Alma 22:1-13

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 to be the servants of the king as a way to wiggle their way into his heart. I wonder if Ammon's being Lamoni's servant was the reason he had a different outcome then his brethren, who simply went about preaching? We would also have to consider the differences in their audiences, Ammon went to the apparently mild mannered and remote area ruled by Lamoni, whereas the others went to Nephite apostates who vehemently disregarded anything related to the truth. It would seem to me that the people ruled by Lamoni were more in check, more willing to listen to his counsel, and the Amalekites and Amulonites were more hostile as a people in general. Let's just assume that both groups did what was told them by the Spirit, and the success had nothing to do with them or their methods, but simply the people. If Ammon had gone to Lamoni and started preaching, the king probably would have killed him because he presented a threat to the stability of his society. If Aaron had gone to the Amalekites and offered to be their servant, he would have been abused and never gained enough clout to teach them the gospel. I guess this is a way to say that both methods are effective, but the Spirit needs to dictate which one to employ depending on the circumstances. It also just occurred to me that when Aaron and his group (I'm just going to refer to them as Aaron from now on and when I say that, it's just implied that I mean the whole group inclusively,) went to the king, they hadn't met him before. They had both heard of each other through Ammon and Lamoni, but they hadn't established a relationship yet, and Aaron just being released from prison after suffering much there, again showed great courage and faith to follow the prompting of the Spirit to go and teach the king of the Lamanites there, even though they knew that they might just be made to suffer again. But the old king (that's what I'm going to call Lamoni's dad from now on, because I don't have a name for him,) doesn't want them as servants, he wants them to teach him, "for I have been somewhat troubled in mind because of the generosity and the greatness of the words of thy brother Ammon." While he could have cited Ammon's great strength to over power the old king and his hurting his arm, he didn't focus on that, what really touched him was the chance he had to take his kingdom and run, and that Ammon didn't, he simply wanted his brothers safe and Lamoni's kingdom back. He could have shook the old king down hard core, but he didn't, he granted him his life and his whole kingdom, and because that was so powerful and foreign to him, it caused him mind to be troubled. It's interesting to contrast the conversation that Ammon and Lamoni had vs the conversation that the old king and Aaron have, just the posturing of the old king is a little bit more aggressive and seemingly entitled at the beginning of this conversation than Lamoni's was. The old king demands "why hasn't Ammon come with you to see me?" This kind of indicates his belief that he is the most important person, that teaching him should be the most important thing that anyone else has to do, maybe I'm reading into that too much, but that's what it seems like to me. But Aaron's answer is both humbling for the old king but also non confrontational, answering "behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way; he has gone to the land of Ishmael, to teach the people of Lamoni." "Sorry old king, the Spirit of the Lord dictates more power than you, and the people of Lamoni are just as important as you are." Maybe a little bit harsher than needed, but still fits. The old king has some questions about things he heard Ammon say like "what is the Spirit of the Lord?" And "what does it mean that I need to repent or I will be cast off at the last day?" Aaron doesn't go directly into those answers, but like Ammon did with Lamoni, he starts with the basics, "believest thou that there is a God?" I wonder if this is why the first article of faith is stating the existence of God, it seems to be the basis of all teachings, where everything begins and that makes sense, you can't build a foundation on random doctrine, if the firm belief in God is not there. The old king's answer is interesting and much different than Lamoni's. the old king has more knowledge concerning the different cultures within his kingdom, and therefore he knows that "the Amalekites say that there is a God, and I have granted unto them that they should build sanctuaries, that they may assemble themselves together to worship him." We have just come from a conversation between Aaron and the Amalekites, and I think it's fair to say that the Amalekites are not really interested in finding their own religion and way to worship God so that they could be obedient to him and all that. For the Amalekites to come to the king of the Lamanites and say "there is a God that you don't worship and we want to worship him, can we do so in whatever way we please?" That isn't a plea for religious freedom, that is a power play. The old king played right into their hands by allowing to worship in whatever way they wish, this allows them to exhibit control and power over others under the guise of religion, we've seen it done for thousands of years, throughout all human history. I'm sure that nothing offends God more than the oppression of one people by another all while touting his name as their reason, and it would seem to me that here that's what the Amalekites are doing here, finding a way to have power within their own little society. But what's more amazing than the old king's leanings toward religious freedom is the way that he is ready and willing to accept anything and everything that Aaron tells him is true, "and if now thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe." From demanding that his son kill Ammon probably only a few weeks before to telling Aaron, basically, "I will believe whatever you tell me," is quite the shift in attitude. I think that our first impression of the old king was him at one of his worst moments, but after all we've seen of him so far, we might conclude that he is a strong willed, but reasonable and relatively humble man. He had left his encounter with Ammon and Lamoni and had some time to reflect on what happened, on what Lamoni testified had happened to him, and being a man without a hard heart to begin with, was able to slowly decide that these were truly men of God. Indeed, the old king's quick response to believe whatever Aaron told him, is evidence of the amount of time and energy that he had been preparing for this meeting. In an October 2009 general conference address entitled "An Easiness and Willingness to Believe," Elder Micharl T. Ringwood taught "From the example of Lamoni's father, we learn the importance of a soft heart that is willing to change. Lamoni's father was willing to give up half his kingdom to Ammon in exchange for his life. After Ammon simply requested that the king allow Lamoni to worship as he desired in his own kingdom, the generosity and greatness of Ammon's words caused the king to be troubled in mind and heart. When Aaron arrived to teach the king, his heart had changed and he had an easiness to believe, as he said to Aaron, 'behold I will believe.' He then expressed a willingness to give up all he possessed, even to forsake his kingdom, to have the joy of the Lord. When he first prayed, he offered that which Heavenly Father wanted when he said, 'I will give away all my sins to know thee.' An easiness and willingness to believe the word of God will come from repentance and obedience." Now had the old king already repented when Aaron arrived? No, not completely, but he had allowed the Spirit to touch his heart and he didn't fight as the Spirit prepared his heart for the messages of the gospel. The old king answers by asking "is God that Great Spirit that brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem?" Interesting how little slivers of truth have passed down to anxious generations even though L&L were so evil and hard hearted. Surely this is another example of evil being unable to triumph over good and truth. Aaron answered that yes, God is that Great Spirit, again like Ammon and Lamoni, he met the old king where he was in his spiritual knowledge, and built from there, and after the old king begged him "I desire that ye should tell me concerning all these things, and I will believe thy words," Aaron "began from the creation of Adam, reading the scriptures unto the king- how God created man after his own image, and that God gave him commandments, and that because of transgression, man had fallen. And Aaron did expound unto him the scriptures from the creation of Adam, laying the fall of man before him, and their carnal state and also the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would believe on his name." It's interesting to me that Aaron read the scriptures to the old king, he didn't teach him anything that he learned in a vision, he didn't teach him anything that he learned from an angel, he only taught him that which he had learned form the scriptures and through the Holy Ghost. I think sometimes it's easy for us to get overwhelmed with idea that the church leaders, the spiritual giants among us, are some how given knowledge and information that is unobtainable to us, "so clearly it's easier for them to keep the commandments because they had extra special training or knowledge or experience or whatever. I don't have that so I don't have to try and keep the commandments as hard as they do." There's an Ensign article called "Nurturing Our New Lives," that quotes Alcenir De Souza of Brazil as teaching "I haven't done anything extraordinary to remain faithful in the Church. I haven't walked 50 miles to get to sacrament meeting or be thrown into a fiery furnace. Bur consistenly doing simple things- attending church meetings, studying the scriptures, praying, and serving in callings- has helped me nourish my testimony." We don't need to wait for miraculous and uncommon occurrences to open our hearts fully to believing what we are taught by the prophets and by the Holy Ghost, we simply need to want to believe, we simply need to do the small things that we already know are important, and that's how faith and testimony are grown.