Abinadi's brilliant sermon

I haven't fully realized until now, how brilliant Abinadi's sermon is. He starts out with the usual call for repentance, which is common for any Old Testament or Book of Mormon prophet when preaching to a wicked people. When he is brought before King Noah who, along with his priests, start "to question him, that they might cross him" (Mosiah 12:19), one of the priests asks about the meaning of Isaiah 52:7-10. This scripture along with a response they give to Abindai right after, becomes the basis for this beautiful sermon that he keeps referring back to. Some keywords are color coded. 

21 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;

22 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion;

23 Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem;

24 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God?

 After they ask about this scripture, Abinadi asks them what they teach the people and they respond

We teach the law of Moses

These quotes become a recurring theme throughout the sermon. In Mosiah 12:33, Abinadi says

I know if ye keep the commandments of God ye shall be saved; yea, if ye keep the commandments which the Lord delivered unto Moses in the mount of Sinai

It seems Abinadi is making a connection here. As if he is asking: "Whose feet upon the mountains do you think Isaiah talked about? You mentioned Moses. He was on a mountain. Do you think it's him?" Abinadi then goes on to cite the 10 commandments and talk about the Law of Moses. In 13:27-28:

And now ye have said that salvation cometh by the law of Moses...I say unto you, that salvation doth not come by the law alone

Again, Abinadi is referring to the initial question. Then there is the turning point in verse 31, a shift from Moses' feet on mount Sinai to Jesus' feet on mount Zion, so to speak.

But behold, I say unto you, that all these things were types of things to come.

Verse 33:

For behold, did not Moses prophesy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah, and that God should redeem his people? Yea, and even all the prophets who have prophesied ever since the world began—have they not spoken more or less concerning these things?

In other words, Moses' feet on the mountain did not bring about salvation through the law, but through declaring the coming of the Lord, the one who redeems his people. He then quotes Isaiah 53 as another example of the prophets speaking "concerning these things". Note that Isaiah 53 is the text right after the passage they originally asked about and Abinadi links it to Christ, demonstrating that this is what Isaiah really was talking about. The rest of his sermon is all about Christ.

At 15:14 he returns to the scripture from Isaiah 52 and spends the rest of the chapter quoting and paraphrasing interspersed with his comments. For instance, in verse 18:

And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people;

There are many other examples of Abinadi apparently connecting to the initial Isaiah passage. For instance he uses the phrase, "redeem", 11 times in chapter 15. Then at the end of his sermon in Mosiah 16:13-15, he wraps it all up with

And now, ought ye not to tremble and repent of your sins, and remember that only in and through Christ ye can be saved? Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come— Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen.

Beautiful!