They Did Plead With Their Father

After the conversion of the sons of Mosiah and their efforts to right the wrongs they had done among the people of Zarahemla, they came to their father with a request to go to the Lamanites.  We read, “And it came to pass that they did plead with their father many days that they might go up to the land of Nephi.”  They pled with him because “they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish” (Mosiah 28:3,5).  So great was their love and their desire for the salvation of others that they were not only willing but wanted to make the great sacrifice of serving a mission, even amidst their enemies.  While the Nephite people around them were condemning the Lamanites and even “laughed [them] to scorn” for their desire to preach to a people “whose days have been spent in the grossest of iniquity,” they were fearless in their determination to go and “save some few of their souls” (Alma 26:23-26).  Theirs is a powerful example to us of the kind of desire we should seek to develop as it relates to missionary work.  When we are pleading with God for the opportunity to preach the gospel, then we’ll know that that the gospel truly has gotten deep into our hearts. 

            As I’ve thought about their example, I realized that they are very much types of Christ in this story.  They pled with their father for the salvation of others, they left their high station (they could have been kings) to go down amongst enemies in order to serve them, and they ultimately brought salvation to thousands of people by their labors which involved great suffering.  In a similar manner, the Savior left His heavenly home were He was already God in order to come down among a people He chose to serve.  He suffered among those who chose to be His enemies, and ultimately brought salvation to the children of men by His great sacrifice among them.  One of the words in scripture that is associated with the Savior is “plead” for He indeed pleads for the children of men for whom He gave His life.  Isaiah wrote, “The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people” (Isaiah 3:13).  The Savior pleads for His people, and Isaiah emphasized this again in another passage: “Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people” (Isaiah 51:22).  In our dispensation He told us this even more explicitly: “I am Christ, and in mine own name, by the virtue of the blood which I have spilt, have I pleaded before the Father for them…. Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:4).  In the Pearl of Great Price we similarly read, “And that which I have chosen hath pled before my face” (Moses 7:39).  The Savior pleads before the Father in our behalf, just as the sons of Mosiah pled with their father on behalf of the Lamanites.  The sons of Mosiah were witnesses of the Savior and their selfless service was symbolic of His condescension among the children of men.