(September 3, 2013)
I may have mentioned this before in an earlier entry, but one thought always strikes me when I read this chapter is a simple turn of phrase used by King Noah as he condemns Abinidi to death. He confronts Abinidi, and his condemnation to death is for blasphemy (as they suppose) for saying that “God himself should come down among the children of men.” He offers Abinidi an escape, however, if Abinidi will recall his words. Not the words which Noah contend subject him to death. No, he will free Abinidi if he will “recall all the words which [Abinidi] hast spoken evil concerning [Noah].”
To me, that shows an amazing lack of self-awareness. Here King Noah was prepared to condemn a man to death on a pretext – and on a matter that he is utterly unconcerned with. In Noah’s mind, the only thing that matters is Noah. He does not care whether Abinidi blasphemes – he likely understands that Abinidi spoke the words of God (as shown by his reluctance to kill Abinidi). But he does care about the fact that Abinidi said something about him that he didn’t like.
We see that all around us today with an intolerant tolerance movement (‘I don’t care if you want the best for me and society – you are intolerant because your words make me feel bad’), but we cannot ignore these same tendencies in our own life. We have the amazing capacity to deceive ourselves into thinking that we are more important than the message, than the work, and (ultimately) than the Lord. I suppose this is just another symptom of the same Tempter trying to convince us that the glory should not be the Lord’s. We must remember that the power to do always comes from Him, and the glory for the result always goes to Him. It just isn’t about us.
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