3 Nephi 27

3 Nephi 27:1 it came to pass that the disciples were gathered together and were united in mighty prayer and fasting. I often think about this term, united. In Ukrainian, it is the same term used by the savior when he says that he and the father are one, and when he prays that the apostles will be one with him. In that context, it speaks of having aligned desires and will. So when the apostles come together and are united/one in mighty prayer, they clearly weren't 100% in agreement about their issue, because they were asking The Lord to resolve a dispute about the name of the church. I suppose they could have been aligned on the goal of "resolve this issue" or something else but the question stands: can you be united in mighty prayer with someone where the outcomes desired are different? For example, a family praying abut whether to move with one parent desiring to move and the other to stay. Or about having children, with similarly opposing opinions.

Mosiah 12

Mosiah 12:17-18 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; I am generally good about not working on Sunday but the comment here about your servants not working is interesting—how did people who rely on servants to prepare their food get by on Sunday? That thought led me to the question of how we prepare our food and Betsy often does it, but when we talk about division of labor in our family, my official work is to go to the office an earn money and Betsy's work is taking care of the kids. Seemingly as part of that, there is some home care and meal preparation. So if preparing meals is part of her job, should I request to e allowed to prepare the meals on Sunday? If I do it, it's service but if she does it, it's work.

Mosiah 12

Mosiah 12:19 And they began to question him, that they might cross him, that thereby they might have wherewith to accuse him; but he answered them boldly, and withstood all their questions, yea, to their astonishment; for he did withstand them in all their questions, and did confound them in all their words. When they had Abinadi, they questioned him to try and get him to blaspheme. It's funny to me that the justification for death that they most naturally moved toward was religious. What would it be like to live in a society where the capital offenses were all religious in nature? I worry it might be a little like the Salem community when they were hunting of witches. 12:26 I say unto you, wo be unto you for perverting the ways of the Lord! For if ye understand these things ye have not taught them; therefore, ye have perverted the ways of the Lord. if you understand something and do not teach it, you are perverting it? Or does that only relate to priests and gospel principles? And what if you just don't understand it and are teaching it wrong? But he appears to be saying (at least to these priests) that because they are priests, they have an obligation to understand these things. That seems to very naturally carry over to basically all priesthood holders—we are probably obligated to both understand and teach doctrine.

Mosiah 12

Mosiah 12:15 And behold, we are strong, we shall not come into bondage, or be taken captive by our enemies; yea, and thou hast prospered in the land, and thou shalt also prosper. Here, they use the fact that he has prospered as justification for his perceived righteousness. I think we do this often. Surprisingly, thee political left is more likely to make the opposite determination—where the political right stems from a Protestant Christian background, which prizes hard work above dependence, and often associates material success with that hard work and God's implied approval—the political left uses wealth acquisition as a clear example of greed and a lack of compassion. Focusing on the more convenient sin, I suppose, the one on sloth and envy, the other on greed and gluttony. The problem is that scripturally, we have clear examples of God blessing the righteous and taking credit for their success and other clear examples of God indicating he had no hand in a wicked person's material success. End lesson: you can't judge a man by his possessions.

Mosiah 12

Mosiah 12:13 And now, O king, what great evil hast thou done, or what great sins have thy people committed, that we should be condemned of God or judged of this man? we're the people really that unaware of their sinful behavior? How could they be, considering the punishments God was threatening to pour out on them? At this point, it had been at least 20 years since their last war with the Lamanites, during which, they had stomped all over the Lamanites. People now, though, don't think they are doing anything wrong when they sin. I'm thinking of Sarah, who moved in with her boyfriend, and then was hurt when her grandmother looked at her reproachfully for participating in communion. She felt (despite growing up being clearly taught otherwise) that she was not doing anything very wrong, meaning she didn't think it was bad to be having premarital sex or to be taking communion while doing so. Which I don't get. I mean, I could understand most of her behavior—all of it, in fact—except for the part where she didn't think her grandmother should look at her with reproach.

Mosiah 12

Mosiah 12:1 And it came to pass that after the space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise, that they knew him not, and began to prophesy among them, saying: Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying—Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this my people, for they have hardened their hearts against my words; they have repented not of their evil doings; therefore, I will visit them in my anger, yea, in my fierce anger will I visit them in their iniquities and abominations. I wonder what was the purpose of his disguise if the first words out of his mouth were, "my name's Abinadi." 12:3 And it shall come to pass that the life of king Noah shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace; for he shall know that I am the Lord. This is an interesting metaphor. How often do you think that something is worth a piece of clothing in a furnace? How often do you throw clothing in the furnace anyway? How many Nephites had furnaces? Noah's people, when they brought Abinadi to king Noah quoted it a little differently, 12:10 10 And he also prophesieth evil concerning thy life, and saith that thy life shall be as a garment in a furnace of fire, indicating that regardless of what he said, they heard that king Noah's life was going to end with him being burned up. (I wonder if perhaps his priests took this prophesy as inspiration when they had finally had enough of him, or if it was just their preferred method of killing. Would Abinadi have been burned at the stake if he hadn't prophesied this against king Noah?) The idea of cloth being thrown(specifically) into a furnace isn't something that I can find other references to, but I did find a couple of places where God talks to Moses about burning clothing. In Leviticus, Moses instructed that the clotting of a leper should be burned if the disease was there, And if it appear still in the garment...thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire. The implication is clear, there comes a point where the clothing is unredeemable and must be burned to prevent the further spread of disease. In the Epistle of Jude, when speaking about how we need to concern ourselves with the salvation of others, he tells us, And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. This is a fairly clear reference to what needs tobe burned and what doesn't—the filthy garment, the connection to the worldly sins, has to go, but the sinner himself needs to be plucked from the fire before he is consumed. I believe the fear is supposed to be our caution regarding touching the unclean thing; in our quest to save others, we need to be cautious to avoid falling into the same sins we are helping them to overcome. Anyway, back to the story of king Noah, his life is going to be treated like the diseased garment that it is, spreading its filth and disease all over the kingdom.

Mosiah 2

Mosiah 2:28 I say unto you that I have caused that ye should assemble yourselves together that I might rid my garments of your blood, at this period of time when I am about to go down to my grave, that I might go down in peace, and my immortal spirit may join the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God. ie always thought it was a great thing that this guy wanted to get to heaven in order to join the choir. I wonder whether he sang well in life and loved it or if he, like me, was not gifted in singing and so looked forward to the opportunity to go to heaven where he would be able to sing the way he perhaps always heard his voice inside his own head. 2:3131 And now, my brethren, I would that ye should do as ye have hitherto done. As ye have kept my commandments, and also the commandments of my father, and have prospered... I don't know of I had noticed this before, but these people are (some of them) the group that left the land of Nephi when the Lord warned the first Mosiah to take those who would listen and bail. They left the people who were unwilling to listen to the prophets, and they were either absorbed or slaughtered or driven out by the Lamanites who showed up to possess that land. So when he's talking to them and reminding them that they have listened to the prophet, he knows full well what they were asked to do in abandoning their homes and lands to follow a prophet's word. You also have here, the Mulekites, who I have to wonder about here. They had lost much of their language, had no writing, and had lost their spiritual moorings until Mosiah showed up, talking a fine language, reading out of books, and telling them about God. Apparently they latched onto it, though, as he doesn't distinguish between Mulekites and Nephites as he speaks.