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.”
“We should learn to talk
together, listen together, pray together, decide together, and avoid all forms
of possible contention. We must learn to curb anger. Satan knows that when
contention begins, orderly progress is thwarted.
“There has never been a time when
it is more important for us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints to take a stand, remain firm in our convictions, and conduct
ourselves with calm assurance under all circumstances. We must not be
manipulated or enraged by those who subtly foster contention over issues of the
day.
“’Behold, this is not my
doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but
this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away’ (3 Ne. 11:30).
“‘Ye should live in peace one
with another’ (Mosiah 2:20). Those with the gift of being calm make lasting
peace possible.”[1]
“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).”[2]
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).”[3]
Should we serve God with all
out heart, might, mind, and strength, we would still be unprofitable
servants. Christ taught,
“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?
“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?
“Doth he thank that servant
because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow [GR think] not.
“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.’”[4]
“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.”[5]
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).[6]
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.”[7]
[2] King
Benjamin’s Speech in the Context of Ancient Israelite Festivals, Terrence
L. Szink & John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute, accessed July 8, 2014.
[3] Kingship.
Coronation, and Covenant in Mosiah 1–6, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute,
accessed July 8, 2014.
[4] The
Use of King Benjamin’s Address by Latter-day Saints, Bruce A. VanOrden,
Maxwell Institute, accessed July 8, 2014.
[6] 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.
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