Abduction in the Wilderness
Book of Mormon Notes - Thursday, July 27, 2023, Mosiah 20
Abinadi’s prophecies continue to be fulfilled, point by point.
Although King Noah was fried to death, his wicked priests continued to wreck havoc upon the Zenephite society, even from their hiding place in the wilderness. King Limhi and his people enjoyed short moments of peace, but as long as King Noah’s wicked priests roamed free in the wilderness, and as long as the Lamanites were nearby, there was always trouble brewing. Most importantly, Abinadi’s prophesies were still in process of fulfillment. A community that rejects the Lord’s prophets is already in big trouble, but when people kill the Lord’s prophets, the Lord’s vengeance is inevitable. Think of what has happened, and what will yet happen, in the United States since the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, for example.
Later in the Book of Mormon we will see the destruction that came as a result of the Lord’s vengeance, and a phrase the the Lord repeats five times in 3 Nephi 9:
that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them.
Abinadi’s blood cried from the ground against his murderers. The Lord’s vengeance was swift in this case.
Of course, King Noah and his wicked priests bore the primary blame for the death of Abinadi. But King Noah’s people were not entirely innocent either. Alma repented quickly, and Gideon earnestly sought to rid their society of King Noah’s tyranny, but God allowed the Zenephite to experience the consequences of their own wickedness, as well as the consequences of the wickedness of King Noah and his priests. Heavenly Father is exceedingly merciful and patient, but He is also perfectly just and wise. He knows what is best for His children.
One might think that after everything that they had experienced, the wicked priests of King Noah might have decided to repent and turn to the Lord. But they were so entrenched in their tyrannical lifestyle that rather than return to their wives and children and confess their sins, they chose to live like beasts in the wilderness. King Noah was dead and gone, and their positions of power had been stripped away from them. But their appetites and passions raged on just the same. Thus they abducted twenty-four daughters of the Lamanites and subsisted off of food and provisions that they stole from their own people.
At least since the time of the Old Testament or the Trojan War, we have known that there are uniquely disastrous consequences for abducting and harming women. These consequences are even more disastrous when children are involved. More and more people are waking up to the fact that the slaughter of the innocent by abortion, and the trafficking of children into sexual slavery are real, horrific evils that plague our society.
King Noah’s wicked priests provoked a new war between the Lamanites and the Zenephites because of their unbridled lust and thievery. When the Lamanites came to battle against the Zenephites or the Limhites, enraged because of the abduction of twenty-four of their daughters, King Limhi and his people were baffled. King Limhi had made a covenant of peace with the king of the Lamanites. Gideon was among the most courageous and perceptive of his people, and he knew that King Noah’s wicked priests had provoked this war. Fortunately for the Limhites, King Limhi was able to persuade the king of the Lamanites who had been wounded in battle that King Noah’s wicked priests had abducted the twenty-four Lamanite daughters.
Why did Mormon include all of this in his abridgment of the large plates of Nephi?
Gideon was King Limhi’s captain. He was a very able leader who in some ways foreshadows Captain Moroni, one of the greatest Nephite heroes. Gideon understood that Limhi’s people had brought upon themselves these great afflictions, but he also understood that King Noah and his wicked priests were most to blame. Gideon’s wisdom and counsel saved Limhi and his people from sure destruction, but they still had to endure the judgments of God. Like Captain Moroni after him, Gideon was a mighty man who did not delight in the shedding of blood. Like Captain Moroni after him, Gideon labored exceedingly for the welfare of his people.
Now we have to keep track of yet another group of people, the wicked priests of King Noah who roamed throughout the wilderness in the Land of Nephi. If we trace the story to the present, we see Lehi’s family divided in the Promised Land, the Nephites separated from the Lamanites, Mosiah and his people separated from that people and joining the people of Zarahemla, groups of people embarking on expeditions into the wilderness, Zeniff embarking on an expedition to reinherit and recolonize the Land of Nephi, Alma and his people fleeing from King Noah and his wicked priests into the wilderness, and the wicked priests of King Noah hiding themselves in the wilderness. There are so many stories within stories, expeditions within expeditions, and intertwining narratives in the Book of Mormon that it is mind-boggling just to keep track of them all. Add to this the history of the Jaredites which is also completely internally consistent and we have a book that makes Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or a Dostoyevsky novel look like Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham in terms of complexity. And yet some misinformed people want us to believe that a farm boy in his twenties concocted all of this on his own. I don’t think so.
Even the geography of the Book of Mormon alone is mind-boggling in its complexity and internal consistency. The abduction of the twenty-four Lamanite daughters took place in the place of Shemlon. It is the same place where Zeniff originally sent spies among the Lamanites. Later in the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites in Shemlon will be converted to the Lord by the missionary efforts of the sons of Mosiah.
But all of the intertwining stories, places, events, and characters of the Book of Mormon have been organized by prophet-historians in order to support the main purpose of the Book of Mormon, namely, to lead souls unto Jesus Christ and salvation. This is one reason why the focus on the transition of faith and conversion from Abinadi to Alma is such a significant and pivotal part of the Book of Mormon.