Post by Heloram –
Father is getting pretty frail, in fact it took everything he had to deliver his speech from the tower. Everybody pretty much expected him to be stepping aside as our king, so it was no surprise when he announced that my brother Mosiah would now become their teacher and king. For us close to him, it was evident the Lord supported our father, not only through his life but particularly as he now spoke to our people.
In referring to Mosiah as his replacement, he referred to him as a teacher, a ruler and a King. I think as he described his own service as King, I believe he was reinforcing to my brother Mosiah the pattern of a righteous king – in short: Teach, Serve, Rule with Love and Humility – and mostly – OBEY GOD!
The promise of prosperity and protection from our enemies, could not have been more clear. He again warned us to beware and not let contentions arise among us. He quoted my grandfather King Mosiah.
“But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit. For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge.”
It was interesting he had to remind us that we know better, that we have been taught and if we now turn away, the promise of blessings, prosperity and preservation will be taken from us. The very spirit which guides us in wisdom’s path will be withdrawn. We not only lose the spirit but we were warned this loss of spirit equated with open rebellion against God, wow. In this rebellion we then become enemies to all righteousness. That is pretty sobering. Think about it. He says that if we lose the spirit after we have it, we withdraw from the Spirit of the Lord and we come out in open rebellion against God? At that point we begin listening to and obeying the evil spirit.
There is no way I can do this part of his speech justice, but you need it.
“Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.”
“And now I say unto you, that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never–ending torment.
O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand, I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.”
If you didn’t know it yet, I love my father – but I chuckle at how he concluded this doom and endless torment part of his speech.
Basically he says. But think about how blessed and happy those who keep the commandments are. They are blessed in everything, spiritually, temporally and if they hold out to the end they are received into heaven and get to live with God in a state of never-ending happiness.
Well, I do like happy endings, and, the Lord God has spoken it.
(Book of Mormon | Mosiah 2:29 – 41)
