Mosiah Refuses the Crown

King Mosiah was old, and he had a decision to make. His sons had refused the throne, gone off to preach among the Lamanites instead, and the kingdom was his to hand to whomever he chose. Instead he wrote to his people and told them to end the monarchy altogether. He warned them what a king costs. A righteous king can rule you well, he said, but he will die, and his son will sit in that same seat, and if a wicked man ever takes it, you will not be able to lift that burden off your backs. One man's sin will cost a whole nation, and it will take blood to undo. So he told them to choose judges, and to be governed by the voice of the people, because it is not common that the voice of the people desires anything contrary to what is right. Then he stepped down. A king looked at absolute power sitting in his own hands, and he let it go, for people who would never know what it cost him. Everything that came after, the judges, the freemen, the whole long fight to hold onto it, began the day he laid it down. Mosiah 29. #BookOfMormon #LDS #ComeFollowMe #LatterDaySaints #Christian #Faith #Scripture Lyrics: I have worn it forty years and it never fit right, It was heavy in the morning and it's heavy tonight. I have sons who would take it and they'd wear it well, But a good man on a throne is a coin on a tell. Lay it down, lay it down, Lay it down, lay it down. Not to my son and not to my name, Lay it down, lay it down. For a righteous man will rule you and he'll rule you fair, But he dies, and his son sits in the very same chair. And you can't lift a bad one off your back once he's on, You'll be paying for his sins long after he's gone. Lay it down, lay it down, Lay it down, lay it down. Not to my son and not to my name, Lay it down, lay it down. So it goes to you now. All of you. Every voice. Every man. Every voice. Every man. Choose the men who will judge you and hold them to it, And when one of them turns, you'll be there to move it. I am handing you something you'll have to defend, And they'll come for it, brothers, again and again. Lay it down, lay it down, Lay it down, lay it down. Not to my son and not to my name, Lay it down, lay it down. Lay it down. Lay it down.