Mosiah's Decision on Kings

After the sons of Mosiah left to preach the gospel to the Lamanites, King Mosiah had to figure out what to do about the next king.  His father King Benjamin had set the example by announcing to the people three years before his death that “Mosiah is a king and a ruler over you” (Mosiah 2:30).  He left the people with the best chance for a peaceful transition that he could.  Mosiah undoubtedly wanted to do the same thing, but his task was much harder than his father’s because there was no available obvious successor as the next king.  None of “any of the sons of Mosiah [were] willing to take upon them the kingdom” (Mosiah 29:3).  He must have pondered this question much, and it seems that the recent happenings among the Nephites caused him to really reflect on what was best for the future of the Nephites.  He had three stories in particular that likely pushed him to change the 500-year-old practice of having a king and create a less centralized government.   

The first story that motivated King Mosiah of course was King Noah.  When the people of King Limhi made it back to Zarahemla, “Mosiah did read, and caused to be read, the records of Zeniff to his people; yea, he read the records of the people of Zeniff, from the time they left the land of Zarahemla until they returned again” (Mosiah 25:5).  So he knew of the great wickedness of King Noah and all of the problems he had caused.  Mosiah told the people as evidence of the problem of having kings, “Remember king Noah, his wickedness and his abominations, and also the wickedness and abominations of his people. Behold what great destruction did come upon them; and also because of their iniquities they were brought into bondage” (Mosiah 29:18).  The other negative example that likely influenced Mosiah was the story of the Jaredites.  The people of Limhi had brought with them to Zarahemla the 24 gold plates which they found among the remains of the Jaredites, and Mosiah “translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi” (Mosiah 28:11).  Mormon told us that “this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice” (Mosiah 28:18).  Perhaps part of that knowledge that Mosiah gained was a witness of the terrible effect of wicked kings on a people.  He would have read of the awful wars that took place among the Jaredites because one king was trying to overthrow another.  He also read the prophecy of the Brother of Jared speaking about the decision to have a king among his posterity: “Surely this thing leadeth into captivity” (Ether 6:23).  This knowledge about what happened to the Jaredites and the important role that kings played in the destruction of the entire people must have caused him to seriously consider the future of his people.   

King Mosiah also had one positive example of a society without a king that may have helped him make his decision.  In addition to getting the account of King Limhi, he “also read the account of Alma and his brethren, and all their afflictions, from the time they left the land of Zarahemla until the time they returned again” (Mosiah 25:6).  This means that he likely knew about Alma’s refusal to be the king over his people in Helam, and he saw a successful example of a group that was governed by a leader who wasn’t as powerful as a king.  Alma’s experiment, the first we know of in Nephite history, of having a society without a king showed Mosiah that it could be done.  It was then the son of that Alma, also named Alma, who became the first chief judge—but not king—over the Nephites at the death of Mosiah.  Surely the Lord had brought together these different stories into the hands of Mosiah during a short period of time so that he could be led to make that pivotal decision to end kings among the Nephites.