Like Lambs to the Slaughter: Jesus, Joseph, and Abinadi

Book of Mormon Notes - Friday, July 7, 2023, Mosiah 15

We are blessed because Mormon not only included Abinadi’s direct recitation of Isaiah in his abridgment of Nephi’s large plates, but he also included Abinadi’s interpretation of these same passages from the Book of Isaiah. Thus, in addition to the commentary and interpretation of Isaiah by Nephi and Jacob, we now have commentary and interpretation of Isaiah by the great prophet Abinadi.

It is even more fascinating to me that later on in the Book of Mormon, the Lord Himself picks up almost exactly where Abinadi left off with his recitation, commentary, and interpretation of Isaiah 53, that is, the Lord recites, interprets, and comments upon Isaiah 54.

Furthermore, in Abinadi’s recitation of Isaiah 53, we learn that the Lord was despised, rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and that “we hid as it were our faces from him.” Gileadi’s translation is helpful here:

He was despised and disdained by men, a man of grief, accustomed to suffering. As one from whom men hide their faces he was shunned, deemed by us of no merit.

Now consider this passage in light of the Savior’s merciful interpretation of the following Chapter in Isaiah during His visit among the Nephites as recorded in 3 Nephi:

For the Lord hath called thee ^aas a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

For a small moment have I ^aforsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.

In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting ^akindness will I have ^bmercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

For ^athis, the ^bwaters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee.

For the ^amountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my ^bkindness shall not ^cdepart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. (3 Nephi 22:6-10)

Because not one of us is perfect, and because each of us has sinned, it is as though we have hidden our faces from the Lord. The Lord was shunned even more than lepers were shunned. We hid as it were our faces from Him, and we esteemed Him not. After His suffering, sacrifice, and resurrection, Jesus Christ, the ultimate interpreter of Isaiah (because He gave the words to Isaiah in the first place), in a little wrath, hid His face from us for a moment too.

The Gileadi translation of these passages from Isaiah 54 may also be helpful:

Jehovah calls you back as a spouse forsaken and forlorn, a wife married in youth only to be rejected, says your God. I forsook you indeed momentarily, but with loving compassion I will gather you up. In fleeting exasperation I hid my face from you, but with everlasting charity I will have compassion on you, says Jehovah, who redeems you. This is to me as in the days^a of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would no more flood the earth. So I swear to have no more anger toward you, never again to rebuke you. For the mountains shall be removed and the hills collapse with shaking, but my charity toward you shall never be removed, nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says Jehovah, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:6-10)

King Noah and his priests hid their faces from Abinadi as well, but at least one among them, the young man Alma, knew that Abinadi was speaking the truth.

Abinadi continued to unfold the meaning of Isaiah, both the passages that he had recited (Isaiah 53) and the passages that the wicked priest had attempted to use against Abinadi (Isaiah 52:7-10). Thus we see a natural flow in the Book of Mormon of the passages in Isaiah from Isaiah 52 to 53 to 54 - from the wicked priest to Abinadi to the Lord Himself.

Abinadi unfolds the true meaning of Isaiah to King Noah and his wicked priests, and to us. In the process of his teaching, the tables now completely turned against King Noah and his wicked priests, Abinadi then explains the meaning of the passage from Isaiah 52:7-10 that the wicked priest had quoted earlier. In fact, the tables were so completely turned that the wicked priest, who probably hoped that Isaiah’s good news and glad tidings about those who publish peace applied to him and his colleagues, discovered to his dismay that the true meaning was precisely the opposite of what he may have supposed. In other words, Abinadi revealed that Isaiah’s prophecy did not apply to them at that time, but to the very person whom they had persecuted, arrested, imprisoned, arraigned for judgment, and sentenced to death, namely Abinadi himself:

And now I say unto you, who shall declare his ^ageneration? Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for ^bsin he shall see his ^cseed. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed?

Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the ^aprophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the ^bkingdom of God.

For these are they whose sins ^ahe has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?

Yea, and are not the ^aprophets, every one that has opened his mouth to prophesy, that has not fallen into transgression, I mean all the holy prophets ever since the world began? I say unto you that they are his seed.

And these are ^athey who have published peace, who have brought good ^btidings of good, who have ^cpublished salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth. (Mosiah 15:10-14)

Another reason to consider that Abinadi’s testimony helped to prepare the Prophet Joseph Smith for his martyrdom is that on his way to Carthage Jail and impending death, the Prophet Joseph Smith prophesied:

I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am as calm as a summer's morning. I have a consciences void of an offense toward God and toward all men. If they take my life, I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall be said of me, 'He was murdered in cold blood!'"

Where have we heard this analogy before? That’s right. Abinadi recited Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus Christ just before his own martyrdom:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. (Mosiah 14:7)

And,

And after all this, after working many mighty miracles among the children of men, he shall be led, yea, even ^aas Isaiah said, as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he ^bopened not his mouth. (Mosiah 15:6)

How much more meaning this gives to one of the titles of our Savior, The Lamb of God.

If we want to understand Isaiah, besides the Lord Himself and Isaiah himself, we have no better interpreter of Isaiah than the great prophet Abinadi. And there is so much more in this chapter…