Good Tidings of Good

When Abinadi prophesied to the people of King Noah concerning the way that the Lord was going to “visit them in [His] anger” because of their iniquities, the priests tried to use scripture against him. After hearing these gloomy prophecies about what was going to happen to their people, one of them said, “What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been taught by our fathers, saying: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth; Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion; Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem; The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God?” (Mosiah 12:20-24) So they quoted these words from Isaiah 52:7-10, suggesting to Abinadi that his doom and gloom message didn’t fit with this description from the ancient prophet of publishing good tidings and peace. They didn’t realize that his message, though predicting the punishments that were to come upon them, was a message of peace, for he was calling them to repentance in order to obtain true peace from Jesus Christ.

Abinadi’s immediate answer to this priest quoting Isaiah was to question why they didn’t understand what these words really meant if they were priests, but he didn’t further explain at that point. Later, though, after describing the law of Moses and quoting Isaiah’s description of the sufferings of the Savior—the text in Isaiah right after the passage that these wicked priests quoted—Abinadi came back to these verses from Isaiah 52. He explained that the “seed” of the Savior were those “heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.” His implication of course was that these priests were not among His seed because they refused to hearken to the words of the prophets. But those who would listen to the prophets, these are they “who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!” (Mosiah 15:11,14) In other words, to rejoice with the words of Isaiah 52, to publish peace and a beautiful message on the mountains, was the privilege of all who would hearken unto the words of the Lord. But these priests were not in that group and because of their rebellion the words of Isaiah 52 did not describe them. But, despite their original question, these words did describe Abinadi who declared boldly and with joy the coming of the Savior and the salvation that awaited the righteous who believed on His name. I love how he did indeed declare peace to all of us through Jesus Christ: “But behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead” (Mosiah 15:20). He further testified, “But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death” (Mosiah 15:8-9). Abinadi stands tall with all of the holy prophets who have indeed published good tidings of good and salvation to us all through Jesus Christ. How blessed we are to have his witness of the Savior and the power of His redemption!