Lessons from King Limhi's People

For just under a month I have been studying the story of the people of King Limhi. I am so thankful that there is such a detailed history of what these people went through. There are many lessons to be learned. Granted, I feel that the history may be a little biased because of the man who wrote most of it, Zeniff, but it is not all sugar coated. A group of people leave Zarahemla during the reign of King Benjamin to reclaim the land of their inheritance, the land of Nephi, now occupied by the Lamanites. This is mentioned in the closing verses of the book of Omni.

Zeniff, although not the leader of this group, he does keep the record. He wrote that he was sent as a spy to see if the Nephite armies could destroy the Lamanites. According to Amaleki (in the book of Omni) they wanted to take back the land of Nephi. The leader of the group wanted to destroy everything, but Zeniff, like King Saul, seeing all that was good did not want it all destroyed. This created a civil war that killed all but fifty of them. They went back to Zarahemla, but Zeniff gathered more people and led them back.

He decides to see what the King is like and ask him if they can move in. The blood-thirsty, yet patient, King Laman just gives them the land. Supposedly to bring them into bondage, but he allows them to dwell there for twelve years before he decides to implement the next step in his plan. He attacks the people of Zeniff, but the Lord is on the side of the Zeniff and they win. King Laman dies and a new king attacks, still the Lord protects and helps them and he loses also.

All went well when they were righteous, but Noah, the son of King Zeniff, takes over. He replaces all of the priests with his friends and they live the high life for a while, living off the taxes of the people. Abinadi comes along to call them to repent, but they kill him. Finally the people are fed up, they try to kill King Noah, but the Lamanites are attacking.

Noah and his priests and other cowardly men flee to the wilderness, where they kill him and try to kill his priests. The people who stayed who no less cowardly. They sent their daughters to soften the hearts of these ferocious, blood-thirsty, angry warriors. Luckily for them it works, but with a high price tag. They have to pay a tribute to the Lamanites of one-half of their substance. Eventually Ammon comes along and they work together to help them escape.

This is a sad, sad story. God gave them opportunities to repent, but they didn't take them until almost too late. The good news is that they did repent and God made the best of their bad situation, Lesson #1 Repent right away.

God sent them a prophet but they did not listen because he had no credentials. Lesson #2 Lack of credentials does not mean that someone is not a prophet and telling the truth. The Spirit will tell us if what we are hearing is true not matter who is speaking.

They humbly and patiently accepted the situation they caused, but hoped and prayed for deliverance. Lesson #3 Be patient, the Lord will relieve our suffering when it no longer benefits us.

In the beginning they chose to live among the Lamanites instead of eliminating their influence. This proved fatal after twelve years of peace. Lesson #4 The World always takes over unless we eliminate it from our lives.

On the surface Abinadi's mission seems to be a failure because only one person believes what he had to say. That one person was enough to bless generations of Nephites and Lamanites after. Lesson #5 Success is measured by God's standard not our own.

I know there are more lessons, but this is enough for me to work on for now. I love the scriptures and how they are tailor made for each of our situations and lives.

Wisdom

For several days I studied, pondered, and prayed on what wisdom is. The scripture in Mosiah 8:20-21 seems key to learning what I need.

20 Oh how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with
his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the
children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she
should rule over them!
21 Yea, they are as a wild flock which fleeth from
the shepherd and scattereth, and are driven, and are devoured by the beasts of
the forest.

These scriptures are quite an indictment. I have had to take a look at my blindness and impenetrable understanding. I have found that I try to seek wisdom, but not knowing where to find it or even what it really is, I have been wild and fleeing from the shepherd.

I have determined that there are two types of wisdom. The first is a worldly wisdom. You are judged to be smart by the world or yourself. This type with eventually be confounded by the weak (Alma 32:23, D&C 133:58) and perish (2Nephi27:26). This kind of wisdom is foolish and built upon a sand foundation. Being puffed up with this type of wisdom makes God despise us (2Nephi 9:42).

The other is wisdom with a capital “W”. This one is a little tricky because there are three parts or levels of this wisdom. The first as it applies to us, second as it applies to God, and third the Wisdom God gives to us. The third is more like stepping stones to bridge the gap between the first two types. The Wisdom that applies to us starts in knowing that God knows everything and that compared to Him we know nothing. For us it is also keeping the commandments, service, knowing how to be saved, trusting God to do what He has promised, and taking care of our bodies. This is not a comprehensive list. Understanding our relative ignorance is key to the rest. We won't do those other things to a level that brings salvation with out first knowing that what we think doesn't matter unless is comes from God through the Holy Ghost.

These along with the choice to be baptized, open the gate to wisdom's path. This path ultimately leads to God and knowing what He does. We have to ask, be humble, be wise (see above paragraph), and then treasure the wisdom He imparts in our hearts, only revealing to others what God commands you to.

Ultimate Wisdom is that which God possesses. He knows all and always does what is just, right, good, etc... All he does is for a wise purpose, mostly that we know not.

The great thing about wisdom is that it never matters how much we have as long as we treasure what we do have and use it. Wisdom receives wisdom (D&C 88:40). We learn it line upon line, precept upon precept (D&C 28:30). WE have to be humble to get Wisdom and we have to be wise to be humble. Once we start on the pat it seems that God will keep giving until we choose to leave the path by boasting and depending on our own wisdom.

Asking means seeking after wisdom. We are commanded to seek first by faith (D&C ). If we don't have enough faith we seek it by studying good books. I think that the study is to increase our faith, because all that we study will avail us nothing until we receive it in the Spirit of the Lord, which is wisdom and understanding. Otherwise we begin to depend on our own wisdom and we are off the path. God has promised us in D&C 111:11 ...”be ye as wise as serpents and yet without sin; and I will order al things for your good as fast as ye are able to receive them.” I believe we will become wisest the fastest by concentrating on entering the path and continuing forward; being humble, keeping the commandments, learning how to be saved, and most importantly, trusting God's wisdom to keep us safe. Exactly what learning by faith means is not exactly clear to me yet.