The sons of Mosiah, after turning their lives around and after laboring to repair the harm they had done, were moved to serve a mission to the Lamanite people. Why would they want to do this? "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite mercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever" (Mosiah 28: 3-4)
They needed their father's support. They didn't go to him and say "this is what we are going to do", they went to him and pled with the king to be allowed to serve their mission. I'm sure that Mosiah didn't want his sons to go. This would be a dangerous journey; they would be gone an underminate amount of time. Mosiah saw that they were anxious to do this thing and understood their motivation. He did what every parent would (or at least should) do: He turned to the Lord for guidance. The Lord's response was this: "Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites" (Mosiah 28: 7). Mosiah granted that they could go according to their desires.
Being a parent, I think that this would be very hard to do. Would I trust the Lord's promise enough to allow my children to go as Mosiah did. It would be very comforting to know that the Lord would preserve their lives as well as change the lives of others. This is really what happens to families in the church all the time: they send their young men out into the mission field, trusting in the Lord to watch over them, to guide them and to bless them with success. Parents let their sons go knowing that they will not see them for 2 years. Having done this, I can somewhat understand Mosiah's decision. Imagine, though, that you're sending your son off to a place where they are likely to be killed, imprisoned, abused, taunted or injured. Imagine you sent them off for an unspecified amount of time. Imagine they are on their own with no plans for housing, meals, or care. It would be very hard. Mosiah's trust in the Lord must have been very high.
As it turns out, Mosiah's sons were gone for 14 years, and suffered many of the things I mentioned above. Why did they do this? Mosiah 28:3-4. What is our motivation for being members of the church? What moves us to perform our callings, to show compassion, or to help others. Ideally it would be similar to the motivation of the sons of Mosiah.
Mosiah's decision to allow his sons to go on their mission had an indirect but high cost: He was left without an heir to the kingdom. (We really don't know about any other of Mosiah's family members; could it be that he had 4 sons and that was it? Could there have been other younger brothers or any sisters? No way to tell). I believe Mosiah knew this when he granted them permission to leave. As parents, there are times when we do something in spite of inconvenience to ourselves or our family because it will benefit others. Again the question, Why? Mosiah 28:3-4.
We don't read of any complaining from Mosiah; I believe he wasn't that type of person anyway. Instead, he conceived of a system of government that would provide for the Nephites' future and give them the freedom that he wanted them to have. I am speaking of the system of judges to govern the Nephite society that was proposed by Mosiah and accepted by the people. I can't help but wonder if Mosiah patterned this system after the judges of Israelite history.
Once Mosiah had planned the framework of his proposed government, he gathered the people together and presented it to them. In this gathering, Mosiah pointed out several things he wanted the people to consider:
-- A system of governers that would provide leadership and dispute resolution by ordinary people that were chosen by the people themselves.
-- A hierarchy of leaders to allow elected leadership, ranging from local leaders to national leaders.
-- The wisdom of avoiding monarchy that could lead to bad or sinful leadership.
This system allowed the people greater freedom than they had ever had before. It is likely that this is one of the first truly representative forms of government to appear on the earth. Of course there were governments that had representation of the people. Rome and Greece for instance, had these; but the representatives were at the behest of a monarchical sovereign. The system of judges adopted by the Nephites included election of the highest leader, intermediate leaders, and local leaders. They were all chosen by the voice of the people.
Mosiah also helped formulate the laws of the land that the judges and the people would live by. Going forward in the Book of Mormon there are several scriptures that refer to the laws given to the Nephites by king Mosiah.
An interesting thought came to me as I read this: Mosiah discussed how wicked kings could make the people become wicked and stray from God. It seems to me that parents have that same power upon their families. Parents have a great deal of influence upon their children, including the attitudes they have for serving others, fulfilling their callings, studying the Gospel, and living good lives. Children pick up on these things; they also pick up on their parents' language, bad attitudes and other not so great traits. I believe there are many people who are not acquainted with the Gospel because their parents or their grandparents strayed. In these cases, the children or grandchildren are paying for their parents' mistakes. "...visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:7). We need to be mindful of our actions in our families because our family's future depends on what we say and do.
One last note: Mosiah died at age 65, in the year 91 B.C. He had reigned for 33 years. The narrative in the book of Mosiah about his reign didn't convey (to me, at least) that Mosiah served as king for such a long time. Alma the elder died in the same year at the age of 81. My guess is that Alma the younger was probably in his 30s when he became the leader of the church and was also elected the chief judge. Doing the math on his father, it appears to me that he was about 26-27 years of age when he heard Abinadi deliver his last sermon to king Noah and his priests. May we each serve the Lord for as long a time or longer, as did Mosiah. May we each be motivated by the truth of the Gospel as was Alma the elder in his youth.
Don
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