Urgent Information: you are dust

Reading: Mosiah 1-3

King Benjamin can really lay it down.  The great thing about his speech is that it comes at the very end of his life, so what he tells us (and what Mormon chose to include) is likely the most important things he feels we need to know. So, let's get to it:

1. The importance of records. As is often the case, when the records are passed down, we get an explanation of how important it is to maintain records so that we, our children, grandchildren and so on, will have consistency in truth, beliefs and practice.  King Benjamin tells his sons this in vs 3-7 of ch 1, that we should "search them diligently." Not just read, but search.  I've discovered in my life that there are benefits for both "just" read them and searching them.  By far, searching them is more beneficial.  Searching with questions in mind is the best way to go.  Spiritual curiosity is invigorating and finding the answer, or feeling peace that I don't need to know the answer right now, is extremely fulfilling.  "Just" reading them has many benefits too.  As the scriptures say, there is a time and season for everything.  Some days I don't make the time to really search, but I can generally read while I eat my cereal every morning, even if it's just a column or so.  But I believe that my day goes a little more smoothly, or I tend to act with a better perspective in mind, if I read a bit of scriptures and thereby acknowledging that I need them and I need Heavenly Father.

2. Dust/equality.  This is an incredibly important lesson (with lots of other imbedded lessons) given by a King who works along side of those he rules instead of using his power to be condescending and selfish.  He describes his actions in ch 2:10-16 and makes sure he gives the credit of his actions to God.  He explains the truths and reasoning behind his actions, which boil down to this: no matter what position we hold while in this earth life, we are all equal in the eyes of the Lord.  Not even trying to repay him will raise you above someone else, because we can't repay. Just, please, please, please, be grateful and obedient.  He says it so beautifully that I just copied it here:

19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to ^athank your heavenly ^bKing!

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the^athanks and ^bpraise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and ^cpreservedyou, and has caused that ye should ^drejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

 21 I say unto you that if ye should ^aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is ^bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you ^cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own ^dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your^ewhole souls yet ye would be ^funprofitable servants.

 22 And behold, all that he ^arequires of you is to ^bkeep his commandments; and he has ^cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth ^dvary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ^ekeephis ^fcommandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

 23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

 24 And secondly, he doth ^arequire that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately ^bblessyou; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

 25 And now I ask, 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; yet ye were ^acreated of the ^bdust of the earth; but behold, it^cbelongeth to him who created you.

 26 And I, even I, whom ye call your king, am ^ano 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.

3. Service.  All throughout his speech he talks of the importance of serving one another.  Which supports the truth listed above - that we are all created equally and are seen equally in the eyes of God.  Really, the only way we know this is by serving and therefore getting to know each other.  Getting to know each other seems to level the playing field because knowing other people helps us understand that everyone has their own problems, their own histories, and their own influences.  Essentially, we're all just trying to figure things out in this life.

4. Testify of the Savior.  All of Chapter 3 is King Benjamin's testimony and prophecy of the mission of the Savior.  Ch 3:5-10 lay out the coming, acts and life of the Savior.  The rest of the chapter focuses of those who would rebel against the Savior or refuse to know about him.  He mentions this as a natural state of man, but a state that can be, and if fact a man's life mission is to overcome this natural state:

19 For the ^anatural ^bman is an ^cenemy to God, and has been from the ^dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he ^eyieldsto the enticings of the Holy ^fSpirit, and ^gputteth off the ^hnaturalman and becometh a ⁱsaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.


To help us overcome our natural state, he sends (v 15) signs, wonders, prophets and the Spirit.

So, there you have it.  King Benjamin says he is quaking of old age at the time of this speech, so I would imagine that what he says at the beginning is the most urgent information:  remember your place - that God is your Father and Provider, serve your fellow beings, and come to know and love your Savior.