Mosiah 27:1-10
27:1 – This first verse here is an interesting way to open up and it concerns “the persecutions which were inflicted on the church by the unbelievers became so great that the church began to murmur, and complain to their leaders concerning the matter.” At first this made sense, people treat you bad, you speak up, sure that’s logical, but then I looked at the references for this verse and there is an October 1989 general conference talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell called “Murmur Not.” I assumed because Alma and Mosiah reacted to the complaints of the people by condemning the actions of those who were persecuting, that the complaints were valid and conformed to the proper protocol for expressing discontentment. But Elder Maxwell teaches “Murmuring seems to come so naturally to the natural man. It crosses the scriptural spectrum of recorded complaints. We need bread. We need water. The needed military reinforcements did not arrive. ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ‘Why did we ever leave Jerusalem?’ Some, perhaps understandably, murmured over persecution by unbelievers, and others even murmured over what the name of Christ’s church should be. Most ironically, the coming forth of more scripture from God was to cause murmuring… A basic cause of murmuring is that too many of us seem to expect that life will flow ever smoothly, featuring an unbroken chain of green lights with empty parking places just in front of our destinations! In His parable of the vineyard workers, Jesus noted of disciples how those who worked from the first hour, having ‘borne the burden and heat of the day,’ murmured because they received the same wages as those who worked only the last hour. We beggars are so concerned with our entitlements… This powerful verse in the Old Testament reminds us of what is really going on: ‘And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord the God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether though wouldest keep him commandments, or no.’… Those of deep faith do not murmur. They are generously disposed, and they are reluctant to murmur, even while in deep difficulties… Exemplary Job, who went through so very much, was openly anxious that he not charge God foolishly… Instead of murmuring, therefore, being of good cheer is what is needed, and being of good cheer is equally contagious. We have clear obligations to so strengthen each other by doing things ‘with cheerful hearts and countenances.” This is a very powerful talk that I just loved and thought that it spoke to me personally in so many ways. I used to be a very negative person, and sometimes I still can be, but I’ve been trying much harder to “be of good cheer,” to have a good attitude, and to not complain, but unfortunately I’ve been slipping a bit with that lately, and I feel like this is my call to get back on the positivity train. One of the phrases that really caught me was “those of deep faith do not murmur.” Down further in the talk Elder Maxwell says “nonmurmurs are permitted to see so much more,” with examples of ancient Israel being surrounded by enemy forces and Elisha “seeing” that there were more with Israel than against them. When I am focusing on not complaining, one of the things that I tell myself is that I don’t know the full picture, all I know is my own perspective, and I almost always end up feeling like an idiot after I do get more information, because of the way that I acted. A few days ago I had an incident at work where I ended up almost acting a fool with another girl who works in another department, and I was furious, like angrier than I’ve been in a while, but before we got into it, I thought very earnestly about “how would Jesus handle this?” And I really wanted to do the right thing, and I thought about the talk that I heard a long time ago that basically said “how the other person acts doesn’t affect your salvation, but how you speak to them does,” or something like that. So when the time came to have that conversation, instead of going into my tirade, I said “I requested for this patient to come in a gurney, why did he come in a wheelchair?” And then I got her side of the story and it turns out that she is having just as much trouble as I am getting this issue resolved, I ended up being able to see her side, and that really, we were both just trying to take care of patients in our own way. God is most merciful, so even though I still felt like an idiot for having a tantrum before she got here, I was able to see more clearly in the end the real situation. This is how it is with most murmuring, like those who murmured in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, they only saw that they had worked hard for their money, which was a very generous payment, and that others were seemingly given the same generous payment for “free,” what they didn’t see was that the contribution of the last minute workers were very valuable as well, they didn’t see how precious those last minute workers are to the householder, or how it felt to not be employed for the entire day, not to have a promise of money or food, to not know if they were going to be able to feed their families. There is suffering on the part of those who weren’t employed but that is not seen by those who murmured. Taking it back to those who were persecuted, looking at it from an eternal perspective, and knowing that wickedness never was happiness, those church members who murmured about being persecuted didn’t recognize the fact that deep down those who tormented them were spiritually losing out, and that they were suffering in their soul as well, even to a greater extent than themselves because the church members had the gospel and spiritual assurance, whereas those tormenters did not have that, they were subject to the devil and his destroying influence. I guess it’s hard to know exactly what they should have done in that situation, but we can look at Alma when he had his people in bondage in Helam, they endured cheerfully, God strengthened them and made their burdens light. It’s interesting to me that that wasn’t his approach this time because he had just come out of a similar situation, though surely the persecution wasn’t nearly as bad as the bondage imposed by Amulon. Maybe initially, Alma did try that, maybe he did try to encourage the people to use this time as an opportunity to grow closer to the Lord, and maybe they rejected that encouragement. The kind of success Alma had with his people in Helam only operates on a very high spiritual level, like Elder Maxwell said “deeply spiritual,” and that’s not an easy feat. Like Alma did in Helam and like Elder Maxwell counselled, maybe what the people should have done is endure cheerfully, turn to God and grow, and maybe likewise, that’s what I should do.
27:2-7 – Alma went to king Mosiah to come up with a solution for this problem and so Mosiah “sent a proclamation throughout the land round about that there should not any unbeliever persecute any of those who belonged to the church of God.” Ok there is a short and sweet message here for all those who don’t belong to the church to leave other people alone. But what comes next is the big surprise, where the nonbelievers got a sentence long chastising, the actual church members got 3 verses of “there should be no persecutions among them, that there should be an equality among all men… that every man should esteem his neighbor as himself, laboring with their own hands for their support. Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support.” So this I think feeds back into the whole “murmurs don’t see the whole picture,” like “they are persecuting you and that’s wrong, but you guys are having big problems too that need to be addressed.” In an April 1992 general conference address entitled “Nourish the Flock of Christ” Alexander B. Morrison teaches “one of the abiding tragedies of the Nephite society was its failure to maintain spiritual strength through constant spiritual nourishment. As strength waned, the effects of spiritual malnutrition were quick to be felt… The lesson is clear: is we do not constantly receive the spiritual nourishment needed daily, we will soon- as individuals and societies- be in dire straits, bereft of God’s protect, cut off from the healing influences of the Spirit. Just as one who is weakened by malnutrition soon may fall prey to infectious disease, so, too will we, if spiritually weakened, be ready prey for the adversary and his legions of dupes and devils.” Perhaps the reason that church members could so easily see the problems the actions of others caused them, but so oblivious to the problems they themselves were causing, is because they were spiritually malnourished, as Brother Morrison says. And maybe when we are splashed in the face with our own short comings then it is our opportunity to ask ourselves, in what ways are we spiritually malnourished? How can we ourselves feed more abundantly at the table the Savior has prepared for us? I’m not of the opinion that the Nephites or the Israelites were any more wicked as a people in general than we are today, I think that ultimately, we are all people with the same tendencies, and are wicked in the same amounts and usually in the same ways. So it’s a little bit arrogant of me to sit here and say “they were spiritually malnourished… unlike us.” But I do believe that this part of the story is a way for us to reflect on our own shortcomings and hopefully be able to see that if Alma in Helam and Job cannot murmur and actually thrive during persecutions and trials, then we can too.
27:8-10 – Here we are introduced to the sons of Mosiah and Alma, the son of the prophet Alma, whom I’m going to call AJ (Alma Jr. as my kids like to call him, I’m hope it’s not offensive to him.) And it makes it seem like AJ is the leader of the group because the way that Mormon describes him, it’s only in “he” indicating that he is the main player in the group. AJ is described as “a very wicked and an idolatrous man… did speak much flattery to the people. A great hinderment of the prosperity of the church of God; stealing away the hearts of the people; causing much dissension among the people… for he did go about secretly with the sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church, and to lead astray the people of the Lord.” We are going to talk tomorrow about what happens to AJ and the boys, but I feel like this is so tragic a part of the story, with all that their fathers had done to ensure righteousness. It just goes to show that there are no safety zones here in life, that Satan can reach the hearts of any who desire to do wickedly. To me, this is a very important lesson on the importance of being constantly vigilant, and protecting ourselves spiritually at all times. It shows me that the natural man and the spiritual man within us all is not guaranteed, that the one who will grow is the one that we feed.
27:2-7 – Alma went to king Mosiah to come up with a solution for this problem and so Mosiah “sent a proclamation throughout the land round about that there should not any unbeliever persecute any of those who belonged to the church of God.” Ok there is a short and sweet message here for all those who don’t belong to the church to leave other people alone. But what comes next is the big surprise, where the nonbelievers got a sentence long chastising, the actual church members got 3 verses of “there should be no persecutions among them, that there should be an equality among all men… that every man should esteem his neighbor as himself, laboring with their own hands for their support. Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support.” So this I think feeds back into the whole “murmurs don’t see the whole picture,” like “they are persecuting you and that’s wrong, but you guys are having big problems too that need to be addressed.” In an April 1992 general conference address entitled “Nourish the Flock of Christ” Alexander B. Morrison teaches “one of the abiding tragedies of the Nephite society was its failure to maintain spiritual strength through constant spiritual nourishment. As strength waned, the effects of spiritual malnutrition were quick to be felt… The lesson is clear: is we do not constantly receive the spiritual nourishment needed daily, we will soon- as individuals and societies- be in dire straits, bereft of God’s protect, cut off from the healing influences of the Spirit. Just as one who is weakened by malnutrition soon may fall prey to infectious disease, so, too will we, if spiritually weakened, be ready prey for the adversary and his legions of dupes and devils.” Perhaps the reason that church members could so easily see the problems the actions of others caused them, but so oblivious to the problems they themselves were causing, is because they were spiritually malnourished, as Brother Morrison says. And maybe when we are splashed in the face with our own short comings then it is our opportunity to ask ourselves, in what ways are we spiritually malnourished? How can we ourselves feed more abundantly at the table the Savior has prepared for us? I’m not of the opinion that the Nephites or the Israelites were any more wicked as a people in general than we are today, I think that ultimately, we are all people with the same tendencies, and are wicked in the same amounts and usually in the same ways. So it’s a little bit arrogant of me to sit here and say “they were spiritually malnourished… unlike us.” But I do believe that this part of the story is a way for us to reflect on our own shortcomings and hopefully be able to see that if Alma in Helam and Job cannot murmur and actually thrive during persecutions and trials, then we can too.
27:8-10 – Here we are introduced to the sons of Mosiah and Alma, the son of the prophet Alma, whom I’m going to call AJ (Alma Jr. as my kids like to call him, I’m hope it’s not offensive to him.) And it makes it seem like AJ is the leader of the group because the way that Mormon describes him, it’s only in “he” indicating that he is the main player in the group. AJ is described as “a very wicked and an idolatrous man… did speak much flattery to the people. A great hinderment of the prosperity of the church of God; stealing away the hearts of the people; causing much dissension among the people… for he did go about secretly with the sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church, and to lead astray the people of the Lord.” We are going to talk tomorrow about what happens to AJ and the boys, but I feel like this is so tragic a part of the story, with all that their fathers had done to ensure righteousness. It just goes to show that there are no safety zones here in life, that Satan can reach the hearts of any who desire to do wickedly. To me, this is a very important lesson on the importance of being constantly vigilant, and protecting ourselves spiritually at all times. It shows me that the natural man and the spiritual man within us all is not guaranteed, that the one who will grow is the one that we feed.
Comments
Post a Comment