This is taken from a discussion in the Nephite King Noah’s court. The verse quotes advice given by wicked, deceived priests to a vain and insecure king. These priests are like many others condemned in scripture: they are religious and believe themselves to be teaching correct principles, but they are profoundly wrong. It is interesting that these counselor-priests are confident in the advice they give because of the apparent success of King Noah’s reign. They confuse outward signs of success with God’s approval of the King. These priests rely on a promise found early in Book of Mormon history as the basis from which they generalize about their current condition. This promise was given to Nephi, one of their ancestors.
The Initial Promise of Prosperity
At the time Nephi received this promise about his descendants prospering in the land, he was still on the Arabian Peninsula early in his family’s migration from the land of Jerusalem, looking forward to a promised land. The first time Nephi recorded this pledge of future prosperity, his family had made their initial flight from Jerusalem into the wilderness. After he overcame his skepticism regarding his father’s endeavor to lead them away, he received a revelation containing this promise. Nephi wanted to believe his father, but he could not until after he prayed and had his heart softened. It was after praying and receiving help from God that he was able to believe his father was inspired.
Being convinced this trek into the wilderness was inspired by God, Nephi testified to his brother Sam, who trusted Nephi and believed in him. His other brothers Laman and Lemuel rejected his testimony. Although his brothers rejected his testimony and were disbelieving, he continued to pray to God for mercy toward them. While he was voicing an intercessory prayer on their behalf, Nephi received this revelation linking “prospering” and obedience: “And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.” (1 Ne. 2: 20.)
Nephi received a second, more clarified version of the promise. This second iteration of the promise came to Nephi as he was retrieving brass plates from his uncle, Laban. Laban not only refused to surrender the plates to Nephi, but he made an attempt to rob and kill all the brothers. While everyone else wanted to abandon the effort, Nephi persisted in trying to retrieve the plates from Laban. Nephi returned alone, while his brothers waited outside Jerusalem. The Lord delivered Laban into his hands. While Laban lay drunk, unconscious and defenseless before Nephi, the Lord prompted Nephi to slay Laban and take the brass plates.
When this prompting comes to him, Nephi is shocked. As Nephi resists the prompting to kill Laban, he receives another revelation. Among other things, there is a reiteration of the promise. This second revelation clarifies the meaning of the earlier promise. It reads: “And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.” (1 Ne. 4: 14.) The promise links together the results of righteous living (prospering) with righteousness (keeping commandments). It is not a magic link. In fact, it is completely sensible. If you want a society in which there are no robberies, broken marriages, lying, or charlatanry, then that society needs to obey the commandments of God. All social ills come from disobedience to the way of life God requires of us. Healthy societies agree on common norms of behavior. For example, there would be no rampant sexually transmitted diseases if sexual conduct followed the Lord’s law of chastity. Nor would there be violence within a society which honors God, prizes individual life, protects property,cherishes honesty and fairness in dealings, and punishes intentional injury to others.These issues were all addressed under the law of Moses, which the Nephites were supposed to be living. If the Nephite descendants had kept these commandments, they would have enjoyed a society in which these kinds of injustices were avoided.
Other Scripture on Prosperity
In the case of King Noah, however, the whole meaning has been reversed. Instead of using the commandments as a measure, prosperity is used as the gauge. Nowhere does the Lord commend we measure our standing before Him by the prosperous circumstances of our lives. Rather, He always insists on the opposite. Our lives are measured by obedience to His commandments, without regard to the economic successes we may or may not have.
Prosperity can be, and often is, short lived when we disobey His commandments. Even if one enjoys a lifetime of luxury, it is still short lived. Christ attempted to warn about this in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man “fared sumptuously” in his lifetime. Yet he merited no name in the parable. As to the beggar Lazarus, he was not only named, but he was given the same name as one of Christ’s beloved friends. In the parable, the character called “Lazarus” never does “prosper” in life. He begged from hunger, and was “full of sores, …moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.” (Luke 16: 20–21.) This is not a picture of prosperity. But it is the picture of someone whom the Lord loved, despite his terrible circumstances in life. Upon his death, Lazarus “was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” (Id., v. 22.) Here at last, and only after death, does Lazarus finally “prosper.”
This message is in Job, as well. He answers Zophar with this insight:
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, …(Job 21: 7–13.)
The wicked do not always fail in life. They are often found among the most prosperous. Prosperity cannot be used as a measure to decide favor from God without forcing the conclusion that some of the greatest villains in history were favored by God. As a way of measuring, we will almost always reach the wrong conclusion when we use it as a guide.
We read the same message in Psalms, where it is says: “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” (Ps. 73: 12.) The poverty of the righteous is juxtaposed with the riches of the wicked in Ps. 37: 16: “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” The prosperity of evil men is also noted in Ps. 37: 35: “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.” The temptation to envy this prosperity is noted in Ps. 73: 3: “For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Frustration over this common misalignment of prosperity and wickedness boils over in Ps. 94: 3, where we read the lament: “Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?”
The worldly success of evil is no reason to join in it. “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:” (Eccl. 8: 12). Lazarus stands for the promise of the ultimate triumph of righteousness. Whatever intermediate gains come through the abuse of your fellow man, when life ends and is weighed in the balance, it will be well with those who follow God.
King Noah’s Real Circumstances
These insights are lost on the priests of Noah’s court. They pretend to follow God, and to advise the king using insight from scriptures. These priests had Job, Psalms and Ecclesiastes available to them. However, they give advice in which they twist the counsel of scripture and turn “prosperity” into proof of Divine favor. They reason from scripture. But reasoning without inspiration is meaningless. The scriptures can be used to prove almost any point, whether true or false, if they are interpreted using reason alone.
This verse in Mosiah comes as the King is confronted by a prophet sent from God. The prophet’s message is a dismal one. He condemns King Noah, and announces the time for his repentance has run out. Abinadi has publicly announced the coming destruction of King Noah and his people. He has proclaimed: “this generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek; yea, and shall be driven by men, and shall be slain; and the vultures of the air, and the dogs, yea, and the wild beasts, shall devour their flesh. And it shall come to pass that the life of King Noah shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace; for he shall know that I am the Lord. And it shall come to pass that I will smite this my people with sore afflictions, yea, with famine and with pestilence; and I will cause that they shall howl all the day long.” (Mosiah 12: 2–4.) The message of doom places Abinadi in direct conflict with a wicked and insecure king.
A troubled conscious makes a person weak; consequently, when he hears this warning, the King is initially fearful Abinadi is right. King Noah must be assured by his priests before he is able to ignore this troubling message from a prophet. His priests are more than willing to give him that false sense of security. The Book of Mormon once again pits the inspired words of a single, unknown, apparently unauthorized man who speaks with approval from God, against the bona fide, recognized, occupants of official church office. It becomes a troubling juxtaposition when we realize what we are looking at in this confrontation. It forces us to see that men, office and rank are no substitute for the voice of inspiration. However, we continue to read into the Book of Mormon our own preference for trusting office and respecting authority conferred on men, and gratefully, but foolishly conclude we will never have to confront this particular dilemma.
This verse is the advice the priests give King Noah to quiet his fears about the prophetic warning. Using their flawed logic, they take Nephi’s original promise and turn it on its ear. They reason backward, from their current prosperity and security, into the conclusion it must represent favor from God. They proclaim: “Thou has prospered in the land, and thou shalt also prosper.”
The use of this kind of reasoning often happens when religious people go astray. They no longer take insight from the scriptures through the light of the Holy Ghost. Rather, they search the scriptures for proof to justify their own ambition and to ease their troubled minds. Without the Holy Ghost they cannot see these things in a proper light. The Holy Ghost only gives insight to those whose lives are lived in obedience to the Lord or who are sufficiently humble and repentant to be willing to listen to the Spirit. The blinded religious folks, on the other improve as “scriptorians” and “scholars,” while drifting farther from the truth underlying the scriptures. They become very “religious,” but fail to understand or do what the Lord wants.
This is a risk for all organized religions. “Movements” are different from organized religion. Movements are disorderly, rapid moving, and they change history. They can spread like wildfire, and inspire a whole generation. The restoration began more as a movement than as an organization. Some early missionaries baptized thousands during their missions. There was no means to organize this great number of converts into segregated congregations, with orderly bishoprics and quorums. They were converted; then told to migrate to the Center Stake where organization would be provided. This was the reason for the rapid growth of the early Church in the first generation. It developed as a movement, rather than as an institution.
In contrast, institutions prize order, and generally harden over time, and use other fellow-institutions like governments to help with their development. Institutions want to progress with an imposed order contemporaneous with growth. One of the effects of this approach is to artificially impose limits on growth. For example, an institution might curtail conversions of women and children who have no fathers or husbands because it would want priesthood leadership to be available, and so are unwilling to allow the temporary disorder to prevail. When something like this happens, it is because a movement has progressed into an organization. There is more spontaneity to movements, and less to institutions. Something profound changes at the moment a movement grows into an institution..
Sycophants and Success:
It is interesting this story about King Noah and his failure to follow spiritual guidance is in the Book of Mormon. It is also quite interesting this example of religious error shows close cooperation between church and state.
King Noah had previously appointed the priests giving him this bad advice, based upon their loyalty to him. He wanted a younger, more dynamic group of loyalists to give him counsel. He wanted a popular, mainstream church which would be more in touch with his progressive government. So he made the appointments, and now consulted them for guidance in dealing with Abinadi’s condemnation.
These parasitic priests knew who they were dependent upon for their success. They knew who was responsible for their appointments and livelihood. King Noah was their meal-ticket. Without him, they would be out of a job. We see again how, with most people, you can buy anything in this world with money. Like all sycophants, the priests knew how to keep their job security. They resorted to the same device all tyrants feed upon: flattery. A little praise for the king and the king comes around. We see them using flattery as their stock in trade, and realize only in hindsight how vile they really were. As the flattering “yes-men” of the world weave their webs of deceit to buttress their job-security, we oftentimes don’t even notice their foul motives. There will come a time when this concealed or unnoticed foolishness becomes the stuff which “must be revealed upon the house-top.” (Morm. 5: 8.) So they won’t hide from detection forever. One has to wonder what great celebrations they had on King Noah’s birthdays, anniversaries, etc., and how many buildings they built and put King Noah’s name on them. Tyrants are steered through their vanity.
Sycophants generally never learn the great truth that every monument is temporary. The only thing which endures is truth. Any triumph of error will be temporary, but a single sermon filled with light will resonate down the corridors of history forever. Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill has lasted longer than the marble monuments among which he spoke.
We tend to dislike anyone living who proclaims truth. While alive they offend us, but afterward, when they can be packaged, interpreted, construed and can no longer correct us, we adorn their graves. Christ commented on how the only respectable prophets were dead. It is frightening to contemplate this repeated pattern from history because the stakes are so high. We put our eternal salvation on the line as we decide how we address this issue. None of us, including the very religious (perhaps especially the very religious), can rest easy. We cannot assume that good times and temporary prosperity for our cause means we are favored of God.
Of course, Nephi has been sounding that alarm all along in the Book of Mormon. He went straight at Latter-day Saints when he proclaimed:
And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion! Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well! (2 Ne. 28: 21–25.)
It is the very prosperity of Zion which misleads. Try as we might, we are all vulnerable to the perception that prosperity is a sign of God’s favor; just as we view poverty or suffering as a sign of God’s disfavor. We accept these lies while forgetting the example of our Savior who hung, naked and beaten, nailed to a tree as a Roman criminal, while taunted by a hostile crowd. All of our Lord’s worldly wealth was divided among the Roman executioners, with the final piece of His garments distributed by a game of chance. He was the Lord. Yet He did not prosper in the land; far from it. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. What few followers remained during the final hours of His mortality fled in fear as His punishment was imposed. A small Galilean contingent stood some distance away to watch the end. Here was a man who was anything but “prospering.” Yet we are told, it “pleased the Lord to bruise him; [God] hath put him to grief.” (Isa. 53: 10.) In the rejection and crucifixion of Christ we see an apparent failure. But it is instead the greatest triumph of all. It is not a triumph of worldly success, or of attracting the favorable attention of the public. Rather, it is a triumph of principle and discipline. It is the orderly progression of obedience as it marches bravely into pain, persecution and sacrifice. It is the Lamb of God climbing voluntarily upon the altar where He would shed His blood to atone for the sins of mankind. This is not worldly prosperity. It is something far more profound and triumphant.
Success is often deceiving. Failure is also deceiving. We cannot see the beggar Lazarus’ triumph as Christ described it because we do not see behind the veil to watch the reunion between him and Abraham. We see only the dead beggar, whose sore-ridden body we are inconvenienced to bury. Christ tells the rest of the story. He tells us this profoundly pathetic life will enter into eternal victory when it ends. Lazarus will be the one to whom the rich man begs when the real consequences of this life are known.
Reality is so different from what we think it is. We look at King Noah, sitting with his worldly power, surrounded by his sycophants, and for a moment are forced to agree; hedoes prosper in the land. He holds the title, the power, the authority and the budget to prove he is prospering. Who can argue with that?
But we cannot agree to the reasoning by which this prosperity is turned into approval from God. This is where it becomes deception. Thank goodness we have inspired men in our day who choose Church leaders based upon inspiration from God and not cronyism or friendships. What a profound relief it is to know we do not have to worry about sycophants, whose wormtongue advice would have us detour through social sciences using focus groups, opinion polls, organizational behavior experts, or other uninspired tools of the arm of flesh divorced from the Spirit. We are led by the voice of inspiration in our day, and therefore can trust the Spirit is our guide.
God’s Promised Prosperity
The other great flaw of the priests’ advice is in projecting the past, as a basis for predicting the future. They advise, “thou hast prospered in the land, and thou shalt also prosper.” Their insight assures King Noah the past is a guarantee of the future. Which is, of course, never true: no promised prosperity is ever divorced from behavior. Nor, for that matter, is judgment.
When the Lord promises a blessing, it is always tied to faithfulness and obedience. For example, in the case of Oliver Cowdrey, he was promised the gift of translating the Book of Mormon. The promise given him by revelation was: “And, behold, I grant unto you a gift, if you desire of me, to translate, even as my servant Joseph.” (D&C 6: 25.) He failed to realize the blessing. As a result of that failure, another revelation explained:
Be patient, my son, for it is wisdom in me, and it is not expedient that you should translate at this present time. Behold, the work which you are called to do is to write for my servant Joseph. And, behold, it is because that you did not continue as you commenced, when you began to translate, that I have taken away this privilege from you. Do not murmur, my son, for it is wisdom in me that I have dealt with you after this manner. Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. (D&C 9: 3–7, emphasis added.)
We cannot secure blessings thoughtlessly or through sloth. There is a relationship between our obedience, faithfulness and effort, and what the Lord promises. Noah’s priests did not point this out, but we should not miss it.
There is also a relationship between our repentance, and removing the Lord’s condemnation. What may appear hopeless at one point, becomes hopeful after repentance. Take the example of Jonah who went to the citizens of Nineveh and “he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” (Jonah 3: 4.) Their condemnation was apparently sure. But it was subsequently affected by their behavior. They repented in sackcloth and ashes and when they did, “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” (Jonah 3: 10.) Not only was the past no promise of the future, neither was the Lord’s initial judgment an irrevocable decree divorced from their repentance.
The priests of Noah were unwise in all their counsel. They confused pride for truth. They were more interested in flattering the king than helping him. They confused temporary prosperity with God’s favor. They presumed the immediate past was a predictor of the future. They underestimated the Lord’s control, and failed to recognize a prophet’s voice. In just about every respect they were wrong. It is interesting this verse would be in the Book of Mormon for us to ponder in our own time. There are powerful lessons in this.
A final reflection on the conflict from which this verse arises: The bad advice given by King Noah’s priests was in response to the words of a prophet sent from God. Unlike the priests, the prophet came without any apparent authority or office to support him or his message. He spoke as the only prophetic figure in Nephite history whose origins are completely undisclosed. Even Samuel the Lamanite has an ethnic identity given him. Abinadi, however, has nothing other than a name. There was no genealogy, no family connection, no history, no origin, no national identity, and no explanation of where he went for two years between his messages. Abinadi represents the prophetic tradition. That tradition is unruly, unpredictable, and not capable of institutionalization. Just as you cannot produce genius by institutionalization (if you could, we would), you cannot produce prophets by institutionalization. They either are or they are not. And when theyare, they can come from anywhere, bearing no bona fides other than the power of the Spirit which accompanies their message.
In contrast, the priestly tradition can be institutionalized. It does not require any particular inspiration to duplicate the office of the priest. They have rites, rituals and performances. These can be done without inspiration. Centuries passed as priests in Old Testament Israel functioned faithfully in office without any great gifts of the Lord being manifested.
There is always a conflict between the priestly tradition and the prophetic tradition. Priestly office relies upon authority to justify their message. Priests invariably claim the right to preside and conduct the affairs over people by virtue of their status. They come with credentials, and use those credentials as a way of determining who is “in” and who is “out” of favor. This was the tradition which came to challenge John the Baptist with the inquiry we read in John:
And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. (John 1: 19–23.)
John’s right to do as he did was always an issue with those who claimed a right to “rule” over others. They made the same inquiry of the Lord when asking Him: “And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?” (Matt 21: 23.) Prophets are always questioned about their right to declare things by the priestly traditions of their times. Priests invariably think it their right to control the thinking of the people, and attempt to do so through the use of institutional power and status. In contrast, the prophetic tradition is always upstart, uncredentialed, and of questionable origin. Joseph Smith’s status in his day (and even still in our own) is so lacking in formal training, credentials, and apparent authority that his critics have always found him easy to dismiss. Yet, for those who accept the prophetic tradition, Joseph Smith is no obstacle. They are described in these terms: “While the pure in heart, and the wise, and the noble, and the virtuous, shall seek counsel, and authority, and blessings constantly from under thy hand.” (D&C 122: 2.) Joseph Smith, like all true prophets, represents an altogether different tradition.
Authority is meaningless for the prophetic tradition. Indeed, prophets make no reference to their authority or right to rule and preside. Such messengers realize “[n]o power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile——” (D&C 121: 41–42.) True prophets’ words alone are evidence of their authority. They persuade, they convince and convict. They touch those who listen with their heart, to find their Master’s voice. As a result, prophets never need to demand others respect their office or status. Indeed, their office is irrelevant. It is the words of life or revelation, given them through the Spirit, which vindicates them. Even if such words come from Abinadi or Joseph Smith, with obscure and un-credentialed origins. They persuade and convict even when such words face opposition from priestly authorities who denounce them as un-credentialed and unauthorized.
The verse considered in this Chapter, pits the warning words of a true, but un-credentialed prophet against the advice of priests who hold courtly office. It is very interesting indeed, the Book of Mormon would have this message for us to consider for our own day. Perhaps it was to make us all be a bit more careful as we proceed through our own unfolding history. I thank God I can hear the voice of inspiration in the words of President Gordon B. Hinckley. It is a great relief to have a witness of the Spirit that President Hinckley represents the prophetic tradition, rather than just the priestly office. We should assume, however, this will not always be the case. For those unfortunate Saints who live at a time when Abinadi’s lesson becomes applicable, they will no doubt be tested to their core.
The Book of Mormon contains insights which go far beyond the capabilities of a 23-year-old Joseph Smith. He could not have produced this work. It comes from God, and is an authentic revelation of great wisdom. To the extent we plumb the depths of it, we find great treasures of hidden wisdom. For a book we’ve had in our possession for over 177 years, it has received little substantive attention. It remains, in large measure, a “sealed book;” even that portion already in print and available to us.