A Truly Humble Man

One of the most remarkable attributes that we find in King Benjamin was his humility.  We see this especially his great discourse to his people.  He told them near the very beginning of this sermon, “I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man.  But I am like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind.”  He didn’t want them to feel that he thought himself

better than them because of his position as king.  As their king he did those things that would best serve the people—not himself—and he spent his whole life laboring for them: “I have been suffered to spend my days in your service, even up to this time….  And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes” (Mosiah 2:10, 12, 14).  Unlike so many others, past and present, he did not have any sense of entitlement because of his position; he considered himself the same as all men. 

               King Benjamin also told his people, “[You are] indebted unto [God], and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?...  And I, even I, whom ye call your king, am no better than ye yourselves are; for I am also of the dust. And ye behold that I am old, and am about to yield up this mortal frame to its mother earth” (Mosiah 2:24, 26).  This humility and sense of nothingness when compared to God is a breath of fresh air amidst the stifling ego of nearly all who gain power over other men and women.  The attitude of such prideful leaders is summed up by the wicked Queen Jadis in the first book of the C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia when she spoke arrogantly to the boy Digory after he questioned her evil actions: “I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny” (The Magician’s Nephew, p. 24).  For so many in the world who obtain positions of power, they see their place ruling others as giving them a special status above their subjects and above any law.  But for King Benjamin, he considered himself a mere mortal like everyone else who was answerable directly to God. 

               We also see the great humility of King Benjamin in the way he reverenced both his predecessor and successor.  When he instructed his son Mosiah to gather the people together, he said this, “My son, I would that ye should make a proclamation throughout all this land among all this people, or the people of Zarahemla, and the people of Mosiah who dwell in the land, that thereby they may be gathered together” (Mosiah 1:10).  We don’t know how long he had been king at this point, but it was clearly a long time, likely decades.  And yet he did not call them “my people”—they were still the “people of Mosiah” in his mind.  He had so much humility that, even years after Mosiah’s death, he reverenced his father’s name before his own.  He even referenced his father twice in his message to his people in order to give more credibility to his words (Mosiah 2:11, 32).  And then, he did what is nearly unthinkable for a king—he gave up his thrown to his son Mosiah well before his death.  We read, “And Mosiah began to reign in his father’s stead….  And king Benjamin lived three years and he died” (Mosiah 6:4-5).  That he was able to step down, give the thrown to his son, and step back and let him rule for years before his own death shows the greatness of a truly humble man.