“His Judgments Are Just” – Mosiah 16:1

I wrote yesterday about Abinadi’s commitment to the truth and his willingness to sacrifice convenience, status, and even his life for it. He maintained this integrity in spite of severe personal hardship because he was able to take the long view. As he told King Noah and his priests, “I finish my message; and then it matters not whither I go, if it so be that I am saved” (Mosiah 13:9).

Near the end of his sermon, “he stretched forth his hand” and reminded the king and his priests of a future event which should influence the decisions we make today:

The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just.
(Mosiah 16:1)

This statement was not only a rebuke to his audience, it was also an explanation of Abinadi’s confidence in spite of his oppressed circumstances. Looking to the future, he saw a time when God would right every wrong and would resolve every injustice.

President Dallin H. Oaks has reminded us that we can have confidence in that future resolution in spite of the injustices we may experience today.

After His judgment we will all confess “that his judgments are just” (Mosiah 16:1; see also Mosiah 27:31; Alma 12:15), because His omniscience (see 2 Nephi 9:15, 20) has given Him a perfect knowledge of all of our acts and desires, both those righteous or repented and those unrepented or unchanged.
“Cleansed by Repentance,” General Conference, April 2019. (See also “The Great Plan,” General Conference, April 2020)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translated some passages by the German poet Friedrich von Logau. One of those passages labeled “Retribution” teaches this same principle of patience as a manifestation of faith in God:

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.
(The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1846, p. 114)

Today, I will have confidence in the Lord’s timing and in His ultimate resolution of all injustices. I will remember that God knows all things, including our actions and the desires of our hearts, and that we will all recognize His judgments to be just in the end.