Abinadi Teaches That the Law Points to the Savior - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Thirteen (Mosiah 13)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/13?lang=eng

As we pick up the thread in this chapter, the prophet Abinadi has done something extremely rare. After being taken captive and put under inquisition by a group of the king’s priests who seek to use their worldly positions, learning, and numbers to intimidate him, he has fended off their attacks and put them on the defensive.

The enraged King Noah orders his priests to get rid of Abinadi, because he simply can’t comprehend that someone is able to defy them when everything is set up for them to have the advantage over Abinadi (verse 1). Perhaps the situation is even more galling to King Noah and his priests because they realize—deep down—that Abinadi has the truth on his side, and they fear more than anything having to answer for their own betrayal of the truth.

But God won’t let the priests do anything to Abinadi until he is able to deliver the message he has for them. After all, the priests are the ones who brought Abinadi before them to answer their questions. They had expected that their bullying tactics would work as they presumably had on those in the past who had gotten in the way of their selfish ambitions. But God had other plans.

To give Noah and his priests some idea of what they are dealing with, Abinadi’s face shines with a brilliant, heavenly light that approaches the type of luster Moses’ face had when he conversed with the Lord on Mount Sinai as he sought guidance for the Israelites making their way from Egypt to the promised land (verse 5). As scheming and unsavory as they are, these men realize their earthly claims to power are no match for the power and authority that comes from God (verse 6), and our narrator (Mormon) describes the mix of wonder and anger this rouses within them (verse 8).

And it is at this point that Abinadi resumes teaching his detractors about the Ten Commandments. He has already addressed the need to properly worship God, and not to place anything above Him in importance. Abinadi clarifies that part of keeping this commandment is refraining from harm against people who do actually worship God in truth and righteousness (verse 14, which comes straight from the original commandment in Exodus 20:6). The meaning is unmistakable: these men will be rejecting God if they reject Abinadi and other real believers.

After laying out the rest of the commandments in the law of Moses, Abinadi tells Noah and the priests that they have not taught their people how to observe those commandments, because he (Abinadi) has been sent to “prophesy evil” concerning them (verse 26). And furthermore, the law itself is not enough to save the people, because the law’s main purpose is to point them to the Messiah (Jesus) who will atone for their sins. Abinadi shares that Moses and the all the prophets have taught of the Messiah and how His coming would lead to the redemption of those who became His people. However, because the Israelites were “quick to do iniquity, and slow to remember the Lord their God” (verse 29), the commandments were given to them as something that was within their capacity to observe in preparation for the fuller teaching of the doctrine of salvation.