Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam Mosiah 11-17

Welcome again to Come Follow Me with Sam!

Abinadai! I love Abinadai! I did my best with my brother to open up Abinadai to understanding on our twitch channel. Abinadai came among the people in disguise and I think we too need to search him out to understand him better. I hope it is beneficial. 
Abinadai takes us and the priests on a journey from the static law to the savior's life, and then back to ours. I believe that he knew the basics of what he was going to say but that the spirit spelled out as he went the emergent truths he expressed.

The priests accuse Abinadai of being a doomsday-er and a downer

The priests were calculated in their question toward Abinadai they asked him about this passage of scripture from Isaiah

21 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;
22 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;
23 Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem;
24 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?

 Remember that earlier, the people said that they were strong and delivered so Abinadai was wrong. Here, they are trying to tell him that if he was preaching truth, how could he preach anything but joy, peace, good tidngs etc.

From Accused to Accuser

Abinadai almost immediately turns the tables. He reacts as though he can't quite believe what he is hearing, and I think he exposes why pretty clearly. First he's like 'wow, you really missed it'(my words) because 'you have not applied your hearts to understanding (his words). he asks them if the law of Moses saves or if Jesus saves and they fall for the law of Moses. He gives them the first and second commandments, 'thou shalt worship the lord they god with all thy might', and 'thou shalt have no other gods before me.' He is basically telling them that they forgot to worship God as first, and are raising a false god up in their minds that doesn't have salvation. as the french say, major casse.

From Accuser to Knight Radiant

no kidding. He starts to glow and no one has power to touch him. He proceeds to lay down the law to the wicked priests. Literally. He goes through the entire list of the rest of the ten commandments.
I wonder a lot what Abinadai's purpose in this was. The first two he gave make sense. Why the rest? Was it a reminder? A foundation for the rest of the talk? A demonstration that it was a little pointless to keep asking questions because he knew the law? I lose the story a little bit here but Abinadai apparently thought it was important to say, Alma thought it was important to record, and Mormon thought it was important to include. He then transitions to talking about who the Savior really was.

From Knight Radiant to Radiant Life

Abinadai quotes Isaiah 53, which is the chapter following the verses he was questioned about. He explains that Christ would come to earth as a man and suffer the same things, and undergo the same burdens, and for all this he would take the atonement upon himself and redeem us.

God Himself shall come down among the children of men and shall redeem

What comes next is the crux of Abinadai's discourse. Unfortunately, we as post-mortal messiah members usually get tangled up in whether Abinadai is talking about one God or two Gods or something else. What he is saying is that God Himself, the God of the old testament that they worship, will come down and walk among men and he will have the power of God because he is God. When Abinadai says God the Father or the Eternal Father, he is trying to get into their minds that while we are all sons of God, the Messiah was literally a God and was literally coming to earth.

Remember, this is what Limhi said in chapter 7 that he was put to death for - that man is made in the image of God and that God should come down among the children of men.

This is the great truth that is so dangerous that Satan will do anything to suppress it. Given, Satan probably would suppress any truth but this one really burns him.

Abinadai goes on to explain that this is the message of joy, peace, and glad tidings and that it has nothing to do with saying 'all is well', and everything to do with saying 'repent, and find redemption'. He finishes with this.

13 And now, ought ye not to tremble and repent of your sins, and remember that only in and through Christ ye can be saved?
14 Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come—
15 Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen.

Noah loses it

 The priests accused Abinadai 'thou hast said that God himself should come down among the children of men; and now for this cause thou shalt be put to death'. Abinadai says essentially this. 'I knew I would be tried by you and I knew I could be put to death and before I was walked through those doors, I already made my choice that my message, through my words and my actions, was worth more than all the riches and wisdom of your court. It is actually your trial we are at and we (the angels and I) are all very interested to see what you do next.

Noah loses it.

He knows in his heart that this is a setup and he's the one in the trap. So he goes against everything he has done to this point and tries to reverse course. Unfortunately his priests are not good and appeal to his pride and tell him that Abinadai has reviled the king. There is some ancient stuff about kings going on here as well. Kings know how weak of a hold they have. The priests are hinting that if he let's Abinadai go, that he is showing he doesn't have the power to be king, so they are making it not only a question of injury, but a question to make him doubt the power of his position if he follows through.
So Noah folds. Abinadai gives his life for the words and hell is unloosed on the Nephite civilization. We get to learn about that next week though.

The effect of Abinadai

I don't think we can overstate the effect that Abinadai had on the Nephite people and our own.
Alma, the one priest inspired by Abinadai in the court, was cast out, but he kept the words. He taught them to the people in secret and baptised and organized them. When he came back to King Mosiah II, he organized the church structure that lasted until the coming of Christ. 150 years after Abinadai gave his life, Christ came into the world, exactly as he said. Christ lived among the children of men, atoned for our sins, and raised Himself up the 3rd day. 1800 years later, Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth and published the words of Abinadai to the world. Today the teachings and existence of the church once again affirms the message of Abinadai - That men were made in the image of God and that God walked (and will walk again) among the children of men.