This year I decided I was not going to let the Come Follow Me curriculum dictate my scripture study schedule. I decided to spend the whole year studying Mosiah. I also put together a Ladies scripture study group to study along with me. 

There are 29 chapters in Mosiah so I created a schedule that would allow us to study Mosiah in four to six week “cycles” with two week breaks between each cycle. It’s been very rewarding to go through scripture at this slower pace. I’ve been able to gain so much insight into passages of scripture that I previously rushed through.

Recently my study group has been working through the teachings of Abinadi found in chapters 12-17 of Mosiah. As I worked on lesson plans for my study group, I discovered some really beautiful things inside of those chapters. I want to share my findings here.

Just a fair warning. These chapters have a surprising amount of quotations from Isaiah. I’m going to try to keep my explanation simple and try to break it down in a way that doesn’t get too overwhelming. But it’s still going to be deep. At one point while I was working on the lesson plan for Mosiah 15 I created this meme to share how I was feeling. 

I don’t have a wall of papers and string, but I’m close. As you read through this it will be helpful if you have your scriptures with you because it that will make things easier to follow.

Let’s start in Mosiah Chapter 12. When Abinadi is taken captive by the people they turn him over to King Noah and his wicked priests. The priests want Abinadi to contradict himself so they ask him hard questions. 

One of the things they ask of him is to tell them the meaning of a passage of Isaiah. This makes me laugh because it seems that even in ancient times Isaiah had a reputation for being difficult to understand. I can just see those priests getting together and saying, “Let’s ask him about Isaiah – he’ll never be able to explain Isaiah.” 

They ask him to interpret Isaiah 52:7-10. (You can find it in Mosiah 12:21-24). The passage reads:

If you are like me, your eyes glossed over and you zoned out while reading that passage. I know, I know, Isaiah isn’t the most engaging material on the first (or fifth) pass. But this passage ends up being at the heart of the next few chapters so please read over it again and then keep a finger on that passage because we’ll come back to it.

At first Abinadi acts like he doesn’t plan to interpret this passage. He gives one of the greatest comebacks in scripture by basically saying, “Isn’t it YOUR job to teach people what the scriptures mean? Don’t you understand what this means already? Why are you asking me?”

However, in Chapter 13 we learn that Abinadi does plan to interpret this passage. When the priests attempt to silence him by laying their hands on him in verse 2 he is able to resist them and says that he cannot be silenced for two reasons.

1. He has not finished the message the Lord gave him.

2. He hasn’t “told you that which you requested.” Which means he hasn’t answered their question about the meaning of the passage from Isaiah. 

He takes his time getting around to interpreting Isaiah 52. First he reads all 10 Commandments and then segues into a discussion about how the Law of Moses is not what brings salvation – it is a type of things to come. 

He then quotes all of Isaiah Chapter 53. (It’s found in Chapter 14 of Mosiah.) At first glance the fact that he is bringing up Isaiah 53 seems kind of random. But if you read the chapters together you can actually see that Isaiah 52 and 53 are connected in more ways than just being next to each other. Isaiah 53 describes a suffering servant (who we interpret to be Jesus Christ). The passage about the suffering servant actually begins in verse 13 of Isaiah 52. Abinadi isn’t just pulling a random chapter from Isaiah – he’s using one that is thematically linked to the passage that the priests want him to interpret. 

In Isaiah 53/Mosiah 14 we read the familiar phrases about Jesus being “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” We read that he “has bourn our griefs and carried our sorrows.” We read of him being led to his death like a “lamb that is led to the slaughter.” We read that “he bore the sins of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

I highly recommend taking the time to read over these passages from Isaiah in different translations. You can easily find ESV, RSV, NIV and other translations with a quick Google search. Reading the passages in a different translation can help you find deeper meaning in words that are easy to gloss over when you are reading them in the same phrasing that you’ve read your whole life. 

In Mosiah 15 verses 5-10, Abinadi interprets Isaiah 53. He uses many of the same phrases from Isaiah 53 to explain what will happen to Jesus.

In verse 10 he repeats the phrase “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed.” This is from Isaiah 53 verse 10. 

Abinadi then asks, “Who shall be his seed?”

He starts listing the types of people who are considered the seed. At the end of verse 11 he also explains that seed is another word for heirs of the kingdom of God. We are going to go through these next few verses slowly so that we can really understand who Abinadi considers to be the seed/heirs of the kingdom. 

In Verse 11 we read that the seed/heirs of the kingdom are the people who: 

• Heard the words of prophets who prophesied of the coming of the Lord
• Hearkened unto their words
• Believed that the Lord would redeem his people
• Looked forward to a remission of sins

In verse 12 we read that the seed/heirs of the kingdom are also:

• They whose sins he has borne
• Redeemed from their transgressions because of his death

Verse 13 we read that the prophets are also his seed/heirs

In verse 14 we read what his seed/heirs do? And this is where things get really exciting because Abinadi is FINALLY interpreting Isaiah 52 verse 7 (The other verses come later.)

According to Abinadi the seed/heirs of the kingdom have done the following things:

• Published Peace
• Brought Good tidings of Good (by the way the ESV translation has this phrase as “Good tidings of Happiness” which I think sounds much better.)
• Published Salvation
• Said unto Zion “Thy God reigneth.”

Then he takes us through several versions of the phrase at the beginning of verse 10 of Isaiah 52:10. The phrase is “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet.” This sounds a little strange to our ears. Beautiful feet? Is this some sort of foot fetish? But it’s basically an ancient idiom for “a messenger announcing a great deed.” 

It’s easy to read these next few verses and kind of zone out with the repetition. But pay close attention to the tenses of these verses. 

Verse 15 is talking about the Past: “And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!”

Verse 16 is talking about the Present: “And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace.” 

Verse 17 is talking about the Future: “and again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace yea from this time henceforth and forever!”

Abinadi is saying that the seed/heirs of the kingdom are the ones that are bringing good news in the past, the present, and the future. 

But Abinadi is not done with this phrase yet. In verse 18 he basically says, “But wait, there’s more” and then goes on to explain that Christ himself also has beautiful feet and is bringing good tidings. He says that Christ is the founder of peace, who has redeemed his people, and who has granted salvation to his people. 

Abinadi has interpreted this one verse of Isaiah to be about people who have believed in Jesus, who do believe in Jesus, who will believe in Jesus, and as about Jesus himself. Talk about layers! 

So why is this good news? And what does this have to do with us?

Abinadi goes on to explain in verses 19-21 that Christ has done several things for his people including:

• Redeemed them so they are saved from perishing
• Broken the bands of death
• Has power over dead
• Will bring to pass the resurrection of the dead

Those of us who are used to the gospel can kind of gloss over those concepts. It’s easy to think, “yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before.” But stop and really think about it for a moment. What if this was the first time you learned that there would be a Christ? What if this was the first time you learned that you would be redeemed? What if this was the first time you heard that Christ would have power over death? What if this was the first time you heard about the resurrection?

Would that make you want to publish peace, bring good tidings of happiness, to publish salvation, and say something like, Thy God Reigneth? It might.

You also might find yourself doing the other things described in Isaiah 52 verses 8-10.

Things like singing. Or breaking forth into joy. What would you do if you knew that the Lord hath comforted his people? Would your eyes join the other eyes of people in all the nations and the ends of the earth as they see the salvation of our God? Abinadi seems to think so. At the end of chapter 15 he quotes the remainder of Isaiah 52 verses 8-10. He doesn’t give as much commentary on these verses. It seems like he’s saying these verses are a natural result of hearing the good news from the messenger.

At first this passage from Isaiah seems like a random ancient poem. It talks about the beautiful feet of a messenger. That can seem strange and confusing to our modern ears. What does that even mean? But thanks to Abinadi’s explanation we can see that this passage is about how we as believers in Christ react when we learn that he has redeemed us and saved us from sin and death.

It’s about taking the beautiful message- the message that says that the Lord has surely borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows – and sharing that message with others. To give them good tidings of happiness. To sing together.

This passage is about prophets, it’s about Jesus, it’s about me, and it’s about you.

According to Abinadi we all have beautiful feet when we are talking about what Christ has done for us.