The Book of Mormon
~150 BC

Mosiah 13

God Protects Abinadi

When the king heard these words, he said to his priests: 'Take this man away and kill him! Why should we listen to him? He is crazy.' The priests moved forward and tried to grab him. But he stood strong against them and said: 'Don’t touch me! God will hurt you if you put your hands on me. I haven’t finished saying what the Lord sent me to say. I haven’t told you what you asked me to tell. So God won’t let you destroy me right now.' 'I must do what God told me to do. Because I told you the truth, you are angry with me. Because I spoke God’s words, you think I am crazy.'

After Abinadi said these words, King Noah’s people didn’t dare touch him. The Spirit of the Lord was with him. His face shone very brightly, just like Moses’ face did on Mount Sinai when he talked with the Lord. He spoke with power from God. He kept talking and said: 'You see that you can’t kill me. So I will finish my message. I can tell it hurts your hearts when I tell you the truth about your sins.' 'My words fill you with wonder and surprise, and with anger.'

'But I will finish my message. Then it doesn’t matter where I go, as long as I am saved.' 'I tell you this: What you do with me after this will be like a sign of things that will happen later.' 'Now I will read you the rest of God’s commandments. I can see they are not written in your hearts. I can see that you have studied and taught sin most of your lives.'

The Ten Commandments

'Remember, I told you: Don’t make any idols. Don’t make anything that looks like things in heaven above, on the earth below, or in the water under the earth.' 'Also: Don’t bow down to them or worship them. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I will punish the sins of the fathers on their children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.' 'But I will show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.' 'Don’t use the Lord your God’s name in a bad way. The Lord will punish anyone who uses his name in a bad way.'

'Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.' 'Work for six days and do all your work.' 'But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Don’t do any work. Not you, your son, your daughter, your servants, your animals, or visitors in your home.' 'In six days the Lord made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.'

'Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long time in the land the Lord your God gives you.' 'Don’t kill.' 'Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal.' 'Don’t lie about your neighbor.' 'Don’t want your neighbor’s house. Don’t want your neighbor’s wife, servants, animals, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'

The Law Doesn’t Save

After Abinadi finished saying these things, he asked them: 'Have you taught this people to do all these things? To keep these commandments?' 'I say to you, No! If you had taught them, the Lord wouldn’t have sent me here to say bad things will happen to these people.'

'You said that being saved comes through Moses’ law. I tell you it’s still good to keep Moses’ law for now. But the time will come when people won’t need to keep Moses’ law anymore.' 'I also tell you that being saved doesn’t come just from the law. If God himself didn’t pay for the sins of his people, they would all die, even with Moses’ law.' 'I tell you it was necessary to give the children of Israel a law. It was a very strict law. They were stubborn people. They were quick to do bad things and slow to remember the Lord their God.' 'So they got a law. It was a law of actions and ceremonies. They had to follow it carefully every day. This helped them remember God and their duty to him.'

'But I tell you, all these things were signs of things to come.' 'Did they understand the law? I tell you, No. Not everyone understood the law. This was because their hearts were hard. They didn’t understand that no one could be saved except through God saving them.'

The Prophets Told About Christ

'Didn’t Moses tell them about the Messiah coming? Didn’t he say God would save his people? Haven’t all the prophets since the world began said something about these things?' 'Haven’t they said that God himself would come down among people? That he would look like a man and go out with great power on the earth?' 'Haven’t they also said that he would bring the dead back to life? And that he himself would suffer and be hurt?'

Influences

  • 13:1 — Matthew 8:29 (KJV)
    And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
  • 13:2 — Luke 21:12 (KJV)
    But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
  • 13:3 — John 20:17 (KJV)
    Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
  • 13:4 — Acts 16:15 (KJV)
    And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
  • 13:6 — Luke 9:1 (KJV)
    Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
  • 13:7 — John 8:45 (KJV)
    And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
  • 13:8 — Acts 3:10 (KJV)
    And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
  • 13:9 — John 14:4 (KJV)
    And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
  • 13:10 — Colossians 2:17 (KJV)
    Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
  • 13:11 — Luke 8:46 (KJV)
    And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
  • 13:12 — Exodus 20:4 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
  • 13:12 — Mark 12:25 (KJV)
    For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
  • 13:13 — Exodus 20:5 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
  • 13:14 — Exodus 20:6 (KJV)
    And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
  • 13:15 — Exodus 20:7 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
  • 13:16 — Exodus 20:8 (KJV)
    Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  • 13:17 — Exodus 20:9 (KJV)
    Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
  • 13:18 — Exodus 20:10 (KJV)
    But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
  • 13:19 — Exodus 20:11 (KJV)
    For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
  • 13:20 — Exodus 20:12 (KJV)
    Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
  • 13:21 — Exodus 20:13 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not kill.
  • 13:22 — Exodus 20:14 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  • 13:23 — Exodus 20:15 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not steal.
  • 13:24 — Exodus 20:16 (KJV)
    Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
  • 13:28 — Revelation 21:3 (KJV)
    And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
  • 13:28 — Hebrews 10:17 (KJV)
    And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
  • 13:29 — Acts 5:38 (KJV)
    And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
  • 13:29 — John 18:14 (KJV)
    Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
  • 13:32 — Mark 3:5 (KJV)
    And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
  • 13:32 — John 8:27 (KJV)
    They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
  • 13:32 — Romans 3:24 (KJV)
    Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
  • 13:34 — Philippians 2:7 (KJV)
    But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
  • 13:35 — Matthew 22:31 (KJV)
    But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
Mosiah 12Mosiah 14