The Law of Kings

The Book of Mosiah marks the spot where Mormon swaps the record and the reader is transferred from the priestly record to the kingly record. There are a few shifts in the Book of Mormon and the style and manner in which the story flows to the reader. For example, the Book of Ether, outside of Moroni's commentary, has a very different feel than the mainly first-person narratives of Nephi and Jacob from the priestly record. Nor does the Book of Ether sound much like the historical record edited by Mormon. Although there are most likely more wars and power struggles going on, the record is much more abbreviated and repetitive compared with Mormon's editing of the war chapters with battle strategies elaborately detailed, interspersed with doctrinal commentary.

I will get stuck on chapters in the Book of Mosiah writing about them. Every single chapter in Mosiah deals with addiction and recovery, and my name is Brad, and I'm still an alcoholic and addict. You may not find the word addiction in the Book of Mormon, but you certainly will see the word bondage many times, followed often by God's deliverance. We get to see a codependent, overzealous father, an addict, a codependent son, and two groups suffering severe bondage. We encounter powerful addiction language in a couple of chapters and get to see what AA groups call a "group conscience." The last chapter provides a powerful, guaranteed recovery promise. You may have noticed we left out King Benjamin. He gives a sermon on the Twelve Steps, as a guide to the rest of the book.

But before we get into his wonderful speech, it's time to anoint a new king. In ancient Israel the coronation for kings took place between the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) and Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). At the Feast of Tabernacles the kings in ancient Israel would read publicly the paragraph of the king from Deuteronomy chapter 17, and would report on their stewardship as king.

We connect the crown with the concept of royalty, but the last article of kingly attire to go on the new king before coronation would be what John describes in Revelation as a "golden girdle" which was worn over the chest. The Savior is described as, "One like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle" (Revelation 1: 13).The symbolism may have been similar to the ephod worn by the high priest. But perhaps more significantly it was to represent the purity and truthfulness of the king's speech, as the words coming forth from the king's mouth were an overflow from his heart. Jesus said, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12: 34). 

This concept is enhanced by the idea that kings in ancient Israel were deified. You will see this often in the Psalms. One example is, "For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth" (Psalms 74: 12). So the king would be like a mouthpiece for God, or at least that's what a king was supposed to be. King Benjamin said, "For on the morrow I shall proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth that thou art a king and a ruler over this people, whom the Lord our God hath given us" (Mosiah 1: 10).

These people are subject to the king, as emphasized in the above verse. The chapter begins with Mormon's commentary: "And now there was no more contention in all the land of Zarahemla, among all the people who belonged to king Benjamin" (Mosiah 1: 1). The Lord similarly said, "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels" (Malachi 3: 17).

The requirement for kings is found in Deuteronomy where it says, "And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them" (Deuteronomy 17: 18-19).

Anciently, only kings and priests (or queens and priestesses) had access to the "book of the law," Israel's set of scriptures. I suppose you could argue that today only kings, queens, priests, and priestesses have full access to the word of the Lord. But kings were supposed to study the scriptures on a daily basis. King Benjamin calls his sons together, since only a son could inherit the kingdom. He speaks of the importance of his sons as potential kings being "men of understanding" (Mosiah 1: 2) and how it was important that the plates of brass were "always before our eyes" (Mosiah 1: 5).

It was written in the paragraph of the king:

"But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

"Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold

"That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel" (Deuteronomy 17: 16,17,20).

I have to ask, who does this sound like? Doesn't this sound like King Benjamin? Egypt was Israel's house of bondage, and the king was supposed to protect his people from bondage. King Benjamin said, "Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves one of another" (Mosiah 2: 13).

Kings were not supposed to multiply to themselves "silver and gold." King Benjamin reports his stewardship and reverses the order of this phrase according to Seidel's Law when one prophet quotes an earlier prophet and reverses the order of the elements. King Benjamin said, "I say unto you that as I have been suffered to spend my days in your service, even up to this time, and have not sought gold nor silver nor any manner of riches of you" (Mosiah 2: 12). Notice this time instead of "silver and gold," it's "gold nor silver." This is just one more internal witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

Kings were not supposed to become prideful and have their hearts lifted up above their brothers and sisters. King Benjamin said, "But I am like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind" (Mosiah 2: 11).

It becomes apparent that King Benjamin is a type of Christ, the King of kings (Revelation 19: 16), and it appears he is responding to the requirements of kingship in ancient Israel. Throughout Mosiah chapter 2, King Benjamin makes several comparisons between himself, the common people, and God. One of these is quite famous: "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (v. 17). He also makes this comparison: "And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!" (v. 19).

If we understand that kings in ancient Israel were considered almost like God and were deified, then King Benjamin's comparisons imply that we can also become kings (and queens) and can become like God.

"The Due Time of the Lord"

I love the scriptures--absolutely through and through--except for one little phrase, "In the due time of the Lord." When Nephi was shown glorious visions in a temple-like experience, he gets to see everything John saw as it's recorded in the Book of Revelation. Except he gets to see it in its purity. Nephi writes, "And also others who have been, to them hath he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel" (1 Nephi 14: 26).

But I'm a recovering alcoholic and addict, still working on my Fourth Step (Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.), and impatience ranks number 2 on my list of character defects, right behind selfishness, which manifests itself in impatience, since I demand everything to be on my timetable. My way or the highway, baby! And I want to read that book right now, not in the Lord's due time!

Fortunately for us, Nephi, Mormon, and others were willing to listen to the Lord and waited patiently on the Lord, unlike me. I would love to have been a fly on the wall as Mormon is sifting, selecting, editing, and abridging the records we have as the Book of Mormon. And dang, if Martin Harris wouldn't have lost those pages. I want to read the Book of Lehi and I don't want to wait. Of course I often forget that apparently the Lord was willing to forgive him, as he became one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and later was willing to mortgage his house and farm to secure the printing of the book. But dang, he lost those 116 pages!

Mormon chose to finish his record with the small plates and use those records which is the translation we have in our Book of Mormon. I probably would have asked, "Why, Lord?" He writes, "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will" (Words of Mormon 1: 7).

I remember a time when I got one of those "whisperings." It was August 12, 1993. I was in the Provo Temple when a whispering came with the feeling, "Go to the LDS Young Special Interest dance tomorrow night." Immediately the argument with the Spirit began. I argued back, "Why, Lord? You know how much I hate those dances." I had been to these dances back in my drinking days 12 years earlier and went for the wrong reasons. Even with the numbing effect of alcohol, I had learned to detest those awful dances. I had sworn them off for good, but a friend invited me to a Valentine's dance in 1992, so I made my brief return, only to discover that they were actually worse than I remembered. And this time without the anesthesia of alcohol.

The argument continued into the next day. It was now Friday the Thirteenth--ample reason not to go to an already-scary dance. But the prompting kept coming back. I found a flyer on my desk from the recent Young Special Interest Singles Conference. I had absolutely no interest in the conference or in changing my single status. But the conference had a jazz concert that I was very interested in. After multiple promptings, I finally called the hotline and found the location of the dance, clear out in north Orem and I was working in Payson, and that was another good reason not to go to the dance.

I'll cut to the chase here. After much protesting, I arrived at the dance. After arriving, it may have taken an hour to get up enough courage to ask a young lady to dance. She replied, "I would dance with you, but I just had foot surgery, but you can sit here and talk." I was not brave enough (or stupid enough) to voice my inner thoughts of why do you come to a dance if you can't dance. So I sat down and in a few minutes they played a fast, disco-like song, and this guy came up to her and said, "Do you want to dance?" She quickly replied, "Sure" and literally ran out on the dance floor.

I said, "That's it! I'm out of here," and made a beeline to the door. I was probably about five feet from the door, when I heard a voice behind me, "Would you like to dance?" I will cut to the chase here too. After a couple of dances, I learned her bishop had given her an assignment to go to the dances. She told me she was looking for her "royal Priesthood holder," something her patriarchal blessing said would happen "in the due time of the Lord." She is my eternal sweetheart. In two months we will celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. Her "due time of the Lord" was waiting for me to get sober.

A couple of years ago I accidentally got on the wrong bus at the transit center and got off on 8th North in Orem, where I had to walk by that chapel where we had met about twenty years earlier. Some guys were playing basketball, so I walked in and stepped inside the cultural hall, where that dance was held. I stared at that door on the other side of the gym--the very door I had tried to walk out of twenty years ago. I stepped back into the foyer and offered a little prayer of immense gratitude. Oh how my life would have been so very different if she had approached even 10 seconds later. Oh what blessings I would have missed if I had exited a little quicker. Sometimes the things that affect all eternity hinge upon a few seconds!

Yesterday I decided to go to the temple. For the first time in several months, due to some scheduling conflicts, my wife and son could not go with me. I decided to go anyway, but had some errands that needed to be done. Early afternoon was approaching and it seemed the day was slipping away.

I took a bus to Provo and the route ends at the train station. So I contemplated whether I should walk the rest of the way to the Provo City Center Temple, or catch another bus to the other Provo Temple. A bus had just pulled in, so I got on my phone to see where it was going and when it would leave. It would take me to north Provo, but I would have a twenty-five minute walk to the temple. It looked like this might be the better choice since the Provo Temple has sessions every 20 minutes and we had a session of stake conference I was trying to make.

So I got on the bus with no driver and waited and waited. I was getting impatient again and rather disgusted that it was time to depart and the driver was not even on the bus. Finally, five minutes late, the driver shows up and we departed. After I got off the bus, I began walking briskly.

As I was walking up the hill to the temple, I thought I saw the familiar face of a friend walking the other way, down the hill, on the other side of the street. Could this be the friend I haven't seen in over fifteen years? We had college classes together and both of us were music freaks and liked the same progressive rock bands. He had worked in a music store and had helped me find much of my music. Those tunes still bless my life as I go on walks and ponder how good the Lord has been to me in my sobriety.

I ran across the street and he was now ahead of me so I could not see his face very well. I had to take a chance. I ran across the street and called him by name. When he turned around, sure enough, it was my long lost friend. I had had a prompting to try and contact him a few months ago. He has some health issues and I had wondered if he was still alive. I had to tell him who I was and then his face lit up. After he said, "Brad, how have you been?" he asked about a CD he had brought over for a Christmas present 17 years earlier. It was almost surreal.

We tried to catch up with 17 years of music in about 15 minutes and then exchanged email addresses. He could remember all the stuff I liked. He said, "Did you just come from the temple?" I said, "No, I'm just on my way there." We expressed how glad we both were to see each other again, and I continued to walk up that hill, all the time pouring out my heart to God for His tender mercies, and for giving me a second chance with an old relationship. And also, thanking Him for making the bus just a little late, according to His "due time," so our paths would meet at the precise time and place.

When I got inside the temple, I thought of other close encounters of the best kind, like when my wife and I met our stake president and his wife coming out of the temple as we were going in, which led to a mission call for our son, which led to me getting a better job. The session was awesome and the tears flowed freely. The Spirit taught me more about Eve and her role in the Plan of Salvation as a type of Christ, as she carried the burden of transgression alone for a time (maybe for a future post). It helped me see the special role of women as preservers of life and helpmeets (Ezer) for God, and helped me see why my wife is spiritually ahead of me.

As I prepared to exit the holy temple, I hoped the bus would arrive on time, and thought I'll probably cuss at them again next time they're late.

At the door was a temple worker thanking me for being there. Really? I thought! I've been blessed today in so many ways, and they're thanking me?

I had to smile. I stepped outside to view the scene in the photo. Yes, God smiled back. Another session, and I would have missed that too. The sunset quickly vanished into the pages of my memory.

A Pleasant Offering

In the Book of Mormon, Amaleki invites us to come unto Christ with the invitation,

"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved" (Omni 1: 26).

This verse gets at the essence of a righteous offering. There are many examples of offerings in the scriptures. Under the Law of Moses the particular number and types of animals are given for specific sacrifices, especially at the three required feasts of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles (see Numbers 28-29).

The invitation in the Book of Mormon is a different kind of offering. Rather than an animal sacrifice, it is an offering of the soul--the gift of our best self unto God. It's really what He wanted from the beginning.

Burnt Offerings

The Bible Dictionary gives great information regarding the method and order of sacrifice. There were three main types of sacrifice--the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. The sin offering was for the atonement, or expiation of sin. The burnt offering represented sanctification, and the peace offering represented fellowship or communion with God. It states, "It is noteworthy that when the three offerings were offered together, the sin always preceded the burnt, and the burnt the peace offerings. Thus the order of the symbolizing sacrifices was the order of atonement, sanctification, and fellowship with the Lord" Bible Dictionary, "Sacrifices").

The Book of Mormon sometimes uses the term "burnt offering" generically to include all kinds of offerings, but the true burnt offering is probably most aligned with the concept of "offering the whole soul," as described in the verse above.

Up In Smoke

The Bible Dictionary also provides the general meaning and symbolism behind the various sacrifices. It describes the burnt offering as follows:

"The burnt offering got its Hebrew name from the idea of the smoke of the sacrifice ascending to heaven. The characteristic rite was the burning of the whole animal on the altar (Lev. 1:9; Deut. 33:10). As the obligation to surrender was constant on the part of Israel, a burnt offering, called the continual burnt offering, was offered twice daily, morning and evening."

The Hebrew word for burnt offering, olah means "to ascend." It is really the surrender of one's will in favor of God's will. In other verses it speaks of those who are not willing to surrender to the Lord, by saying, "Having gone according to their own carnal wills and desires; having never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them; for the arms of mercy were extended towards them, and they would not; they being warned of their iniquities and yet they would not depart from them; and they were commanded to repent and yet they would not repent" (Mosiah 16: 12).

I remember over 27 years ago sitting in a room with a bunch of drunks like me in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and looking at those ominous Twelve Steps, the Third being the scariest: "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." I certainly didn't want to have to do that! I just wanted a way to "manage" my drinking. But making that decision, which I have to remake over and over, often many times a day, has brought the greatest blessings into my life. It's not easy, though. Everything I surrender has claw marks in it.

I can see myself, as the sacrificial animal is burned in its entirety, fanning the smoke back toward myself, clinging to my own will, and jumping at the smoke as if to catch it and bring it back. But in the best offerings, we "let go and let God."

Jesus and the Penny

The Pharisees plotted to trap Jesus in a debate. They gathered together their own disciples, who were very anti-Rome with the Herodians, who would be more partial to Herod and the Roman government. This is like getting the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans together for a debate, and then throwing out a hot politically-charged, controversial topic for debate. How will Jesus weigh in?

Jesus asks to see the tribute money and asks whose image is on the coin. Of course, it's Caesar's. But instead of getting trapped in a debate about government allegiance, Jesus uses this opportunity to teach about consecration by saying, "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s" (Matthew 22: 15-22).

It begs the question, where do we find God's image? Alma asks, "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" (Alma 5: 14). If we find Caesar's image on the penny and render to him the things that are his, and if we find God's image in our countenances, and render unto Him those things that belong to Him, doesn't it make sense that we consecrate our lives and best selves unto Him?

The "New and Living Way"

Obedience to the law of consecration is a prerequisite for entry into the Celestial realm, represented by the Holy of Holies or Celestial Room of the temple. The author of Hebrews draws an interesting likeness to the veil of the temple and the Savior's offering in our behalf. It says, 

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

"By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10: 19-20).

His sacrifice allows each of us to pass through the veil into "a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God" (Ether 12: 4).

What can we offer in return? He answers by saying, "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost" (3 Nephi 9: 20). It is basically asking us to give the real burnt offering by surrendering our will and hearts to Him, letting the natural man go up in smoke.

Joseph Smith's First Vision

As Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove to inquire of the Lord, his history states, "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God" (Joseph Smith--History 1: 15). The phrase, "offer up the desires of my heart" can be read two ways. Did it mean Joseph was offering his petition to the Lord, or does it mean he was willing to sacrifice and "offer up" his desires and surrender them to God?

The answer, like many of these deeper verses, is yes and yes.