Zephaniah 3:4

"Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law."
Zephaniah 3:4


Very interesting phrase: "they have done violence to the law."  I was thinking about that, and how you could hurt a law.  (Images of Bill from SchoolHouse Rock for those of you who know it...)  What I came up with is that when we take responsibility for something and then we don't protect it as we should, we are allowing it to be injured... and sometimes we are doing the violence ourselves, as was the case with King Noah and his priests in the book of Mormon.  The chapter that this scripture is taken from talks about the Second Coming, and so presumably this is talking about things that will happen in the last days... a lot of hypocrisy, and a lot of ... you almost want to call it infidelity here.  I suppose it is pollution and betrayal of what they stand for, but think about it... these are this city's prophets and priests, right?  The very people that they should be able to put full trust in, and yet *they* are the polluters, and the ones that are trying to undermine the law.  I guess infidelity comes to mind because it makes me think of that kind of ultimate betrayal.  I think that we have to watch ourselves that we don't become like this.  As members of the church, and because we have the knowledge that we are God's children, we have a responsibility to set an example for the people around us.  We have a responsibility to be *more* obedient, because we are expected to be the candles set on the hill... the light for others to follow.  Just as parents, teachers, and political leaders are held to a higher standard because of the power and responsibility they have, we too need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that of the world... it is an abuse of power when we don't, because some of our brothers and sisters will follow us, whether we are traveling towards God, or going in another direction.