If
there ever was a cautionary tale about how a bad example can lead a
once-righteous people astray, this is it. Mosiah 11 is one of the most tragic
chapters in the Book of Mormon.
The
first verse leads us to wonder what might have been. It tells us that Zeniff had
multiple sons, and chose to confer the kingdom upon his son Noah. We don’t get
more information about why Zeniff chose Noah and not one of the other sons, or
how he reached that decision. We also don’t get information about what kind of
young person Noah was. Is it possible he showed Zeniff the face of an upright
leader-in-training before revealing his true self as king?
In
any event, verse 1 suggests it doesn’t take long after Noah became king to
reveal his wickedness, as we learn that he “did not walk in the ways of his
father.” Very simply, his heart’s desires are contrary to God’s commandments.
This is the essence of pride, and Noah shows his pride through his lust for
women and his greed for worldly things. Much worse, however, than his own
sinfulness, is that he caused his people to “do that which was abominable in
the sight of the Lord” (verse 2).
In
addition to the bad influence Noah has upon his people, he also puts his
desires for comfort and
luxury well above his concern for them. He is the poster boy for carrying
selfishness to the extreme as a philosophy and culture. At the heart of this
evil is an abominable tax where Noah takes 20% of his people’s possessions to
support his outrageous lifestyle (verse 8). We witness how this quickly
overthrows the virtue it had taken a generation to implant under Zeniff, and we
mourn for Zeniff’s legacy. By glutting himself on the labors of others, Noah
ensures that self-reliance and industry among his people will erode and vanish.
To
sustain Noah in his wickedness, he chooses new priests who flatter him and
receive worldly comforts as their bribes for doing so (verses 5-7). It seems as
though he attempts to show his greatness by the superficial spectacle of
becoming a great builder of palaces, temples, towers, and other buildings
(verses 8-13). In many ways, Noah is like Herod the Great, the man whom the
Romans installed upon the throne of Judea just prior to the birth of Jesus, and
who built massive structures like the temple at Jerusalem, his own Herodium, and
the fortress of Masada. Both Noah and Herod are confused about what makes for a
beneficial legacy to their people because of how caught up they are in material
things. Mormon (our narrator) drips with sarcasm when he says that Noah built a
spectacular place for the priests in the temple where “they might rest their
bodies and their arms” while speaking “lying and vain words to his people”
(verse 11).
Midway
through the chapter, we find evidence that internal corruption among Noah and
his people make them vulnerable to outside attack. It’s the classic pattern
that has plagued the Lord’s covenant people at different times and in different
places. Once they forget their part of the covenant, and think that they are
somehow special or entitled no matter what, they ultimately lose strength and
protection from external threats.
It
doesn’t happen all at once. Verse 16 tells us of Lamanite raiding parties
coming upon the people in their fields and among their flocks. Probing for
weakness, the Lamanites are ultimately beaten off by Noah’s armies. But instead
of focusing on the need to change their behavior so that they are less
vulnerable the next time, Noah’s people “delight in blood” and “boast in their
own strength.”
This
is where the Lord tries diligently to warn them about the path they are on.
Think about it. The people are breaking their covenant with the Lord, so He is
not really obligated to do anything to help them. But because He loves them so
much, He wants to give them every chance possible to see the error of their
ways and reform them.
How
does He do this? By sending a prophet. We don’t know much about Abinadi’s
origins other than he was a man among them, not an outsider. From what follows,
we learn that Abinadi is willing to do the Lord’s will in crying repentance
despite great resistance from the people and King Noah himself. Abinadi is very
specific in telling the people that unless they repent, they will be brought
into bondage until they are compelled to humble themselves mightily before the
Lord.
Abinadi’s
boldness, like that of most other prophets, stirs the unrepentant to anger.
Interestingly, verse 26 tells us that these people seek to kill Abinadi, but he
is “delivered out of their hands,” bringing to mind similarly vague references
in the Gospels to Jesus somehow being able to slip away from mobs who meant him
harm. These references are understated, but hint at some level of heavenly
assistance in eluding the unrighteous that the Lord provides his servants while
he needs them to fulfill their missions on earth.
One
of the most telling lines in the Book of Mormon comes in verse 27 when King
Noah shows his utter bafflement at Abinadi’s efforts to get Noah and his people
to repent. Instead of opening his mind to the possibility that Abinadi is
trying to help the people by waking them up to their need for repentance, Noah only
has room for complete indignation. “Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should
be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such
great affliction?”
When Noah jumps from rejecting Abinadi to rejecting the Lord who sent him, it shows that Noah has corrupted himself so thoroughly that he has completely lost touch with the fact that all blessings flow from the Lord. Instead, he depicts the Lord as an irritant to be swatted away, an absurd way to approach the very Father of us all and author of the great plan for our salvation. Clearly, Noah has a very narrow, selfish alternative vision solely focused on his mortal senses. Unfortunately (in the short term) for him, he will find out that disregarding the Lord doesn’t work, because it’s like disregarding the warmth of the sun, the tides of the sea, gravity, or any other basic law dictating cause and effect—no matter what you think, the consequences still apply.
