Alma 50
50:1-24 - We meet some of my favorite people in this chapter, Teancum and Pahoran. The Lamanites attacked the city of Noah even though it was a ridiculous venture and were slaughtered, over a thousand of them dying, while the Nephites had some wounded but no one died. After the Lamanites retreated back to Amalickiah, “Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites.” CM continued to ensure the safety and preparation for his people, he didn’t let his guard drop and he didn’t let the victory make him over confident. He fortified the cities and “caused that his armies should go forth into the east wilderness; yea, and they went forth and drove all the Lamanites who were in the east wilderness into their own lands, which were south of the land of Zarahemla.” These preparations and success of CM’s armies motivated the people to join with him and “his armies, which did increase daily because of the assurance of protection which his works did bring forth unto them.” I wonder if we can take this to mean that the Nephites relied on an all-volunteer force. I know later that some are compelled to fight, but that is because they refused to fight, but not because they were scared, but because they were hopeful that they could over throw the government while the soldiers were away fighting. The defeat of the Lamanites and the continued fortifications of their cities the people of Nephi to find themselves in “prosperous circumstances… and they did prosper exceedingly, and they became exceedingly rich, yea, and they did multiply and wax strong in the land.” It’s interesting because Mormon makes the point very clear that this was a wonderful time for the Nephites for “behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni,” and why was this? What was the cause of their amazing happiness? Because “how merciful and just are all the dealings of the Lord, to the fulfilling of all his words unto the children of men; yea, we can behold that his words unto the children of men; yea, we can behold that his words are verified, even at this time.... And we see that these promises have been verified to the people of Nephi; for it has been their quarrelings and their contentions, yea, their murderings, and their plunderings, their idolatry, their whoredoms, and their abominations, which were among themselves, which brought upon them their wars and their destructions. And those who were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord were delivered at all times, whilst thousands of their wicked brethren have been consigned to bondage, or to perish by the sword, or to swindle in unbelief, and mingle with the Lamanites." The people were blessed beyond measure with divine strength, protection, freedom, and wealth when they were righteous, but their downfalls came when they were wicked. It really shouldn't make sense that with the 500+ years of their existence, this was the happiest time of all, but we see that the leadership was inspired and the people were faithful in obeying the counsel. In an October 2013 general conference address entitled "The Power, Joy, and Love of Covenant Keeping," Linda K. Burton taught that "Keeping covenants is essential for true happiness. President Thomas S. Monson taught, 'Sacred covenants are to be revered by us, and faithfulness to them is a requirement for happiness.' In 2 Nephi we read, 'And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.' Earlier in this same chapter we learn that Nephi and his people had just built a temple. Surely they were joyful covenant keepers! And in Alma we read, 'But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni.' Why? Again we learn in a pervious verse that they 'were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord.' Covenant keepers are commandment keepers." Keeping the commandments = happiness. Interestingly, while listening to Dr. Viktor Frankl's book entitled "Man's Search For Meaning," he said something very interesting, kind of in keeping with our lesson here, that happiness is not the goal, but a byproduct of our quest. We keep the commandments to grow closer to the Savior, and we are happy as a result. Dr. Frankl teaches "For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself." Dedication to the Lord, to becoming like Him and growing closer to Him, and happiness is one of the results.
50:24-40 - Even in the midst of all their peace and prosperity, we have those who just can't help but cause trouble, for there was "a contention which took place among them concerning the land of Lehi, and the land of Morianton, which joined upon the borders of Lehi... for behold, the people who possessed the land of Morianton did claim a part of the land of Lehi; therefore there began to be a warm contention between them, insomuch that the people of Morianton took up arms against their brethren, and they were determined by the sword to slay them." At what point do we stop and say, "wait a minute, are we really ready to kill each other over this? Isn't this going a little bit too extreme?" I could imagine being a citizen of the city of Lehi and suddenly having the people of another city come over and say "this land is mine, get out. No? Ok, then I'm going to kill you." Seems to go 0 to all out crazy pretty quickly here, and what's interesting is that when the people of Lehi go to tell CM what's happening, Morianton and his people freak out and plan to escape and they could have except that the leader Morianton himself, "being a man of much passion, therefore he was angry with one of his maid servants, and he fell upon her and beat her much. And it came to pass that she fled, and came over to the camp of Moroni, and told Moroni all things concerning the matter, and also concerning their intentions to flee into the land northward." I think that the word "passion" here seem a bit misleading because passion is when you care deeply for something, and work to achieve it, Morianton just has anger issues, especially to beat a woman, a woman who is socially subordinate to him? And I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate about why he was so angry with her in the first place, think about all the reasons that a man beats a woman, think about why a man in a position of power would hurt a woman in his charge, what could she do that would infuriate him so much that he hits her? I'm going to let that simmer for a while, but I'm pretty confident that I know why he was angry with her, and it's pretty much in line with his other sinful behavior. Anyway, so CM sends Teancum (one of my absolute favorites) to head off the flight of Morianton, and when they encountered each other "a battle commenced between them, in the which Teancum did slay Morianton and defeat his army, and took them prisoners, and returned to the camp of Moroni." Let's go back and think about all the possible ways in which CM could deal with the rebellious people of Morianton, death execution as traitors and for planning to attack and kill their neighboring city of Lehi. They could be banished, exiled because they were instigators and didn't deserve to dwell in the same society. They could have remained imprisoned, as traitors but the leadership not wanting to execute them, they could have been sold as slaves, even though the Nephites didn't believe in slavery, those who conspired against the government, domestic terrorists as we call them today, surely could have been the exception. But no, none of that happened, "and upon their covenanting to keep the peace they were restored to the land of Morianton, and a union took place between them and the people of Lehi; and they were also restored to their lands." There was no more war, there was no hard feelings, there was no terrible punishment, there was simply "promise peace and go home," the ultimate mercy, just like how the Savior deals with us. And finally, Nephihah dies. He's the one who took over the judgment seat from Alma when Alma deemed it necessary to devote himself to the ministry full time back in the 5th year of the reign of the judges, so now almost 20 years later, he dies "having filled the judgment-seat with perfect uprightness before God.... it came to pass that the son of Nephihah was appointed to fill the judgment-seat, in the stead of his father... now behold, his name was Pahoran." Just one last note here is I find it significant that the plates had been handed down, usually, from father to son, or brother to brother, usually staying within the family. Likewise, the judgment-seat is being transferred from father to son, surely by the consent of the people, which signifies to me the importance of family bonds. Surely there are apples that do in fact fall far from the tree, but as we can see with these examples, righteousness can also be passed down from generation to generation, and that the role of parent-child in teaching and learning and living righteousness is very significant.
50:24-40 - Even in the midst of all their peace and prosperity, we have those who just can't help but cause trouble, for there was "a contention which took place among them concerning the land of Lehi, and the land of Morianton, which joined upon the borders of Lehi... for behold, the people who possessed the land of Morianton did claim a part of the land of Lehi; therefore there began to be a warm contention between them, insomuch that the people of Morianton took up arms against their brethren, and they were determined by the sword to slay them." At what point do we stop and say, "wait a minute, are we really ready to kill each other over this? Isn't this going a little bit too extreme?" I could imagine being a citizen of the city of Lehi and suddenly having the people of another city come over and say "this land is mine, get out. No? Ok, then I'm going to kill you." Seems to go 0 to all out crazy pretty quickly here, and what's interesting is that when the people of Lehi go to tell CM what's happening, Morianton and his people freak out and plan to escape and they could have except that the leader Morianton himself, "being a man of much passion, therefore he was angry with one of his maid servants, and he fell upon her and beat her much. And it came to pass that she fled, and came over to the camp of Moroni, and told Moroni all things concerning the matter, and also concerning their intentions to flee into the land northward." I think that the word "passion" here seem a bit misleading because passion is when you care deeply for something, and work to achieve it, Morianton just has anger issues, especially to beat a woman, a woman who is socially subordinate to him? And I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate about why he was so angry with her in the first place, think about all the reasons that a man beats a woman, think about why a man in a position of power would hurt a woman in his charge, what could she do that would infuriate him so much that he hits her? I'm going to let that simmer for a while, but I'm pretty confident that I know why he was angry with her, and it's pretty much in line with his other sinful behavior. Anyway, so CM sends Teancum (one of my absolute favorites) to head off the flight of Morianton, and when they encountered each other "a battle commenced between them, in the which Teancum did slay Morianton and defeat his army, and took them prisoners, and returned to the camp of Moroni." Let's go back and think about all the possible ways in which CM could deal with the rebellious people of Morianton, death execution as traitors and for planning to attack and kill their neighboring city of Lehi. They could be banished, exiled because they were instigators and didn't deserve to dwell in the same society. They could have remained imprisoned, as traitors but the leadership not wanting to execute them, they could have been sold as slaves, even though the Nephites didn't believe in slavery, those who conspired against the government, domestic terrorists as we call them today, surely could have been the exception. But no, none of that happened, "and upon their covenanting to keep the peace they were restored to the land of Morianton, and a union took place between them and the people of Lehi; and they were also restored to their lands." There was no more war, there was no hard feelings, there was no terrible punishment, there was simply "promise peace and go home," the ultimate mercy, just like how the Savior deals with us. And finally, Nephihah dies. He's the one who took over the judgment seat from Alma when Alma deemed it necessary to devote himself to the ministry full time back in the 5th year of the reign of the judges, so now almost 20 years later, he dies "having filled the judgment-seat with perfect uprightness before God.... it came to pass that the son of Nephihah was appointed to fill the judgment-seat, in the stead of his father... now behold, his name was Pahoran." Just one last note here is I find it significant that the plates had been handed down, usually, from father to son, or brother to brother, usually staying within the family. Likewise, the judgment-seat is being transferred from father to son, surely by the consent of the people, which signifies to me the importance of family bonds. Surely there are apples that do in fact fall far from the tree, but as we can see with these examples, righteousness can also be passed down from generation to generation, and that the role of parent-child in teaching and learning and living righteousness is very significant.
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