[This is Not a Blessed Land Unconditionally]
[Possessors of This Land Must Serve God]
[No Military Solution]
[The Gift of Wine Permits Escape]
[Alma Refused to be King]
137 Mosiah 20:6 We are on chapters 20 and 21 of Mosiah, on the important subject of how to deal with an enemy in just about every situation that comes up. It’s marvelous how these things are analyzed here. You get the impression that it really was carefully edited. You notice in Mosiah 20:6 that the Lamanites were literally up in arms when the girls had been missing and failed to show up. Limhi saw their preparations from the tower; we saw how a little glitter was enough to give it all away. Their dealing with the enemy was a general ambush. They were greatly outnumbered, etc.
137 They [Limhi’s people] fought like dragons. Then the Lamanite king was wounded and brought in. They immediately wanted to put him to death because of what he had caused them. Limhi said, nothing doing; let’s find out what’s going on first. He asked reasonable questions; there was no threatening or bullying or righteous indignation here. Then King Laman explained why: We didn’t break our oath, but you did. You stole those girls. Limhi’s reaction was not “boys will be boys” at all. He said, well, let’s find out who did it and they will be severely punished. He immediately launched a full scale investigation to find out who to punish, but old Gideon was at hand. He was the one who had kept check on Noah’s crowd, as you know. Although he wasn’t there, the men of Gideon had made contact and reported to him about these hiding priests out there in the “sticks.” So Gideon said, don’t blame your own people until you have checked on your father’s immoral priests loose in the jungle. We’d better explain them to the Lamanites in a hurry. Then we get this urgent speech, where he goes “Behold, behold, or HINNEH.
137,138 Mosiah 20:19-22 “And now, behold, and tell the king of these things, that he may tell his people that they may be pacified towards us; for behold they are already preparing to come against us; and behold also there are but few of us [we are in a bad fix]. And behold, they come with their numerous hosts; and except the king doth pacify them towards us we must perish. For are not the words of Abinadi fulfilled, which he prophesied against us [now this is the old fire-eater Gideon speaking; he’s a great patriot, but he says, it’s our blame— we are responsible. ‘We are their author and original,’ as Titania says]—and all this because we would not hearken unto the words of the Lord, and turn from our iniquities? And now let us pacify the king, and we fulfil the oath which we have made unto him.” Notice that he is being very realistic; these are the steps by which the problem is solved here. It’s a very touchy thing, but they solve the problem very sensibly on both sides—a thing people rarely do. He’s being a realist, of all people. Where’s your Patrick Henry? He says, “For it is better that we should be in bondage than that we should lose our lives [well, that’s a terrible thing to say; we have ‘sooner dead than red’ and all that sort of thing, our slogans that never get any farther than slogans]; therefore, let us put a stop to the shedding of so much blood.”
138 Mosiah 20:22 Gideon is the last man you would expect to do this. But he had the experience of these things, and he knew. It’s the old commander that knows. The most passionate talks I’ve ever heard against war in the Army have been by generals, without any exception. They know what it is, and boy do they light in! There were some wonderful ones by Omar Bradley, Max Taylor, and others. Eisenhower said some pretty strong things, too. “Therefore, let us put a stop to the shedding of so much blood,” Gideon said, with his rush of excitement. This is the Gideon who chased the king up the tower with a sword, and all that sort of thing. He is the one who is making a plea to put an end to all this bloodshed, whatever they do.
138 Mosiah 20: 22-25 Limhi explained that the priests in the wilderness were the most likely kidnappers. Notice that Limhi took the blame for his father’s behavior, and the king was pacified. Everybody did the sensible thing, and Limhi was a realist. Verse 22: “For it is better that we should be in bondage than that we should lose our lives; therefore, let us put a stop to the shedding of so much blood.” Then Limhi had the courtesy to explain everything to the Lamanite king. Then instead of standing tall the king humiliated himself. The Lamanite king humiliated himself before his own people to plead for the enemy. Can we imagine doing such a thing today as that? Both sides were being very reasonable, and they solved their problem that way. Verse 24: “The king was pacified toward his people; and he said unto them: Let us go forth to meet my people, without arms; and I swear unto you with an oath that my people shall not slay thy people. And it came to pass that they followed the king, and went forth without arms to meet the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they did meet the Lamanites; and the king of the Lamanites did bow himself down before them, and did plead in behalf of the people of Limhi.”
139 Mosiah 20:26 There’s none of your standing tall here and refusing to make concessions. Then there is the most important element of all—the humanity of it. “And when the Lamanites saw the people of Limhi, that they were without arms, they had compassion on them and were pacified towards them.” You have to have the humanity, too, and that solves it. It’s going to appear a number of times here that the Lamanites were always more merciful than the Nephites when they had the upper hand; it’s a very interesting thing. The Indians will still spare the whites, and not the other way around. I have some wonderful things on that. The Lamanites “returned with their king in peace to their own land.” Now that’s a happy solution to what could have been a long and nasty war, but they were pretty fed up on that by now. Then things were back to normal, but there was still human nature. It only lasted for two years, and the people got restless again. It was an unstable situation. The Lamanites resented the prosperous, defeated Nephites again. The Lamanites had always been nervous about these industrious Nephites. They brought the Nephites there in the first place so they would cultivate the land. The country was run down in that particular area, so they let them come in. It was a trick the king played. This man’s father played this trick on them to get them to settle there. Then they really began to prosper, and it made the Lamanites worried. So that began to happen again.
139 Mosiah 21:2-4 “After many days the Lamanites began again to be stirred up in anger against the Nephites, and they began to come into the borders of the land round about” (Mosiah 21:2). They started harassing; that’s the way it starts. They couldn’t kill them because they had made an oath to King Limhi. (Isn’t that nice they observed their oaths? We observe oaths, too, as long as it is convenient. Our treaties with the Indians, for example; there are some “beauties.”) But they did bother them and do what Indians would do. They were brutal. They would hit them in the face, boss them around, and then “put heavy burdens upon their backs, and drive them as they would a dumb ass.” That was the prophecy—they started bullying them. “Yea, all this was done that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled.” They had brought it on themselves.
139,140 Ether 2:8,9 This should cause us concern here. This is not a blessed land unconditionally. The promise is the same for every people that shall inhabit the promised land. I’m going to read chapter 2 of Ether on that, which is very good. That’s getting slightly ahead of the game, as you’ll see. But this is what the promise is. Notice that these people have been good for a long time. They’ve been valiant and saved themselves, but the time isn’t up. They still have to pay a price here. So we have this situation. “And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them” (Ether 2:8). Until then everything is [apparently] fine; it’s business as usual, as it was in the days of Noah. They bought and sold, gave in marriage, ate and drank. They did all the normal things, and then suddenly it hit them. That’s what the Lord says it’s going to be like. “And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity” (Ether 2:9). Notice fulness and ripened. When the cup is full, you can’t add anything else. You can’t dilute it or do anything about it. And when the fruit is ripe, if you let it go on ripening, it will just get rotten. So when the fruit is ripe, it is plucked. But he waits until it is ripe, and he waits until the cup is full. How soon is it going to be full now? You see things going on.
140 Ether 2:10,11 Again he repeats it the third time in verse 10: “For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands [true]; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off [so he’s going to let them go all the way; this is a very interesting pattern]. And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent and not continue in your iniquities [the assumption here is that they are wicked] until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done. Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.”
140,141 That’s the condition, and it’s a very close thing in that case. You have to do more than we are doing if you are going to serve the God of this land. It’s very clearly stated there the way it happens, and it happens all of a sudden. Notice that this is unique. They are still writing all sorts of studies about the disappearance of the Toltecs, the Mayans, the Aztecs, etc. There are some theories, but nobody has the vaguest idea why they disappeared. The point is that we have ruins and we have remnants of people, some Aztecs and especially Mayans. Everywhere we have the scattered remnants of these [civilizations] after they have broken up, but the civilizations have gone completely. But in the Old World it doesn’t happen that way at all. The people sin and go on sinning. They suffer and pay for it, but it’s a going concern. They pay as they go. The Greeks, the Arabs, the Chinese, the Hindus, the Egyptians were ancient civilizations when Lehi left Jerusalem, and they are still there. Their languages, customs, and everything are still there; they were not swept off. But what they suffer and go through! The Russians, for example—suffer, suffer, suffer— like the Moscow Art Theatre. They have to go through that, but we don’t. It’s different here—we prosper. We are powerful, free, and everything else. Then we take advantage of that and start misbehaving. It’s a hard test. Who can stand prosperity? Nobody has stood it yet, as we see in the Book of Mormon. Why does this [the Book of Mormon] come to us? All the others have fouled up, but we never shall! In that case, why have such pains been taken to give us the warning? Not that we will be saved, but, as the Lord says, “that they may be left without excuse” when they get hit. We can’t complain that we didn’t hear it.
141 Mosiah 21:5-9 Now here, for example, with their advantage and after fighting like dragons, they are going to do the thing again. But they don’t pull it off at all. “And now the afflictions of the Nephites were great [they couldn’t stand it very much longer], and there was no way that they could deliver themselves out of their hands, for the Lamanites had surrounded them on every side [as I said, they were in a trap, an enclave].... The people began to murmur with the king because of their afflictions; and they began to be desirous to go against them to battle” (Mosiah 21:5-6). They said, we’re not going to stand this anymore. They kept pestering the king until he couldn’t take it anymore. Notice verse 6: “And they did afflict the king sorely with their complaints; therefore he granted unto them that they should do according to their desires.” All right go against them; fight like dragons and see what happens this time. “And they gathered themselves together again, and put on their armor, and went forth against the Lamanites to drive them out of their land [it didn’t happen at all].. . . The Lamanites did beat them, and drove them back, and slew many of them. And now there was a great mourning and lamentation among the people of Limhi.... Now there were a great many widows in the land [the widows started raising a rumpus and stirring up patriotic fervor], and they did cry mightily from day to day, for a great fear of the Lamanites had come upon them [we’ve got to do something about it] ... their continual cries did stir up the remainder of the people of Limhi [and himself] to anger against the Lamanites [they said, all right we’ll go out and do it this time]; and they went again to battle, but they were driven back again, suffering much loss.”
141,142 Mosiah 21:13 They were beaten again. Well, how long can this go on? Verse 12: “Yea, they went again even the third time, and suffered in the like manner.” So the Lord said, have you learned your lesson? You’re not going to take it by force. It’s not going to be done that way [paraphrased]. So three vain attempts to free themselves by war were not the answer. God is in charge of these things. So what happened? They did the very opposite of marching forth in their might. “And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage [not just to the Lord, but to the Lamanites, their enemies], submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies.” You can’t go lower than that. But the point here is this: Was their spirit completely broken? No, God doesn’t break anyone’s spirit. To be humble before him is only to be honest. Everyone must be humble before something.
142,143 The Book of Mormon tells us in Ether, the brother of Jared said, God talked to me in all humility, as one man to another. To be humble is not to bow down to somebody who is above you, not to lick the boss’s boots, not to be subservient to higher rank, but to be equal with all. That’s to be humble. Our thing is usually to be arrogant to those below you and subservient to those above you. That’s the way you get success in this world, but that’s not to be humble at all. Remember, the Lord himself is humble, as the brother of Jared said. The Lord said he was meek and humble. Everybody has to humble themselves to something; the idea is, what are you going to humble yourself to? Before God it is easy. That’s no test at all. If someone has overpowering might and glory and all the splendor of a Spielberg production, or Paul Lucas and the glories of space, you can be humble with that sort of thing. But that isn’t to be humble at all. If somebody knocks you down, you can be humble. No, to be humble is to speak to one as you would to another. The person who was really that way was President George Albert Smith. There was a man who was really humble. Never subservient or looking down on anyone, but he would get up at 3:00 o’clock in the morning and go down to the lower part of town. (My mother knew him very well.) If some poor old bum had been picked up at the police station, he would come down and try to help him out, bail him out, etc. He put himself out all the time, and nobody knew about it. I know some stories like that. As President of the Church, he was on a big business trip in Portland. Brother Westergard was a Dane and a poor carpenter in our ward, with a lot of girls. His little girl was sick, and the President sat up with him and his little girl all night. He let the business go and everything else. That little sick child and sitting with Brother Westergard were more important to him. The President stayed with my grandfather who founded the Oregon Lumber, Western Pacific, and all that stuff. But all business had to wait so that he [President Smith] could sit with a sick child. And, of course, he never told anybody about a thing like that. It was Brother Westergard who told me about that years later. He said, “He stayed up with me all night when my little daughter was so sick.”
143 Mosiah 4:11; Helaman 12:7, Mosiah 21:13, Mormon 4:5 You have to humble yourself to somebody, and who is it to be? Remember Mosiah 4:11: “And always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility.” And Helaman said, “How great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, they are even less than the dust.” Here it says, “And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves ... to the desires of their enemies.” Now that is humility, but is it abject humility? No, it was their own sins that lay heavily on them. The Lamanites were merely an instrument; they knew that. They had beaten the Lamanites badly on other occasions when they were greatly outnumbered by them. Pray that one may never become such an instrument because, after all, to be an oppressor is far worse than to be oppressed, as we learn later on in Mormon 4:5 where he says, “But, behold, the judgments of God will overtake the wicked; and it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished.” Your business isn’t to dominate or punish anyone; it’s the wicked that do the punishing, as well as the wicked who are punished. The Lord sees to that.
143 Mosiah 21:15 Then there was no military solution. Verse 15: “And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities [which had been building up for a long time. There is no military solution but this]; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens.” There must be a softening and a yielding on both sides. This is sort of an anti-climax. You might say, “Where are the heroics?” The Lamanites themselves began to yield now under those circumstances.
143,144 Mosiah 21:17-20 Now notice what Limhi does in verse 17. His people were living under oppression, but they are now forced to live the Law of Consecration. That’s the only way we’ll ever live it, if we’re forced to live it. “Now there was a great number of women, more than there was of men; therefore king Limhi commanded that every man should impart to the support of the widows and their children, that they might not perish with hunger; and this they did because of the greatness of their number that had been slain [slain in vain]. Now the people of Limhi kept together in a body as much as it was possible [that was the strategy], and secured their grain and their flocks; And the king himself did not trust his person without the walls of the city.” This is going to finish up the story and take us back to Ammon, where he meets the king outside the gates. The king was out there with a patrol at night; nobody trusted anybody else. The Lamanite king kept constant watch over them, and they were paying for the watch with the grain he took from them. And they kept watch over the Lamanites because they were constantly patrolling the borders there. “And the king himself did not trust his person without the walls of the city, unless he took his guards with him, fearing that he might by some means fall into the hands of the Lamanites. And he caused that his people should watch the land round about.”
144 Mosiah 21:21 They were keeping a check on everything here, and always on the defensive. It was a very tense situation there; you can see that. They were going to watch the land round about and keep an eye open and do some scouting and patrolling, I suppose, to see if they could catch those priests because there would be the solution. They were the troublemakers who had stolen the daughters. The priests had been robbing and plundering. Verse 21: “For they had come into the land of Nephi by night, and carried off their grain and many of their precious things.” For their supplies, they were stealing horses, etc. First Nephi lists the four things, and 2 Nephi lists the same four. People are after power, gain, popularity, and the lusts of the flesh.
144 Mosiah 21:22 “And it came to pass that there was no more disturbance between the Lamanites and the people of Limhi, even until the time that Ammon and his brethren came into the land.” Things were quiet for the time being. The fire-eating Gideon had urged peace through concessions. Then Ammon comes in, and that takes us up to where we were before; the story resumes at this point.
144 Mosiah 21:23,24 Here was the king outside the gates with his patrol, and he discovered Ammon. He supposed them to be the priests of Noah; they had been keeping an eye out for them all along. What would be more natural? So that’s why he hauled him away and brought him into court to see who he was. When he found out who he really was, that he actually came from Zarahemla, “he was filled with exceedingly great joy. Now king Limhi had sent, previous to the coming of Ammon, a small number of men to search for the land of Zarahemla.”
145 Mosiah 21:25-27 Anyway, just before the arrival of Ammon the search party returned. They had missed Zarahemla, but they had found a land of dry bones. When Ammon and his party came in, he [the king] said, strange that you should mention it; we just had another party come in, too, a party we sent out to look for Zarahemla. They didn’t find anything but a lot of dry bones and a record [paraphrased].
145,146 Mosiah 21:31 So they did find these dry bones, an impressive thing. Ammon’s people mourned for Abinadi who had been put to death and for the departed Alma, who left King Noah’s people. This isn’t Zarahemla; these are the Nephite people who were in bondage to the Lamanites. They were found by Ammon who did come from Zarahemla. They come together now. It says that they mourned for both of them. Verse 31: “Yea, they did mourn for their departure, for they knew not whither they had fled. Now they would have gladly joined with them, for they themselves had entered into a covenant with God to serve him and keep his commandments. And now since the coming of Ammon, King Limhi had also entered into a covenant with God, and also many of his people, to serve him and keep his commandments [remember, Ammon did not have the priesthood, as Alma did; a direct descendant of Zarahemla, he was a Mulekite, not a Nephite]. And it came to pass that king Limhi and many of his people were desirous to be baptized [but you notice that Ammon wouldn’t do it; he refused to do it because he didn’t have authority or wasn’t worthy] but there was none in the land that had authority from God. And Ammon declined doing this thing, considering himself an unworthy servant [we learn in Mosiah 7:3 that he was a Mulekite]. Therefore they did not at that time form themselves into a church, waiting upon the Spirit of the Lord [well, that’s what the people were doing at Qumran—waiting upon the Spirit of the Lord, but they did form a church]. Now they were desirous to become even as Alma and his brethren, who had fled into the wilderness. They were desirous to be baptized as a witness and a testimony that they were willing to serve God with all their hearts.”
148 Mosiah 22:1-9 Here these people had the Nephites under their thumbs. Then life got to be a bore; everything was going on the same as ever month after month. Guard troops have nothing to do but see that nothing happens. If nothing happens, they’ve fulfilled their duty. It gets very boring, and they welcome a little nip now and then. The wine was so welcome to them. They took it joyfully and passed out, and the people just went out. This sort of thing has happened again and again
149,150 Mosiah 22:10-15 To say that they [the Nephites] could have walked out on them in the middle of the night [is not farfetched]. It would have been the easiest thing in the world. For two years this had been going on, and the tension was built up now. They had the Nephites where they belonged; they were completely submissive now. If you were at a guard post, you wouldn’t be worried about them. [Someone would say], “Oh, forget it; get some sleep for heaven’s sake!” Before you know it, they are all gone. So they paid their last tribute of wine. Verse 10: “And king Limhi caused that his people should gather their flocks together; and he sent the tribute of wine to the Lamanites; and he also sent more wine, as a present unto them; and they did drink freely of the wine which king Limhi did send unto them.... And they went round about the land of Shilom in the wilderness, and bent their course towards the land of Zarahemla. . . . And after being many days in the wilderness they arrived in the land of Zarahemla, and joined Mosiah’s people, and became his subjects.” That was a short one; they finally got there. It was like the Exodus—they took all their gold and silver and everything else
150 Mosiah 22:16 What happened then? After two days the tracks gave out, and their enemies couldn’t chase them. They couldn’t be found. That makes us wonder what kind of terrain it was if the tracks gave out. Of course, through the woods everything would be broken and smashed as they went along. It’s obviously desert, and there could have been a strong wind. You can lose tracks very easily. How can you lose track of an army?
150 Mosiah 23:1 Anyway, they couldn’t follow their tracks. Now the story resumes, and we go back to Alma in chapter 23. “Now Alma, having been warned of the Lord that the armies of king Noah would come upon them . . .” Remember, this is his company that fled to the wilderness. They followed the Rechabite routine. They fled eight days. This is another repetition of the same motif. But this is the very nature of this civilization, this mobility, even though they were settled people. It’s like the Asiatic peoples and the Americans, especially on the America frontier. We’ve always been on the move.
151 Mosiah 23:3,4 “And they fled eight days’ journey into the wilderness. And they came to a land, yea, even a very beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water.” How could a land very beautiful and inviting like that have gone unsettled all that time?
151,152 Mosiah 23:5-7 There was this beautiful land that had not been settled before, so they [Alma’s people] went in and settled it. Verse 5: “And they pitched their tents, and began to till the ground, and began to build buildings [see, they started right in here]; yea, they were industrious, and did labor exceedingly And the people were desirous that Alma should be their king.” Now this little group wanted a king. The word is obviously chief throughout here. A king is a chief. A chief is on the same scale as the Anglo-Saxon kings were—the Edwards, the Eldreds, the Harolds, and all the rest of them. It was small stuff, but they were kings, and we’ll see that’s exactly the way it was. We are going to get that marvelous story now [about] Amulon and Alma. There is a real scenario there, and what a character study between these two men here. They want Alma to be their king, so he gave them a speech on being king. “Behold, it is not expedient that we should have a king; for thus saith the Lord: Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think himself above another [that is equality—he says there should be no racism and no elitism]; therefore I say unto you it is not expedient that ye should have a king. Nevertheless, if it were possible that ye could always have just men to be your kings [like Benjamin or Mosiah] it would be well for you to have a king.” That would be a dandy thing.
152 As a matter of fact, just as REX means king, as far as that goes, RECTE FACERE is judgment; the CYNUNG is “the one who knows.” According to Horace, “You will be king if you do what is right, but who doesn’t do right will never be a king.” REX means KING, and REX means RIGHT. With the same meaning, we have rule, regulation, right, and righteous. All those words go together. The REX is “the one who knows and understands.” That’s why in Zion we can accept an absolute monarchy because God is the king there. He doesn’t make the mistakes that men do. Anything else won’t do. We don’t have dominants and submissives here, or the usual achievers.
152 Mosiah 23:8-10 “Nevertheless, if it were possible that ye could always have just men to be your kings it would be well for you to have a king [that’s the only problem, of course; but here was a thing vivid in their memories]. But remember the iniquity of king Noah and his priests; and I myself was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord, which caused me sore repentance.” Because of his association with Noah, Alma himself did abominable things. He was one of the bad priests of Noah, so obviously he went along. That’s why he had Noah’s ear, and that’s why there was this understanding. When Alma defended Abinadi, Noah decided he would have to get rid of him. He knew too much. He [Alma] went along there, and he is ashamed of it now. “Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth.” His prayer shows what you should ask for when you pray. He said that his prayer had brought many to a knowledge of the truth. Darkness covers the earth. Why? Because people don’t ask for truth. Remember, the Lord commands us to ask for certain thing, and then we will receive them.
153 Mosiah 23:11,12 “Nevertheless, in this I do not glory, for I am unworthy to glory of myself. And now I say unto you, ye have been oppressed by king Noah [they remembered that], and have been in bondage to him and his priests, and have been brought into iniquity by them; therefore ye were bound with the bands of iniquity.” Now there is the great threat to freedom. You are bound in the bands of iniquity; it’s not somebody who is going to take over and put you in jail and things like that. That’s not it, of course. “And now as ye have been delivered by the power of God out of the