23 And now, in the
first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye
are indebted unto him.
24 And secondly, he
doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he
doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are,
and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
25 And now I ask, can
ye say aught of yourselves? I answer
you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even
as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth;
but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.
26 And I, even I, whom
ye call your king, am no better than ye yourselves are; for I am also of the
dust. And ye behold that I am old, and
am about to yield up this mortal frame to its mother earth.
27 Therefore, as I
said unto you that I had served you, walking with a clear conscience before
God, even so I at this time have caused that ye should assemble yourselves
together, that I might be found blameless, and that your blood should not come
upon me, when I shall stand to be judged of God of the things whereof he hath
commanded me concerning you.
Mosiah 2:23-27
Why are we indebted to God?
Because he crated us and gave us life.
Benjamin strikes here a double
blow: first he reshapes our thinking about service by redefining it as
exclusively service to God, and second, he reduces all service to God as
ultimately unprofitable (see Mosiah 2:23–24). Even royal service is not exempt
from this sobering reduction: "I [your king] ... am [no] more than a
mortal man ... like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body
and mind; ... I ... am no better than ye yourselves are; for I am also of the
dust" (Mosiah 2:10–11, 26).[1]
Again, Benjamin tells us we are required to keep the Lord’s
commandments. When we do, we are immediately
blessed. “By humility and the fear [OR reverence of the LORD] of the LORD are
riches, and honour, and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward [OR
perverse]: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.” (Proverbs 22:4
- 5).
But, we become indebted to him and “will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?”
[Benjamin] is setting the keynote,
which is absolute equality. And that follows naturally from the
proposition that we owe everything to God, to whom we are perpetually and
inescapably in debt beyond our means of repayment: "In the first place
... ye are indebted unto him ... and will be forever and ever" (Mosiah
2:23-24).[2]
“[C]am ye say
[anything at all] of yourselves?” We
are made of the dust of the Earth. Jacob
reminded the Nephites they were dust of the Earth.
20
And now, my brethren, I have spoken unto you concerning pride; and those of you
which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in
your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it?
21
Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all
flesh? And the one being is as precious
in his sight as the other. And all flesh
is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should
keep his commandments and glorify him forever.
Jacob 2:20-21
Alma2 taught Corianton, “Now behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee. For behold, after the Lord God sent our first
parents forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence they
were taken—yea, he drew out the man, and he placed at the east end of the
garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep
the tree of life—“ (Alma 42:2).
To whom does the dust belong? It belongs to the Lord. “It is his property, not yours! What is more,
no one can even pay his own way in the world, let alone claim a surplus…”[3] The Lord simply asks “…only two things:
first, to recognize his gifts for what they are, and not to take credit to ourselves
and say, ‘This is mine’…”[4]
Hugh Nibley further writes:
The Book of Mormon tells us that
the essence of repentance is knowing exactly what we are. King Benjamin really
rubs it in: "Therefore, of what have ye to boast? And now I ask, can ye
say ought of yourselves? … Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust
of the earth" (Mosiah 2:24—25).[5]
Benjamin reminds the people, “I, whom ye call your king, am no better than ye yourselves are.” Can you imagine many of today’s
politicians confessing this? Why is he
no better than the people? “I am also of the dust.” Benjamin is old, and is “about to yield up this mortal frame to its
mother earth.”
Benjamin taught powerfully that he
as king was no better than any other person in the society (see Mosiah
2:10–11). He told his people that he too was of the dust, an extraordinary
concession for any king to make (see Mosiah 2:26). Although his people may
have understood this more as an expression of personal humility than as a plank
in a political manifesto, the notion that all people in the land were of the
dust and were therefore fundamentally equal to each other would have had a
strong potential for leveling political attitudes and strengthening democratic
tendencies within that society.[6]
Benjamin served his people “walking with a clear conscience before God.” He called the people together to give
them his farewell message so he would be found blameless and their blood would
not come upon him at the final judgment. ‘He also warns his people in a most
solemn manner of the perils of transgressing the commandments of God. The king
wanted to make sure that the blood of no person should come upon him for lack
of proper instruction (Mosiah 2:27).”[7]
This reason was similar to Jacob’s reason for
preaching. “And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility,
answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them
the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their
blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon
our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day” (Jacob
1:19).
[1] Benjamin's
Speech: A Masterful Oration, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute, accessed
July 10, 2014.
[2] Work
We Must, but the Lunch Is Free, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed
July 10, 2014.
[3] Work
We Must, but the Lunch Is Free, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed
July 10, 2014.
[5] The
Book of Mormon: Forty Years After, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute,
accessed July 10, 2014.
[6] Democratizing
Forces in King Benjamin's Speech, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute, accessed
July 10, 2014.
[7] Types
of Literature in the Book of Mormon: Historical Narrative, Memoir, Prophetic
Discourse, Oratory, Sidney B. Sperry, Maxwell Institute, accessed July 10,
2014.
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