The Consequences of King Noah’s Wicked Rule: Contention, Self-Destruction and Bondage - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Nineteen (Mosiah 19)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/19?lang=eng

At the end of the previous chapter, we learn that Alma and the people who follow him away from King Noah’s civilization and into a covenant of rebirth and renewal through baptism are able to detect an effort by the king’s armies to find their place of refuge, and to flee into the wilderness.

When the king’s army returns to the city, it is not long until a division develops among the people. Verse 2 tells us that the forces of the king had been reduced. Is it because a number of them had been among those who followed Alma into the wilderness? Mormon doesn’t tell us why, but we’re left to wonder. A smaller army means that the king is less able to force people to submit to his will.

Mormon also doesn’t say why the people become divided. Do the episodes with Abinadi and Alma become public knowledge and open some people’s eyes to Noah’s injustices? Does the courage Abinadi and Alma showed embolden the people to follow their examples? Or is it more of a typical situation where the ruled chafe against their ruler for more mundane or selfish reasons? We don’t know for sure.

In any event, a minority of the people start threatening the king. And this isn’t some gradual or nebulous threat. Before we know it, a man named Gideon, described as a strong man who is the king’s enemy, is pursuing King Noah with his sword (verses 3-4).

As the king flees from Gideon, he tries to take refuge in the tower that overlooks the city. When he does so, he sees that an army of Lamanites happens to be moving in for an attack at that very moment. Sensing an opportunity to at least momentarily deflect the threat to his life and personal power, Noah pleads with Gideon to spare him so that their people can evade death and destruction at the Lamanites’ hands. Mormon, in his abridgment, advises us not to be fooled—it’s the same old selfish Noah peddling false claims of caring about his people (verses 5-8).

We get a taste of this from King Noah’s command to his people: Run! And he is in the front of the pack as they flee into the wilderness. But they can’t outrun the invading Lamanites. So then we see just how heartless Noah really is. As the Lamanites start overtaking his people, he calls out to the men to run faster and leave their women and children behind (verse 11). Clearly, he’s not letting anything get in the way of his own personal survival. Presumably, while he abandons his own people, he wants to ensure that he has enough men to come with him to be his protectors. Little does Noah know that in thinking only of himself by playing on these men’s fear, he is actually planting the seeds of his destruction—not his protection.

Noah’s transparent cowardliness repels some of the men who are among his people. They will not leave their wives and children, but decide to take their chances with the Lamanites. In the moment, they ask their “fair daughters” to approach the Lamanites and plead with them for their families’ lives. Mormon tells us that the Lamanites are charmed by the daughters’ beauty and have compassion on the people. That compassion, however, is aided by the fact that the Lamanites will now be able to exact a hefty tribute from these people (one-half of all their possessions). And another Lamanite demand is that the Nephites hand over King Noah, perhaps because the Lamanites want to eliminate the notion that the Nephites can rule themselves independently.

Gideon sends a group of men into the wilderness to search for the king, and they come upon the men who had fled with the king earlier. These men regretted that they had initially followed Noah’s command to abandon their families, but when they tried to go back, Noah insisted they stay with him. The king had gone too far this time, and in anger the men turned on Noah. Although Mormon doesn’t use too many words to describe what happened, we know enough—the king who’d had the prophet Abinadi burned alive so that he could continue to oppress his people for gain and pleasure was now himself burned alive, just as Abinadi had predicted multiple times (in Mosiah 12, 13 and 17). The people “caused that he should suffer.”

Noah’s priests, who were actually nothing more than clever henchmen who used empty ritual and other forms of deception to legitimize Noah’s oppressive rule over the people, fled farther into the wilderness. Thus, they eluded Noah’s fate at the hands of the men who killed him in the rage of their guilty consciences. As we will see, these priests will continue to plague the Nephites for years to come.

When the men who killed Noah meet the group sent by Gideon, they rejoice at hearing that their families had been preserved, and return to the city. With everyone accounted for, the Nephites confer their kingdom on Limhi, the son of Noah. Limhi is described as a just man who is aware of his father’s iniquity (verse 17). Limhi makes an oath to the Lamanite king that the Nephites will pay tribute of half their possessions, and the Lamanite king makes an oath not to slay the Nephites. The Lamanites enforce this new order with guards posted around the Nephites’ land.

Rebirth at the Place of Mormon - Book of Mosiah, Chapter Eighteen (Mosiah 18)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/18?lang=eng

From the grisly death of Abinadi, Mormon’s abridgment quickly turns to Alma, the priest of Noah who was so inspired by Abinadi’s final call to repentance that he courageously stood up to his king and his conspiring colleagues, and then fled from their efforts to capture and kill him.

It’s as if Mormon is having us focus on the transition from death to rebirth, because the story of Alma is about a man and those who follow him starting over from a fallen and corrupt society. The first two verses of this chapter highlight repentance and redemption, which are possible “through the power, and sufferings, and death of Christ, and his resurrection and ascension into heaven.”

Alma is not content simply to survive and elude King Noah. He finds a way to privately teach “as many as would hear his word” (verse 3). To do so, he discovers an untouched wilderness area where the people can teach, learn and worship undetected by the king’s henchmen. The place is called Mormon.

Learning the origins of the word Mormon is a very significant thing. By understanding that Mormon becomes synonymous with a place where the people of Alma start over and find refuge and refreshment, we learn why the prophet Mormon received his name and why calling the entire record of this civilization the Book of Mormon is meaningful. For the whole point of keeping the record is to show to us in our day that rebirth and renewal is possible. We can find a place where we are washed clean of our sins and start over by making a covenant. Thus it is that Mormon becomes a symbol of a place where we can go—metaphorically as well as physically—to gain power over the things of the world that try to drag us down. In that sense, Mormon represents the same thing as Zion—a place for the pure in heart. And so because our narrator is named Mormon and calls this book by that name too, he and the Lord want that name to be burned into our consciousness as something pointing us toward this Zion state of being and mind.

As the chapter continues, we learn that the place of Mormon also has cleansing waters, which deepen the significance of the place as symbolizing rebirth. Knowing this, Alma challenges his people to regard the waters as the focal point for their spiritual cleansing and new beginning. He calls unto them to enter into the covenant of baptism. In encouraging this, Alma provides them with a beautifully inspiring vision of who they can become and what they can do (in verses 8-9):

• Be called God’s people
• Bear one another’s burdens
• Mourn with those that mourn
• Comfort those that stand in need of comfort
• Stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things
• Be redeemed of God and numbered with those who have eternal life

Alma’s words have become the standard for all who seek to follow the Lord’s way. When missionaries, family members or friends want to communicate what it means to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, they invariably cite the above points, along with the following passage (verse 10):

Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

It is important for us to pause and realize that this scripture is not meant “for other people.” It is meant for us to apply to ourselves. If we desire the things mentioned in the bullets above, is there any reason why we should not be baptized (by someone holding the proper authority from the Lord)? After all, the blessings of the Spirit are more powerful than we can imagine. If we truly take the time to ponder this and really weigh it in the balance, there is only one reasonable response.

Not surprisingly, Alma’s words have a powerful effect on those who gather to learn from him. Mormon tells us that Alma baptizes 204 souls in the waters of Mormon, and they are “filled with the grace of God” (verse 16). Alma then goes about establishing these willing and obedient ones as the Church of Christ (verse 17). The process of establishing the Church echoes the one we read about in Mosiah 1-5 with King Benjamin and his people, even though those events take place about 15-20 years after the account described in this chapter, and in a different place (Zarahemla).

The rest of the chapter gives us insight into how Alma (under the Lord’s inspiration and direction) leads the Church in order for it to help people stay with the covenants they have made (verses 17-29). Alma uses his authority from God to ordain other baptized members as priests who can help him teach the growing Church about the kingdom of God. What do they teach? The words of the prophets, which include the key principles of repentance and faith on the Lord. Apparently, they are careful not to insert their own opinions or speculations into the teaching, but instead emphasize that which they know is accepted doctrine. This is an important point for us when teaching truths to each other in our day as well.

Other core principles of Christ’s true Church come out in these verses. Alma has the Church members observe the Sabbath day and gather together in worship, express gratitude in all things, and practice self-reliance while sharing of their abundance to help the needy.

We also learn that how the Church members interact is equally as important as what they do. Alma commands them “that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another” (verse 21).

Ultimately, the group grows to about 450 in number (verse 35). Most apparently still live in King Noah’s domain, while gathering for purposes of worship and instruction in the land of Mormon. Somewhere along the way, King Noah detects that something is going on, and spies on the group. Unable to understand the people’s pure motives because of his own twisted ones, Noah presumes that their gatherings are aimed at overthrowing him. He sends his army to destroy them (verses 32-33). We don’t know how (did one of the Church members find out or was it a divine messenger?) but the people are apprised of the army’s coming and depart into the wilderness (verse 34). There is no going back now. They have made the break from larger society, and are now fully dependent on each other and the Lord—something that requires great faith.