King Benjamin and נָתַן (natan)

In my last post, I outlined how King Benjamin subtly makes repeated reference to the Garden of Eden narrative in the opening portion of his sermon through the various meanings of the Hebrew roots abad and shamar. He has done for the covenant people under his care what God instructed Adam and Eve to do for the Garden of Eden.

There is one more component of this.  In verses 11-13 and 30, Benjamin speaks of what God has allowed him to do and what he has in turn allowed for his people:

11: ...I have been chosen by this people, and consecrated by my father, and was suffered by the hand of the Lord that I should be a ruler and a king over this people...

12: ...I have been suffered to spend my days in your service...

13: Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves one of another, nor that ye should murder, or plunder, or steal, or commit adultery; nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness...

30: ...the Lord God doth support me, and hath suffered me that I should speak unto you...

As best I can tell, this passive form of speaking makes reference to the Hebrew root natan, which is admittedly very common in the Old Testament (2011 occurrences), and has the following core meanings:

נָתַן (nātan), give, present, offer, allow, permit, surrender, deliver, set, put, place (NIDOTTE Vol. 3, p. 205)

One scholar attempts to summarize the meaning of this root:

נָתַן basically marks the act through which an object or matter is set in motion (NIDOTTE Vol. 3, p. 205)

Despite how common it is, I can't help but find myself fascinated by the number of instances in the OT where this root shows up in the context of creation and covenant. Here are a few examples, with the words in bold italics being translated from natan:

• Genesis 1:17 - And God set them [the stars] in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
• Genesis 1:29 - And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
• Genesis 3:6 - And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
• Genesis 3:12 - And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
• Genesis 4:12 - When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
• Genesis 9:2 - And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
• Genesis 9:3 - Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
• Genesis 9:12-13 - And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
• Genesis 12:7 - And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
• Genesis 17:2,5-6 - And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. ... Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

These are but a few of the examples.  When Abraham pays tithes to Melchizedek, this root is used. Likewise when Isaac and Jacob take wives, this root shows up over and over again. When Pharaoh gives authority to Joseph, we see this root.

Of course this could be primarily due to how common this root is in general. I can't discount that possibility, but thinking about the concept has opened up a new layer of significance in King Benjamin's sermon.

A case study in righteous dominion

What we have in these opening remarks teach us a lesson about what righteous dominion ought to look like.  Benjamin is telling his people that God "suffered him" to be their king, to have dominion over them just as Adam was given, and that he can stand with a clean conscience before God when he must give account for his responsibilities. See Mosiah 2:15.

This is the essence of righteous dominion. God gives to us and asks us to give to each other in return, in essence to do for others what He has graciously done for us.

Let's look at service as an example. After Benjamin points out that he has served God by serving them, he teaches them to serve each other in order to serve God. See Mosiah 2:16-18. In verse 22 he teaches a similar principle about keeping the commandments. God keep His promises and lives according to the terms of the covenant, and expects His people to do likewise.

So the deeper principle here is that we should emulate God in every instance where we have some form of dominion over any portion of the creation.

Margaret Barker puts it this way:

‘God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’ (Gen.1.26). This is one of the most enigmatic lines in the Bible, and yet also one of the most important. It means that the human has to be like God in caring for the creation. One of Israel’s ancient law codes, the Holiness Code (Lev.19-26), set out a complete pattern for life based on the injunction: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy’ (Lev.19.2). Jesus, when exhorting his followers to trust God, reminded them that the Creator cared for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air (Mt.6. 25-33; 10.29). This is how they thought of the Creator; not as a figure in the past who had completed the work and then left it; it was a picture of constant loving care. Adam, as the image of God, was expected to do this too. (source) 

God created us in His image and "set us in motion" (see above definition for natan) to "act for [our]selves and not to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:26). This comes with an expectation that our actions emulate those of our Creator.