Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

22:1-13 - After the recap of what happened to Aaron and his group after they separated from Ammon, we now come to what they do after Ammon and Lamoni free them and then return to the land of Ishmael, we will follow Aaron and his brethren on the remainder of their journey. After Ammon left, Aaron "was led by the Spirit to the land of Nephi, even to the house of the king which was over all the land save it were the land of Ishmael; and he was the father of Lamoni." Interesting in the turn of events, whereas the Lord warned Ammon not to go to the land of Nephi because the king would try to kill him just a little while earlier, now the Spirit is telling Aaron to go there. So he goes to the old king "and bowed himself before the king, and said unto him: Behold, O king, we are the brethren of Ammon, whom thou hast delivered out of prison. And now, O king, if thou wilt spare our lives, we will be thy servants." So they are taking a page out of Ammon's book and offering...

21:1-11 - Let's go back really quick to chapter 17 where the sons of Mosiah and all those that had gone with them, split up and go there separate ways. We immediately go into the story of Ammon and everything that happens with him, and I think overall, it's was a very good editorial move on Mormon's part. But now at chapter 21, we can kind of go back and insert this here after they all split up and follow the story of Aaron, Muloki, Ammah and others, though it's not as exciting or as detailed, it's still interesting and profitable to continue their story as well. Ammon goes to the land of Ishmael to Lamoni and "Aaron took his journey towards the land which was called by the Lamanites, Jerusalem, calling it after the land of their fathers' nativity;... Now the Lamanites and the Amalekites and the people of Amulon had built a great city, which was called Jerusalem." We hear again the name Amulon, even though it's been a while, we last hear of Amulon ...

20:1-15 - Now that there has been a church established within Lamoni’s kingdom, Lamoni is anxious to spread his good news and he “desired that Ammon should go with him to the land of Nephi, that he might show him unto his father.” But the Lord warned Ammon not to go to the land of Nephi “for behold, the king will seek thy life; but thou shalt go to the land of Middoni; for behold, they brother Aaron, and also Muloki and Ammah are in prison.” It’s interesting to me that the Lord told Ammon not to go to the land of Nephi because “the king will seek they life,” but we know that as they are traveling they run into the king, so when they got there, he wouldn’t have even been there. I guess that might be a little bit presumptuous of me to say, seeing that I know nothing of Lamanite geography, so I guess it’s possible that the travel time between the cities would have been different, and also the speed and urgency with which they traveled might have been different, so let’s just assume then t...

19:1-11 - Lamoni has fallen to the ground and been unconscious for 2 days so far, and the people are debating, “is he dead?” “Should we bury him?” Ultimately it was left up to the queen, so she sent for Ammon “and desired that he should come in unto her. And it came to pass that Ammon did as he was commanded, and went in unto the queen.” There’s an interesting dynamic here that I didn’t recognize at first. Ammon performs the miracle of keeping the king’s flocks safe, while killing and disarming (literally, hahaha,) the enemy, then he teaches with great power and the king falls down at his words, and now they are trying to decide what happened and what to do. I think that if I was Ammon I would have run out and started yelling “hey guys! The king believes what I told him and now he’s unconscious meeting with Jesus. Come listen to what I have to say! He’ll wake up in 3 days!” That’s how I think that I would have handled that situation, but apparently that’s not what Ammon did at all. He ...

18:16-33 - After the brave servant asked Ammon to stay, Ammon and Lamoni played the "quiet game" for a while. But Ammon "being filled with the Spirit of God, therefore he perceived the thoughts of the king." Ammon asked him if him miraculously saving his flocks, and thereby his fellow servants by killing 7 attacking Lamanites and cutting of the arms of all the rest who tried to attack him, was the cause of "thy marvelings?" (Side note, the words "marvelings" is only used twice in the entire Book of Mormon and they are both in chapter 18.) And again, Lamoni "marveled again, for he beheld that Ammon could discern his thoughts." We are privy to a pretty meaningful but straight forward discussion between Lamoni and Ammon. The simplicity of Ammon's questions and answers makes me think for a minute about the way that effective teaching is done in my own life. We've seen many different teaching styles throughout the Book of Mormon so f...

18:1-11 – After the miraculous little battle that has occurred at the water of Sebus, the arms were taken by the other servants to king Lamoni, and his reaction is quite telling in a few different ways. Naturally he wanted all the details, and since he had no foundational belief in Christ, surely he would only be able to make his own conclusion that Ammon is “the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments upon this people, because of their murders?” Something miraculous did happen, and it was through the power of God that not only Ammon’s life was spared, but also the lives of the other servants by saving the flocks, but because Lamoni had no foundational true doctrine, his assumptions were misplaced. The concept of the “Great Spirit” that Lamoni talks about is quite interesting if we think about it. We know that when L&L and the sons of Ishmael were separated from Nephi and his people, they turned into a crazy Godless people, and I’m sure that they had no intention on passi...

Today is the day, the day that my kids have been waiting for for weeks, the day that we as a family finally catch up to where I am here. We listened to chapter 17 today in the car as our scripture study for the day, and here I am finishing up my commentary on chapter 17 as well. My kids have been very interested in where I am in my blog, and how closer they are to catching up and passing me. We’ve been close to each other for several weeks now, but today is the day that my blog is passed up by my kids reading. My son has even asked me several times to not read my scriptures at night because he wanted to “be in head of” me. So when I told them that we are on the same chapter today, they were quite pleased with themselves. 17:18-25 – The sons of Mosiah have spent time preparing in the wilderness, and “Ammon being the chief among them, or rather he did administer unto them, and he departed from them, after having blessed them according to their several stations, having imparted the word...

17:4-10 – This part of the chapter has me reeling from Mormon’s ability as a writer. He’s so detailed yet not overwhelming. I particularly like “by the power of their words many were brought before the altar of God, to call on his name and confess their sins before him.” Now we know that there is no actual physical altar that we kneel at to repent, but it’s metaphoric and beautiful. He also starts out with the positive aspects of the mission and then leads in to the negatives, they “had much success,” but “they had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit.” Kind of giving us a run down before jumping into the whole story. I thought that it was interesting that we are given their packing list: “their swords, and their spears, and their bows, and their arrows, and their slings.” Interesting that they would take weapons with them on their missions, but Mormon must have known what our reaction wo...