Mosiah 19-20

(March 7, 2014)
When we see in our mind a vision of a king, we tend to see an autocratic and dictatorial individual.  Modern society, and all of its ills, combined with the worst excesses of ancient society have made that the inevitable way we look at things.  We see our democratic republic as an improvement in every meaningful way from a monarchy – and in comparison to the monarchy we envision that is certainly true.

But the monarchy we see isn’t necessarily the way that it was.  A king had numerous obligations and responsibilities and required a delicate balancing in order to retain his power.  He needed to go through this process because ultimately he only maintained his power because the people followed him.  If they were unwilling to do that any more, then his reign was at an end.  We see some of the consequences of that in these chapters – Noah being deposed and the king of the Lamanites bowing himself to the ground to plead with his own people (rather than merely ordering them).

I wonder what there is for us to learn about the nature of our Heavenly King and His Kingdom from this?  We in the Church tend to see the Kingdom of God as a Theocratic Democracy – common consent has led us to that.  But from my understanding of doctrine, this is incorrect.  In the eternities, we will live under a Monarchical Theocracy with God as our Eternal King, Christ as our Eternal Lord, and (while this isn’t doctrine it is more likely to me the longer I think about it) much of the Church structure still in place despite our being Exalted.  To use an overly simplistic example, we may inherit all that the Father hath on Monday through Saturday and on Sunday still be the Kolob 1,482,431st Ward hymnbook organizer.

As I contemplate the demonstration of the powers of the kings, and how they ascend to their throne, and what their limitations were, I think there is a great deal to learn about our Heavenly King here.  We envision democracy in the Book of Mormon because of the modern eyes that we look at the book with, but I think we read far too much democracy into it.  After all, Limhi was a king and he ruled only because the kingdom was conferred upon him by the people (that isn’t democracy, but it isn’t the dictatorial monarchy that we envision either).  I think that God is far more likely the King that we have chosen to follow, and we worship Him because He loves us enough to help us to be like Him – He is no dictator but rather He is a...I am searching for a word, but language is failing me.  He is more than a Father, more than a Friend.  He is our Hope.  We cling to Him, we worship Him, and we accept Him as our King because of who He is and what He can do.

I feel my words there are inadequate, and I hope they are not offensive to the Father.  I hope instead He knows what I mean by what I am trying (and failing) to say.