Depths of Humility

One of the important themes that we see in the words of King Benjamin is humility.  We see the great humility of King Benjamin himself as he described his life in Mosiah 2, that even though he was king he lived his life as a servant.  We then see a parallel in the next chapter as we read of the great humility of our Heavenly King who condescended to come to the earth He created and suffer more than any man as the Servant of us all.  And then all throughout Mosiah 2-5 we see exhortations for each of us to likewise humble ourselves before God as we seek to be in His service.  We are invited to follow the example of these two kings and their humility, realizing that of ourselves we are nothing. 

                King Benjamin’s humility was evident in the way that he spent his time as king and put His trust in the Lord.  He told us, “I have been suffered to spend my days in your service….  I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne” (Mosiah 2:12, 14).  A king who would rather do physical labor himself than cause more taxes to come upon his people: we could use more of that kind of leader today!  He acknowledged his own dependence on the Lord, saying that he had “been kept and preserved by his matchless power” and that if he himself merited any thanks at all, how much more “you ought to thank your Heavenly King!” (Mosiah 2:19).  Though he was king, he knew his real place before the true King.  We learn of that “heavenly King” in the next chapter, and we see His own perfect humility.  The angel told King Benjamin that even though Jesus was “Lord Omnipotent, who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity,” He would condescend and “come down from heaven among the children of men” and “suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death” (Mosiah 3:5, 7).  Even though He was “the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” He would come and bleed “from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and abominations of his people” (Mosiah 3:7-8).  Christ became for us the perfect example of humility as He was willing to suffer more than any other man in order to serve us. 

                There are many invitations throughout the rest of the words of King Benjamin that exhort us to be more like these two kings and come before God in complete humility.  He told us, “I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants” (Mosiah 2:21).  In case we missed the point, he reiterated, “Can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay.  Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth” (Mosiah 2:25).  In other words, as Moses would say, “Man is nothing” (Moses 1:10).  One of King Benjamin’s aims in his address was to “awaken [us] to a sense of [our] nothingness” and encourage us to “always retain in remembrance the greatness of God, and [our] own nothingness” (Mosiah 4:5, 11).  If we don’t want to be an enemy to God, we must become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).  And then, as “children of Christ” we must serve our Master with the same humility that King Benjamin and Christ served their people (Mosiah 5:7, 13).  True success in our mission in life will only come as we follow King Benjamin’s invitation to humility and depend completely upon the Lord: “Humble yourselves in the depths of humility, [call] on the name of the Lord daily, and [stand] steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come” (Mosiah 4:11).