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.