Alma 46:23-41
46:23-33 - The freedom loving people had just thrown their coats at Moroni's feet with a covenant to fight to defend freedom, and also to remain a righteous people. CM goes on to expound to them the concept of Jacob's coat of many colors saying, "yea, let us preserve our liberty as a remnant of Joseph; yea, let us remember the words of Jacob, before his death, for behold, he saw that a part of the remnant of the coat of Joseph was preserved and had not decayed. And he said - Even as this remnant of garment of my son hath been preserved, so shall a remnant of the seed of my son be preserved by the hand of God, and be taken unto himself, while the remainder of the seed of Joseph shall perish, even as the remnant of his garment." Very interesting concept here, one that I'm not familiar with in any way, so I'm just going to turn to the IM here, "The torn coat of Moroni- the title of liberty- was a reminder of the preserved remnant of the coat of Joseph of Egypt. Moroni declared that the Nephites were a remnant of the seed of Joseph and would only continue to be preserved as long as they served God. President Joseph Fielding Smith commented on the symbolism and prophecy regarding the preserved part of Joseph's coat being fulfilled in our day: 'That remnant now found among the Lamanites shall eventually partake of the blessings of the gospel. They shall unite with the remnant which is being gathered from among the nations and they shall be blessed of the Lord forever.'" Like I said, I don't know anything about this, and hadn't even heard about it until today, but it seems very interesting, and Moroni himself had a theory about this prophecy saying, "And now who knoweth but what the remnant of the seed of Joseph, which shall perish as his garment, are those who have dissented from us? Yea, and even it shall be ourselves if we do not stand fast in the faith of Christ." CM takes to heart the fact that he and his fellow Nephites are not immune from the consequences of turning to wickedness, and honestly, I think that believing that we are special, that the rules don't apply to us, or that we are the exception, is the beginning of our downfall, because yes, we are special, in that Jesus loves us very much, but it's because we are so special that we are given commandments to make us happy, and because he loves us so much, we are allowed to feel the consequences of our poor choices, that is where the difference between Amalickiah and CM begin, how they view themselves and their vulnerability to God's judgment. CM "also sent forth in all the parts of the land here there were dissensions, and gathered together all the people who were desirous to maintain their liberty, to stand against Amalickiah and those who had dissented," and thus he began to gather his freedom fighters, and this made Amalickiah very nervous for he "saw that the people of Moroni were more numerous than the Amalickiahites- and he also saw that his people were doubtful concerning the justice of the cause in which they had undertaken- therefore, fearing that he should not gain the point, he took those of his people who would and departed into the land of Nephi." Interesting turn of events here, not surprisingly, there were more people who desired to be free than those who desired to be slaves, and even then, those who Amalickiah had conned into supporting him were beginning to stop and think, "hey wait a second, he wants to make everybody slaves, that's not right," and he lost their support. It's kind of refreshing to see that even after they had supported Amalickiah, they were still free thinking enough to analyze what it was exactly that they were getting behind and deciding that perhaps it wasn't the best idea. So Amalickiah takes off with the few followers that he has and CM says "no way," and takes off after them with "his armies, who had gathered themselves together, and armed themselves, and entered into a covenant to keep the peace," but unfortunately Amalickiah ditched all his non essential personel and "fled with a small number of his men, and the remainder were delivered up into the hands of Moroni and were taken back into the land of Zarahemla. How is that for loyalty? "You gave up your whole life back with the Nephites, but because I'll get caught if I take you with me, just wait here to be captured as a prisoner of war and go to trial for treason and be put to death," that is Satan's level of loyalty. It's interesting that Mormon included in here that CM took off after them with his all volunteer army "to take them and bring them back, and put Amalickiah to death; yea, for he knew that he would stir up the Lamanites to anger against them, and cause them to come to battle against them; and this he knew that Amalickiah would do that he might obtain his purposes." When my kids heard this during our reading today they were like "wait, he was going to capture and kill him? Seems a little extreme," and it was hard to respond to them because on the one hand I wanted to explain to them about treason and it's more serious when someone is threatening your freedom and country, but on the other hand, I thought, maybe I don't understand this concept as well as I would like.
46:34-35 - There is a chart in the IM about the differing leadership styles of Captain Moroni vs. Amalickiah and I think here is an appropriate place to post it:
Only Amalickiah and his small band of crazies made it to the Lamanites, and now CM and Helaman are left to deal with the aftermath of this upheaval in Nephite society. So there are those who covenanted with God for righteousness and freedom, there are those who initially supported Amalickiah then discontinued their support once the cards were finally down, then there were those who stood by Amalickiah until he left them in the wilderness to suffer the consequences of his rebellion alone while he escaped. What are they to do with all these people, all these emotions, and all these with varying loyalties to freedom? It's interesting because I asked my kids this question today and my son answered, "make them leave." And I thought, how profound, my son saw that one of the most generous options was to make them leave the society that they were so unwilling to defend in the first place, I was so proud of him. There were many options, because there were basically those who were with CM from the beginning, and everyone else who had to be convinced or captured. There was death to those who initially supported Amalickiah, which honestly, would probably be seen as the most effective way to keep this to a minimum further down the road, then there would be exile, which would be quite a generous alternative to death, but that's not what they do, CM took all those who supported Amalickiah and demanded that they enter into a "covenant to support the cause of freedom," and I assume that it's implied that if they entered into that covenant, then they got to go home and resume their lives, but "whomsoever of the Amalickiahites that would not enter into a covenant to support the cause of freedom... he caused to be put to death; and there were but few who denied the covenant of freedom." So not only were those who entered into the covenant granted "amnesty" basically, but those who absolutely refused were put to death as traitors. A few interesting points here, we are again brought face to face with the concept of "I will die before I will even say the words of the covenant." Like when Zerahemnah refused to even lie about his intentions, these few who were executed must have been among the most evil of the group. If they are wicked enough to plot the enslavement of their own people, surely a little dishonesty to CM wouldn't even phase them, especially when it came down to saving their own lives. And surely they aren't that dedicated to the cause if a simple lie, a false covenant, would allow them to live, regroup, and fight again, but instead, they will die, they will be publicly executed before they will utter words that indicate submission to God, even if it is a lie. Unbelievable, surely this act shows how disloyal they are to themselves and their families, and their disloyalty to their cause, the only indication that their actions show is that they are ultimately loyal to Satan and that he couldn't care less about them.
46:36-41 - CM "caused the title of liberty to be hoisted upon every tower which was in all the land... and thus Moroni planted the standard of liberty among the Nephites... And Helaman and the high priests did also maintain order in the church; yea, even for the space of four years did they have much peace and rejoicing in the church." The standard of freedom and righteousness were spread throughout all the land of the Nephites, and there was great success, happiness, and peace despite all the dissensions that had been. And there is a very interesting finale to this chapter discussing two different factors of end of life issues for Nephites during this time. First is discussed the manner in which many people died, "and there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land- but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate." How interesting that this was included in the Book of Mormon, and it made me very curious about how the Nephites practiced medicine. And also discussed is "that there were many who died, firmly believing that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, this they went out of the world rejoicing... but there were many who died with old age; and those who died in the faith of Christ are happy in him, as we must needs suppose." We have seen this theme of not fearing death many times throughout the Book of Mormon, and that concept is constant with those who truly believe regardless of the manner of death that they face. Here we have people who die of old age embracing their reunion with their Savior, we also see those who fight valiantly in battle knowing that the worst thing that awaits them is Jesus's loving arms outstretched. If we look at results, surely no one can dispute that those who die believing in Christ, facing the ultimate unknown with a smile on their face, that they are the ones who have peace in their hearts, happiness in their lives, and power in their resolve. We have watched many wicked men shake in their boots at the idea of coming face to face with their God, and that is not power. Fear and hatred and anger are not power, yet those who do wickedly have these in abundance, and tragically, they contend all day long that they are in fact more powerful than those who are righteous and live with peace, joy, and happiness. That is true faith, that is true power.
46:34-35 - There is a chart in the IM about the differing leadership styles of Captain Moroni vs. Amalickiah and I think here is an appropriate place to post it:
Only Amalickiah and his small band of crazies made it to the Lamanites, and now CM and Helaman are left to deal with the aftermath of this upheaval in Nephite society. So there are those who covenanted with God for righteousness and freedom, there are those who initially supported Amalickiah then discontinued their support once the cards were finally down, then there were those who stood by Amalickiah until he left them in the wilderness to suffer the consequences of his rebellion alone while he escaped. What are they to do with all these people, all these emotions, and all these with varying loyalties to freedom? It's interesting because I asked my kids this question today and my son answered, "make them leave." And I thought, how profound, my son saw that one of the most generous options was to make them leave the society that they were so unwilling to defend in the first place, I was so proud of him. There were many options, because there were basically those who were with CM from the beginning, and everyone else who had to be convinced or captured. There was death to those who initially supported Amalickiah, which honestly, would probably be seen as the most effective way to keep this to a minimum further down the road, then there would be exile, which would be quite a generous alternative to death, but that's not what they do, CM took all those who supported Amalickiah and demanded that they enter into a "covenant to support the cause of freedom," and I assume that it's implied that if they entered into that covenant, then they got to go home and resume their lives, but "whomsoever of the Amalickiahites that would not enter into a covenant to support the cause of freedom... he caused to be put to death; and there were but few who denied the covenant of freedom." So not only were those who entered into the covenant granted "amnesty" basically, but those who absolutely refused were put to death as traitors. A few interesting points here, we are again brought face to face with the concept of "I will die before I will even say the words of the covenant." Like when Zerahemnah refused to even lie about his intentions, these few who were executed must have been among the most evil of the group. If they are wicked enough to plot the enslavement of their own people, surely a little dishonesty to CM wouldn't even phase them, especially when it came down to saving their own lives. And surely they aren't that dedicated to the cause if a simple lie, a false covenant, would allow them to live, regroup, and fight again, but instead, they will die, they will be publicly executed before they will utter words that indicate submission to God, even if it is a lie. Unbelievable, surely this act shows how disloyal they are to themselves and their families, and their disloyalty to their cause, the only indication that their actions show is that they are ultimately loyal to Satan and that he couldn't care less about them.
46:36-41 - CM "caused the title of liberty to be hoisted upon every tower which was in all the land... and thus Moroni planted the standard of liberty among the Nephites... And Helaman and the high priests did also maintain order in the church; yea, even for the space of four years did they have much peace and rejoicing in the church." The standard of freedom and righteousness were spread throughout all the land of the Nephites, and there was great success, happiness, and peace despite all the dissensions that had been. And there is a very interesting finale to this chapter discussing two different factors of end of life issues for Nephites during this time. First is discussed the manner in which many people died, "and there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land- but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate." How interesting that this was included in the Book of Mormon, and it made me very curious about how the Nephites practiced medicine. And also discussed is "that there were many who died, firmly believing that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, this they went out of the world rejoicing... but there were many who died with old age; and those who died in the faith of Christ are happy in him, as we must needs suppose." We have seen this theme of not fearing death many times throughout the Book of Mormon, and that concept is constant with those who truly believe regardless of the manner of death that they face. Here we have people who die of old age embracing their reunion with their Savior, we also see those who fight valiantly in battle knowing that the worst thing that awaits them is Jesus's loving arms outstretched. If we look at results, surely no one can dispute that those who die believing in Christ, facing the ultimate unknown with a smile on their face, that they are the ones who have peace in their hearts, happiness in their lives, and power in their resolve. We have watched many wicked men shake in their boots at the idea of coming face to face with their God, and that is not power. Fear and hatred and anger are not power, yet those who do wickedly have these in abundance, and tragically, they contend all day long that they are in fact more powerful than those who are righteous and live with peace, joy, and happiness. That is true faith, that is true power.
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