Judgments, statutes and commandments

The Law of Moses was important for righteous Nephites, but they offered a unique perspective on it combined with faith in Jesus Christ.

24 And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled.

25 For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments. (2 Nephi 25)

This post explains that the oft-repeated 'Book of Mormon proverb', is a reference to the Mosaic covenant. When a term is used as a key word or phrase to reference a longer text, it is called metalepsis. This is an appropriate description of "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land". It invokes the entire Mosaic covenant. A related phrase that I have found is the "judgments, statutes and commandments" of God. This is also a metalepsis referring to the terms and conditions of the Mosaic covenant for the people of Israel. All that they are asked to do to become a "peculiar nation" (Deuteronomy 26:18) and God's chosen covenant people is laid out in the books of Exodus to Deuteronomy. It is summarized by his "judgments, statutes and commandments". For instance:

In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. (Deuteronomy 30:16)

The Nephite term, "prosper in the land" is a summary of "live and multiply" and "the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land" and other covenant promises scattered around in the Torah, especially in Deuteronomy. But the "keep the commandments" part of the Book of Mormon proverb is also short for the commandments, statutes and judgments, even though all three are also mentioned at times in the Book of Mormon. The order of those three terms varies and sometimes only one or two of the three are used, but I don't know if that has significance. They are repeated multiple times in the Book of Deuteronomy, usually to summarize and refer to all the detailed instructions that Israel have received through Moses. Here are a couple more examples

Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it (Deuteronomy 6:1)

Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway. (Deuteronomy 11:1)

These are only a few examples but Deuteronomy is saturated with this language. These expressions are also used when explaining why Israel have lost wars and ultimately been taken captive by the Babylonians.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. (Ezekiel 11:12)

In the Book of Mormon, this expression seems to be used to inform the reader that the broken off branch of the House of Israel in a promised land were keeping their part of the covenant. This is how Nephi puts it

10 And we did observe to keep the judgments, and the statutes, and the commandments of the Lord in all things, according to the law of Moses.

11 And the Lord was with us; and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind. (2 Nephi 5)

Nephi clearly attributes their abundant reaping and increase of flocks to the fact that they kept the terms of the Mosaic covenant. Prospering in the land was the promise. They had kept their part and the Lord always keeps his. Another similar example

Nevertheless Helaman did fill the judgment-seat with justice and equity; yea, he did observe to keep the statutes, and the judgments, and the commandments of God; and he did do that which was right in the sight of God continually; and he did walk after the ways of his father, insomuch that he did prosper in the land. (Helaman 3:20)

At this point, several hundred years have passed since Lehi and his family left Jerusalem, but the Nephites obviously remember the covenant of their fathers, the covenant terms and the Lord's promises that are still in effect. It is also interesting to note that the terms and blessings of the Mosaic covenant applied on an individual level as well as collectively. "he [Helaman] did prosper in the land".

Several times, this expression is used about Lamanite converts. The Book of Mormon stresses that true conversion at the time before Christ included keeping the Law of Moses. This is how they became covenant people. But unlike the Deuteronomists of old, it also included looking forward to Christ and his redemption, like Nephi expressed in the first verse I quoted.

14 And they did also bury their weapons of war, according as their brethren had, and they began to be a righteous people; and they did walk in the ways of the Lord, and did observe to keep his commandments and his statutes.

15 Yea, and they did keep the law of Moses; for it was expedient that they should keep the law of Moses as yet, for it was not all fulfilled. But notwithstanding the law of Moses, they did look forward to the coming of Christ, considering that the law of Moses was a type of his coming, and believing that they must keep those outward performances until the time that he should be revealed unto them.

16 Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come. (Alma 25)

Like Nephi, they kept the law of Moses because of the commandments. Those were the covenant terms and source of their blessings. But it was also the pointer towards Christ, the ultimate source of blessings and prosperity, even "eternal salvation". 

Abinadi and the first and second Moses

In his book, "Understanding the Book of Mormon", Grant Hardy writes about the connection between Abinadi and Moses.

The tale of Abinadi includes a number of parallels to the Exodus story, beginning with God's command "Go forth and say unto this people, 'Thus saith the Lord...'" (Mosiah 11:20). The injunction to "say (un)to [someone], 'Thus saith the Lord'" is fairly common in the Hebrew Bible, where it recurs more than fifty times, but the first - and most memorable - usages are in the story of Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh at Exodus 4:22, 8:1, 20, and 9:13. Although King Noah may unwittingly play the part of Pharaoh, Mormon recognizes the pattern and narrates accordingly, though it was God himself who first spoke to Abinadi in the same language he had used long before with Moses. It appears that both Mormon and God want us to perceive Abinadi's preaching not just as doctrinal discourse but as a reenactment of sacred drama - Abinadi is a New Moses, giving the Law once again (as when he recites the Ten Commandments) and standing up to a recalcitrant, faithless ruler. The verbal correspondences become more distinctive as the story progresses, though it adds yet another layer of complexity to note that the narrator never reports God's words directly; we always hear them as quoted by Abinadi

Hardy then goes on to give many examples of textual connections. Given the uniqueness of many of the shared phrases between the Exodus and the Abinadi story and sermon, I think they are significant. I cannot go into the same amount of detail as Hardy, but will just list the shared phrases or themes here

• "shall know that I am the Lord" (Mosiah 12:3) is a key phrase in Exodus
• "a jealous God, visiting the iniquities" (Mosiah 11:22) only occurs in the Abinadi story in the Book of Mormon and as part of the Ten Commandments in the Bible
• "Who is Abinadi, that I..." (Mosiah 11:27) reminds us of Pharaoh's "who is the Lord, that I..." in Exodus 5:2
• hardened hearts (Mosiah 11:29) is a common concept in the Book of Mormon but in the Bible it is ovewhelmingly associated with Pharaoh
• The Lord distinctly commands Abinadi to "stretch forth his hand" (Mosiah 12:2) as a prophetic gesture as he does five times in the Moses/Pharaoh story
• threats of hail, east wind, insects and pestilance in Mosiah 12:6-7 remind us of the plagues over Egypt

Then, in what may seem an effort to remove all doubt that these connections are intentional, Mormon narrates about Abinadi that

his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses' did while in the Mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord (Mosiah 13:5)

It is hard to tell how obvious these parallels were as they happened or to what degree Mormon creatively connected the words and events in his abridgement. In any case, they are quite interesting. Hardy does not really attempt to provide an explanation or speculate about why Mormon/Abinadi/God would draw these parallels. But I like to speculate, so here goes...

Lately I have read a bit about the old Jewish idea about the Messiah as a second Moses. See this article, for instance. Many Christian scholars also see these parallels between Moses and Christ. They are also present in the Book of Mormon around the time of Christ's coming to earth, see this blog post.

In another previous blog post, I noted that the first half of Abinadi's sermon is about Moses and the old law. Note that all the parallels to Pharaoh/Exodus are in Mosiah 11-13. Then, at a transition point in Mosiah 13:31, the second half of the sermon (Mosiah 14-16) is all about Christ, the second Moses, and salvation through Him. This makes me wonder if the Messiah as second Moses tradition is older than 600 BC and the Book of Mormon prophets had it. Perhaps this tradition is basically as old as Moses because he said himself that

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers (Deuteronomy 18:15)

Compare with 1 Nephi 10:4, where Nephi talks about his father's prophecies

Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world.

This sounds like a reference to Deuteronomy and Lehi clearly understood this prophet to be the Messiah. When Christ is among the Nephites he identifies himself as that prophet.

Behold, I am he of whom Moses spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me (3 Nephi 20:23)

Realizing that the Nephites probably had this understanding of the Messiah as a second Moses, it is interesting to note that Abinadi's sermon was split into a first part about the first Moses and a second part about the second Moses the way he did. Thus all the references to Moses in the first half of his talk, both the Exodus and the Law, make sense. I don't think the point with these parallels was to just compare Abinadi with Moses. Abinadi is there to point the way from the first Moses to the second Moses. 

But one may wonder, why Abinadi and his sermon? It started with a question from King Noah's priests about the meaning of a scripture in Isaiah. What does Isaiah have to do with all this? I don't know if this scripture triggered Abinadi's choice/inspiration to give the sermon the way he did, or if it was the fact that King Noah's priests told him that they taught the people to live the law of Moses. Perhaps both? In the Isaiah scripture that they queried him about, we read:

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 (Isaiah 52:7 / Mosiah 12:21)

Two keywords in bold: Mountains can lead our thoughts to Mount Sinai, where Moses stood. Abinadi seizes the opportunity to ask if they think salvation comes through the Law of Moses. When they respond that they think it does, Abinadi explains how the first Moses and the Law merely represented "types of things to come" (Mosiah 13:31) and went on to talk about the second Moses, whose feet would stand on Mount Zion and publish salvation. 

I'm still not sure if I should credit Mormon or Abinadi or both for this brilliant allusion to the idea of a first and second Moses in this story and sermon, but in the end I believe the Book of Mormon is the inspired word of God and that he has left an abundance of treasures for us to find in the scriptures as we study.

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!

The Lamanites and the law of Moses

The Nephite authors of the Book of Mormon, sometimes give certain descriptions of the Lamanites that are not exactly flattering. In many cases, they seem to make a point of the Lamanites not following the Law of Moses, which to them is a sign of a people who have strayed from the covenant with God. Some examples:

Jarom 1:6

and they loved murder and would drink the blood of beasts

As mentioned in this post, the consumption of blood was against the Law of Moses. 

Alma 17:15

Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols

In the Old Testament, idol-worshipping was perhaps the very sign of apostasy from the covenant. This was the first of the ten commandments that Moses received.

2 Nephi 5:24

they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey

Beasts of prey were not among the 'clean' animals that were permitted under the Law of Moses. Again, the Nephite authors seem to be making a point about the Lamanites not keeping the Law of Moses.

As a side note, it's tempting to speculate about the original word that has been translated to "subtelty" in the last example, considering the fact that the Hebrew, "arum", means both "subtle" and "naked" and several other passages in the Book of Mormon describing the Lamanites as naked.