Stoning was one of the ways that people were put to death according to the law of Moses, if they were seeking to turn the people alway from God.
So you shall stone him to death, because he has attempted to drive you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Deuteronomy 13:10 NASB
The wicked among the Nephites would also seek to stone those who they mistakenly perceived as false prophets.
Yea, wo unto this people, because of this time which has arrived, that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time.
Helaman 13:24
What I thought was interesting in the Samuel the Lamanite account was that he was being attacked with stones and arrows.
But as many as there were who did not believe in the words of Samuel were angry with him; and they cast stones at him upon the wall, and also many shot arrows at him as he stood upon the wall; but the Spirit of the Lord was with him, insomuch that they could not hit him with their stones neither with their arrows.
Helaman 16:2
I’ve wondered if this could be a hint of who his audience was. Some were trying to kill him with arrows perhaps because they saw him as a public nuisance and their response was more “secular.” Those that threw stones may have been doing so for religious reasons.
Could this response to Samuel’s preaching been a unified rejection from both believers and non-believers?
Nephi was the high priest at the time and Samuel is not said to have had any connection with the Nephite church; he seems to be an outsider. I’ve thought about what that might mean for us today and why we have this in the Book of Mormon.
If a true messenger from outside the hierarchy came to call the people to repentance like Samuel, Lehi, or Abinadi, how would the people respond?
It seems like we all think that we would recognize a true messenger, but it doesn’t seem like the majority of the people in the past were able to. They felt like they were the chosen people and that they were doing alright and all was well in Zion, so who is this person to come along and tell us otherwise?
King Noah famously boasted:
Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him…
Mosiah 11:27
I think this is a divine pattern, a test to see how well the “chosen” people are actually listening, and the Lord will test our people like this in the future as he has in the past.
