Alma 19
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 wasn’t even in the same room two days later when the queen started asking questions. I’m not sure what exactly he was doing, but my guess is that it had something to do with his assigned tasks, and he waited for an invitation. I wonder if we can read any teachings into that. I wonder if we can learn that, even in the face of miraculous events, blind preaching isn’t as effective if the recipient isn’t ready or willing to hear it. In fact, as we see later in the chapter, that’s exactly what happens when Lamoni starts to teach the people himself. Then in verse 6, after the queen had asked Ammon to “go in and see my husband… now this was what Ammon desired,” he waited for the invitation, he waited to be asked, he waited until the people were able to be receptive to his message. This, I think, is something that pertains to me, I have several people that I work with ask me about this blog, and my church and all that, and as much as I want to “throw up” information on them, I don’t want to be overwhelming with it. Maybe Ammon’s example shows me that if I take the opportunities that people give me, it’s much more effective than just charging forward with all my might at full speed. The queen was confused about whether or not to bury Lamoni, but Ammon “knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his might, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness- yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God.” This light of Christ, this joy that dispels the darkness is talked about in an October 2000 general conference address entitled “Lead, Kindly Light,” Virginia U. Jensen teaches “As the light of Jesus Christ and His gospel grows brighter within our countenances and our hearts, it becomes easier for us to discern what it truly valuable from the counterfeits the world offers. Knowledge that Christ loved us enough to willingly bear the weight of sins removes the need for pride and al unwarranted trust in the arm of flesh. Belief that the Atonement restores to us all we lose in sin and missteps along life’s path creates a hope greater than any temporal pleasure or momentary mortal thrill. Consider the experience of King Lamoni. Though he had unfettered power, great earthly treasures, and servants to wait on him hand and foot, he lived in spiritual darkness. When he was willing to permit Ammon to teach him the gospel, a most remarkable thing occurred… Only the glory of God and the light of life everlasting produce a joy profound enough to overwhelm one completely and to eliminate ‘the dark veil of unbelief.’” This is profound especially when we consider all the things that we as people do to fill the void of the love of Christ. I know that I’ve done so many things trying to make myself feel better, when clearly, there is nothing else that can give us joy, fulfillment or happiness than the light of Christ. After Ammon told the queen that Lamoni wasn’t dead, only sleeping in God, and she believed him, and his response was “blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I saw unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites.” This reminded me of something I left out of the chapter 18 discussions that I thought was important. When convincing Ammon to teach him, Lamoni promised “if thou wilt tell me concerning these things, whatsoever thou desirest I will give unto thee; and if it were needed, I would guard thee with my armies; but I know that thou art more powerful than all they.” By promising to protect Ammon with all his armies, Lamoni indicated the important position that Ammon held in his heart, but also by acknowledging that the guards aren’t necessary he shows his belief that the power that Ammon wields is stronger than any earthly force there is. Likewise, the queen didn’t ask for complicated or elaborate answers or explanations, she just said, yes, “I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said.” Together these two are quick to believe, both of them demonstrate great faith early on, I wonder if they got along well together, it would seem like it.
19:12-36 - So like Ammon said, Lamoni rose the next day and “stretched forth his hand unto the woman, and said: Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou.” Speaking of what we just talked about, he wakes up and immediately reaches for his wife, says “blessed art thou.” Just a little something that makes me think that they truly did love each other. He also says that he has “seen my Redeemer,” and testified of his coming, and then again he sinks to the ground, this time accompanied by his wife, and Ammon “fell upon his knees, and began to pour out his soul in prayer and thanksgiving to God for what he had done for his brethren,” and he also fell to the earth. Then the servants of the king, apparently still the original servants that went into the fields with Ammon with the sheep in the first place, they get scared and start to pray as well, until they too have sunk to the ground, all except one… Abish. Now the story of Abish is really quite remarkable. She’s a Lamanite who had “been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father.” This was her moment, when she saw what had happened “she knew that it was the power of God; and supposing that this opportunity, by making known unto unto the people what had happened among them, that by beholding this scene it would cause them to believe in the power of God, therefore she ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people.” It was because of her that all the people came to see the scene that had played out at the king’s home. Her role is very “small,” done in a short amount of time, but the effects that she had on the people who later came to accept Christ is incalculable. Even though her role in the work took probably a few hours at most, the work that the Lord had done in arranging everything to make this moment possible, is mind blowing. From years ago, many many years ago, when her father had a vision, to arranging for Abish to be the queen’s personal servant, to having her be in that exact place at that exact time, clearly there was a lot of planning and preparation for her involvement in this process. So the people have gathered and there is a lot of fuss about the why and how of all the unconscious people, and there are the typical “it’s from God,” “It’s from the devil,” theories, but what is interesting to me is that again the theory is brought up that “the king hath brought this evil upon his house, because he slew his servants who had had their flocks scattered at the waters of Sebus.” This gives us a major perspective, because many people just assume that the Lamanites were Godless barbarians who murdered and tortured each other at will and had no law or order, when in fact they did have much law and order, and the fact that the whole “killing the servants who had their flocks scattered” incident seems to keep coming up by all facets of the population and with great abhorrence, even from Lamoni, the man who had ordered the killings himself, shows me that this was not common occurrence, and was abhorred by the vast majority of the population, so much so that everything bad that seemed to happen was easily blamed on karma for these killings. There is a sense of humanity and deep feelings that surround this incident when talked about, as if it were some great tragedy, which it was, but we cannot assume that the Lamanites are anything other than regular people, and this is a great example of why not. Interestingly enough, the other Lamanites who scattered the flocks of the king were apparently in that same “tribe” or whatever because we are told that “those men who had stoof at the waters of Sebus and scattered the flocks which belonged to the king, for they were angry with Ammon because of the number which he had slain of their brethren at the waters of Sebus, while defending the flocks of the king. Now, one of them, whose brother had been slain with the sword of Ammon, being exceedingly angry with Ammon, drew his sword and went forth that he might let it fall upon Ammon, to slay him; and as he lifted the sword to smite him, behold, he fell dead.” Now that is crazy. So the men who did the scattering of the flocks were within the community of Lamoni, and those who had their flocks scattered were the ones put to death. It would seem to me that a more reasonable solution would have been to kill the ones who had done the scattering, but then again, this story probably wouldn’t have been possible that way, so very interesting. But the man who went to slay Ammon must have been the group leader’s brother, because the leader was the only one slain with Ammon’s sword, but then to be struck dead “as he lifted the sword to smite him,” talk about dramatic. It reminds me of when Abraham is about to be sacrificed to an idol and the priests that are about to kill him miraculously die. So needless to say, that when “the multitude beheld that the man had fallen dead, who lifted the sword to slay Ammon, fear came upon them all, and they durst not put forth their hands to touch him or any of those who had fallen.” As they began to bicker amongst themselves, Abish, saw that the situation was spiraling out of control, and “she was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto tears.” This begs the question, why was she sorrowful? The people were seeing the miracles, what did their debate make her upset? Maybe it’s because she knew the truth, she knew the Savior, she had felt his love and his Holy Spirit as her companion, she wanted her neighbors and friends to feel the same thing, but this contention was not conducive to the Spirit and she must have felt that. After watching the man who wanted to kill Ammon fall down dead miraculously, it must have been a little bit unnerving for Abish to take “the queen by the hand, that perhaps she might raise her from the ground.” When she woke up that morning, I’m confident that she didn’t anticipate displaying her secret conversion to the Lord in full view of not only her friends and neighbors, but also her queen. We’ve seen that conversion to the Lord and spiritual growth requires daily spiritual nourishment, and my guess is that she didn’t have a copy of the scriptures, and I’m guessing that she didn’t have many other people to talk to about her beliefs, she didn’t have a church to attend, her little family probably held on to what little knowledge that they had and tried to do their best, but now she’s the only maintaining control over this whole situation and it’s probably very scary for her, spiritually because her environment was not conducive to spiritual growth and physically because there had already been violence towards Ammon and that could easily be redirected at her. Clearly this was a woman of faith and courage to face this monumental event seemingly alone, very well done. Finally after she touches the queen’s hand, she wakes up and praises God, then she wakes up Lamoni and then Ammon arose shortly after that. And Lamoni, being their king, one of them, his words would have much more weight than an outside Nephite, and he “began to rebuke them, and to teach them the words which he had heard from the mouth of Ammon.” Interestingly, Lamoni didn’t teach them things that he learned while he was unconscious, he taught them the words that Ammon had said. Just like my assumption with others who have had angelic or major spiritual events, I always assumed that all of them were taught amazing things during that time, and that might be true, but for the vast majority of time, their conversions and their learnings come from what is available to most of the people at the time. Lamoni learned and then taught from Ammon, even though he spent much time asleep in God, that’s not what he began teaching his people. And many of his people listened and believed on his words and “were converted unto the Lord,” and there was a lot of stuff to go through, all the events of the last several days, and Ammon’s teachings, so pretty compelling evidence. But even in light of all those showy events, and miracles and amazing teachings, even with all that staring them in the face “there were many among them who would not hear his words; therefore they went their way.” L&L, these people, many others all saw unspeakable things, and they refused to believe, so we can see that just like conversions and spiritual giants are built on the small, everyday things, the big major events can’t force someone to believe if they don’t want to. After all is said and done, “as many as did believe were baptized; and they became a righteous people, and they did establish a church among them. And this the work of the Lord did commence among the Lamanites; thus the Lord did begin to pour out his Spirit upon them; and we see that his arm is extended to all people who will repent and believe on his name.” And I don’t think that we need any more conclusion than that.
19:12-36 - So like Ammon said, Lamoni rose the next day and “stretched forth his hand unto the woman, and said: Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou.” Speaking of what we just talked about, he wakes up and immediately reaches for his wife, says “blessed art thou.” Just a little something that makes me think that they truly did love each other. He also says that he has “seen my Redeemer,” and testified of his coming, and then again he sinks to the ground, this time accompanied by his wife, and Ammon “fell upon his knees, and began to pour out his soul in prayer and thanksgiving to God for what he had done for his brethren,” and he also fell to the earth. Then the servants of the king, apparently still the original servants that went into the fields with Ammon with the sheep in the first place, they get scared and start to pray as well, until they too have sunk to the ground, all except one… Abish. Now the story of Abish is really quite remarkable. She’s a Lamanite who had “been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father.” This was her moment, when she saw what had happened “she knew that it was the power of God; and supposing that this opportunity, by making known unto unto the people what had happened among them, that by beholding this scene it would cause them to believe in the power of God, therefore she ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people.” It was because of her that all the people came to see the scene that had played out at the king’s home. Her role is very “small,” done in a short amount of time, but the effects that she had on the people who later came to accept Christ is incalculable. Even though her role in the work took probably a few hours at most, the work that the Lord had done in arranging everything to make this moment possible, is mind blowing. From years ago, many many years ago, when her father had a vision, to arranging for Abish to be the queen’s personal servant, to having her be in that exact place at that exact time, clearly there was a lot of planning and preparation for her involvement in this process. So the people have gathered and there is a lot of fuss about the why and how of all the unconscious people, and there are the typical “it’s from God,” “It’s from the devil,” theories, but what is interesting to me is that again the theory is brought up that “the king hath brought this evil upon his house, because he slew his servants who had had their flocks scattered at the waters of Sebus.” This gives us a major perspective, because many people just assume that the Lamanites were Godless barbarians who murdered and tortured each other at will and had no law or order, when in fact they did have much law and order, and the fact that the whole “killing the servants who had their flocks scattered” incident seems to keep coming up by all facets of the population and with great abhorrence, even from Lamoni, the man who had ordered the killings himself, shows me that this was not common occurrence, and was abhorred by the vast majority of the population, so much so that everything bad that seemed to happen was easily blamed on karma for these killings. There is a sense of humanity and deep feelings that surround this incident when talked about, as if it were some great tragedy, which it was, but we cannot assume that the Lamanites are anything other than regular people, and this is a great example of why not. Interestingly enough, the other Lamanites who scattered the flocks of the king were apparently in that same “tribe” or whatever because we are told that “those men who had stoof at the waters of Sebus and scattered the flocks which belonged to the king, for they were angry with Ammon because of the number which he had slain of their brethren at the waters of Sebus, while defending the flocks of the king. Now, one of them, whose brother had been slain with the sword of Ammon, being exceedingly angry with Ammon, drew his sword and went forth that he might let it fall upon Ammon, to slay him; and as he lifted the sword to smite him, behold, he fell dead.” Now that is crazy. So the men who did the scattering of the flocks were within the community of Lamoni, and those who had their flocks scattered were the ones put to death. It would seem to me that a more reasonable solution would have been to kill the ones who had done the scattering, but then again, this story probably wouldn’t have been possible that way, so very interesting. But the man who went to slay Ammon must have been the group leader’s brother, because the leader was the only one slain with Ammon’s sword, but then to be struck dead “as he lifted the sword to smite him,” talk about dramatic. It reminds me of when Abraham is about to be sacrificed to an idol and the priests that are about to kill him miraculously die. So needless to say, that when “the multitude beheld that the man had fallen dead, who lifted the sword to slay Ammon, fear came upon them all, and they durst not put forth their hands to touch him or any of those who had fallen.” As they began to bicker amongst themselves, Abish, saw that the situation was spiraling out of control, and “she was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto tears.” This begs the question, why was she sorrowful? The people were seeing the miracles, what did their debate make her upset? Maybe it’s because she knew the truth, she knew the Savior, she had felt his love and his Holy Spirit as her companion, she wanted her neighbors and friends to feel the same thing, but this contention was not conducive to the Spirit and she must have felt that. After watching the man who wanted to kill Ammon fall down dead miraculously, it must have been a little bit unnerving for Abish to take “the queen by the hand, that perhaps she might raise her from the ground.” When she woke up that morning, I’m confident that she didn’t anticipate displaying her secret conversion to the Lord in full view of not only her friends and neighbors, but also her queen. We’ve seen that conversion to the Lord and spiritual growth requires daily spiritual nourishment, and my guess is that she didn’t have a copy of the scriptures, and I’m guessing that she didn’t have many other people to talk to about her beliefs, she didn’t have a church to attend, her little family probably held on to what little knowledge that they had and tried to do their best, but now she’s the only maintaining control over this whole situation and it’s probably very scary for her, spiritually because her environment was not conducive to spiritual growth and physically because there had already been violence towards Ammon and that could easily be redirected at her. Clearly this was a woman of faith and courage to face this monumental event seemingly alone, very well done. Finally after she touches the queen’s hand, she wakes up and praises God, then she wakes up Lamoni and then Ammon arose shortly after that. And Lamoni, being their king, one of them, his words would have much more weight than an outside Nephite, and he “began to rebuke them, and to teach them the words which he had heard from the mouth of Ammon.” Interestingly, Lamoni didn’t teach them things that he learned while he was unconscious, he taught them the words that Ammon had said. Just like my assumption with others who have had angelic or major spiritual events, I always assumed that all of them were taught amazing things during that time, and that might be true, but for the vast majority of time, their conversions and their learnings come from what is available to most of the people at the time. Lamoni learned and then taught from Ammon, even though he spent much time asleep in God, that’s not what he began teaching his people. And many of his people listened and believed on his words and “were converted unto the Lord,” and there was a lot of stuff to go through, all the events of the last several days, and Ammon’s teachings, so pretty compelling evidence. But even in light of all those showy events, and miracles and amazing teachings, even with all that staring them in the face “there were many among them who would not hear his words; therefore they went their way.” L&L, these people, many others all saw unspeakable things, and they refused to believe, so we can see that just like conversions and spiritual giants are built on the small, everyday things, the big major events can’t force someone to believe if they don’t want to. After all is said and done, “as many as did believe were baptized; and they became a righteous people, and they did establish a church among them. And this the work of the Lord did commence among the Lamanites; thus the Lord did begin to pour out his Spirit upon them; and we see that his arm is extended to all people who will repent and believe on his name.” And I don’t think that we need any more conclusion than that.
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