Today's Favorite Verse: Mosiah 11:20-21
"And it came to pass that there was a man among them whose name was Abinadi; and he went forth among them, and began to prophesy, saying: Behold, thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me, saying, Go forth, and say unto this people, thus saith the Lord -- Wo be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations, and their wickedness, and their whoredoms; and except they repent I will visit them in mine anger.
And except they repent and turn to the Lord their God, behold, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies; yea, and they shall be brought into bondage; and they shall be afflicted by the hand of their enemies."
Zeniff passed the kingdom to his son Noah and dies. Noah is a wicked and immoral king. He removed the priests his father had consecrated and replaces them with prideful and wicked ones. He taxed his people to support their lazy and idolatrous lifestyles. The people had to labor hard to support their iniquities.
The Lamanites began to attack the people and king Noah sent out guards around the land, but not in a sufficient number to protect them. So the Lamanites would come in and kill them and drive off their flocks. Then king Noah sent in more armies to drive them off and they did, but this only made them prideful and boast in their own strength. At this point the prophet Abinadi begins to speak and warn them of the Lord's displeasure.
For some reason this is making me think of our southern and northern borders of our country. We do not have sufficient number there to protect us from enemies coming in. I have to earmark this part because I think I will see something about this later.
This also made me stop and think about the Lamanites. I'm not hearing any warnings to them. Why is that? I think it might be because at this point the Lamanites have lived 450 years with the false traditions of their fathers. They have no knowledge of God and his commandments. They are not under condemnation because they made no promises to the Lord.
That is not the case with the people of king Noah. They were raised with the gospel. They know right from wrong. They have the scriptures and the commandments. This is why the Lord will come down on them for their transgressions. Yet, he warns them first of the need to repent. He promises if they turn to him he will deliver them from bondage and their enemies.
Pondering on this made me see how you cannot be on neutral ground once you have made promises to the Lord. It made me think of Doctrine and Covenants 82:10 "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." I see now the lack of a promise means no protection from our enemies and they are allowed to destroy us. I would much rather remain under the watchful and protecting hand of the Lord and his promises.
Day 256 Tami Fitzgerald Harris
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