13 Yea, and moreover I
say unto you, that if this highly favored people of the Lord should fall into transgression,
and become a wicked and an adulterous people, that the Lord will deliver them
up, that thereby they become weak like unto their brethren; and he will no more
preserve them by his matchless and marvelous power, as he has hitherto
preserved our fathers.
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.
15 And it came to pass
that after king Benjamin had made an end of these sayings to his son, that he
gave him charge concerning all the affairs of the kingdom.
16 And moreover, he
also gave him charge concerning the records which were engraven on the plates
of brass; and also the plates of Nephi; and also, the sword of Laban, and the ball
or director, which led our fathers through the wilderness, which was prepared
by the hand of the Lord that thereby they might be led, every one according to
the heed and diligence which they gave unto him.
17 Therefore, as they
were unfaithful they did not prosper nor progress in their journey, but were driven
back, and incurred the displeasure of God upon them; and therefore they were
smitten with famine and sore afflictions, to stir them up in remembrance of
their duty.
18 And now, it came to
pass that Mosiah went and did as his father had commanded him, and proclaimed
unto all the people who were in the land of Zarahemla that thereby they might
gather themselves together, to go up to the temple to hear the words which his
father should speak unto them.
Mosiah 1:13-18
Benjamin reminded his sons of the promise made to Nephi that
his people would be a chosen people, protected by the Lord, as long as they
keep His commandments. Should they
become a “wicked and an adulterous
people,” they will become weak like the Lamanites. They will no longer be preserved by the power
of God.
We see these promises in other scripture. In Hebrews we read:
4
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of
the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Hebrews 6:4-6
Around 40 B.C., the Nephites had become a wicked
people. Mormon gave us a description of
the state the people were in at that time.
24
And they saw that they had become weak, like unto their brethren, the
Lamanites, and that the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it
had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy
temples—
25
Therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them by his miraculous and matchless
power, for they had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness; and
they saw that the Lamanites were exceedingly more numerous than they, and
except they should cleave unto the Lord their God they must unavoidably perish.
26
For behold, they saw that the strength of the Lamanites was as great as their
strength, even man for man. And thus had
they fallen into this great transgression; yea, thus had they become weak,
because of their transgression, in the space of not many years.
Helaman 4:24-26
In our time, the Lord revealed that we are under the same
promise and warning made by the Lord to the Nephites. “But
inasmuch as they keep not my commandments, and hearken not to observe all my
words, the kingdoms of the world shall prevail against them” (D&C 103:8).
Had the Lord not “extended
his arm in the preservation of our fathers,” they would have been defeated
by the Lamanites. The Lamanites were
motivated by their hatred of the Nephites.
Duane Boyce looks at this hatred.
We know that Nephite dissenters who
became Lamanites were more hardened in their hatred for the Nephites than were
other Lamanites (see Alma 24:29–30; 43:6; 47:36). But this doesn’t mean that
these other Lamanites didn’t also hate the Nephites. They did;
and they had a long history of doing so.
Jacob, for example, speaks in the
earliest days of Lamanite “hatred” for the Nephites—and he does so while
praising them for their superiority to the Nephites (Jacob 3:7). He also
reports that the Lamanites “delighted in wars and bloodshed” and that they “had
an eternal hatred against us,” and sought “by the power of their arms to
destroy us continually” (Jacob 7:24). King Benjamin also speaks of the
Lamanites’ early “hatred” toward the Nephites (Mosiah 1:14).[1]
After reminding Mosiah of the promises of the Lord, Benjamin
gave his son a charge concerning the kingdom he was about to rule. David did something similar with Solomon.
1
GIVE the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
2
He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
3
The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by
righteousness.
4
He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy,
and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
Psalms 72:1-4
In addition to his charges, Benjamin gave Mosiah the brass
plates, the plates containing Nephite history, and the sword of Laban. This is the first time we read of these
things being passed on to a new king. It
appears that Nephi began this tradition of passing certain things on to the new
king.
Having worked hard to unify his
political and religious control, Benjamin took great care to see that this
situation continued into the reign of his son. To his son Mosiah he passed the
Liahona, the sword of Laban, and all the plates (see Mosiah 1:16). These
were customary symbols of kingship among the Nephites, and they relate to the
orb, scepter, and book of the law used as royal symbols in many civilizations.[2]
Benjamin gave special emphasis to the Liahona. As long as Lehi’s party was righteous, the
Liahona worked and gave them direction for their travels. When they were unfaithful, the Liahona stopped
working. They were forced to wander on
their own. “Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted
her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into
captivity before the enemy” (Lamentations 1:5).
Mormon reminds us,
2
Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in
the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in
silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing
their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening
the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them;
yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people;
yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord
their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because
of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.
3
And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many
afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and
with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.
Helaman 12:2-3
Benjamin gives us insight into Lehi’s party journey in the
wilderness. We know little of what happened
during their journey. S. Kent Brown
looks at this and gives us come insight as to what might have occurred.
It is important to add a few words
about the kinds of vicissitudes that the party met along the way. Nephi said of
their troubles that "we did . . . wade through much
affliction," afterward characterizing the hardships less vividly as
"afflictions and much difficulty" (1 Nephi 17:1, 6). Later Book of
Mormon authors who had consulted the full set of records added important
details, speaking of the family's suffering from both "famine" and
"all manner of diseases" while crossing the desert (Mosiah 1:17; Alma
9:22).[3]
It is this eastward stage of the
journey that apparently took the most time. And it may well have been in this
segment that, in the recollection of King Benjamin, the party "did not . .
. progress in their journey, but were driven back, . . . and . . . were smitten
with famine and sore afflictions" (Mosiah 1:17). While "famine and
sore afflictions" occasionally characterized the family's trip from the
first camp to Nahom, their eastward route along the south edge of Arabia's
Empty Quarter would have brought more intense troubles since they were leaving
areas of population and cultivation.[4]
Having received his father’s instructions, he did what
Benjamin had commanded him. A proclamation
was sent forth, telling them people in the land of Zarahemla to gather at the
temple. There, they would hear Benjamin’s
great sermon.
The temple was an important part of Nephite society. “A society's most sacred spot is the location
where the sacred act of coronation takes place … In the Nephite case, the
temple at Zarahemla was the sacred site chosen for Benjamin's address to the people
and for Mosiah's consecration as king (see Mosiah 1:18).”[5]
Stephen Ricks further explains the importance of the temple.
Temples played a vitally important
role among the peoples of the Book of Mormon. Following their arrival in the
promised land, Nephi built a temple "after the manner of the temple of
Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things" (2 Nephi 5:16),
where Nephi's brothers Jacob and Joseph later taught as priests (see Jacob
1:17–8). Subsequently, temples were built in Zarahemla (see Mosiah 1:18,
2:1, 5–7) and in Bountiful, where the risen Christ appeared to the people (see
3 Nephi 11:1; compare Mosiah 6:3).[6]
[1]
Were
the Ammonites Pacifists? Duane Boyce, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 28,
2014.
[2]
Benjamin,
the Man: His Place in Nephite History, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute,
accessed June 28, 2014.
[3]
New
Light from Arabia on Lehi's Trail, S. Kent Brown, Maxwell Institute,
accessed June 28, 2014.
[4]
A
Case for Lehi's Bondage in Arabia, S. Kent Brown, Maxwell Institute,
accessed June 26, 2014.
[5]
Converging
Paths: Language and Cultural Notes on the Ancient Near Eastern Background of
the Book of Mormon, Stephen D. Ricks, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 28,
2014.
[6]
The
Book of Mormon and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Stephen D. Ricks, Maxwell
Institute, accessed June 28, 2014.
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