Verses 20 and 21 at first appear to deliver contradictory messages. First, Moroni asks Pahoran if he has forgotten Yahweh’s miracles of intervention in the past. Then he chastises Pahoran for believing that Yahweh will deliver the Nephites. He seems to simultaneously encourage faith in Yahweh’s deliverance and declare that awaiting Yahweh’s deliverance is evil.
However, verse 20 contains the clue to Moroni’s intent. He is not simply asking Pahoran to remember a history of deliverance, but to remember the whole heritage of commandment, captivity, and then deliverance. Moroni is asking Pahoran to remember the entire history of the Nephite people and their values. Since Moroni has accused Pahoran of adopting the hierarchical and “Lamanite” worldview, this is a call to return to a Nephite perspective. When Moroni asks if Pahoran is awaiting Yahweh’s deliverance while he sits on his throne (with others like him), he is asking if Pahoran’s shift in worldview is making him distort Yahweh’s relationship to his people. Has he developed a false belief that Yahweh would save them without effort?
Both verses should be understood in the cultural context of Moroni’s accusation of treason. This is not a generic treason, but a very specific one—that Pahoran has given up the essence of the Nephite religion (the Yahweh-founded history and preservation) to adopt a Lamanite perspective.