Book of Mormon 365. Mosiah 20:12-21:8

We are just a little bit late to the 365 challenge for reading The Book of Mormon, but our bishopric challenged the ward to commit to reading the scriptures this year and so ... better late than never. Today during testimony meeting, several people bore their testimony about reading the scriptures and participating in this initiative from the bishopric which was announced at Ward Conference in January. So, we missed 121 days which covered 1 Nephi 1 through Mosiah 20:11. Now we have 244 days to go and we started as a family tonight on verse 12 of Mosiah 20.

My goal on this blog will be to share out any insight from the kids or Kari or me each day as we read. I may also summarize and reflect on the verses we have read.

Basically, this passage tonight seemed to focus on a huge misunderstanding between King Limhi and the Lamanites. Several of the Lamanite daughters were abducted into the wilderness by the priests of King Noah (Limhi's dad) and the Lamanites assumed Limhi had something to do with this. They came to battle.

But, Limhi was a righteous king who knew full well of the wickedness of his father's ways. Once his men had captured the leader of the Lamanites, instead of just killing him, he asked to see the man. That's when he discovered the situation about the abduction, and he realized that slaying this man would simply escalate the situation and prolong the conflict that already existed between the two sides. In fact, he let the man and his troops retreat with a promise to get to the bottom of what had happened and to continue to serve the Lamanites as basically a fulfillment of the prophecy made by Abinadi to King Noah from the Lord.

As it happens, the Lamanites continued to antagonize Limhi and his people by smiting them on their cheek and instigating violence. They tolerated the abuse as long as they could stand it before it became too much and finally Limhi, in chapter 21, gave permission for his men to organize themselves to retaliate.

So, they went off to challenge the Lamanites and the scripture records, "the Lamanites did beat them, and drove them back, and slew many of them." (v. 8)

I guess what I take away from this on one hand is the idea that sometimes we are in bondage and must simply accept the consequences of our actions. We don't necessarily have to like the consequences, but the Lord is going to carry out His will. It will be interesting to see what Limhi decides to do next.