"And a certain man of the asons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the Lord, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him.
Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him."
1 Kings 20:35-36
Luckily we probably won't have lions chasing us if we ignore God's commandments, but the lesson is still important. Eaten by lions because you refused to hit a prophet. Seems extreme, but also seems sort of familiar as well. We have a lot of excuses that we use to disobey God. Nephi didn't want to kill Laban, but he was able to tell that this was something that the Spirit needed him to do, for a wise purpose in God. And I think that is the lesson here as well... when a prophet, or the Spirit, tells us plainly to do something, then we should do it.
I think learning to listen to God is a big part of our lives, and it takes a lot of practice. But I also think that there are so many clear messages from the scriptures and from conference that we have enough opportunity getting that practice in understanding and obeying before we run into any cases that are unclear or we need to question. We can always go back to God about something, but the primary lesson here is do as God asks, so we can be led to the lion-free path home.
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