Mosiah 20:4-6; “And having tarried in the wilderness, and having discovered the daughters of the Lamanites, they laid and watched them; 5 And when there were but few of them gathered together to dance, they came forth out of their secret places and took them and carried them into the wilderness; yea, twenty and four of the daughters of the Lamanites they carried into the wilderness. 6 And it came to pass that when the Lamanites found that their daughters had been missing, they were angry with the people of Limhi, for they thought it was the people of Limhi.”
Judges 21:20-21; “Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; 21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.”
At one of the saddest and lowest times in Israel’s history we see how men decided to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do them. There was no king and like today in our beloved America, everyone does what they feel they want/need to do…
The book of Judges tells us of the tumultuous times the tribes of Israel lived through and the calamities they kept encountering because of their disobedience. At the beginning of chapter 17 you’ll find a Levite priest who goes out looking for a mistress with his wife in tow no less, the murder of a maidservant who was brutally raped and left for dead and on the story goes…
In chapter 21 we see how the Israelites were celebrating the yearly feast held in Shiloh when they came up with a stupid idea to kidnap daughters from the tribe of Benjamin for wives.
They did this on the heels of a major internal battle they kept fighting amongst themselves and a whole tribe confession to God for misbehaving. Even after all that confessing with sackcloth and ashes they decided to kidnap these young girls and once again they turned their backs on God. If you’ve not read about their backsliding ways in Judges, this is a must read!
At the end of this era is where we come upon the Israelites hiding in the bushes to kidnap girls and Joseph Smith’s insertion of the same event in the book of Mosiah. While Joe Smith liked to lift historical events from the bible and insert them into his Book of Mormon stories, this has to be one of the more disturbing things to reproduce.
Our question today is why.
Of all the events in the Bible, why would Joe lift this one and insert it into his narrative?
What purpose does this serve my mother in her life right here and now and how does it bring glory to God?
We’ve noticed many times how Smith would arbitrarily insert random events from the Bible into his Nephite or Lamanite stories and after a few verses in the BoM you never hear of it again. The stories seem odd and out of place.
The passage in Judges is a haunting reminder for us today of what can and will happen when we don’t place King Jesus in His rightful place in our hearts. Other testaments of unknown gods with other gospels will assuredly make an appearance.
Judges 21:25; “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
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