The Wisdom of King Mosiah

Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, August 6, 2023, Mosiah 29

This is one of the most politically fascinating chapters in the Book of Mormon. In this chapter we learn of the transition from the reign of the kings to the reign of the judges and what inspired that transition.

King Mosiah did not reign as a tyrant. The voice of the people was an important part of the political process. Since neither Aaron or any of the other sons of Mosiah desired to reign as king in their father’s stead, King Mosiah wisely convened a council to decide how best to proceed.

Aaron and his brothers did not seek for power, prominence, position, or prestige. They were more eager to serve and bless even their enemies than they were to rule. The people wanted Aaron to be their king, but he refused. I believe that since King Mosiah had recently translated the Jaredite record, he had learned great lessons from this record, both spiritual and political, that blessed him with wisdom. The Jaredite record, as we shall see, is filled with accounts of kings and the problems associated with kingship. With the translation of the Jaredite record fresh in his mind, King Mosiah wisely prevented his people from having another king or forcing anyone to be their king.

Mormon informs us that King Mosiah summoned his people to deliberate upon the matter by means of a written communication. Therefore, Mormon may have had access to Mosiah’s own words. It appears that Mormon quotes King Mosiah verbatim on this subject. King Mosiah aimed to prevent contention among his people, but he was also concerned about his own son’s welfare. As long as just men reign, things usually work out well. But the problem is that men are not always just, and kings are not always just. King Mosiah remembered especially the problems that King Noah had caused among the Zenephites. These are the words that Mormon appears to have quoted verbatim from King Mosiah’s message to his people:

Behold, O ye my people, or my brethren, for I esteem you as such, I desire that ye should consider the cause which ye are called to ^aconsider—for ye are desirous to have a king.

Now I declare unto you that he to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong has declined, and will not take upon him the kingdom.

And now if there should be another appointed in his stead, behold I fear there would rise ^acontentions among you. And who knoweth but what my son, to whom the kingdom doth belong, should turn to be angry and ^bdraw away a part of this people after him, which would cause wars and contentions among you, which would be the cause of shedding much blood and perverting the way of the Lord, yea, and destroy the souls of many people.

Now I say unto you let us be wise and consider these things, for we have no right to destroy my son, neither should we have any right to destroy another if he should be appointed in his stead.

And if my son should turn again to his pride and vain things he would recall the things which he had said, and claim his right to the kingdom, which would cause him and also this people to commit much sin.

And now let us be wise and look forward to these things, and do that which will make for the peace of this people.

Therefore I will be your king the remainder of my days; nevertheless, let ^aus appoint ^bjudges, to judge this people according to our law; and we will newly arrange the affairs of this people, for we will appoint wise men to be judges, that will judge this people according to the commandments of God.

Now it is better that a man should be ^ajudged of God than of man, for the judgments of God are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just.

Therefore, ^aif it were possible that you could have ^bjust men to be your kings, who would establish the ^claws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments, yea, if ye could have men for your kings who would do even as my father ^dBenjamin did for this people—I say unto you, if this could always be the case then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you.

And even I myself have labored with all the power and faculties which I have possessed, to teach you the commandments of God, and to establish peace throughout the land, that there should be no wars nor contentions, no stealing, nor plundering, nor murdering, nor any manner of iniquity;

And whosoever has committed iniquity, him have I ^apunished according to the crime which he has committed, according to the law which has been given to us by our fathers.

Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a ^aking or kings to rule over you.

For behold, how much ^ainiquity doth one ^bwicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!

Yea, remember king Noah, his ^awickedness and his abominations, and also the wickedness and abominations of his people. Behold what great destruction did come upon them; and also because of their iniquities they were brought into ^bbondage.

And were it not for the interposition of their all-wise Creator, and this because of their sincere repentance, they must unavoidably remain in bondage until now.

But behold, he did deliver them because they did ^ahumble themselves before him; and because they ^bcried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of ^cmercy towards them that put their ^dtrust in him.

And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous ^aking save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.

For behold, he has his ^afriends in iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God;

And he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he ^acauseth to be destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies against them to war, and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous ^bking doth pervert the ways of all righteousness.

And now behold I say unto you, it is not expedient that such abominations should come upon you.

Therefore, choose you by the ^avoice of this people, judges, that ye may be ^bjudged according to the ^claws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.

Now it is not common that the ^avoice of the people desireth anything ^bcontrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the ^cpeople to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.

And ^aif the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.

And now if ye have judges, and they do not ^ajudge you according to the law which has been given, ye can cause that they may be judged of a higher judge.

If your higher judges do not judge righteous judgments, ye shall cause that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together, and they shall judge your higher judges, according to the voice of the people.

And I command you to do these things in the fear of the Lord; and I command you to do these things, and that ye have no king; that if these people commit sins and iniquities they shall be answered upon their own heads.

For behold I say unto you, the sins of many people have been ^acaused by the iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings.

And now I desire that this ^ainequality should be no more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land of ^bliberty, and ^cevery man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit that we may live and inherit the land, yea, even as long as any of our posterity remains upon the face of the land. (Mosiah 29:5-32)

Mormon then abridged the remainder of King Mosiah’s written message to his people. Mormon gives an account of the people’s response to King Mosiah’s message. They were convinced of the truth of his message. Not only were they convinced, but they immediately began to implement King Mosiah’s instructions. Moreover, the people loved and esteemed King Mosiah greatly, because they knew that he was not a tyrant who was trying to control them or exercise power over them. They knew that King Mosiah’s first priority was to bless his people and preserve their liberty, peace, and prosperity. Like his father King Benjamin, King Mosiah was the embodiment of righteous leadership.

Thus began the reign of the judges, with Alma the Younger as the first chief judge. Alma the Younger was also the high priest. Political and ecclesiastical rule were combined once again as they had been in the time of Nephi, except this time there were no kings. Alma the Elder died (82), and then King Mosiah also died (63).

There is no better evidence that unrighteous kings lead their people into sin, besides the life of King Noah, than the evidence provided in the record of the Jaredites. The translation of the Jaredite record must have been a spectacular revelation. We know that it was because of the reaction of the people upon learning about the Jaredites:

Now after Mosiah had finished ^atranslating these ^brecords, behold, it gave an account of the people who were ^cdestroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the ^dgreat tower, at the time the Lord ^econfounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam.

Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice.

And this account shall be ^awritten hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account. (Mosiah 28:17-19)

These verses indicate to me that although King Mosiah translated the Jaredite record, and although Mormon had read and understood it, at this point in Mormon’s work, Moroni had not yet begun to abridge the Jaredite record. But it also indicates that Mormon planned to include an abridgment of the Jaredite record among the plates of the Book of Mormon. Whether or not Mormon had already commissioned Moroni to complete the Book of Mormon by creating and inserting the abridgment of the Jaredite record, I do not know. But what we do know is that the first people to read the Jaredite record after the destruction of the Jaredites were King Mosiah and his people. They mourned exceedingly because of what they learned from the Jaredite record, but the Jaredite record also gave them much knowledge.

I wonder if we read the Nephite record with the same earnestness and the same feeling of mourning for the downfall of the Nephites that the people of Mosiah felt upon learning from the Jaredite record. Are we filled with sorrow to learn of the rise and fall of the Nephites and all of the terrible things that led to the destruction of their civilization? Do we rejoice because of the great knowledge that Mormon’s record provides for us? Do we learn from the Book of Mormon with the same focus and insight that King Mosiah had after translating the Jaredite plates? The translator of those plates, King Mosiah, appears to have received revelation for his own stewardship and to bless his own people through the process of translation. This is also true of Joseph Smith, who received revelation for his own calling in the process of translating the Book of Mormon.

Perhaps if we imagined that we had been handed Mormon’s record in the original reformed Egyptian and the Jaredite record in the original language of those plates, then we would better appreciate the value of those records. Then we could imagine that in order to read anything from either sets of plates, we would need the help of the interpreters, the instruments that the Lord prepared for the translation of those ancient records. Perhaps we should do this anyways as we study the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Ether because, as Elder Scott and others have noted, the Book of Mormon itself can become a kind of Urim and Thummim for us:

If you have not yet drunk deeply from this fountain of pure truth, with all of my soul I encourage you to do so now. Don’t let the consistent study of the Book of Mormon be one of the things that you intend to do but never quite accomplish. Begin today.

I bear witness that it can become a personal “Urim and Thummim” in your life.

King Mosiah mourned because of the downfall of the Jaredites, but part of the knowledge that he gained from his translation of the Jaredite record, knowledge that caused him to rejoice, must have included, at least in part, his inspiration to initiate the reign of the judges in Zarahemla and for the Nephite civilization.

The Jaredite record included everything from the time of Adam until their downfall. That is an amazing record, like the Bible or the Plates of Brass. But King Mosiah had access to many records. Furthermore, we know that Mormon and Moroni had access to a veritable treasure trove of records from which to draw while creating their abridgments:

Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited the plates...When Joseph got the plates, the angels instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under the table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were all together in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ." I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it... (Brigham Young, JD 19:38; Also JD 4:105)

The work of abridgment, therefore, was more arduous than merely copying text from Nephi’s plates, from the Book of Isaiah, or from the Jaredite records. Mormon and Moroni were the best historians in the world. Since their own civilization was on the verge of destruction, they may have preferred to withdraw into their hall of records and immerse themselves in the scriptures. We are the beneficiaries of their Herculean efforts.

There is so much more in this chapter. I find it significant that President Nelson, like King Mosiah, has labored to “do that which will make for the peace of this people.” Like King Mosiah, President Nelson desires to be wise and look forward to the future in order to establish peace. This is also what Melchizedek and others have done. But King Mosiah was both a political and an ecclesiastical leader, a king and a seer. His solution to the problem of corrupt kingship, or tyranny, was a unique system of government that in some ways points forward to the unique system of government that was established for the United States of America.

King Mosiah’s system of government was based on law, like a constitution. Wise men were selected as judges to judge the people according to the Nephite law, and according to the commandments of God. King Mosiah’s insight about judgment is simple and true, and something to ponder:

Now it is better that a man should be ^ajudged of God than of man, for the judgments of God are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just. (Mosiah 29:12)

Why did King Mosiah end the reign of the kings among the Nephites? Because he knew from experience and from history that men are not always just. King Mosiah understood what the Founding Fathers understood about human nature:

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

Like the Founders, King Mosiah knew that ambition and power often corrupt:

Therefore, ^aif it were possible that you could have ^bjust men to be your kings, who would establish the ^claws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments, yea, if ye could have men for your kings who would do even as my father ^dBenjamin did for this people—I say unto you, if this could always be the case then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you.

Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a ^aking or kings to rule over you.

For behold, how much ^ainiquity doth one ^bwicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!

Yea, remember king Noah, his ^awickedness and his abominations, and also the wickedness and abominations of his people. Behold what great destruction did come upon them; and also because of their iniquities they were brought into ^bbondage. (Mosiah 29:16-18)

King Mosiah’s recommendation for judges was not just a top down edict. It was a partially democratic process:

Therefore, choose you by the ^avoice of this people, judges, that ye may be ^bjudged according to the ^claws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord. (Mosiah 29:25)

King Mosiah understood the voice of the people. He understood and established the righteous laws and traditions of his fathers. He understood faction, and that the majority of the people would usually desire what is right. He also understood what would happen when the majority of the people did not desire what is right:

Now it is not common that the ^avoice of the people desireth anything ^bcontrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the ^cpeople to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.

And ^aif the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land. (Mosiah 29:26-27)

Notice that King Mosiah makes a direct reference to the Jaredites here. The destruction that had hitherto visited the Promised Land was the destruction of the Jaredites. King Mosiah’s warning was prescient for his own people, and it is even more relevant today than it was for the Nephites or the Jaredites. King Mosiah did great things to preserve liberty in the Promised Land. He was a George Washington of sorts. All of these things were done in preparation for Christ’s First Coming, only 91 years in the future.