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.
22 And behold, all
that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you
that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he
never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his
commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
Mosiah 2:20-2
After having witnessed he served the Lord to his people, he told
the people to give all thanks and praise to the Lord. Job, in spite of all his trials, praised the
Lord. “And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I
return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the
name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Even
after seeing the eventual destruction of his people, Nephi still praised the
Lord. “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day
long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1
Nephi 18:16).
The people should rejoice that god had preserved them and
live in peace. In a revelation to Joseph
Smith, the Lord talked about the consequences the wicked would face. But to the righteous, the Lord said, “And he who receiveth all things with
thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be
added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more” (D&C 78:19). Because of their righteousness, the Lord
granted them “that [they] should live in
peace one with another.”
The idea that God, not Benjamin or
Mosiah his son, is truly the king is expressly found Benjamin's words ... and
in his instruction that the people should obey "the commandments of my
son, or the commandments of God which shall be delivered unto you by him."
The same reasons for celebrating God's kingship … are also given by Benjamin,
and the power of God is acknowledged in close association with Benjamin's
declaration that God is king … [T]he kingship of God was celebrated by singing,
thanksgiving, and rejoicing in Israel, and similarly in his speech Benjamin
hoped that his spirit "may join the choirs above in singing the
praises of a just God” … and he admonished his people to "thank your
heavenly King" … and to "render all the thanks and praise which
your whole soul has power to possess" (Mosiah 2:20).[1]
Having emphasized service, King Benjamin tells them they
were created by God, and preserved by His “lending
your breath” to live. Nephi made a
similar point. “For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those
who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful
monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone,
which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them
breath, which is the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 9:26). “For Benjamin, the
order of the world depends, not on himself as king, but solely on God's
sustaining power that maintains life and the world order from day to day (see Mosiah
2:21).”[2]
Should we serve God with all out heart, might, mind, and
strength, we would still be unprofitable servants. Christ taught,
7
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle [GR tending a
flock], will say unto him by and by [GR immediately], when he is come from the
field, Go and sit down to meat?
8
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird
thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt
eat and drink?
9
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded
him? I trow [GR think] not.
10
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded
you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to
do.
Luke 17:7-10
“The Church Educational System student manual thus
indicates, ‘The debt to God is completely beyond our ability to repay. This is
why Benjamin points out that even if we devoted our whole soul to Him we are
still unprofitable servants. In other words, we can do nothing that puts God in
our debt.’50”[3]
“None of us has so much as earned our own keep, as he says. ‘I
say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be
unprofitable servants’ (Mosiah 2:21)—that is, consuming more than we produce.
Nobody can pay his own way here.”[4]
Szink and Welch explain, “Benjamin’s people would have understood that anyone
who received the name of the Lord was consecrated to be sacrificed to God,
giving emphatic meaning to their own irrevocable covenant to serve God ‘with
all [their] whole souls’ (Mosiah 2:21) and to be diligent ‘even unto the end of
[their] life’ (Mosiah 4:6).[5]
What does God require of the Nephites? They were required to keep his commandments. King Benjamin may well have been aware of the
Lord’s words to Moses. “Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep
my judgments [HEB decrees or laws], and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land
in safety. And the land shall yield her
fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.” (Leviticus
25:18-19). Instructing his three sons,
he told them, “I would that ye should
remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would
that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land
according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers” (Mosiah 1:7).
If they do, they will prosper in the land as well as receive
the Lord’s blessings. Preaching to his
sons, Lehi told them, “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” (2 Nephi 1:20).
In this dispensation, the Lord told Joseph Smith, “And, if you keep my commandments and endure
to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the
gifts of God” (D&C 14:7) and “For
verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in
life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the
same is greater in the kingdom of heaven” (D&C 58:2).
Benjamin makes clear our relationship with God.
Thanks, though, are not enough.
Benjamin clarifies the people's true relationship to God in a series of
"if . . . then" statements, saying, for example, "If ye should
serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants"
(Mosiah 2:21). That leads to the proposition about covenant making that
Benjamin wishes to elaborate: "And behold, all that he requires of you is
to keep his commandments" (Mosiah 2:22). Benjamin ends his proposition
with a summary statement that he has served his people with a clear conscience.
He is then ready to stir them to repent.[6]
[1] King
Benjamin's Speech in the Context of Ancient Israelite Festivals, Terrence
L. Szink & John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute, accessed July 8, 2014.
[2] Kingship.
Coronation, and Covenant in Mosiah 1–6, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute,
accessed July 8, 2014.
[3] The
Use of King Benjamin's Address by Latter-day Saints, Bruce A. VanOrden,
Maxwell Institute, accessed July 8, 2014.
[5] On
the Right or Left: Benjamin and the Scapegoat, Terrence L. Szink & John
W. Welch, originally published as a FARMS Update in Insights (January 1995): 2,
accessed July 8, 2014.
[6] "Know
the Covenants of the Lord" – Sermons, Maxwell Institute, accessed July
8, 2014.
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