Today's Favorite Verse: Mosiah 7:21-22
"And ye all are witnesses this day, that Zeniff, who was made king over this people, he being over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers, therefore being deceived by the cunning and craftiness of king Laman, who having entered into a treaty with king Zeniff, and having yielded up into his hands the possessions of a part of the land, or even the city of Lehi-Nephi, and the city of Shilom; and the land round about -
And all this he did, for the sole purpose of bringing this people into subjection or into bondage. And behold, we at this time do pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites, to the amount of one half of our corn, and our barley, and even all our grain of every kind, and one half of the increase of our flocks and our herds; and even one half of all we have or possess the king of the Lamanites doeth exact of us, or our lives."
This is the part in the Book of Mormon were I have always gotten lost in the story line. All of sudden it speaks of people I have never heard of before. That's because this land has been inhabited by various groups of people that came over at different times. It makes it hard to keep them straight. Their stories are taking place separate from each other and then brought together. It would be like me writing about what's happened while I've been living in Utah, then catching up with people I left back in New York and where they all moved to. Each time I read this I begin to understand a little better their relationships to each other.
We have gone from king Mosiah, whom the Lord told to flee the land of Nephi and came to Zarahemla, to his son king Benjamin and now the second king Mosiah. This last king Mosiah is about 33 years old, and lives in peace. He decides to send 16 men with Ammon as their leader, to find a group of people that had returned to the land of Nephi or now Lehi-Nephi. It was two generations earlier that Zeniff had left Zarahemla to go find the land of Nephi. That would have been in the days of the first king Mosiah. It was out of greed that Zeniff wanted to inherit that land again, even though the Lord had told them to flee it. Regardless, he made a treaty with the Lamanite king there and now his descendants were in bondage to them. The story picks up with Ammon reaching the land of Lehi-Nephi and meeting king Limhi, the son of Noah, who was the son of Zeniff. It's important to remember these generations or you get really confused on the timeline, or at least I do. That is because both sides meeting up tell each others histories.
As I read this chapter I pondered on the effects of bondage. How Zeniff being so desperate to inherit land, that was no longer his, gave up his children's future inheritance. For his greed and comfort he placed them all into bondage. He didn't care that he had to pay a tax to the king. He didn't even think about the cost to himself or that it may increase over time. His grandchildren were now paying the price of him not listening to the Lord, to not even be in that situation.
What a parallel I see to my day. I pondered on how divinely inspired of the Lord our constitution is. Yet, people have sold themselves to our government to get more and more. Allowing the government control into areas of our lives that the Lord told us from the beginning is not the government's role Now we are seeing bondage. It makes me think of the terrible bondage our children will face for our greed today. I not sure when this terrible clock started to tick on our nation, but I feel like I'm in bondage now. I know my children will face an even greater oppression from the debts of my entitlements. That really grieves me.
King Limhi gathers his people together he tells them of the sins of their fathers, the cause of their bondage today. Then he tells them the answer in verse 33 "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage." The people prepared themselves to now be released from bondage by turning to the Lord. Having read this before I know that the Lord's promises are kept.
Day 252 Tami Fitzgerald Harris
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