Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Mosiah 27:31 - 27:37

Mosiah 27:31 Yea, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God; then shall they confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye.

Everyone will also now have to come to this same conclusion that he had arrived at, namely, the Lord is God, that there are no others. That when they stand before God for judgment that they will know their reward will be just and not unfair. And they who refuse to live by the rules will be put with others who feel the same. This is because, those who were selfish in their lives will not want to be in the presence of a being who was only concerned for the welfare of others. It will be uncomfortable and they will not want to be in the presence of such people.

Mosiah 27:32 And now it came to pass that Alma began from this time forward to teach the people, and those who were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them, traveling round about through all the land, publishing to all the people the things which they had heard and seen, and preaching the word of God in much tribulation, being greatly persecuted by those who were unbelievers, being smitten by many of them.

Alma Jr. now goes around to try to repair the damage to the Church and to all those he had influence to either leave the Church to follow his wicked ways or influence others to reject gospel centered principles. The sons of Mosiah and maybe others who were with Alma Jr. at the time of the vision also followed suit. They were now the victims of persecution by those they had deceived and were even attached physically on occasion because of their efforts. They were both preaching in person and printing retractions for their words and actions of the past.
[Wonder if it was part of the Lord educating Alma and the sons of Mosiah just what they had inflected on the Church during their previous efforts to destroy the it. It was either punishment or education which I guess really means both. It may point out that they might have not known just what they had done to the people until they experienced it themselves. Saying that something was difficult to endure is one thing and knowing it by personal experience is another. We are here to learn to know the good from the evil and it usually comes by experience not by words. However there are experiences we do not need to experience. We just need to know that they are bad and stay away from them.]

Mosiah 27:33 But notwithstanding all this, they did impart much consolation to the church, confirming their faith, and exhorting them with long-suffering and much travail to keep the commandments of God.

In spite of their difficulties in trying to repair the damage, they did bring comfort to the Church members who were also enduring persecution by apostates and the general public.

Mosiah 27:34 And four of them were the sons of Mosiah; and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni; these were the names of the sons of Mosiah.

The sons of Mosiah were Ammon, Aaron, Omner and Himni.
[I don’t think this were in order of birth. A little late on in the last chapter, Mosiah said that it was Aaron’s right to be the king after he was dead. That usually went to the oldest son. Maybe Ammon was mentioned first because he was the leader of the group and maybe Aaron did not have the leadership or spiritual qualities as did his younger brother Ammon. And maybe Aaron was not as committed as Ammon in that in the next chapter, Mosiah alludes to the fact that if Aaron was tempted to go for the kingship, he might go for it even if it meant contention among the people. I guess it shows that even if people are committed to the gospel that maybe there is a limit as to how committed we can become before the temptations of this world will be to much to resist.]

Mosiah 27:35 And they traveled throughout all the land of Zarahemla, and among all the people who were under the reign of king Mosiah, zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church, confessing all their sins, and publishing all the things which they had seen, and explaining the prophecies and the scriptures to all who desired to hear them.

Alma Jr. and the sons of Mosiah go about the people who were ruled by Mosiah, trying to reverse the effects they had before their conversions. They not only spoke to the people and published their encounter with the angel, but they actively tried to show by the scriptures that they were wrong in the past and that they were now on the right path. [The scriptures points out that the boys were going among the people of Mosiah and not the Lamanites. But the they will so want to preach to them as well as we see in the next chapter. However, I wonder if there were other kingdoms that were not close by that the Nephites knew about and who were under other kings who were not Nephite or Lamanite?]

Mosiah 27:36 And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.

They were successful in bring back many who had strayed because of their false preachings in the past. A knowledge of Christ was once again in the hearts of these who had left the Church.

Mosiah 27:37 And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth.

Mormon praises them for their trying to bring peace back to the Nephites. He praises them for bringing a knowledge of Christ that bring peace into one’s life.

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