I first wrote about Mosiah 1 to 3 in 2016. If you would like
to read this post, check out: https://gospeldoctrine2016.blogspot.com/2016/05/lesson-15-eternally-indebted-to-your.html
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| King Benjamin painting (Winborg) |
King Benjamin was a great leader. He exemplified the caring
and hard-working leader. He reminds me a lot of our current prophet, President
Russell M. Nelson. All his life President Nelson has worked hard and cared for
people. He was a brilliant heart surgeon and relied on the Lord to help him in
his sacred and temporal responsibilities. I love reading about President
Nelson. Check out this article on our prophet, Getting
to Know the New Mormon President: Russell M. Nelson (Thorn, 2018, Jan.
17). From the time he was set apart as president of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints to October 2019, President Nelson travelled more than
90,000 miles to 28 countries and territories and met with over 100 world and
religious leaders. That is quite remarkable for a man in his nineties!
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| President Nelson in his career as a heart surgeon |
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| My father |
Great temporal leaders display the same qualities of hard
work, caring, and service, as did King Benjamin. Although my father did not
lead a country or a company, he was still a good temporal leader. As a mine
captain in the copper mines, Copperbelt, Central Africa, my father broke every
production record with his group of miners. Many of his production records have
remained unbroken. There is a clear reason why this happened. At the time, all
the mine captains were European and the miners were from one of the many
African ethnic groups. When a mine captain set a record, he received a large
bonus in his pay. My father was the only mine captain to take that bonus and
split it between his group of miners. My father did this because he believed it
was the only fair way to operate. His miners were provided with the incentive
they needed. He earned their respect and trust.
We are fortunate in New Zealand to have Jacinda Ardern at
the head of our government. She is not active in the church but was raised as a
member by goodly parents. Her father Ross and his twin brother Ian were
respected senior students when I attended the Church College of NZ in 1970. Jacinda
demonstrates the qualities of a good leader in so many ways. During the mass
shooting in Christchurch, she inspired so many people with her empathy,
concern, and swift action. She was decisive and just. She touched the Muslim
world with her approach to the debacle in Christchurch. The Burj Khalifa, the
tallest building in Dubai, was lit up with her image following the mosque
attacks. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic she has, once again, been a
leader whom the whole world can respect. For two days NZ has now had no further
cases of Covid-19 because she acted quickly and kept a whole nation working
together. One of her actions was to take a 20 per cent cut in salary in
solidarity with those affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Jacinda Ardern, PM on NZ after the mosque shootings in Christchurch |
In Mosiah
2:14, it states, “And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that
I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and that there
should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne”. This gives us a
very clear picture of his qualities as a temporal as well as a spiritual leader.
He spoke to his people about service. One of the most famous scriptures from
this week’s reading comes from Mosiah
2:17. It states, “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.” Service is a key to real happiness. You do
not need drugs to feel ‘high’. All you need is to serve with love and the
feeling you get is indescribably wonderful. My dream is to not have to worry
about earning money. Money is a necessity for survival. But, if I had a wish,
it would be to work in service and to work for the church, and not to have to
rely on receiving a salary. I enjoy working. The opportunity to work for others
has been taken away from me. I used to give more than 100% to my students. I worked
and got the job done even if it was needed outside of the hours for which I was
paid. I loved my work, I also worked hard to gain more and more qualifications
so that I could give my students the best possible opportunities. Yet, after 20
years of dedication, I was made redundant. I cannot adequately express how much
I miss my students. The selection process was not followed when I was made
redundant. I was targeted from Day 1 and I knew I would be the one to go. I
want to work. I never mind hard work. I will serve and help and do whatever is
needed. I just need someone who wants me to work. I love helping people. I just
pray I will be given another opportunity to work and help and serve. The
following video from Knowhy, Book of Mormon Central, tells us about wisdom and
service.
I re-read
Mosiah 2:36 a number of times. It states, “…if ye should transgress and go contrary
to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit
of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths”.
This is a remarkable thought. When we choose to do the wrong thing, the Spirit
is not removed from us. We are the ones who move away from the Spirit, we
withdraw ourselves from the Spirit. The key to retaining the Spirit is our own
free choice and choosing to keep the Spirit close. This makes me think about
the counsel in the scriptures to ‘Stand in Holy Places’. Where we go is a
matter of choice. We can choose to lie in bed or take the early bus to the
temple. We choose to stay home and have Family Home Evening or go out to the
pub or club to ‘go along’ with our friends and what they want to do. This is
our movement towards the Spirit or away from the Spirit.
Brother John Bytheway, in a Podcast on Mosiah 1 to 3,
pointed out an interesting fact. P.152 of the printed Book of Mormon (Mosiah
3:6-13) has the most footnotes of any page in the entire book of scriptures
(together with 2 Nephi 9). This is a clear indication of the doctrinal
importance of these scriptures. There is so much value in the words of King
Benjamin.
Mosiah
3:19, is another very famous and often quoted scripture. It reads, “For the
natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will
be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and
putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of
Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient,
full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to
inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” The idea that the
natural man ‘yields’ to the enticings of Satan’s temptations rather than ‘yields’
to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, once again centres on free choice. We
choose one or the other. This verse tells us how to ‘yield’ to the Spirit. The
answer is to become like a child. Anyone who has held a new-born baby or listened
to a child’s first prayer, can understand the purity of the spirit so recently
in the presence of Heavenly Father. We should all strive to become like a
little child and choose to ‘yield’ to the Spirit and be obedient in all things.
I spent time pondering the counsel given by King Benjamin, but
I was also quite curious about the actual arrangement of the people listening
to King Benjamin. My first thought was, why didn’t they just stand together
instead of worrying about being in their tents? It would have been easier to
hear Kind Benjamin if people had been physically close. I found the reason for
this on Knowhy: Book of Mormon Central and in Brother Bytheway’s podcast. King
Benjamin’s arrangement of the people was similar to the ancient Feast of Tabernacles.
At this feast, the ancient Israelites were commanded to build ceremonial tents
or temporary shelters. This was to help them remember how God had repeatedly
delivered them from affliction and, perhaps, to remind them of Lehi and his
family who dwelt in tents when they were travelling to the Promised Land.
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| Elder Ronald Rasband |
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| NZ Hamilton temple |
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