One other item on the Lord's list of Solomon's potential desires that might have decoyed him away from seeking wisdom gets a footnote in the LDS Scriptures - seeking "the life of thine enemies" (1 Kings 3:11). The footnote leads us to D&C 98, a difficult scripture for all of us, for we are called upon to "renounce war and proclaim peace" (v. 98:16). The renouncement is not the nonviolence of a Gandhi for whom war is always wrong. But, even so, the standard of restraint and patience and peacemaking is difficult to picture being implemented by any Modern leader of state, whether liberal or conservative.
Three times we are to patiently endure the assaults of an enemy who smites us. We are to "bear it patiently," "revile not," "neither seek revenge" (v. 23). Instead we are to "lift up a standard of peace" three times to the enemies who attack (v. 34). Then, if the enemy would not accept the offer of peace, we are in a position that God might command us to go against them in battle (v. 33, 36), after clearly warning the enemy that a fourth attack would indeed bring a God blessed reprisal (v. 28).
Accepting the Lord's standard carries with it some solemn promises. Our patience under the first attack will be "rewarded;" under the second, rewarded a hundredfold and under the third, doubled again four-fold (v. 23, 25, 26). In addition the Lord himself would deliver "thine enemy into thine hands" (v. 29). Further the Lord himself would avenge himself upon them for generations.
Even then, when the unrepentant enemy is delivered into our hands, the virtue of mercy would bring blessings upon ourselves and our children that would last for generations. And if our enemy or their children perform a genuine repentance we are to forgive them, and Lord's curse for their violence will be lifted from them.
I wonder how this pattern might be applied to dealings with our "enemies" in other situation than physical violence?
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