16 December 2012

Mosiah 11: Wicked King Noah

Zeniff's reign was at an end, and he conferred the kingdom upon his son, Noah.  Noah was a wicked king.  Unlike his father, he taxed the people, and spent the tax revenue on concubines, his priests, and a newly-constructed palace filled with precious things.
...Zeniff conferred the kingdom upon Noah 11:1 
...He did not keep the commandments of God ... And he had many wives and concubines. 11:2 
And he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed. 11:3 
And all this did he take to support himself, and his wives and his concubines; and also his priests, and their wives and their concubines; thus he had changed the affairs of the kingdom. 11:4
And he also built him a spacious palace, and a throne in the midst thereof, all of which was of fine wood and was ornamented with gold and silver and with precious things. 11:9
 He also built a very high tower, so he could see everything in his kingdom.
And it came to pass that he built a tower near the temple; yea, a very high tower, even so high that he could stand upon the top thereof and overlook the land of Shilom, and also the land of Shemlon, which was possessed by the Lamanites; and he could even look over all the land round about. 11:12
Since there is no archaeological evidence, I'm
going to assume that Noah's tower looked like
Sauron's tower, Barad-dûr.  Both towers share
 an equal chance of actually existing in the New
World at the time.

King Noah was so evil that he even became a wine-bibber.
And it came to pass that he planted vineyards round about in the land; and he built wine-presses, and made wine in abundance; and therefore he became a wine-bibber, and also his people.11:15 
Then the Lamanites started attacking Noah's people.  He wasn't very good at protecting them, though.  (He was too busy wine-bibbing with his concubines in his exceedingly high tower.)  He sends out guards, but it is too little, too late.
The Lamanites began to come in upon his people ... to slay them in their fields, and while they were tending their flocks. 11:16  
And king Noah sent guards round about the land to keep them off; but he did not send a sufficient number, and the Lamanites came upon them and killed them. 11:17
They have a battle, and Noah's people win.  They then start boasting, and delighting in the blood of their victory.  Everyone joined in, except a man named Abinadi.  Abinadi began to prophesy unto them, telling them how wicked they all were, and how they should repent (or else).
And now, because of this great victory they were lifted up in the pride of their hearts; they did boast in their own strength, saying that their fifty could stand against thousands of the Lamanites; and thus they did boast, and did delight in blood, and the shedding of the blood of their brethren, and this because of the wickedness of their king and priests. 11:19 
And it came to pass that there was a man among them whose name was Abinadi; and he went forth among them, and began to prophesy, saying: Behold, thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me, saying, Go forth, and say unto this people, thus saith the Lord -- Wo be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations, and their wickedness, and their whoredoms; and except they repent I will visit them in mine anger. 11:20
After Abinadi was done with his prophesying, the people were angry with him.  They tried to kill him, but God didn't let them.  When King Noah found out about it, he ordered that Abinadi be brought to him so he could kill him.
Now it came to pass that when Abinadi had spoken these words unto them they were wroth with him, and sought to take away his life; but the Lord delivered him out of their hands. 11:26 
Now when king Noah had heard of the words which Abinadi had spoken unto the people, he was also wroth; and he said: Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction? 11:27


The chapter ends with a cliffhanger.... What will happen to Abinadi?  You'll just have to wait until next time.

2 comments:

Stephen said...

Of course Barad-dûr has the same chance of existing in the New World as King Noah's tower... that would be *zero*... because Barad-dûr was in MIDDLE EARTH! Sheesh!

Anyway, what's so bad about a 20% tax? That's way less than the 1% are going to pay!
;-)
Steve Weeks

Jferrin said...

Imagine what the people would say though if Obama built an exceedingly tall tower filled with concubines. I mean I don't think even Bill Clinton could get away with that.