Don't Flee With King Noah

King Noah in the Book of Mormon was clearly a terribly wicked and lazy man.  But to me it is the complete cowardice he showed the last day of his life that was his low point.  As the Lamanites were upon his people they “did overtake them, and began to slay them.”  We read that “the king commanded them that all the men should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites” (Mosiah 19:10-11).  His people were being murdered, and all he could think to do was run and leave the women and children to be the victims!  What a complete failure as a husband and father he was.  There were good people among the group who “would not leave [the women and children], but had rather stay and perish with them.”  One of those was King Noah’s son Limhi who was subsequently taken captive by the Lamanites and then ultimately made the next king.  This is the first introduction in the text to Limhi, and I think that Mormon was trying to show us he was different from his father, “he himself being a just man” (Mosiah 19:12, 17).  The story to me shows both that children can break out from the wicked traditions of their parents and that devotion to one’s family must come before devotion to self.  

                Paul wrote to Timothy, “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).  Surely this applies to more than just physical food, and King Noah in that moment was indeed worse than an infidel.  To Cain’s infamous question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” the Lord responds with a resounding YES! (Moses 5:34)  And your wife’s, and your child’s, and your parent’s, and the keeper of all of your family.  The Lord once chastened Newel K. Whitney to “set in order his family, and see that they are more diligent and concerned at home” (D&C 93:50).  We live in a world where most people are diligent and concerned about themselves, not about their family and home.  But the gospel requires absolutely that we put our families before ourselves, and of course the great example of this was the Savior.  While he hung in agony on the cross after all that He had been through, He somehow still had the strength to see that His mother was taken care of: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26-27).  If Jesus could seek the welfare of His family before His own in His greatest moment of need, then surely we can find ways to put our families first—we must never flee with King Noah.