Noah, who is the son of Zeniff, takes over the kingdom but does not walk in his fathers ways and keep the commandments (v1-2). Instead he sins, causes his people to sin, and starts taxing his people to support him and his concubines and priests (v3-4). He also changed the priests that had been consecrated by his father to ones that supported his pride and laziness which was supported by the people who became idolatrous (v5-7). This kinda makes me question why the people weren't upset at the sudden change in everything about the kingdom except they accepted those ways!
Noah builds all sorts of unnecessarily spacious buildings with overly decorated walls, including the temple for his priests (v8-11). In v11, it shows how lazy they became, "he caused a breastwork to be built...that they might rest their bodies and their arms upon while they should speak lying and vain words to his people." That just blows my mind. Noah builds a huge tower near the temple to look over the land of Shilom and Shemlon, and also a tower north of Shilom all with the taxes (v12-13). He only thought of riches and wine from his vineyards to support his riotous living with his wives (v14-15).
The Lamanites begin to come and attack them in the fields and Noah sends an inefficient amount of guards to help (v16-17). When the Lamanites begin destroying them, Noah sends an army that temporarily drives them away so the people become prideful (v18). They thought they were all that and a bag of chips because they defeated the Lamanites and then they began to delight in the killing of them (v19).
At this point I feel they are almost too far gone....but The Lord sends a prophet, Abinadi, to warn the people to repent or be smitten by The Lord and put in bondage by the Lamanites (v20-21). These people still know of God and unless they repent now, The Lord will be slow to hear their cries of help later (v22-25). When people heard Abinadi saying these harsh words they wanted to kill him but he was protected (v26). Noah is also mad and has a terrible attitude towards The Lord and his power, so he commands Abinadi be brought before him (v27-28).
The people didn't listen to the words of Abinadi because they were spiritually blind and so used to committing sin (v29). I don't know if you saw the time that passed but 10 years passed being under a wicked king who encouraged and promoted wickedness. What chance did the people have with a ruler who is basically leading them straight to the gates of hell? We are lucky in this day to have freedom of religion and can worship The Lord despite wicked leaders.
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