Alma 49:16-30

49:16-30 - The Lamanites went to attack Ammonihah, but because CM had fortified it so heavily, the Lamanites were discouraged and left to attack the city of Noah, which previously had been very weak. Knowing that this would be their pattern, and knowing that they would expect Noah to be easy pickings, CM had fortified the city of Noah "even to exceed the strength of the city of Ammonihah." Bummer for the Lamanites. Here we meet an amazing man named Lehi. We have encountered him before, "it was that same Lehi who fought with the Lamanites in the valley on the east of the river Sidon." But apparently, Lehi and his soldiers left such a lasting impression on the Lamanites that after finding out that Lehi commanded the city of Noah, "they were again disappointed, for the feared Lehi exceedingly." This makes me wonder what Lehi did that was so phenomenal, did he have an elite fighting force? Was he kind of the Nephite equivalent of Spec Ops? Another righteous military man, very very awesome. But apparently, common sense, a desire to live, and fear of a strong enemy was not enough to bring the Lamanites to their senses because "their chief captains had sworn with an oath to attack the city; therefore, they brought up their armies." Now the not only had to breach the cities fortifications "because of the highness of the bank which had been thrown up, and the depth of the ditch which had been dug round about," but they also had to deal with the Nephites who had gathered to defend themselves, "yea, a body of their strongest men, with their swords and their slings, to smite down all who should attempt to come into their place of security." Still, even seeing all this, the Lamanites still "brought up their armies before the place of entrance, and began to contend with the Nephites." I don't know if I need to point out yet another example of Satan and those wicked people who follow him not being invested in the lives or well being of anyone else. The captains gave up the lives of their soldiers simply because they "promised to attack" before they had even assessed the situation? And the consequences were horrendous, "insomuch that they were slain with an immense slaughter... and thus the Lamanites did attempt to destroy the Nephites until their chief captains were all slain; yea, and more than a thousand of the Lamanites were slain; while, on the other hand, there was not a single soul of the Nephites which was slain." That is pretty significant, over 1,000 Lamanites lost their lives because their leaders didn't really care about them, they wanted to make a show, they wanted to make a point? How awful. With such a significant loss, and "when the Lamanites saw that their chief captains were all slain they fled into the wilderness." Finally we see some people who were at least interested in their own lives enough to get away from the crazies, and I wonder a little bit if those who held back and fled into the wilderness when they got the chance, I wonder if some of those might have been the ones who had covenanted peace with CM previously. Amalickiah was not pleased to hear that his armies had not achieved their objective and that he was not king of all the people, and "he was exceedingly wroth, and did curse God, and also Moroni, swearing with an oath that he would drink his blood; and this because Moroni had kept the commandments of God in preparing for the safety of his people." Kind of an over reaction yeah? Thinking about this reasonably, taking God and all that out of it, the way that Amalickiah had equipped his army, their training, their gear, their intelligence, all lent to a failed mission. If he had spent any amount of time do any kind of recon, he would have known how well secured the Nephite cities were, and could have prepared for that with some sort of plan, maybe ladders, I don't know, something. But Amalickiah was so crazed by anger and hate and jealousy that he can't even think straight, I mean, it's not brain surgery, "oh look, the Nephites have built forts around their cities, let's go back and make a plan so that we might have a little bit better chance of defeating them without completely  annihilating our own forces," I mean it just makes sense, from a military stand point. But then we have the aspect that is the most important, that of divine protection and assistance, the Lamanites would have to contend with God Himself to over throw the Nephites, so their preparations wouldn't have let them win the war, but their lack of preparations speak volumes for the insanity that was controlling Amalickiah at the time, and this is the insanity that over takes all of us once we going off the deep end spiritually. There is literally no logic or reason to anything when Satan has control over our hearts and minds. It's like he's trying so hard to get in, and when he's on the outside, he's all smooth talk and rationalization, but once he's in, it's like he takes ahold of us and just joyrides us around like a crazy person. And that's where Amalickiah is coming from, a place of craziness, he's already let Satan in, logically, it makes no sense for Amalickiah to "curse God," as the reason why he wasn't successful, I can't maybe understand being angry with CM, but promising to drink his blood, especially when he himself doesn't go out to battle with his troops, yeah, that's pretty out there. On the contrary, while Amalickiah and the Lamanites are going nuts over their loss, "the people of Nephi did thank the Lord their God, because of his matchless power in delivering them from the hands of their enemies." They rightly attributed their success to God, not only in his strength and victory at the time of the attack, but also the knowledge and plans that He had given CM when it was time to prepare, make the forts, etc. God doesn't just work miracles at the time of execution, he works miracles in the preparation, the knowledge. For example, when we face a trial, the Lord strengthens us so that we can use it to our advantage to learn and grow closer to Him. But he also prepares us before hand, maybe helping us remember a certain Church lesson that we learned that would have helpful, or maybe assigning us a visiting teacher who will be there for us as we struggle, I know that particular one has happened to me many times. Maybe the Lord has set something in motion to help us in our trials, for instance, when someone loses a job and the Lord has been preparing another one, even though it might take a while for that to come about. Sometimes the work of the Lord is more eternal in perspective, what about when someone is taken from this life? He's prepared a way for them to grow closer to Him in the next life as well, lessons for those of us who stay to learn, the plans are amazing, even though they are challenging at the time, but this is an excellent example of how the Lord prepares for our eternal growth and happiness the whole time that we remain faithful to Him. CM's fortifications of the Nephite cities are testament to that. The IM teaches "Moroni's inspiration and foresight in fortifying the cities proved to be a turning point in the war. Thousands of Nephites were preserved because the cities were prepared. We can apply this lesson by fortifying our own lives with righteous thoughts and deeds in order to withstand evil attacks or 'fiery darts of the adversary.' The Lord has promised that if we humbly seek Him, then He will show us our weakness and will 'make weak things become strong.' The following chart lists some examples of how the fortifications of the Nephites could apply to us:

 This concept of making weak things strong to us is very interesting to me. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I love it. I think of all my weaknesses, all the things that I struggle with, and I imagine a day when not only will those issues to plague me, but that I will be able to have them be a strength for me. For instance, if I struggled with gambling, I could look forward to a day when I not only didn't struggle with gambling, but also a day when I would be a good steward with my money, living within my means and in accordance with the Church's teachings. Perhaps I could look forward to a time when I now only didn't struggle with gambling, but I

recognized why it was destructive and trying understood the principles behind the teachings. And maybe I could even look forward to one day helping others over come their personal addiction to gambling, to strength and support them as they struggle through their trial, I believe that would truly be a remarkable indicator of a weak thing being made strong, when you can help pull someone out of the mud that you were stuck in once. And finally, with the conflict at Noah over, the Lamanites retreated and as for the Nephites, "there was continual peace among them, and exceedingly great prosperity in the church because of their heed and diligence which they gave unto the word of God." God again kept his promise, they obeyed and he blessed them abundantly, and the best part here is that we hear about Corianton again. The last time we heard about him was the stern lessons from his father concerning his conduct, and now is our first indication that Alma's teachings were successful in penetrating the heart of his youngest son because Corianton was among those who "had been ordained by the holy order of God, being baptized unto repentance, and sent forth to preach among the people." Great way to end that chapter, I always felt bad that Corianton was put on blast like that in the Book of Mormon, I know that many of us could have had our sins shouted from the roof top similarly, but Corianton took it like a champ, repented and came back, just like we all can. Though I'm sure he didn't know that that letter from his dad was going to published and read millions of times two millennia afterward, but never the less, and excellent example of repentance and coming back to the fold and serving God with all your heart, even though we might have committed terrible sin. Satan will tell us that we can't come back, but we can and Corianton is a wonderful example of that.