Day 284 Laconius: Fear Not Man, But Reverence the Lord

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from, thank you for joining me, and know that I'm cheering for your every success. How can fear possibly work in our favor? Welcome to day 284 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together.

Today you're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 3, verses 5 through 26. You're going to get into the tail end of this letter from the Book of Mormon. And then you're going to get Laconius' response.

And we're going to dive straight into that because I think there's a lot we can see inside of our readings here in chapter 3. Our verse for today is 3 Nephi 3, verse 12. It says, "Now behold, this Laconius, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber.

Therefore, he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them." Now we get a phrase in here that he is not going to be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber. And then we're going to see fear inside of this chapter in another way. We have this frightened part that I think is interesting.

And then we have fear that Laconius gives to his people as he preaches with the spirit. And it's really based in this fear of the Lord. There's a lot of research on the biblical side of things about fear being translated different ways.

And one of them is a deep reverence and respect for the power and authority that God holds in our lives. And I think this chapter has some insight into that. Because if you look at what Laconius does when he responds: first, he is not frightened by these demands, which means he doesn't have a deep respect or reverence for the authority and power that this Gadianton robber is going to hold.

That's the first way to kind of see it through this lens. But then the next thing is, what does the fear do as Laconius preaches to his people? Well, if you continue reading in these verses — 13, 14, 15, 16 — you get over to 25 where it summarizes everything, 24, 25, 26 actually, where it summarizes everything that happens.

Here are things that I pulled out that happened. I won't read the verses because we focus on one verse. But the people united together in this deep respect and reverence for the Lord; they united together.

The Bible says that the Lord is the one who will bring the people into action and repentance rather than a state of terror or freezing like we're typically used to when we hear the word fear. Laconius could not be frightened by the demands of this robber, but he absolutely could use the fear of the Lord to drive himself and his people into action to defend themselves against this. This is such an interesting point in the Book of Mormon, because if these people are not repentant, if these people choose wickedness and buy into the Gadianton robbers, what we're really looking at here in chapter four as we get into it, is this is actually the possible end of the Book of Mormon right here.

If these people don't do what Laconius calls them to action in terms of repentance and getting themselves together, this could be the end of the very civilization we read about. And yet, it isn't the end because the people choose to repent. Repent, unite, fortify, guard themselves, and pray to the Lord for protection.

There is a powerful lesson in these people right here with Laconius as their leader. I hope that you and I can pull some valuable lessons from this section today. That's all for today, my friends.

Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow, and I hope you are too.