Abinadi is without a doubt one of my favorite characters in the Book of Mormon. Volumes could be written about him.
This morning as I studied this chapter, I tried to imagine myself present during Abinadi's arrest and arraignment before King Noah and his wicked priests. I especially wondered about Alma, and what role he played in the ordeal.
Abinadi was imprisoned for prophesying the death of King Noah and the destruction of his people. It seems like a ridiculous thing to imprison someone for prophesying something. If you don't believe the prophesy, then why imprison the person who shares the prophesy? If you do believe it, then why not repent?
After their council and interrogation, the false priests of King Noah began to quote the scriptures and to pretend to keep the law of Moses. Abinadi saw right through their cunning and their hypocrisy, and he began to teach them the Ten Commandments, a return to the most basic elements of the Gospel.
But Abinadi had been gone for about two years since his first interaction with the wicked people in King Noah's wicked regime. After his original prophecy and exhortation to repentance, he was forced to flee and probably to go into hiding. What did Abinadi do during this time? And what does Mormon want us to understand from the ministry and message of the great prophet Abinadi?
After two years, Abinadi returned to the Zenephites or King Noah's people, but he returned in disguise. He was like Odysseus returning to Ithaca. It seems that Abinadi remained in disguise among the people for a time, observing the conditions of the people. But then he began to prophesy openly again. He revealed his true identity, and he began to prophesy concerning the things that the Lord had taught him.
These passages from the Book of Mormon remind me a lot of the passages in the Old Testament that deal with the reign of the judges and the various prophets who came among the ancient Israelites. These great prophets, judges, and heroes, people like Deborah, Samson, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, etc. were sent by the Lord to rebuke and reprove the people, and they weren't always well received by the people or their leaders. The ancient Israelites sometimes became as wicked and idolatrous as the people of King Noah, and the ancient Israelite kings were sometimes similar to King Noah. There are many parallels between the doings of the Lord among the ancient Israelites - in the stick of Judah - and the doings of the Lord among the ancient Lehites - in the stick of Joseph. The two sticks, as Ezekiel prophesied, go hand in hand.
In any case, after Abinadi's original prophesies and call to repentance, King Noah and his people did not repent. The Lord gave them two years to sort things out, but instead they continued to ripen in iniquity. Still, the merciful Lord did not destroy them immediately. He patiently sent one of his greatest servants among them to persuade them to repent and return unto the Lord.
Another reason why these passages of scripture remind me a lot of the Old Testament is because Jehovah demonstrates His wrath and His jealousy. Remember, the Lord did not bring Lehi and his family out of Jerusalem and guide them to the Promised Land just to have their posterity degenerate into idolatry. He loves and chastens His people, and He will not tolerate idolatry. Through the prophet Abinadi, the Lord promised to visit his people in His anger and to punish them for their iniquities and their abominations. But the Lord, through Abinadi, also gave ample warning.
Abinadi's prophecies regarding the death of the king and the destruction of the people are very specific and poetic. During the two years of preparation, I wonder if Abinadi had immersed himself in the prophesies that are contained on the brass plates, even though the brass plates were in Zarahemla. Abinadi must have had some copy of the scriptures or some way of marinating his heart and mind in the word of the Lord because he knew the Tenach - the torah, the prophets, and the writings - or the writings that are similar to the Old Testament - inside and out. He also knew and understood the doings of the Lord among those of his own ancestors.
Most importantly, Abinadi was a student of and akin to Isaiah. Remember that Nephi and Jacob loved Isaiah and filled many of the small plates with his prophesies. Abinadi reintroduces Isaiah, or rather, he corrects the false priests erroneous ideas regarding Isaiah and Moses, and everything else.
We need to play close attention to Abinadi's prophesies because like Isaiah's prophesies they are all fulfilled. Abinadi prophesies that the people of King Noah will be brought into bondage, smitten on the cheek, driven by men, slain, and become food for vultures, dogs, and wild beasts. Remember Jezebel... she suffered a similar fate. Abinadi prophesied that King Noah would suffer death by fire, but he put it much more poetically. The Lord through Abinadi warned that the life of King Noah would be valued as a garment in a hot furnace. But why? So that he would know that the Lord is the Lord.
Remember that King Noah had asked "Who is Abinadi?" and "Who is the Lord?" We would like to ask these questions with real intent to know them both well, but King Noah asked in a mocking and a taunting way, as if They were nothing and as if he were everything. But unless he would repent, the Lord would make sure that King Noah know that He is the Lord. In the Old Testament, the Lord frequently makes Himself known in a variety of ways, and when the people and the leaders refused to know Him and to worship Him, then He found other ways, more drastic ways to make Himself known. Jehovah can either be known in the simple, less painful way by listening to Him, obeying Him, and worshiping Him, or else by the difficult and painful way... like a garment in a furnace.
King Noah's people were not off the hook either. Abinadi prophesied that unless they would repent, the people would suffer sore afflictions, famine, pestilence, heavy burdens, hail, east wind, insects, devoured grain, and great pestilence. They would howl and be driven like a dumb ass. Abinadi earnestly urges and straightforwardly warns the people to repent or else destruction awaits. Don't be a dumb ass. Repent.
But wait a minute... Mormon didn't record and abridge this part of Zeniff's record just for his own benefit or even for the benefit of the only other survivor of the Nephites, namely his son Moroni. Mormon recorded these prophesies for us. Is there anything in this story of King Noah and his people, and the prophesies of Abinadi that applies to us today? Can we liken these scriptures unto us, as Nephi urged us to do?
I noticed that there was recently some kind of a plague or pestilence that was poured out upon the world. I've also noticed that there are other major problems in the world. Have such things been prophesied? I think so. I also consider that Abinadi helped to prepare Joseph Smith for his mission and martyrdom. Like Abinadi, Joseph Smith was imprisoned, interrogated, persecuted, and eventually martyred for his prophesies and his testimony of Jesus Christ. If the Book of Mormon is a preparation manual for the Second Coming of Christ, I wonder if the mission and message and martyrdom of Abinadi is a type and a shadow of the mission and message and martyrdom of Joseph Smith.
It is certainly a type of Christ, because like the ancient Israelite prophets and heroes, Abinadi points us to Christ. Abinadi symbolizes Christ in many ways. What does Abinadi's name mean? We know that "Abi" is "my father." "Nadi" may mean "present with you". "My Father is present with you..." Ponder that in connection with Abinadi's mission, message, and martyrdom. Just as Jesus Christ came to show us the Father, Abinadi came to show us Jesus Christ, and therefore the Father. In fact, the connection in Christ between Father and Son is a major theme in Abinadi's teachings, a theme that we can ponder and take to heart.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abinadi#:~:text=In%20Hebrew%2C%20ab%20means%20%22father,would%20come%20down%20and%20would
The Lord was with Abinadi, present with him, and gave him strength to prophesy and to call King Noah and his people to repentance. Abinadi warned that unless the people would repent, they would be utterly destroyed from off the face of the earth. But Abinadi also prophesied that a record would be kept and left behind so that other nations could discover the wickedness and abominations of that people. That we are reading this record is more evidence for the ways in which Abinadi's prophesies have been fulfilled.
What was the reaction of the people to Abinadi's message? Perhaps unsurprisingly they weren't happy. In fact, they were so angry that they captured Abinadi, bound him, brought him to the king, and accused him of "prophesying evil" and saying that God would destroy them. Between Abinadi's prophesies and the ears of the people, the crux of his message was lost... in other words, what Abinadi actually said, and what the people mistakenly heard were two different things. Abinadi was not prophesying evil concerning the people or concerning the life of King Noah. He was exposing their evil and offering them the good news of an opportunity to repent. Naturally, the people and King Noah did not receive the message as good news. Very few people like to be told that they are wicked and that they need to repent. But the fact of the matter is that we all need to repent, and this is good news. ( see for example, Nelson on doing better and being better: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/36nelson?lang=eng )
All of these interactions between Abinadi and the people and King Noah remind me of Elder Holland's landmark talk "The Cost - and Blessings - of Discipleship" ( https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/the-cost-and-blessings-of-discipleship?lang=eng ) Elder Holland helps us to understand what the heavy prophetic burden of prophets like Isaiah and Abinadi might have been like:
"So here we have the burden of those called to bear the messianic message. In addition to teaching, encouraging, and cheering people on (that is the pleasant part of discipleship), from time to time these same messengers are called upon to worry, to warn, and sometimes just to weep (that is the painful part of discipleship). They know full well that the road leading to the promised land “flowing with milk and honey” of necessity runs by way of Mount Sinai, flowing with “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots.”
Unfortunately, messengers of divinely mandated commandments are often no more popular today than they were anciently, as at least two spit-upon, potato-spattered sister missionaries can now attest. Hate is an ugly word, yet there are those today who would say with the corrupt Ahab, “I hate [the prophet Micaiah]; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always [prophesied] evil.” That kind of hate for a prophet’s honesty cost Abinadi his life. As he said to King Noah: “Because I have told you the truth ye are angry with me. … Because I have spoken the word of God ye have judged me that I am mad” or, we might add, provincial, patriarchal, bigoted, unkind, narrow, outmoded, and elderly.
It is as the Lord Himself lamented to the prophet Isaiah:
“[These] children … will not hear the law of the Lord:
“[They] say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
“Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”
Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds.
Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes—and this seems the greatest irony of all—these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of “comfortable” God. Really? He who said not only should we not break commandments, but we should not even think about breaking them. And if we do think about breaking them, we have already broken them in our heart. Does that sound like “comfortable” doctrine, easy on the ear and popular down at the village love-in?
And what of those who just want to look at sin or touch it from a distance? Jesus said with a flash, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. If your hand offends you, cut it off. “I came not to [bring] peace, but a sword,” He warned those who thought He spoke only soothing platitudes. No wonder that, sermon after sermon, the local communities “pray[ed] him to depart out of their coasts.” No wonder, miracle after miracle, His power was attributed not to God but to the devil. It is obvious that the bumper sticker question “What would Jesus do?” will not always bring a popular response."
Abinadi's message was not popular at all at the village love-in of King Noah and his priests. King Noah, his wicked priests, and the people wanted smooth gods and comfortable gods. But Abinadi, the father present with him, demonstrated that Jehovah is not a smooth or comfortable God who makes little or no demands upon his people. Quite the contrary, He is a JEALOUS GOD, who loves His people enough not to tolerate or look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, and who offers ample warnings and opportunities for repentance.
The mobs attempted to flatter King Noah and to rationalize away their sins. Rather than acknowledge the truth of what Abinadi had prophesied, they missed the first crucial step in the repentance process, namely, to recognize wrong doing and to feel Godly sorrow and remorse. It's difficult to imagine a group of people who could be less self-aware than these Zenephites, because they continued to deny any wrong doing and to claim that they were strong and practically invincible. This was a big mistake.
The people delivered Abinadi to King Noah, and King Noah cast Abinadi into prison while he conspired with his wicked priests about what to do about this new nuisance among them. Was Alma in this council of wicked priests? Had Abinadi's first message made any impact on young Alma? Or was Alma still caught in a snare?
My personal opinion is that Alma was still caught in a snare at this point and that he may have been among this council of wicked priests. In fact, it occurred to me that Alma may have even been the wicked priest who began to question and interrogate Abinadi. Of course, in an interrogation like this, the conversation was not intended to be a dialectical exercise for arriving at the truth of things. Like many who ask questions about the scriptures today, the purpose of the wicked priests' questions - perhaps even Alma's questions - was not to arrive at truth but to accuse and condemn Abinadi because he posed a threat to their supposed authority. These wicked priests attempted to cross and to accuse Abinadi, but Abinadi was filled with the Spirit of God and he answered them boldly and withstood all of their questions. This is certainly a type and a shadow of the trial of Jesus Christ before His crucifixion.
Abinadi withstood all of their questions and confounded them. But one of the more persistent among them, perhaps Alma, asked a very cunning question. As I see it, this wicked priest attempted to use ancient scripture from the Book of Isaiah against a present prophet. He attempted to show that Abinadi was not a prophet because he "prophesied evil," whereas Isaiah had written about servants who prophesied good and beautiful things. This wicked priest asked Abinadi to tell him the meaning of a beautiful passage in Isaiah 52:7-10, and Abinadi's swift reply is delicious. In essence he mocked the priests for pretending to be priests and for pretending to understand the spirit of prophesying. Abinadi wisely responded to the wicked priest's cunning question with a better question:
"Are you priests, and pretend to teach this people, and to understand the spirit of prophesying, and yet desire to know of me what these things mean?" (Mosiah 12:25)
And that was just the beginning of Abinadi's withering rebuke. The tables turned and then Abinadi began to question his questioners.
But before we get into Abinadi's response, I think that these passages from Isaiah are very significant because Abinadi will later interpret these passages in their true spirit instead of in the way that the wicked priest, perhaps Alma, wanted the passages to be interpreted. Abinadi boldly demonstrated that the scriptures do not tell us what we want to hear or what we think that they should tell us, rather, the scriptures are the word of God that communicate the truth of things as they really are, as they really were, and as they really will be, and the only way to truly understand them, as Abinadi clearly did, is to do the opposite of what the wicked priests did, namely, to apply our hearts to understanding.
This is the passage from Isaiah that the wicked priest of Noah quoted in his attempt to cross or confuse Abinadi:
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion;
Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem;
The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God?" (Mosiah 12:21-24)
These passages are from the same chapter in Isaiah that contains a prophesy of the marred servant. But out of all of the scriptures, why did the wicked priest choose this particular passage to quote to Abinadi in order to test him? Again, I think it has to do with all of the positive and good news that this passage sets forth. If Abinadi were really a prophet, this wicked priest may have supposed, then wouldn't he share good news and glad tidings instead of "prophesying evil"? Abinadi had been accused of disturbing the peace, stirring up contention, and other false accusations. Therefore, this wicked priest may have been attempting to prove by the scriptures that Abinadi's prophecies were false.
In case we think that the attempt to discredit living prophets by using the words of ancient prophets is a tactic that was limited to King Noah and his wicked priests, we can remember that later in the Book of Mormon, another prophet laments that this same tactic was prevalent in his own time:
"Yea, wo unto this people, because of this time which has arrived, that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time.
And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.
Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are cangry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.
But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.
Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him." (Helaman 13:24-28)
This is exactly what King Noah and his wicked priests were doing, and sadly, it is common today as well. Abinadi and Samuel the Lamanite recognized this problem in their time, and more recently Elder Allen D. Haynie has recognized a similar problem:
"President Russell M. Nelson has testified that “God’s long-established pattern of teaching His children through prophets assures us that He will bless each prophet and that He will bless those who heed prophetic counsel.” So the key is to follow the living prophet. Brothers and sisters, unlike vintage comic books and classic cars, prophetic teachings do not become more valuable with age. That is why we should not seek to use the words of past prophets to dismiss the teachings of living prophets."
Elder Haynie's footnote to this testimony is also significant:
"President Spencer W. Kimball once observed that “they who garnish the sepulchers of the dead prophets begin now by stoning the living ones” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 462). “The most important words we can hear, ponder, and follow are those revealed through our living prophet” (Ronald A. Rasband, “The Things of My Soul,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 40)."
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/16haynie?lang=eng
Abinadi was the living prophet who was sent to warn King Noah and his people to repent or else they would be destroyed, whereas Isaiah was a prophet of the past. Although Isaiah's words and prophesies are very important, and although we should study them carefully, even search them, as the Savior commanded, we should not, like the wicked priests of King Noah, attempt to use the words of Isaiah or any other past prophet against the living prophet and other servants of the Lord. In fact, the more deeper and the more diligently I study the words of both ancient and modern prophets the more clearly I can see the golden thread of truth, the love of God, and testimony of Christ that weaves all of their teachings into a harmonious whole. When misinformed people attempt to emphasize what they consider to be discrepancies between the teachings of ancient and modern prophets, it is usually because the same misinformed people have not fully understood the teachings of these ancient and modern prophets. Like the priests of King Noah, they have not applied their hearts to understanding.
We recall that these priests of King Noah were not the original priests that King Zeniff had appointed. King Noah put down the priests and appointed new priests in their stead, priests who were lifted up in the pride of their hearts and who participated with King Noah in his riotous living. King Noah may have chosen and promoted Alma to this position because he thought that Alma wouldn't oppose him. But Alma mentioned that he was caught in a snare...
It sounds to me that perhaps the snare was that Alma was lured into the position by King Noah and perhaps others, lured with fair promises, and drawn into a life of iniquity. A snare is a trap. Alma was trapped. But what was the trap? What kind of trap did King Noah set? I don't know, but often people in power who have resources and cunning know how to draw others into their traps in order to take advantage of them. Whether Alma was simply snared and trying to get out, or whether Alma was one of the interrogators in Abinadi's trial, I don't think that we know. But at some point Alma understood that Abinadi was telling the truth.
Abinadi turned the tables on the wicked priests of King Noah by asking them the obvious questions: If ye teach the law of Moses why do ye not keep it? That was a zinger. Why do ye set your hearts upon riches? Pow! This is a question that I would like to pose to many of my fellow Americans. Why do ye commit whoredoms and spend your strength with harlots, yea, and cause this people to commit sin, that the Lord has cause to send me to prophesy against this people, yea, even a great evil against this people? Good question. Know ye not that I speak the truth?
I think that at this point in the interrogation, if Alma were present, that he was starting to realize that Abinadi spoke the truth. Abinadi knew that his audience knew that he was telling the truth. Abinadi knew that he was telling the truth and that his words were powerful because the Spirit of the Lord was speaking through him.
Abinadi continued with his piercing questions: And what know ye concerning the law of Moses? Doth salvation come by the law of Moses? What say ye?
The wicked and foolish priests answered that salvation did come by the Law of Moses. Notice that Abinadi didn't simply refute this answer. He could have said, in effect, you silly priests think that salvation comes by the Law of Moses? What a bunch of dimwits. But he didn't. Instead Abinadi began to teach them what Moses actually taught and why Moses' teachings still apply. Abinadi was filled with the Spirit of God and prepared to recite from memory the decalogue and entire passages from the Book of Isaiah. The Spirit of God inspired Abinadi and caused him to become a conduit for the word of God to the wicked priests.
Meanwhile, Alma was probably listening. Alma's honest though sin-sick heart was probably stirred by Abinadi's bold rebuke. Alma's conscience was awakened by the bold testimony of a prophet of God.
I know that these things are true and that they really happened. I know that Abinadi came among the people of King Noah and that he boldly testified of the truth concerning their iniquities. I know that Abinadi's testimony is true and that there is a very good reason why Mormon felt inspired to include this abridgment from the record of Zeniff.
Why did Mormon include this abridgment of Zeniff's record? What was the Lord's message through Abinadi to Noah and his people, and what is the Lord's message to us? It is a great reminder of the very basics of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Lord's own testimony of Himself and His commandments:
"I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other God before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath." (Mosiah 12:34-36)
And just as one final example of the continuity between the teaching of ancient and modern prophets, consider Elder Oaks recent talk that perfectly complements and builds upon Abinadi's testimony: "No Other Gods"
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/no-other-gods?lang=eng
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