I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come Follow Me Mosiah 4-6 (If you missed last week’s insights for Come Follow Me Mosiah 1-3 click here). Save this pin to read later.
We Are All Beggars.
“For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?”
Mosiah 4;19
In Mosiah 4 King Benjamin relays the command to be charitable and Christlike with all that we have. He addresses common concerns of people bringing their own ill-fortune upon themselves, and not being able to help because we lack means.
He then asks the soul-searching question in verse 19. Are we not all beggars? If we are all given everything we have by God, then what right do we have to refuse God’s command that we willingly give of our substance to help others? This is how the economics of heaven work, willingly giving to those in need humbles the rich and exults the poor! The keyword is willing, Satan’s counterfeit is forcing people to do so, and that is socialism.
Not only is this the economic laws of heaven, but giving to the poor is vital to retaining a remission of our sins! Elder Jeffrey R. Holand taught, “We obtain a remission of our sins by pleading to God, who compassionately responds, but we retain a remission of our sins by compassionately responding to the poor who plead to us.”
Enduring to the End.
“And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days…”
Mosiah 5:5
Of what good is it to start something if you don’t finish? It availeth nothing. This is why we are commanded to endure to the end. God does not want flash in the pan discipleship at the end of life aka death-bed repentance.
God seeks to forge within us the attributes of deity! That takes consistent balanced efforts. That takes a saint who is willing to endure the furnaces of trains and endure to the end.
Joseph B. Wirthlin
Death.
“And king Benjamin lived three years and he died.”
Mosiah 6:5
Death is one of the inevitables of life. It will come upon each of us, for some, it comes when they are old and their life is fully lived; for others, death comes earlier. Whatever the timing, death will come upon us, our loved ones, and friends.
The gospel of Christ is often the only thing that will bring us comfort when our loved ones are taken home through the doors of death. Without the plan of salvation, death is the destroyer or hopes, homes, and families. But because of Jesus Christ and the restoration, we know that families are eternal and death has lost it’s sting!
Work.
“And king Mosiah did cause his people that they should till the earth. And he also, himself, did till the earth, that thereby he might not become burdensome to his people, that he might do according to that which his father had done in all things. And there was no contention among all his people for the space of three years.” Mosiah 6:7
Mosiah understood the value of work, not only did he cause his people to work, but he himself also joined them in working. Why? Because it is an eternal principle called the Law of the Harvest.
Mosiah knew that the command to labor by the sweat of his brow was not repealed for him because of his king, but rather that as the king he had a unique chance to show it applied to all men by practicing what he preached.
Wilford Woodruff