By the 30th year, the people have been delivered
up to the devil. The Lord had warned
them of the consequences of their sin.
He gave them the save message He gave Cain. “And if
thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee;
and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up” (Moses
5:23). The people refused to hearken to
His commandments, so they had been delivered up to Satan.
Remember, all this happened over a period of a little over 3
years. Hugh Nibley explains, “These
things hit us fast. And it says it became the ‘me first’ philosophy—I want it
now, and I want it all.”[1]
Not only were the people “in
a state of awful wickedness,” they were in this state willingly. The gospel had been taught to them. They willfully turned their back on the Lord’s
teachings and chose to follow the devil.[2] These things occurred while the son of
Lachoneus, Lachoneus, governed in the judgment seat.
The Lord does not ignore His people even when they turn away
from Him. The Lord sent many to preach
and testify to the people about the sins.
They also testified concerning Christ’s redemption that He would soon
make for the people.
As usually happens, the elite of society were angry with
those who preached the word of God. This
group included lawyers, judges, and former high priests. They decided something had to be done about
this annoyance on the body politic. In
our days, the Lord has warned us that if we are given authority, and use that authority
“to cover [their] sins, or to gratify
[there] ride, [there] vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or
compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of
unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the
Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the
authority of that man.” (D&C 121:37)
What to do? The best
solution was to get rid of those who annoy them. They took those who preached the word of God
and secretly put them to death.
Why would this be done in secret? Hugh Nibley tells us:
These lawyers and judges had one
annoying check on their power—the "Federal Government." All orders of
capital punishment had to be signed by the governor of the whole land (3 Nephi
6:22). To evade the galling restrictions of centralized government, these men
of affairs accordingly developed skillful techniques of putting people out of
the way before the governor could hear about it (3 Nephi 6:23).[3]
In spite of their best efforts to hide their violation of
the law, a complaint went to the governor against those who executed God’s
servants in violation of the law.
Those who were responsible for the deaths were brought
before judges to answer for their crimes.
Friends and relatives of the accused united with to work to get them
off.
When news of this leaked out and
they were brought to trial, the friends and families of the judges rallied to
the cause of regional rights, while all the bureaucracy of lawyers and high
priests closed ranks, came together—"and did . . . unite with the kindreds
of those judges" (3 Nephi 6:27). This is a clear and vivid picture of
class government and how it worked.[4]
This group entered into a covenant to deliver those responsible
for executing the Lord’s servants. After
getting them freed, their next move was to murder the governor and establish a
king in his place.
[1] Lecture
82: 3 Nephi 6-7, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute, accessed November 9, 2012.
[2]
King Benjamin taught, “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.” (Mosiah 3:11).
[3] The
Way of the Wicked, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed November 9, 2012.
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