Lesson 15: Eternally Indebted to Your Heavenly Father

Mosiah 1-3

Purpose: To increase class members’ understanding of their indebtedness to God and to encourage them to “[put] off the natural man .. through the atonement of Christ the Lord.”

Lesson Development:

1. King Benjamin teaches his sons and has Mosiah call the people together.
2. King Benjamin teaches the people of their eternal indebtedness to God.
3. King Benjamin repeats an angel’s prophecies about Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

SCRIPTURE DISCUSSION AND APPLICATION

We’re on Lesson 15 today, beginning the Book of Mosiah. This is a transition in the Book of Mormon in practically every way, so let’s take a minute to sort everything out.

First, where does the text of the Book of Mosiah come from? The Book of Mormon as we have it today begins with text that was on the small plates of Nephi – I and II Nephi, Jacob, Jarom, Enos, and Omni were all engraved on the set of plates that Nephi reserved for the sacred history of his people. Mormon, who had already abridged the large plates of Nephi (the broader history of the people), from the history of Lehi down to Mormon’s own time, when he found those small plates of Nephi, and he liked them so much that he attached the original small plates right to Mormon’s own record. That means that when the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith, the plates continued two accounts of Lehi, and the people’s flight from Jerusalem, and their arrival in the New World, and Nephi’s prophecies, and the separation of the family between Nephites and Lamanites, and Jacob’s history, and so on.

* Why don’t we have two accounts of Lehi and Nephi and Jacob in the Book of Mormon that you have in your hands right now? [Briefly review history of the lost 116 pages.]

So Mormon’s abridgement of Lehi and Nephi and Jacob and the other minor writers was lost. When Joseph Smith began to translate again, the Lord told him not to translate that part of Mormon’s abridgement again. Instead, Joseph Smith translated Nephi’s original record, the small plates of Nephi. Then he translated the Words of Mormon, where Mormon explained what he had done in including those small plates, “for a wise purpose” (Words of Mormon 1:7), he says, which he did not understand, but which the spirit of the Lord has whispered to him to do. The Words of Mormon acts as a transition between the original writing of Nephi and Jacob and the other minor writers, and the abridgment that Mormon wrote, beginning with the Book of Mosiah.

From this point on, down through all the rest of the Book of Mormon until Mormon himself dies, what we are reading is the abridgement made by Mormon, along with sermons and letters of other men whom he sometimes includes. Whenever there is a general narrator, or where something is said without specifically identifying the speaker, it is Mormon’s voice that we hear.

There are enough clues in history and in the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon for us to be fairly sure that the 116 pages included Lehi’s record, Nephi’s record, and so on, right up to and including the first two chapters of the Book of Mosiah. So what we see as Mosiah, Chapter 1 was originally intended to be Mosiah, Chapter 3. Because we are missing the first piece of Mosiah, the transition is a little rough, with major events that might have been more fully explained by Mormon’s lost abridgement than we have today.

For instance, buried in a verse of Omni where it is very easy to miss, we learn that the Nephites have picked up and moved a second time.

Omni 1:12

12 Behold, I am Amleki, the son of Abinadom. Behold, I will speak unto you somewhat concerning Mosiah, who was made king over the land of Zarahemla; for behold, he being warned of the Lord that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord should also depart out of the land with him, into the wilderness –

[Briefly review the movements from the “land of first inheritance” to the “land of Nephi” to the “land of Zarahemla. Note that Mosiah’s people came into contact with the Mulekites, another group brought out of Jerusalem at the time of its destruction, but we’ll talk about the Mulekites in later lessons.]

We don’t know a lot about this King Mosiah, perhaps because we’re missing explanations that Mormon might have included in the lost text, or perhaps because Amaleki, like the other writers in Omni, didn’t bother to keep a good record, and just scribbled a few lines near the end of his life to be able to say he had kept the commandment given to him. Mosiah’s time appears to have been a period of great turmoil, both religiously and politically, with both warfare and apostasy.

We assume this Mosiah was a prophet, because he was “warned of the Lord” to flee, and so on. We know he was a king, but whether he was a king over the entire Nephite people, or king only over the land of Zarahemla we are not certain. (Different writers have reached different conclusions.)

But we know that Mosiah had a son named Benjamin, and that Benjamin had a son named Mosiah, and the mantle of prophet passed down through this lineage. Benjamin is the king, as well as the prophet, when the Book of Mosiah opens.

Everything is new, now: We have a new narrator (Mormon), we have a new king and prophet (Benjamin), we’re in a new place (the land of Zarahemla). The time is about 130 B.C.

Benjamin, the king and prophet, instructs his son Mosiah, the future king and prophet, to call the people together. What is his intention for this meeting:

Mosiah 1:10

Therefore, he had Mosiah brought before him; and these are the words which he spake unto him, saying: My son, I would that ye should make a proclamation throughout all this land among all this people, or the people of Zarahemla, and the people of Mosiah who dwell in the land, that thereby they may be gathered together; for on the morrow I shall proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth that thou art a king and a ruler over this people, whom the Lord our God hath given us.

So this great meeting of the people is to have a political purpose, but it will also have a significant spiritual purpose.

Mosiah 1:11-12

11 And moreover, I shall give this people a name, that thereby they may be distinguished above all the people which the Lord God hath brought out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I do because they have been a diligent people in keeping the commandments of the Lord.

12 And I give unto them a name that never shall be blotted out, except it be through transgression.

Why a new name? [Possibilities: To unite the Nephites and Mulekites as a people? To renew the covenant of the Lord with them, after an extended period of warfare and religious strife?]

1 Nephi 4:14 (Nephi speaking)

14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments they shall prosper in the land of promise.

2 Nephi 1:20 (Lehi speaking)

20 And he hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.

Benjamin is going to renew the covenant that the people have made with their God, and as evidence that God has not forsaken the people, Benjamin reminds that the Lord has kept his side of the covenant by preserving the righteous part of the Nephites.

Mosiah 1:14

14 For I say unto you, that if he had not extended his arm in the preservation of our fathers they must have fallen into the hands of the Lamanites, and become victims to their hatred.

So in Mosiah, Chapter 2, Mosiah does as Benjamin has instructed: He gathers the people together; they pitch their tents near the temple at Zarahemla, and they offer sacrifice according to the Law of Moses under which they live. The gathering is so large that Benjamin has a tower built so that he can speak from a high platform and be heard by everyone. Benjamin gives one of the great religious speeches recorded in the Book of Mormon.

First, he reviews his own reign, noting that he has served the people all his life, and he calls on the people to serve each other in the same way.

Mosiah 2:16-18

16 Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God.

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

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

* What is your opinion of that call to service?

* Does that service, whether to God or to our “fellow beings,” pay our debt to God and release us of obligations to him?

Mosiah 2:19-21

19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

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

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

Benjamin goes on to tell the people that he is old and about to meet God, and he must discharge an obligation to the Lord before he goes. First, he warns them against listening to the evil spirit:

Mosiah 2:32

32 But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit, which was spoken of by my father Mosiah.

Do you remember what King Mosiah, Benjamin’s father, taught about the evil spirit? Neither do I – it isn’t in the Book of Mormon; perhaps it was part of the material that was lost with the 116 pages.

Drawing on what his father taught, Benjamin reminds the people of the fate awaiting them if they do listen to that evil spirit: If they rebel against God, the people will never know peace in this life; if they die unrepentant, eternity will be a long and dreadful future.

Benjamin continues the same sermon in Chapter 3, moving from a warning about the punishment for sin to the good news about a blessed future if the people follow God. He knows these things he is about to say are true, for an angel has declared them to him:

Mosiah 3:2-3

2 And the things which I shall tell you are made known unto me by an angel from God. And he said unto me: Awake; and I awoke, and behold he stood before me.

3 And he said unto me: Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy.

Why do you suppose the angel tells him twice to awake?

“Glad tidings of great joy” – does that remind you of another place in the scriptures? [Luke 2:10: And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.]

The glad or good tidings of great joy similar in both cases. How are the two situations alike? How are they different? [In both cases, the news is of the coming of the Messiah in the flesh; the timing is quite different, however: for the shepherds, the time is right now; for the Nephites, the time is still more than a hundred years in the future. But the joy should be the same.]

Mosiah 3:5-11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is this apt to be brand new to Benjamin’s listeners? No, although there are additional details here, Nephi has already taught this to the people before, and surely that key religious knowledge has been passed down through the believing Nephites, reinforced by whatever access they had to the small plates of Nephi.

Earlier, Benjamin had told his son Mosiah that he would give the people a new name. While the name he gives in this sermon is not entirely new, he does renew an emphasis on the importance of the name he teaches them:

Mosiah 3:17

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

With the conclusion to his sermon, Benjamin warns the people again to be faith, and reminds them of the fate that awaits those who do not follow God, and repent, and keep his commandments.

Benjamin has discharged his final obligation to the people he has served his entire life:

Mosiah 3:23-24

23 And now I have spoken the words which the Lord God hath commanded me.

24 And thus saith the Lord: They shall stand as a bright testimony against this people, at the judgment day; whereof they shall be judged, every man according to his works, whether they be good, or whether they be evil.

“Thus hath the Lord commanded me,” he says in verse 27. “Amen.”