach at the university, I hear students say,
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well, all opinions are created equal.
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Like meaning that if you're alive in an opinion, that your
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opinion must have the same validity as anybody else.
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And what we try to help our students learn, and we hope all
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of us can practice this better, is to learn to actually find
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truth, not simply say well because that person spoke it
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must be true, but to make sure we understand what are the
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sources of truth that lead us to greater light, joy, and
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happiness. Let's introduce you to the the
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main concept that we're going to be covering today with Benedide,
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this prophet who comes to town. Actually, he dwelled among them,
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it tells us in in Chapter 11. Here's the set up.
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King Zenith Dice leaves Noah in charge of his people, his son.
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Look at Chapter 11 verse one. Now it came to pass this and
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have conferred the Kingdom upon Noah, one of his sons.
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Therefore Noah began to reign in his stead and he did not walk in
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the ways of his father. Something that is really
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powerful in scripture is if you can put on these scriptural
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lenses. There are lots and lots of ways
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to look at scriptures and and what we're sharing today or at
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any time is not the only way to interpret a block of scripture.
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But sometimes it's fun to look through different symbolic
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lenses at at different characters, at different
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stories, at different events that occur.
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If you put on the lens of saying, hmm, here's King Noah
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and I'm seeing a real person who lived over 2000 years ago and
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I'm seeing how he acts. But if I see him as a type or a
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shadow of the devil, what would what would Lucifer do if he had
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a body? Well, right out of the chute, he
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did not walk in the ways of his father.
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He seeks things that are rooted in whoredoms and all manner of
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wickedness. Verse two, he's putting a tax on
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the people. He's trying to get people to do
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the work so he can get the joy, the enjoyment out of it and the
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pleasure. Verse 6.
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The people are laboring to support his iniquity and he's
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deceiving them with vain and flattering words.
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Everything you see as you as you study through on your own verse.
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One through 19 for me and I'm just speaking for me.
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The story becomes way more applicable, way more relevant
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and engaging and meaningful for me if I stop just reading about
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a guy who lived 2000 years ago who who died so long ago.
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He's not, he's not part of my life.
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I I really don't care about King Noah himself, but this guy is
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absolutely trying to influence my life and yours, and he's
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alive and well today, working very hard using the same tactics
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and techniques that are coming out of the story of Noah.
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So we would just invite you, as you read those 1st 20 or 19
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verses of Chapter 11 to read it through this lens of seeing what
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you can recognize as variations on a premortal theme of how
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Satan acted in heaven and how he's acting today trying to get
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us to follow him. Jump over to verse 29.
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Now the eyes of the people were blinded, therefore they hardened
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their hearts against the words of the Vinodai.
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That's what Satan is doing today to try to get us to be blind to
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the truth, to the things that God is giving us through His
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prophets. He's trying to harden, harden
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our hearts and blind our eyes because then it's way easier to
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deceive us and get us to do all these things back in in Chapter
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11, verse one through 19. And what's really interesting
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about this verse that Tyler first pointed out, it says he
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did not walk in the ways of his father.
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So obviously Noah was not walking in the ways of
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righteousness like Zenith. But also the devil does not walk
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in the ways of his father, God. And when you see this phrase
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walk in the way, that is a covenantal word.
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It is being on the covenant path, right?
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So if you're walking on that covenant path, your heart is
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soft, you're have your eyes open, you're holding to that
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rod, and the devil really doesn't want you walking on this
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covenant path. So he's going to work very hard.
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And as Tyler pointed out, you can see all the things that the
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devil does in our lives right here in Chapter 11 to get us to
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not walk on that covenant path which will take us back to God.
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Watch the contrast, because the Book of Mormon doesn't just give
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you the bad examples here. It's going to it's going to put
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the bad example side by side with the good example.
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So on this other side, you can put on the lenses of saying,
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hmm, here we're seeing the story of a benedai.
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But by seeing his story play out, we can see types, shadows,
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symbolic allusions to our allegories, towards the story of
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Jesus Christ and of his role of connecting us with God versus
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Noah's. Trying to separate us from truth
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and separate us from heaven and from God and from the covenant
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path. To walk in my path, come learn
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of me, do do what I want you to do.
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Because it's way more fun. It's more pleasurable, right.
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That's always the invitation. So what exactly is the role of a
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prophet? We live in a world that is
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filled with people who are quote UN quote experts to the point
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where they they take on self appointed roles as a prophet, so
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to speak. To get people to come learn of
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me and listen to my words and walk in my way.
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I'll teach you how to how to be happy or how to find fulfilment.
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When in reality God has appointed means whereby he does
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that he calls appoints, sets apart these these specific
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people as his spokespeople, his his mouthpiece.
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So Abinadai comes Now watch. In verse 20 it says it came to
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pass that there was a man among them whose name was Abinadai.
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I don't know for sure what this means.
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I don't know if it means that that he had moved in from
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somewhere else, but to me it it feels like he's one of their
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neighbors. There was a man among them, just
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one guy. His name happened to be a
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Benedide, that he's not some outsider that got called in.
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He's a man living in the society watching what's happening,
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saying this is wrong and God picks him to be the mouthpiece.
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Now watch. He went forth among them and
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began to prophecy, saying, Behold, thus saith the Lord, You
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might want to mark that phrase in your own scriptures.
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Thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me, saying, Go
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forth and say unto this people. Thus saith the Lord, When
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prophets in scripture do that, they they shift into what might
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be called dialogic discourse, where they're they're no longer
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speaking for themselves, saying, this is what God wants you to
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do. It's where they literally become
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a mouthpiece for the Lord, almost like a a divine
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investiture of authority where they say I am now going to speak
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directly for the Lord in first person to you.
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It's no longer a benedize words, it's God speaking through me.
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It's fascinating in the Book of Mormon and in scriptures when
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people shift into that mode of speaking in first person for God
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it's pretty powerful technique. Watch what he says.
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Woe be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations and
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their wickedness and their whoredoms, and except they
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repent. I will visit them in mine anger.
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It's not a bened I saying I've seen your iniquities in your
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abominations and I'm going to visit you in my It's not that
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it's God saying, here's how to hear my voice.
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It's through a prophet I have seen and I will visit you in
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mine Anger. Notice except they repent is the
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key if you want to circle the word except then maybe
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underlying they repent or something in your scriptures to
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to bring this outlook at verse 21 except they repent and turn
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to the Lord their God. I will deliver them into the
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hands of their enemies. Look at verse 23 except this
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people repent and turn on the Lord their God.
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Verse 25 except they repent. Chapter 11 is all about
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conditional prophecies. It's this.
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Except you do this. If you don't repent, I will
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visit you in mine anger and you will be brought into bondage.
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Conditional means it's not guaranteed.
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You don't have to fall into bondage.
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Just repent. Get back on this covenant path
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that you've you've started to stray off of.
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You become blind and hardened in your heart.
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Fix that. Come back and you won't be
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brought into bondage. Brothers and sisters, I love the
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fact that God didn't just let these people continue to stray
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from that covenant path and go, go go, go, go until he's finally
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just hitting them with bondage and with, in some cases,
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destruction because of their iniquities.
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I love the fact that as they've gotten off the path, he sent
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them a prophet to say, woah, don't.
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This doesn't end well. Come back, and then he respects
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their agency. They try to capture Abinadi, so
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to speak, but he is delivered, and he gives them two years, two
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years to see what they're going to do with these conditional
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prophecies of Chapter 11. Now turn it over.
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Chapter 12, he comes back after two years.
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Verse one. It came to pass that after the
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space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise,
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that they knew him not, and began to prophecy among them.
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I've heard a lot of people make fun of Abinadi because of verse
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one here because it says he came in disguise, and then he starts
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prophesying among them. In the first words out of his
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mouth are thus hath the Lord commanded me saying Abinadi go
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and prophecy almost as if it's a oh whoops, I blew my my cover.
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I blew my disguise. Abinadai has to be on my
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shortest of short lists of incredible Prophets doctrinares
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in the entire scriptural Canon. He is not a whoops.
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Shouldn't have said that kind of a guy.
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Why the disguise? He's been gone for two years.
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He needs to come back among them in disguise, to be able to go
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freely in the cities of Shailong and Nephi to see what has
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happened, and for God to continue to fill his mind and
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his heart with the inspiration. Good information leads to good
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inspiration, and that's true for for us as individuals or
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families, or for leaders in the church, that he goes among them
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in disguise. And he recognizes that all those
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conditional prophecies have been not just ignored, but almost
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countered. They it's not that they've
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ignored what's happened. They've taken it to a whole new
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level of iniquity. And so Abinadi at this point
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doesn't need a disguise. He's done.
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It's it's filled its role and off with the disguise.
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Now begins his chapter 12 Prophecies.
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Now here's the question. After two years, the people have
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grown more wicked and have not followed the conditions given.
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What would you expect God's prophet to say?
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The world wants a prophet to come and pat them on the back
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and say just keep up the good work, don't change anything.
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You're doing. Wonderful.
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Eat, drink can be merry for tomorrow you die and it'll be
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well with you, 'cause God loves you, right?
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Brothers and sisters, the question of God's love isn't in
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question here. God loves all of his children.
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That's that's a given. But God doesn't necessarily
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trust all of his children and to be able to empower them with
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more and more blessings and privileges and rewards in that
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covenant connection because they keep breaking it more and more
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and more. So in this case the prophet
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comes back and notice the wording 3/4 of the way down in
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verse one. They haven't repented of their
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evil doings. Therefore I will visit them in
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my anger. Yeah, in my fierce anger will I
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visit them in their iniquities and abominations once again.
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He's speaking for God. He's not speaking in first
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person for himself, but first person for God.
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Vicariously I will is very different than except they
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repent. We're shifting from conditional
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prophecies to imminent prophecies.
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Now, some would ask the question, why would he do that?
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Why tell them you will be brought into bondage?
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You will be smitten because it's going to happen.
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And when it does happen, God doesn't want them seeing that as
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some just random occurrence. He wants it to be a sign that I
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will be your God, you will be my people.
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And you have wandered and strayed from that core
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covenantal element in all of the different covenants through the
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history of time. I want to be your God.
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You're going to be my people. They've wandered.
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And so it's this element of him saying, when you are brought
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into destruction, I want that to be assigned to you, that you
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broke the covenant. And I warned you.
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So now when I come back to try to re establish that covenant
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with you, you're going to be more likely to want to re
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establish the covenant rather than I had a random random
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destruction fall on my head and I have no idea why and I don't
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know where it came from. So in your personal reading or
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in your family study, look closely at the wording of all of
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his prophecies in verse one through 8, verse 123-4567 and
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eight you're going to find over and over again phrases like
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shall be it shall come to pass, I will 'cause it shall come
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shall be smitten. Look for these imminent words
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where God is saying this it it's too late.
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You you didn't meet the conditions and at this point
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it's too late, you are going to be brought into bondage.
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There's only one condition given, and it's in verse 8.
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Notice after all of this smitten and pestilence, and brought into
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bondage and howling and weeping. Look at verse eight.
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It shall come to pass that except they repent.
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I will utterly destroy them from off the face of the earth.
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So he gives one condition at the end.
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He says, if you're you, you've broken the covenant, you're
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going to be destroyed. You're brought into bondage if
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you still choose not to repent at that point when I try to
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reestablish the covenant with you, if you still reject me and
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turn your back on me, then you're going to be completely,
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utterly destroyed from off the face of the earth.
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Ironically, in our next lesson next week we're going to be
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talking about Limb High's people and Alma's people being brought
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into bondage. Limb High's people almost almost
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fulfil verse 8. They're almost utterly
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destroyed. Gratefully enough of them start
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to repent at the very end, where they're not completely
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destroyed, but many of them were, and we'll talk more about
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that next week. This happens in our day.
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We have prophets that are teaching us the truth, and then
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people run to Google or Facebook and say, well, actually I get
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more likes on what I say than what I hear the brethren saying.
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So maybe I should be listening to my friends.
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And this seems to be happening in Noah's day.
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When a Ben and I gets done talking that people grab him,
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they're not very happy to be told that they need to fix
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something in their lives. And here's what happens.
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They bring Abenadiah king Noah, and they say, oh now, O king,
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what great evil hast thou done? Or what great sins have thy
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people committed that we should be condemned of God or judged to
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this man? That is very problematic when
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God's chosen servants invite us to return to the path.
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It doesn't help if we say, well, I actually don't have any sins.
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You cannot hide your sins from the Lord, and that is what King
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Noah's people are trying to do. And we will see the consequences
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of them rejecting both what the Word of God has been, as well as
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the reality of their own choices.
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Look at verse 15. Behold, we are strong.
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We shall not come into bondage or be taken captive by our
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enemies. Yeah, and thou has prospered in
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the land, O king, basically. And thou shalt also prosper.
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So they're making some prophecies.
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They're making some judgement calls that are 180° opposite of
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what Abenadai is saying from the Lord, and they're feeling very,
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very secure in in their wickedness.
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And what's sad here is they're actually stealing covenantal
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language where God has says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and
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Jacob. I am strong, I am the strong one
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of Israel. In fact, Israel actually means,
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you know, to be strong with God. And King Noah is taking over
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God's spot. Like, I'm strong.
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I'm the one that provides prosperity.
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No, only God does that. And God actually has no problem
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if we prosper in all the ways that we can imagine.
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But when we claim that we've done it, my hand has done it.
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It's always God. And these people are in for,
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well, it shouldn't be a surprise.
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It will be a surprise to them. But they shouldn't have been
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surprised that they've been listening to Evanidai.
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Now the priests say, OK, we, we know how to deal with this.
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We're going to trap this guy, we're going to cross him in his
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words, we're we're going to get him to say something that'll
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just condemn him and make him look really bad in front of
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everybody. So verse 19, they began to
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question him, that they might cross him, that thereby they
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might have wherewith to accuse him.
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But he answers them boldly, and he withstood all their
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questions, yay, to their astonishment.
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For he did withstand them and all their questions and did
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confound them in their words and all their words at which .1 of
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the priests says, OK, I I got it, I'm, I'm going to get him
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here. And he says Abinadi the prophet
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Isaiah said some things that make us really question you and
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your your authority here. And this priest takes Abinadi to
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Isaiah, chapter 52. Can I just throw out a word to
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the wise? If you're going to try to
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confront a prophet of God, if you're going to try to make him
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look bad and cross him in his words, can I just recommend that
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you don't take him to Isaiah to try to do that?
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Probably the last place in the world you want to you want to
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attempt that effort. Isaiah 52 comes right before
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Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 being the the ultimate
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Suffering Servant chapter which are benedai is going to use to
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answer this question that the priest poses to him or the
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situation that the priest presents to him.
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From Isaiah 52. And the statements that he makes
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in in verse 21, quoting Isaiah, how beautiful upon the mountains
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or the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publishes
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peace, that bringeth good tidings of good that publishes
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salvation, that saith undesigned.
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Thy God reigneth and the Watchmen are going to lift up
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the voice together. Everybody's going to be happy
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because Jerusalem is redeemed. It's all wonderful and good.
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We don't know for sure, but it sure looks like the priest is
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using this against a Beneditis 8.
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You can't be a prophet because a prophet is going to publish
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peace. A Benedite shows up teaching
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doom and gloom, and in the Old Testament it there is a law and
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the Law of Moses that if somebody falsely prophecies they
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will be executed. That's correct.
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Which is interesting. So they're trying to say, look,
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we actually should be able to kill you because you're not
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preaching. Eat, drink, and be merry and be
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really happy. You're preaching doom and gloom,
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which proves you're a false prophet.
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We should be able to kill you. And as you were pointing out,
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these guys have their own false prophecy.
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So here's the here's the irony. They're trying to use an Isaiah
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passage to trap a prophet of God.
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If you go back to Isaiah's time period and you look at what he
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might be referring to about the the feet on the mountains of him
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that publishes peace, that saith thy God reigneth, that bringeth
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good tidings in in antiquity. I'll draw a very far away,
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30,000 foot view from the horizontal level.
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If you have a city here, your city is fenced in.
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It's walled in. Here's a small version of your
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city. You've got all these people
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living in buildings in this city.
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You have towers, and you'll put Watchmen on those towers, right?
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If you have a conquering army that's coming in, you send your
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army out to fight them. So you have this, this huge
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clash, this battle taking place hopefully far out away from your
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city to keep the the vulnerable parts of your population safe,
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right? Well, how do we know what's
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going on here or out of the battlefield if we're here back
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in the city? Text messages.
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Text messages don't work great. Smoke signals aren't aren't the
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great connectivity at this point of history.
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So what they would do is they would send runners from the
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battlefield messengers, and they would go to the farthest away
25:56
point that you could still have line of sight view.
26:00
And this messenger would go to the top of that mountain to be
26:05
seen by the Watchmen on the tower and signal back what's
26:09
happening at the battlefront. Whether we're losing, whether
26:12
it's it's a draw or whether the battle's over, we've won.
26:17
In that context, look at Isaiah 52 One More time, verse 21.
26:23
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
26:29
bringeth good tidings that publishes peace, that bringeth
26:34
good tidings of good that publishes salvation, that saith
26:37
unto Zion thy God reigneth. The watchman will lift up the
26:43
voice together. They'll all shout it around the
26:46
city. They'll peace.
26:48
We won. We won.
26:49
The victory is ours. Our God reigneth Hallelujah,
26:53
right? How beautiful upon the mountains
26:58
are the feet of that guy. The one who gets to come back
27:01
from the ultimate battlefield and say our God overcame.
27:06
The victory is ours. Jesus Christ has completed an
27:10
infinite atonement for us. We're good.
27:13
We've got we've got good news now, brothers and sisters.
27:18
That is one of the sweetest ways to describe the role of a
27:23
prophet, or of a missionary, or of a mommy, or a daddy or or any
27:30
leader in the church, to be able to spread that news.
27:35
Hey, you have great 'cause to rejoice.
27:38
And here's the silly thing, a Bennett.
27:40
I came in Chapter 11 with that message of our God reigneth.
27:45
Therefore you need to repent because he won this battle.
27:50
But they don't care about that battle because they're going off
27:54
on their own, enjoying their own pleasurable, carnal, sensual and
27:59
devilish lifestyle. And so here stands Abinadai
28:02
listening to this priest quote to him.
28:04
Isaiah 52. Can you just picture the look on
28:07
his face saying, I would love to preach to you the good news, the
28:13
glorious news of the gospel, but you are struggling.
28:16
You've turned your back on God. You've forsaken that
28:19
relationship with him. You're over here.
28:21
You're not going to get that message because you've refused
28:25
that message. So I can't be this particular
28:29
role for you. I need to bring you back to the
28:33
covenant path. Then we can talk to you about
28:35
all the good news. And it's interesting a bit.
28:38
And I then shifts him to understanding what the whole
28:41
purpose of Isaiah's message here is, that this is actually Jesus
28:46
or his prophets telling us this is a time to rejoice.
28:50
And he goes on and says, well, what are you guys actually
28:53
teaching the people? OK, you're claiming you're doing
28:57
something good for them? Well, we teach the Law of Moses.
29:00
And as we know that's the the covenantal instructions that God
29:03
revealed to the people at Mount Sinai through Moses to the
29:08
Israelites. And he says in verse 29, if you
29:11
teach the law of Moses, why do you not keep it?
29:14
Leaders should always model the principles that they teach.
29:19
And what we have in the book of Mosiah, it's very interesting.
29:21
You have King Benjamin who not only teaches the truth, but he
29:24
lives it. Then you have King Noah who
29:27
doesn't preserve the records very well, doesn't live the
29:29
records and he actually miss educates the people.
29:31
In fact, worse he has his priests miss educating people
29:35
and then you have King Mosiah near the end of the book of
29:37
Mosiah where he teaches the truth and models it for people.
29:41
So but did I say you guys need to be living the law because you
29:46
can't teach it if you don't live it?
29:49
And he goes on and says that ultimately if you teach the law
29:53
of Moses it's all about Jesus Christ.
29:56
In fact, if you read the scriptures, particularly the Old
29:59
Testament, but definitely the old Book of Mormon, we should be
30:02
looking for Jesus in the scriptures.
30:04
And if anybody tells you otherwise, you probably should
30:07
ignore them. So it's fascinating when when
30:12
Abenadai gets into this little this nitty gritty discussion
30:15
with them about the law of Moses that they're saying, oh, well,
30:18
of course we teach the law. We're priests.
30:20
That's what we do. He asked them the question in
30:22
the bottom of verse 31. Doth salvation come by the law
30:26
of Moses? What say ye?
30:29
And their response is, yeah, it does.
30:31
Salvation does come by the law of Moses.
30:34
And then Abenadai clarifies, I know that if you keep the
30:37
commandments of God you shall be saved.
30:39
Yeah, if you keep the commandments which the Lord
30:41
delivered unto Moses in the Mount Sinai, or the mount of
30:45
Sinai saying, and then he launches into retelling them the
30:49
10 commandments. Now this is really odd, because
30:52
the first commandment is thou shalt have no other gods before
30:57
me in verse 35 And then 36 the second commandment, thou shalt
31:01
not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of
31:05
anything in heaven above, or of things which are in the earth
31:07
beneath. We know, based on earlier
31:10
descriptions of Noah and what he's done.
31:12
What do you think his Noah's priestly and kingly throne room
31:17
is adorned with? I think this makes them very,
31:21
very uncomfortable. At which point Noah's like, OK,
31:23
away with this fellow, that's just let's kill him.
31:26
So here come the guards. And in 13 verse three he says,
31:30
touch me not, for God shall smite you if you lay your hands
31:35
upon me. For I have not delivered the
31:37
message which the Lord has sent me to deliver.
31:41
I love this feeling of you've got King Noah, you've got all of
31:46
his priests, all of the guards and all of the other people who
31:49
might be there, all focused on one guy.
31:52
There's no question who's really in charge here.
31:56
The command was given by the king, the ultimate authority.
31:58
Take him, seize him, take him away.
32:00
And he says, touch me not. And they all back away.
32:04
Taylor, you were talking about some interesting things,
32:06
connecting a Benedi with Moses. Here he's talking about Mount
32:10
Sinai and Moses, and in the flesh you've got some
32:13
interesting. He shines like Moses.
32:16
No human king can fulfill God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and
32:20
Jacob. No human leader can do that.
32:22
That's God's duties to us. But we only get those things if
32:26
we keep the commandments. And as the priests of Noah said,
32:28
well, we teach the law of Moses. Benedaiah says why don't you
32:32
live it? And then here is a Benedaiah
32:35
where the priests claimed their lead prophet that they want to
32:38
follow is a guy named Moses. It's very powerful that Abenadai
32:42
reinstates the 10 commandments. He teaches the 10 commandments
32:46
of them. But more importantly look at
32:49
this. He ends up looking like Moses.
32:52
Verse five came to pass after Abenadai had spoken these words
32:55
that the people of King Noah does not lay their hands on him.
32:59
For the spirit of the Lord was upon him and his face shone with
33:02
exceeding luster even as Moses did.
33:05
While the Mount of Sinai Will speaking with the Lord, God
33:08
could not have been more clear to the people that Abenadai was
33:11
his chosen Mosaic servant to teach the Law of Moses yet
33:16
again. Because those were the revealed
33:17
commandments. So you could truly prosper in
33:20
the land and real prospering is actually having God's presence
33:22
with you and they still rejected even though I had visual and
33:28
oral confirmation that Abenadai was God's chosen prophet.
33:32
The comparison to to Moses continues here because Moses
33:37
goes up to the mount. How beautiful upon the mount are
33:40
the feet of Moses, right? Getting this, this glorious
33:44
vision of of Jehovah and getting the commandments and he comes
33:47
down and what are all the people doing?
33:50
Worshipping a golden calf. Yeah, back in Exodus 32.
33:53
And the the comparisons between us.
33:55
Moses actually comes down, he looks beautiful because he's
33:58
radiating the light of God. And I'd never thought about this
34:00
till you mentioned it, that Abenadai now looks like Moses.
34:04
And so he looks beautiful. And the priests were like, well,
34:08
only prophets of God are really beautiful.
34:11
And God's like, OK, let me show you what beauty is, and I will
34:14
have my prophet shine with the light of truth.
34:16
OK, now really quickly, this is, this is just going to take a
34:19
second. Years ago I was teaching
34:21
seminary in Brigham City at Box Elder High School and we were
34:26
talking about this passage. I happened to ask the students,
34:29
how many of you could even tell me what the 10 commandments are?
34:32
I don't even care if you can get them in order.
34:34
Do you know the 10 commandments? And not very many hands went in
34:37
the air. And one student, a girl, raised
34:39
her hand and said, I've got a way to help you all learn the 10
34:42
commandments without ever forgetting them.
34:44
And I thought, oh, yeah, right. And she said, it's, it's using
34:47
your fingers. And I didn't believe her.
34:50
And so she went through the 10 commandments.
34:52
And at the end I thought, well, that was kind of fun.
34:55
And I've never forgotten them ever since.
34:57
So I'm just going to really, really quickly share those with
34:59
you. OK #1.
35:01
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
35:04
One God #2 Don't worship idols. Don't bow down to idols. #3
35:12
Don't take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. #4 Here's the
35:16
church, Here's the steeple. Open the door.
35:18
See all the people. #4 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
35:22
#5 Honor thy father and thy mother, Father and mother.
35:27
Five that thy days may be long upon the the land.
35:31
Number Six, don't kill. Thou shalt not kill. #7 thou
35:39
shalt not commit adultery. #8 don't steal.
35:45
Many societies, They cut off fingers in antiquity.
35:48
Don't steal #9 I have 10 fingers.
35:53
Don't bear false witness. And #10 thou shalt not covet
35:58
anyway just for fun. He works through all ten of
36:01
them. I'll never forget that now.
36:03
And now he finishes with that and look at verse 33.
36:07
This is the key, because he had asked them the question, Do you
36:10
believe that the law of Moses will save you?
36:13
And they said, yes, we do. And he says, OK, well, let me,
36:15
let me teach you the core of the law, of Moses teaching them the
36:18
10 commandments. Now look as he comes out of that
36:20
discussion. For behold, did not Moses
36:23
prophecy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah and
36:27
that God should redeem his people?
36:30
Yeah, and even all the prophets who have prophesied ever since
36:33
the world began, have they not spoken more or less concerning
36:36
these things? His point here is you think the
36:40
law is going to save you? Well, if the law is going to
36:42
save you, then why does God need to send the Messiah?
36:44
Why does He need to send His son to to redeem His people?
36:48
If we can save ourselves by keeping the law, I don't need a
36:51
Savior or Redeemer. I can be my own savior.
36:54
And so He now shifts into the core of His prophetic mission,
37:01
which is to teach the doctrine of Christ, to glorify Christ.
37:06
And he does it using Isaiah 53 the priest tried to trap him
37:11
with 52 He says, let me give you the answer.
37:14
It's Isaiah 53. But he does it in a really,
37:17
really beautiful way. In antiquity, this doctrine that
37:23
God would come down and become a man is called, in the Book of
37:28
Mormon, the doctrine of the condescension of God.
37:32
It's to descend with. It's to become like.
37:37
So God would condescend to come down and become a man.
37:43
In other words, Jesus, the great Jehovah of the pre mortal life,
37:47
would shed all of his pre mortal godliness, so to speak, His His
37:52
power, his might, His Majesty, his knowledge, his capacities.
37:56
He would shed all of that to come down and become like us and
38:02
to become one of us. That doctrine, Look at this
38:06
verse 34. Speaking of all of these
38:08
previous prophets, have they not said that God himself should
38:13
come down among the children of men and take upon him the form
38:16
of man and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the
38:19
earth? They have said that he says so.
38:22
His his opening bookend to chapter 14 is Didn't all of the
38:31
prophets before say that God would come down and become a man
38:34
teaching the doctrine of condescension?
38:37
Then he gives chapter 14 and then he ends chapter 14 with a
38:43
closed bookend. Look at chapter 15, verse one.
38:47
Now, Abenid, I said unto them, I would that ye should understand
38:51
that God himself should come down among the children of men
38:55
and shall redeem his people. Simple enough, right?
38:59
Didn't this prophet say? And now I'm telling you this,
39:02
God is going to come down and become a man.
39:05
And you're probably thinking to yourself, Tyler, why are you
39:08
spending so much time on this? The reason why is because that's
39:13
his death sentence. That statement right there,
39:16
that's what is the lead in to his death sentence.
39:20
So we're going to skip forward here for a minute, go over to
39:23
chapter 17. We learn actually in verse six
39:25
that the priests and Noah King Noah spent three days scouring
39:30
their scriptures, trying to figure out in the law of Moses
39:34
what right they would have to kill Abenadai.
39:37
This thorn in their side, this guy who's come to disrupt our
39:40
pleasurable lifestyle. Look at verse 7.
39:44
King Noah said, Abinadi, we have found an accusation against thee
39:49
and thou art worthy of death. You've done something, Abinadi,
39:53
that makes you worthy of death. What is it verse 8 For thou hast
39:57
said that God himself should come down among the children of
40:01
men. And now for this cause thou
40:04
shalt be put to death unless thou will recall all the words
40:08
which thou has spoken evil concerning me and my people.
40:11
Abinadi, we're going to kill you.
40:13
Because you said that God would come down and become a man.
40:17
How dare you? Blasphemy the good name of God
40:22
and bring him down to our level. A couple of scriptures that you
40:26
could look up on your own time. Leviticus chapter 24, verse 15
40:32
and 16. Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse
40:37
one through 517, two through 7, 1820 through 22.
40:45
For those of you who who want to to dive a little deeper, this
40:50
would be a great opportunity to pause the video, go and look up
40:54
some of these. We don't know because no one is.
40:57
Priests don't give us their source.
40:58
They just say we have found an accusation against the and now
41:01
it worthy of death. Because you said God's going to
41:03
become a man. Here are some possible places
41:06
where they could have twisted the interpretation to call what
41:11
Abinadai has done blasphemy against the good name of God.
41:14
Ironically, those very same passages are probably on the
41:20
short list of of possibilities for use by the chief priests
41:26
against Jesus himself to justify themselves in turning him over
41:32
to be killed by the Romans because they're seeing him as as
41:37
fulfilling some of these Law of Moses violations.
41:41
Once again, I think it's pretty clear that when you get chief
41:46
priests condemning Jesus based on and and they may have used
41:51
other things that that aren't listed here, I don't know, but
41:54
they're they're basing their decisions on scripture.
41:57
Noah and his priests are basing their decision to kill a
42:00
Benedict on their interpretation of scripture.
42:03
Again, what really matters is US finding truth, things as they
42:07
really are. You can justify almost anything.
42:12
Even in the scriptures, you can justify almost anything.
42:16
And so it's really important for us as we move forward to to
42:20
figure out what what is reality. Once again it was, it was my
42:24
colleague Tom Cherrington who showed this to me for the first
42:27
time and it was just mind blowing that it was Father
42:30
Lehigh in Jerusalem who taught this same thing.
42:34
After telling them they're wicked and they're going to be
42:36
destroyed, they mocked him and then he taught of the coming of
42:40
the Messiah and now they're looking for rocks to try to kill
42:42
him. In BC times, this doctrine of
42:47
condescension, it it is a killer for prophets.
42:51
They, they people do not like this doctrine for some reason,
42:55
Ironically, most people today, if you ask them does it bother
43:00
you that that Jesus Christ, a God became like us, became a
43:04
man? Most people are like, no, that's
43:05
beautiful, it's wonderful. But there's a doctrine today
43:09
that in AD times that people don't like, generally speaking,
43:16
outside of our church. And it's this doctrine, It's the
43:20
doctrine of deification or exaltation, the idea that man
43:25
can become a God. In antiquity, they would say,
43:28
how dare you say that God could possibly become like man, that
43:32
that you are ruining the good name of God.
43:34
And now people say, how dare you say that man could possibly
43:38
become like God? We solemnly declare collectively
43:41
as a group under the the authority of prophets, sears,
43:45
and revelators, that what Paul said is accurate.
43:48
We believe when Jesus says he thought it not robbery to be
43:53
equal with God, and that we can then become joint heirs with
43:56
Christ as you combine all these doctrines from the scriptures.
44:00
The reason Jesus as a God became a man was so that you and I
44:06
could have the capacity to be exalted by him, through him and
44:10
of him. It's by him, not by the law,
44:16
that we are saved. And that's the whole point that
44:18
I that Benedide is making here. So now if we go back, turn our
44:22
pages back to the core of his message to Noah and the priests,
44:28
it's Isaiah 53. And the whole time you're
44:31
reading, be looking for connecting points to stories
44:34
that you're already familiar with in the in the life of
44:37
Christ. I'll just start you off verse 2,
44:40
for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
44:45
out of dry ground. Jesus was born into a period of
44:50
400 years of apostasy. He was born into a group of
44:55
people who had been oppressed and and suppressed for centuries
45:01
by the Greeks and now the Romans.
45:04
And they they are struggling, grow up before him as a tender
45:07
plant or as a root out of dry ground.
45:11
You want to talk about being born in a rough setting.
45:14
Jesus isn't just born into that political and cultural and
45:18
societal setting. He was even despised and
45:22
rejected of his own people. He was born in a stable, not
45:27
even in in a house. He was rejected.
45:30
His mother was rejected by people.
45:33
Now look at the next half. He has no form nor comeliness,
45:38
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should
45:41
desire. Him God's Son would not come
45:45
down as a a Hercules figure, this, this half God, half human
45:50
that everybody's attracted to because of his looks or his, his
45:53
physical prowess and power. I love Isaiah's words here to
45:58
say, no, you're not going to be attracted to Jesus because of
46:02
what he looks like. You're you're you're going to be
46:05
attracted for the right reasons. If you choose to be his disciple
46:09
instead of all of this outward prowess, it's quite the
46:12
opposite. Look at verse three.
46:14
He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
46:18
acquainted with grief. If any of you struggle with
46:22
sorrows, with difficult moments in life, just know that Jesus is
46:31
a man of sorrows and he's well acquainted with grief.
46:35
He knows what you're going through, and no one can sucker
46:38
you in those dark moments better than he can.
46:41
He knows what that's like. OK, so now you get the
46:45
opportunity to to dive into Chapter 14 and read very slowly,
46:51
very carefully all of these these words that are at the core
46:56
of this Incredible Prophets message to these people.
47:00
Just pause as you go through and consider the price that was paid
47:05
to redeem your soul. And it's not the law that's
47:08
going to save you, it's this this suffering servant that is
47:14
going to save you. Then he finishes that, comes to
47:18
Chapter 15, and he gives that other bookend.
47:22
And then he launches into, probably the most, for many
47:26
people, the most confusing section of the entire Book of
47:30
Mormon, because a lot of people will read this and they'll say,
47:32
wait, this looks like the Trinity Doctrine, Because verse
47:36
234 and five, that they're talking about the oneness and
47:40
the unity of the Godhead. Because he dwelleth in the
47:43
flesh, he'll be called the Son of God, having subjected the
47:46
flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son the
47:50
Father, because he was conceived by the power of God and the Son
47:52
because of the flesh, thus becoming the Father and the Son.
47:56
So what he's talking about here in verse 234 and five is how you
48:02
have God the Father who has his Son, who is a God.
48:11
The Holy Ghost is a God. That's the Godhead.
48:16
And So what Abinadai is doing is showing in verse 234 and five,
48:19
from the way I interpret this is how this Son of God who
48:25
condescended, came down to become a man.
48:28
How this son then also becomes our father.
48:33
So he's going to be saying, look, he's both father and son.
48:38
He's the Father because he inherited all of this from our
48:41
Father, from God the Father. But he's also the Son because of
48:45
the flesh. Look at verse four.
48:48
And they are one God. Yeah, the very eternal Father of
48:52
heaven and earth. Cross reference there to Mosiah
48:56
chapter 3, verse eight, that he's the creator of all things
49:01
heaven and the earth. That these Book of Mormon
49:04
prophets do not have a problem calling Jesus the Eternal
49:07
Father, the Everlasting Father, just like Isaiah didn't have a
49:11
problem saying this Son would become our Everlasting Father.
49:17
So if you can keep in mind that Abinadi's message is focused
49:21
here and how the Son glorifies the Father then these verses
49:25
aren't as complicated. Look at verse 9.
49:28
This is probably one of the finest verses that shows the
49:34
role of Jesus Christ and and mercy and justice, finding
49:39
fulfillment because of Jesus Christ verse 9.
49:43
Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy,
49:46
being filled with compassion towards the children of men
49:50
standing betwixt them, and justice, having broken the bands
49:54
of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their
49:58
transgressions, having redeemed them and satisfied the demands
50:03
of justice. This whole idea of God coming
50:07
down and becoming a man is so that he could take upon himself
50:13
not just flesh, but take upon himself, my humanity, and your
50:19
humanity and your humanity. To take upon himself all of our
50:24
sins, our iniquities, our imperfections, and eternal
50:28
justice has a price that has to be paid.
50:33
It has to be meted out. And here's me, here's you.
50:38
It has to be meted out. And what does Jesus do?
50:41
He says no. I'm going to stand betwixt you
50:46
and justice. I'm going to absorb the ultimate
50:51
punishment for your imperfection and your sin.
50:56
The more I learn about Jesus, the more I love him, the more I
51:00
stand in awe. Brothers and sisters, there's a
51:02
reason we sing. I stand all amazed at the love
51:09
Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers
51:16
me. I tremble to know that for me he
51:21
was crucified. He suffered, He bled, He died.
51:24
He did it for me. He did it for you.
51:27
I don't understand that level of goodness.
51:29
I don't understand how God can love one so weak, so flawed, so
51:34
imperfect as I I don't get it. But I guess that's the message
51:39
of a Benedite of these people. Because we don't have to get
51:41
that. We just have to trust that he is
51:45
our saviour, that he does love us and he does know what he's
51:49
doing. And he will guide his work as it
51:53
spreads forth in the world. Not through social media, not
51:57
through Google. He'll do that predominantly
52:00
through his prophets, Sears and revelators, and through personal
52:05
revelation as it flows from heaven to leaders and
52:10
missionaries and mommies and daddies and grandmas and
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grandpas the world over. As we finished today, just know
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that there is a God in heaven. He's not perplexed by all these
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struggles that we're experiencing on this on this
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earth. And we do have a Savior who is
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still to this day, not just in the atoning event, standing
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betwixt us and justice and is pleading our cause before the
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throne of God. We sure love you guys.
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Thank you for spending time with us.
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We know there's many things going on in your lives.
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We appreciate your love for God, your love for the scriptures,
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your your desire to better understand the truth and apply
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it in your lives. And we just encourage you to
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spread light and goodness wherever you go and just know
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that God loves you.