The undeserved miracle saving King Noah’s people

Around the beginning of the account of King Noah, there is a story of how the Lamanites began to come in and steal from them and destroy them.  At first King Noah didn’t send enough guards and they were killed. But the second time, he sends armies and they drive the Lamanites out.

16 And it came to pass that the Lamanites began to come in upon his people, upon small numbers, and to slay them in their fields, and while they were tending their flocks.

17 And king Noah sent guards round about the land to keep them off; but he did not send a sufficient number, and the Lamanites came upon them and killed them, and drove many of their flocks out of the land; thus the Lamanites began to destroy them, and to exercise their hatred upon them.

18 And it came to pass that king Noah sent his armies against them, and they were driven back, or they drove them back for a time; therefore, they returned rejoicing in their spoil.

19 And now, because of this great victory they were lifted up in the pride of their hearts; they did boast in their own strength, saying that their fifty could stand against thousands of the Lamanites; and thus they did boast, and did delight in blood, and the shedding of the blood of their brethren, and this because of the wickedness of their king and priests.

20 And it came to pass that there was a man among them whose name was Abinadi; and he went forth among them, and began to prophesy, saying: Behold, thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me, saying, Go forth, and say unto this people, thus saith the Lord—Wo be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations, and their wickedness, and their whoredoms; and except they repent I will visit them in mine anger.

21 And except they repent and turn to the Lord their God, behold, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies; yea, and they shall be brought into bondage; and they shall be afflicted by the hand of their enemies.

22 And it shall come to pass that they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of my people.

23 And it shall come to pass that except this people repent and turn unto the Lord their God, they shall be brought into bondage; and none shall deliver them, except it be the Lord the Almighty God.

24 Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall cry unto me I will be slow to hear their cries; yea, and I will suffer them that they be smitten by their enemies.

25 And except they repent in sackcloth and ashes, and cry mightily to the Lord their God, I will not hear their prayers, neither will I deliver them out of their afflictions; and thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me. (Mosiah 11:16-25)

Verse 19 gives some interesting facts about how King Noah’s people responded to their victory.  Also, I noticed there was a little chiasmus in the verse sandwiching the content of their boast inside bookends that they were boasting.

[A] And now, because of this great victory they were lifted up in the pride of their hearts; they did boast in their own strength,

[B] saying that their fifty could stand against thousands of the Lamanites;

[A] and thus they did boast, and did delight in blood, and the shedding of the blood of their brethren, and this because of the wickedness of their king and priests.

Usually the middle point of the chiasmus is something that the writer wanted to emphasize.  So why did Mormon want to highlight their boast that their small numbers could stand against thousands of the Lamanites?  They were wicked; so why were they enabled to stand?

I think this was an undeserved miracle given by God to give them extra time in which to be warned of their wickedness by Abinadi and space to choose to repent.  After all, they had not yet been warned.

Also, we might notice that the first time King Noah sent guards, it specifically says he didn’t send a sufficient number, so it implies that a lack of Nephite numbers was a real problem.  If they had really been strong enough to stand against thousands of Lamanites (as they boasted later), they should have been able to stand that first time too, and they should never have been driven at all.  If they had remembered the humiliation of that defeat, they would never have made the boast later.

I notice that when the Nephites go again with larger armies and succeed, it says they rejoiced in their spoil.  This means that they didn’t confine their army’s attention to just the enemy army. They drove the enemy through enemy territory and then plundered enemy homes. Perhaps they saw this as payback for when the Lamanites despoiled them of their flocks.

I also notice that right after they get back from their campaign, the next thing the record tells us of is the appearance of Abinadi. The Lord did not waste time after saving the Nephites; He sent them prophetic warning immediately. And the warning of consequences is directly related to their military power.  Without repentance, Abinadi says, the Lord would deliver them up to their enemies into bondage and no one except the Lord would be able to extricate them.

So the people had two recent battles they could remember—the time when the Lamanites drove them and the time they drove the Lamanites.  It was an object lesson experience of what was possible either way. 

Sadly, because their victory was so recent, they chose to believe their power was growing without any reference to the Lord’s help, and they rejected Abinadi’s message. 

I think this story shows how merciful the Lord is to extend the arm of His power to save those who have yet to be warned.  From time to time we may be in the position of needing warning.  Hopefully we can learn from the sad experience of King Noah’s people.

The desires of King Noah’s heart

1 And now it came to pass that Zeniff conferred the kingdom upon Noah, one of his sons; therefore Noah began to reign in his stead; and he did not walk in the ways of his father.

2 For behold, he did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart. And he had many wives and concubines. And he did cause his people to commit sin, and do that which was abominable in the sight of the Lord. Yea, and they did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness. (Mosiah 11:1-2)

King Noah started lots of bad stuff, but I want to highlight one part of v2 that shows the relatively simple beginning of it, a beginning that looks so benign.

..he did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart..

King Noah’s wickedness started with following the desires of his own heart.  That’s kind of startling, especially since our culture makes “doing what you want” into a big virtue and a goal and a privilege. It should cause us to realize that it isn’t good for us to go after everything we want all the time.  And it makes us consider whether what we want is good or not. 

As Noah went after what he wanted, he undoubtedly came into conflict with the commandments of God, and he chose to break those commandments rather than sacrifice what he wanted. And we learn from reading the rest of his story that doing that ultimately led to his destruction.

So what we can learn is that the commandments of God are meant to be an obstacle to doing whatever we want.  (That’s the whole point of the “thou shalt nots”)  God put them there for that purpose to help us learn to regulate our desires, appetites, and passions so they wouldn’t destroy us.  When the commandments get in the way of our doing what we want, it is because they are protecting us from ourselves when doing what we want would be self-destructive.  They are even more helpful when effects of breaking them seem invisible or when the consequences are a very long time in coming and affect whole societies.

I’m grateful that the Atonement of Christ and being born again makes it possible to have my desires educated and changed and sanctified over time.

King Noah on the Tower vs. King Limhi on the Tower

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Recently I noticed there are two difference incidents involving enemy armies detected from the top of a tower in the Book of Mosiah.  In the first, King Noah is trying to escape from Gideon, who wants to kill him, and King Noah flees and gets on the tower. 

6 And Gideon pursued after him and was about to get upon the tower to slay the king, and the king cast his eyes round about towards the land of Shemlon, and behold, the army of the Lamanites were within the borders of the land.

7 And now the king cried out in the anguish of his soul, saying: Gideon, spare me, for the Lamanites are upon us, and they will destroy us; yea, they will destroy my people.

8 And now the king was not so much concerned about his people as he was about his own life; nevertheless, Gideon did spare his life.

9 And the king commanded the people that they should flee before the Lamanites, and he himself did go before them, and they did flee into the wilderness, with their women and their children.

10 And it came to pass that the Lamanites did pursue them, and did overtake them, and began to slay them. (Mosiah 19:5-10)

I have no idea just what Noah thought getting on the tower did for him in his extremity; maybe it allowed him to fight from height?  But from the top, he just happens to notice a Lamanite army in the borders of the land.

In the second incident one chapter later, it is Limhi who is on top of the tower.

6 And it came to pass that when the Lamanites found that their daughters had been missing, they were angry with the people of Limhi, for they thought it was the people of Limhi.

7 Therefore they sent their armies forth; yea, even the king himself went before his people; and they went up to the land of Nephi to destroy the people of Limhi.

8 And now Limhi had discovered them from the tower, even all their preparations for war did he discover; therefore he gathered his people together, and laid wait for them in the fields and in the forests.

9 And it came to pass that when the Lamanites had come up, that the people of Limhi began to fall upon them from their waiting places, and began to slay them. (Mosiah 20:6-9)

King Limhi manages to discover all the Lamanite preparations for war from the top of this tower.

Now, whenever there are similar incidents, in the Book of Mormon, it is helpful to make a comparison between them to see what we can learn from the similarities and differences. 

Similarities

Both King Noah and King Limhi used the same tower.  They both used it to spot the Lamanite armies.  This makes me think that tower was built for that very purpose as sort of an early warning system.  It was more economical than surrounding the land with guards because it only required one man on the tower, but for guards it required an army which would have to be paid to stand idle.  In that small Nephite community, men were at premium (or at least that is the impression I get).

I think the watchtower is meant to be a symbol for prophets.  Just as the tower allowed the watcher to see the enemy army when it was still far away, prophets can see spiritual threats before they become obvious to the rest of us.  They warn us ahead of time so we can prepare to fight them.

Differences

King Noah seems to have not used the tower nearly as well as Limhi did.  King Noah only happened to notice an invading Lamanite army, whereas Limhi seems to have made a habit of getting on the tower to see what he could see. 

King Noah only got on the tower when he was in trouble, but Limhi seems to have got on the tower regularly, even when he was not in trouble.  We learn from this that listening to the prophets can’t be something that you do only when you are in trouble because then you won’t be able to deal with the larger issues and threats that come.  Instead, you have to regularly consult them for advice (in the Ensign magazines and conference addresses) and make their messages a real part of your life so that you’ll be able to pick up on the patterns that indicate an advance warning.

King Noah only saw the Lamanite army just as it was invading, so there was no time to prepare a defense.  All he and the Nephites could do was retreat and hope to escape.  Limhi, on the other hand, saw all the Lamanite preparations, so he knew what was coming.  He didn’t dismiss what he saw; he knew what it meant, and so he took action.  He prepared his people to fight back, and when the Lamanites invaded, the Nephites had the advantage of surprise. 

One example of an invading “army” we have been warned against by the prophets is pornography.  Our society is becoming more porn-ified.  We have been warned against it, and not only do we need to resist it in our media consumption, we have to raise our voices for decency in our society.   I have mentioned to grocery store managers (in a nice way) about how I’m bothered by certain magazine covers in the magazine racks.  Today I sent an email to a local news organization objecting to footage of dancing inside an adult entertainment business.   I’m almost beginning to think that it might help me to streamline future protests by making up some sort of form letter conveying my general concerns about the pornification of society, how the particular media organization/store is contributing to that trend, and facts about the harms of pornography, which I can then customize with pertinent conditions of a particular exposure to indecency and then send it quickly.  

The above insight about King Noah’s vigilance versus King Limhi’s vigilance has crystallized for me the conviction that we have to see these different incidents as part of a general invasion that requires us to fight.

Considering the purpose of King Noah's high tower

And it came to pass that [King Noah] built a tower near the temple; yea, a very high tower, even so high that he could stand upon the top thereof and overlook the land of Shilom, and also the land of Shemlon, which was possessed by the Lamanites; and he could even look over all the land round about. (Mosiah 11:12)

This comes in the recital of the evils that King Noah did, so while it sounded somewhat harmless at first, I started to think about why it might have been added and whether it was disapproved of.

Perhaps one problem with this tower is that it upstaged the temple as the focus of the area. If you wanted to look toward the temple, the temple wasn’t the most beautiful thing to look at, as our temples often are. King Noah had made his tower bigger and better. (Abinadi probably considered it a major eyesore.)

And too, the purpose of the tower may have been foolish if it was built just so King Noah could stand on the top and look down on everybody! (How different from the temple, where people come to worship and look up to God.) If that was King Noah's only purpose for the tower, then the tower is certainly a contrast from King Benjamin’s tower, which was used to teach people from and remind people of their duty to God. King Noah’s tower may have been part of his efforts to forget the Lord and go his own way. (How often do we get spiritually get on our high towers just so we can look down on people?)

However, perhaps King Noah built this tower as a way to observe whether the Lamanites were preparing for war. We know that earlier in the Zeniffite record the Nephites were consistently taken by surprise by invading Lamanites, and perhaps the tower was designed as a means of observing Lamanite war preparations to give Nephites advance notice and time to prepare for defense. If so, it was a very good plan, and it worked...except King Noah was a very bad watchman for that tower. He only saw the Lamanites were invading because he was chased up onto his tower, and then it was still too late to do much about the invasion except run away. King Limhi did a much better job as a watchman on that tower; he was able to discover all the Lamanite preparations for war and prepare his people ahead of time (see Mosiah 20:7-8).

How does this help us today? It shows us that a tower doesn't do much good without a watchman that consistently watches. Our prophet is a watchman on the tower for us. We are also watchmen for those who are within our stewardships. We want to be watchmen like King Limhi, not King Noah. We want to be watchmen who watch consistently so that when the enemy is in range, we can take notice while they are yet afar off and prepare our defense rather than seeing the invaders in the borders with nothing we can do but run.

Is there an experience you can share of a time when being a good watchman saved you and yours?

Mosiah 19: Covenants and promises are necessary for peace

Mosiah 19 is the chapter where all heck breaks loose on King Noah and his people. There is contention among the Nephites, Gideon tries to kill King Noah, the Lamanites invade, the Nephites run away, the women and children are left behind with whatever men will not leave, King Noah is killed by his own followers, the Lamanites are persuaded not to kill the Nephites, and the Nephites are put under Lamanite tribute.

I noticed that while the previous chapter (Mosiah 18) contains the covenants made with the Lord, in Mosiah 19, all those who didn’t come into a covenant with the Lord and who didn’t escape with Alma find themselves having to make all kinds of oaths to try to get peace back. There are four oaths in Mosiah 19, and some of them aren’t very good:

1. Gideon swears in his wrath that he will slay King Noah (v4) (He breaks this oath.)
2. The people who run off with King Noah and leave their families behind swear in their hearts that they will return to their families and seek revenge if they find them dead (v19). (They keep the first part, and happily are not required to keep the second part, since they find their families alive.)
3. The Lamanites, having subjected the Nephites, make an oath to not kill them (v25). (They keep this oath until provoked by Nephite kidnapping of Lamanite women.)
4. The Nephites, having been subjected, make an oath to pay tribute of half their possessions and to deliver King Noah over to the Lamanites (v26). (They keep the tribute part, but are unable to keep the second part, King Noah having already been executed.)

I suppose there might be a lesson here that entering into a covenant with God does the job of a whole mass of other promises. Without a covenant with God, people will still find themselves needing the stability of the expectations and duties that are brought by covenants, and they will need to make promises anyway. In this case, those promises weren’t very pleasant and some of them were just plain wrong-headed.

I think a covenant with God to serve Him is infinitely to be preferred.

Unexplained discord in Mosiah 19 and thoughts about threats

Mosiah 19 is about King Noah and his people and how all the consequences of the people’s wickedness begin to accumulate. There are some interesting events in this chapter that I have always wondered about.

If you remember, just before this chapter, King Noah’s armies return from trying to find and destroy Alma and his company. Then comes a host of unexplained events:

1. The forces of the king were small, having been reduced. (v2) Reduced by what? Downsized? Or had some of the soldiers been converted and left with Alma? If they knew they had to go destroy Alma and company, they would certainly have warned them and left with them before being summoned to do the dirty deed.
2. There began to be a division among the remained of the people (v2) with threatenings (v3) and great contention, and even a vendetta (by Gideon, v4). Why? We are given no explanation for any of it!
3. Right when Gideon is about to kill King Noah, the Lamanite armies invade (v6). What were the Lamanites so bothered by that they sent their armies for? (You may be asking me, “Do the Lamanites ever really need a reason to come and invade?” Well, yes they do. They’ve been beaten several times by these Nephites, so it has to be a sufficiently good reason that they are willing to risk being beaten again. Plus, Lamanites armies always seem to be driven by greed or grievance.)
4. When the Lamanites finally have compassion on the Nephites, along with the tribute of half Nephite goods (which satisfies any greed motive), they set as a condition of peace that King Noah be delivered into the hands of the Lamanites (v15). Why? What did King Noah do to them? Their request is the equivalent of requesting extradition of a criminal (which indicates a grievance motive).
   

The only thing that I can think of as a cause for all of this was that King Noah’s army must have been much more brutal in its search for Alma and company than stated in the account or ever thought of before. With a mission to destroy and a king-encouraged thirst for blood, they must have roughed up the friends, associates, and neighbors of the missing people. They must have done some nasty interrogations. They must have destroyed property, not just of the missing people, but of those who they might have suspected of helping them. Also, if King Noah thought Alma was conspiring against him, he might have suspected Alma fraternized with and conspired with the Lamanites. If so, maybe the Nephite army went to nearby Lamanite locales and roughed up some innocent Lamanites there and took spoil to try to discourage uprising from that direction.

When people feel like they aren’t safe from their own army, they get REALLY angry at the person sending the army out. (This would account for the Nephite threats against King Noah.) And when Lamanites living peacefully nearby feel like the nearby Nephite army isn’t going to let them alone, the only thing they feel is going to put a stop to it will be sending their own army in to destroy that Nephite army. And it follows that when they were charmed (by fair Nephite daughters) out of their intention to destroy the whole people, they would decide they could be happy with just killing the guy who called out the Nephite army—the king. Dispose of the king and the Nephite army would then be commanded by someone much better, right? That would make sense to them.

So it comes down to this: by sending out his army to destroy Alma and the people of the Lord, King Noah paved the way for his own destruction. Actually, we could go further back and say that the beginning of the end for him was executing Abinadi for “reviling” against him. If King Noah considered Abinadi a threat, then anyone who was on Abinadi’s side would be a threat, and then anyone that would meet together with someone who was on Abinadi’s side would be a threat. (We can see how King Noah lost the ability to discern what was really threatening and what was harmless.) It almost seems like growing paranoia. Then imagine his fear when confronted with Gideon, sword in hand…. And then seeing the army of the Lamanites invading. Threats coming from all directions. And then having his people turn on him when they were running away from the Lamanites. He never saw any of that coming because he was so fixated on Alma.

It must have become obvious to the Nephites through all this that King Noah was no longer fit to be king. Kings are supposed to protect their people from threats to the society, and he was seeing threats where they didn’t exist. If the army had harassed the Lamanites, and if the Nephites knew about that, it would be a further irritant, since it would seem like King Noah was purposely trying to pick fights with the Lamanites.

This is a lot of speculation of course, but it fits the facts. It adds a cautionary lesson too, showing us that if we choose to see calls to repentance as threats, we will become unable to tell the difference between real threats and things that are harmless. It will lead to overreactions that raise REAL dangers and we won’t be able to deal with any of it.

I suppose that this principle has a positive flip side to it too—if you are not threatened by calls to repentance, you will be able to handle the real dangers. We see an example of that in 3 Nephi 3 in which the chief judge Laconeus caused the Nephites (who were wicked at the time) to cry to the Lord for strength against the coming invasion of Gadianton robbers. He promised them that if they didn’t repent, they wouldn’t be delivered, and they believed him. They repented, they prepared, and they were able to stand against the huge threat that faced them.

We live in a world today that has some mixed up ideas of what constitutes a threat and what doesn’t. Calls to repentance are considered threatening. Having someone share the gospel or the commandments of God is threatening. But in reality, the real threat is sin and disobedience to the commandments of God. Let’s be a little better at defending ourselves against the real threats, remembering that Christ came to deliver us from them.

How a culture of exploitation acts when threatened

We have a prime example of how an exploitation culture acts when threatened as King Noah’s people are invaded by the Lamanites.

9 And the king commanded the people that they should flee before the Lamanites, and he himself did go before them, and they did flee into the wilderness, with their women and their children.
10 And it came to pass that the Lamanites did pursue them, and did overtake them, and began to slay them.
11 Now it came to pass that the king commanded them that all the men should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites.
12 Now there were many that would not leave them, but had rather stay and perish with them. And the rest left their wives and their children and fled.
13 And it came to pass that those who tarried with their wives and their children caused that their fair daughters should stand forth and plead with the Lamanites that they would not slay them.
14 And it came to pass that the Lamanites had compassion on them, for they were charmed with the beauty of their women. (Mosiah 19:11-14)

The worst offenders (the king and wicked priests) jettison the weakest who are dependent on them as soon as it becomes apparent that the weak are getting in the way of survival. When the exploited become a burden, they are left behind.

Others stay with their families, but they still try to exploit their daughters’ sex appeal to negotiate for survival. It doesn’t occur to these men to protect and defend their wives and children.

As a society, they only begin to achieve redemption from this terrible state by a sacrifice equal and opposite to their previous sin. This sacrifice occurs as they prevent the starvation of the widows and fatherless by giving food to them. It is debatable how much good it does their hearts to be commanded to do this by King Limhi instead of doing it of their own impetus, but it is a great improvement from the outright predation and selfishness of King Noah’s regime.

Sincere self-sacrifice ends exploitation.

Focus on family leads to the overthrow of King Noah

The Lamanites attack the Nephites in the land of Nephi and King Noah causes all his people to flee. When the Lamanites catch them and begin to slay them, King Noah tells all the men to leave their wives and children behind. Here we begin to see how King Noah starts to lose followers. Some recognize right off that there is wickedness in just leaving their families to save themselves and they stay behind, even while they believe they will die with their families.

But others continue to listen to King Noah and the wicked priests and follow them away from their families. But then something begins to happen in their hearts. Part of it is in the text and part of it isn’t, but the part that is there helps us realize everything that happened.

Now they had sworn in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi, and if their wives and their children were slain, and also those that had tarried with them, that they would seek revenge, and also perish with them. (Mosiah 19:19)

Because these people made an oath in their hearts to return to their families, they must have realized soon after they had left their families that what they had done was wrong. After all that King Noah had done during his reign (and his wicked priests) to legitimize evil and whoredoms, the light of Christ was still in them and when they left their families in danger, immediately afterward they began to realize that was wrong to do. And that led to a desire to change and do it right. This led them to the point that they actually made an oath to return to their families.

No doubt they told the king what they had sworn to do. And King Noah, unfettered by any consideration for the legitimate claims that his family could have on him, was opposed to this. He was more worried about his own preservation. Because King Noah opposed their return to their families, it became immediately evident that King Noah was wicked. He was openly standing in the way of them keeping the oath they had sworn. So King Noah had to be removed.

It is interesting that changing their priorities with an oath to focus on family suddenly made it so obvious to the people that King Noah was wicked. Just think how the whole reign of King Noah could have been avoided if they had done such a thing at the beginning of his reign instead of at the end.

I think this lesson is relevant for us today. Anything that stands in the way of us keeping our covenants needs to be removed from our lives. Anything that becomes an obstacle and stands in the way of us doing our duty to our families needs to be removed from our lives.

In which I notice the dangers of Zeniff's over-zealousness and how different it is from actual zeal

21 And ye all are witnesses this day, that Zeniff, who was made king over this people, he being over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers, therefore being deceived by the cunning and craftiness of king Laman, who having entered into a treaty with king Zeniff, and having yielded up into his hands the possessions of a part of the land, or even the city of Lehi-Nephi, and the city of Shilom; and the land round about—
22 And all this he did, for the sole purpose of bringing this people into subjection or into bondage. And behold, we at this time do pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites, to the amount of one half of…all we have or possess…or our lives. (Mosiah 7:21-22)

Here King Limhi describes the process by which the Nephites in the land of Nephi got into their predicament of bondage and it is illustrative of the problem of over-zealousness. Taken simply, overzealousness, leads to being deceived by cunning craftiness, which leads to eventual subjection, which leads to bondage.

I think it is interesting too that he also describes another process to bondage, that of iniquity. (It is King Noah’s story in particular.)

25 For if this people had not fallen into transgression the Lord would not have suffered that this great evil should come upon them. But behold, they would not hearken unto his words; but there arose contentions among them, even so much that they did shed blood among themselves.
26 And a prophet of the Lord have they slain; yea, a chosen man of God, who told them of their wickedness and abominations, and prophesied of many things which are to come, yea, even the coming of Christ….
28 And now, because he said this, they did put him to death; and many more things did they do which brought down the wrath of God upon them. Therefore, who wondereth that they are in bondage, and that they are smitten with sore afflictions? (Mosiah 7:25-26, 28)

Transgression leads to contention, which leads to violence. The Lord sends prophets to cry repentance, and if the people reject the message, they kill the prophets. Having killed the prophets, nothing stands in the way of greater evil, which eventually angers outside powers, who attack and prevail because the people have lost their moral backbone.

Over-zealousness on one side leads to bondage, and iniquity on the other side leads to bondage. Thus we see that the way truly is straight and narrow between them.

This lead me to this question: what is the difference between zeal and over-zealousness? (Feel free to chime in on this matter in the comments.) I checked the Topical Guide on ‘over-zealous’ and there wasn’t anything, so I looked up ‘zeal.’ From those scriptures listed it seems that zeal is manifested through righteous initiative and being anxiously engaged in a good cause and cheerfully doing all things that lie in our power. So maybe one part of over-zealousness is being reactive and not doing everything we can.

Over-zealousness is, of course, manifested in the Book of Mormon by Zeniff who is so over-eager to possess the land of his fathers that he ignores the dangers associated with living near the Lamanites and at the beginning he glosses over their desires to enslave and leach off of the Nephites. (Of course, later in his reign, he is much more realistic about it and even laments “we have suffered these many years in the land.” (Mosiah 10:18)) In my own life, over-zealousness has been manifest every time I act with impatience thinking that one dramatic and ‘heroic’ act will change things. It happens when I am so over-concerned with bringing an end about that I become less scrupulous about the means I employ to achieve it. I have seen how over-zealousness makes me vulnerable to deception.

As I considered this line of thought, I began to realize something I had never thought of before--that over-zealousness is really an insidious form of laziness. I know that sounds kind of contrary, but hear me out. As I said before, when I think one dramatic act will change things, it is usually because down at bottom I am impatient (and I have neglected to do the small diligent acts that would make the large heroic act unnecessary). Like when I suddenly feel fat and go out and run instead of diligently doing a little jogging every day. Like when I send a huge 10-page essay on doctrine to the inactive lady I visit teach instead of sending her a little something maybe every week. Like when I go for two months (and more!) without cleaning the bathroom and then do a marathon cleaning session. Further, I have learned through sad experience that in my church activity, my dramatic acts of over-zealousness easily become improper and self-vaunting or worse.

As I realized this, I started to read again through Zeniff’s story in Mosiah 9 and Mosiah 10 looking specifically to see if I could detect indications of over-zealousness leading to laziness.

There were some very subtle things that I noticed in his wording, which I hadn’t noticed before and probably wouldn’t have noticed unless I had been looking specifically for it. He starts out well in the land of Nephi saying, “we began to build buildings, and to repair the walls of the city” (Mosiah 9:8) and “we began to till the ground” (Mosiah 9:9). Note the use of “we” there. He’s involved in the day-to-day work. This is good, but it doesn't seem to last.

A little later we see an incident when his people working out in the fields are attacked by the Lamanites and “they fled, all that were not overtaken, even into the city of Nephi, and did call upon me for protection.” (Mosiah 9:15) It seems that Zeniff is no longer out in the fields working. He is in the city. What was he doing there? We have no idea. I begin to wonder if he had decided that manual labor was beneath him by this time.

Well, he’s roused to heroic efforts to arm his people and of course everyone is aflame with over-zealousness, so he says “I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers.” (Mosiah 9:17) This faith is reactive to their circumstances and even though he and his people were living so close to the Lamanites, he hadn't done everything to prepare them for battle until the Lamanites were actually breathing down their necks.

But Heavenly Father is merciful. So they slay the Lamanites and then we read this: “And I, myself, with mine own hands, did help to bury their dead” (Mosiah 9:19). He makes such a big deal about how he works with them doing this dirty job that it suggests that it is something now very unusual for him to help. Something else I noticed was that as they go back to peacetime, Zeniff says “I caused that there should be weapons of war made of every kind” (Mosiah 10:1) and “I did cause that the men should till the ground” (Mosiah 10:4) and “I did cause that the women should spin, and toil, and work” (Mosiah 10:5). He causes them. This makes me think that he’s not involved in it himself and it also makes me think that their motivation to work diligently is starting to flag too.

Finally, I noticed that Zeniff seems to only mention the Lord in times of extremity. He points out at the beginning that the Lord smote his people with famine and afflictions because they were slow to remember the Lord. (Mosiah 9:3) The next time he mentions the Lord is when they are getting ready to fight their first big battle (see Mosiah 9:17-18). The next time he mentions the Lord is in a big pep talk he gives to his people in preparation for their second big battle twenty-two years later (see Mosiah 10:11-19). The final time he mentions the Lord is just as he ends his account: “And may the Lord bless my people” (Mosiah 10:22).

After studying the story of Zeniff and the beginnings of King Noah, I begin to see how it was that King Noah’s wickedness arose out of Zeniff’s over-zealous ways. If Zeniff parented like he did other things, there is no doubt that Zeniff’s children missed out on the foundational gospel teachings that come from consistent discussion. Even if Zeniff had a strong gospel foundation to return to when things got tough, his son Noah didn’t get acquire it because it appeared so rarely. And suddenly we can see why Noah, upon assuming the throne, would get rid of the priests and put new ones in their place. (He probably thought the new ones were more ‘hip’ and the old ones too restrictive.) We can see why Noah thought he had license to do whatever he wanted. We can see why Noah would have felt no problem with taxing his people to support himself and his priests. We can see how the people became idolatrous and deceived by flattering words.

If Zeniff is an example of over-zealousness, the Anti-Nephi-Lehis are examples of genuine zeal.

And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end. (Alma 27:27)

I suppose their days would be very recognizable to us. We would see them having daily prayer apart and as families. We would see them reading and studying sacred records and discussing them. We would find them teaching and encouraging each other. We would find them working hard and doing their best. We would notice them being very watchful to make sure that neither they nor their children fell into transgression. We would notice them teaching and loving and sometimes warning their children.

Because their zeal was consistent in even the smallest day-to-day things, their children, among whom were the stripling warriors, grew up strong in the faith and were strict to keep the commandments. We get a small sample of it in this verse:

But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come. (Alma 58:40)

Even when they were wounded, they were strict to remember their duty to God every day.

That’s the zeal we want to have--consistently remembering the Lord every day and consistently keeping the commandments every day.

What is your earliest memory of your parents teaching you to be consistently faithful?

King Noah’s priorities

Recently when I was reading through the story of King Noah and what he did, something jumped out at me that I had never noticed before about his choices of building materials and where he put them.

8 And it came to pass that king Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings; and he ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper;
9 And he also built him a spacious palace, and a throne in the midst thereof, all of which was of fine wood and was ornamented with gold and silver and with precious things.
10 And he also caused that his workmen should work all manner of fine work within the walls of the temple, of fine wood, and of copper, and of brass.
(Mosiah 11:8-10)

King Noah used gold and silver on his own throne, but used wood, brass, and copper on the temple. Those choices scream loudly that his priorities were massively out of line. God was much further down on his priority list and the fact that he used the finest materials on his own stuff, meant he thought of himself first. It could also have been indicative of his ideas about his own power versus the power of God.