Alma 63
63:1-3 - The war is finally over, after so many years and we are finally at the end of Alma! Alma the Younger gave the plates to his oldest son Helaman, who in turn gave the plates to his younger brother Shiblon. Shiblon got similar but a little bit different advice from his father Alma, and we know that at that point he was a righteous man. But thankfully, we get to hear that he continued in that righteousness "and he was a just man, and he did walk uprightly before God; and he did observe to do good continually, to keep the commandments of the Lord his God; and also did his brother." We also find out here that CM died, which seems to me like he died kind of young so I thought I would speculate and do some math here, just keep in mind that this is in no way official or possibly even remotely accurate. We first meet CM in chapter 43, about 74 B.C., the 18th year of the reign of the judges, we learn here that he was 25 years old when he was appointed chief captain of the Nephite army. I had previously assumed that he was 25 when we first meet him, but upon reading it closer, that doesn't appear to be necessarily true and I tried to go back and look at the previous war before that but it's not as clear cut as I would have liked, but he is young none the less, so let's give him 5 years of experience making him 30 in chapter 43. The major wars end in chapter 62, which is B.C. 62-57, and the end of the 31st year of the reign of the judges. Then there was recovery and relative peace in the land and CM died in the 36th year of the reign of the judges. So CM has featured in our scripture study from the 18th to the 31st year of the reign of the judges, which is what? 13 years. Let's say that CM was 30 when we first meet him in the 18th year, then he dies 13 years later making him 43 years old when he died? That is exceptionally young, or maybe not, I'm not exactly sure what the Nephite male life expectancy was, but that just seems so young to me. Like I said, that's not an exactly reckoning or anything, I just wanted to point out how young CM possibly was when he died. It reminds me of when I was in the army, it was actually quite common for men in really high leadership positions retired from the army, many died within the first year, even if they were ridiculously healthy. Just interesting is all.
63:4-13 - We are now about 6 years into recovery and "there was a large company of men, even to the among of five thousand and four hundred men, with their wives and their children, departed out of the land of Zarahemla into the land which was northward." I can totally understand this, the desire to leave, especially after that crazy long wartime, just wanting to run away from all the people who are crazy. I'm kind of a "not all who wander are lost," type of person anyway, but this first group took off into the land northward, maybe Canada, I don't know. Then we have Hagoth, who was "an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship... and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward." It's doesn't say if Hagoth went on this first voyage, I would imagine that he did, because he was curious and he was the one who made the ship, I don't think he would make it, then allow other people to take it, but who knows. So that ship takes off, but the next year it comes back, and Hagoth built more ships and then they left again and "they were never heard of more. And we suppose that they were drowned in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that one other ship also did sail forth; and wither she did go we know now." Very interesting. The IM quote President Joseph F. Smith as teaching "You brothers and sisters from New Zealand, I want you to know that you are from the people of Hagoth.' For the New Zealand saints, that was that. A prophet of the Lord had spoken... It was reasonable to conclude that Hagoth and his associates were about nineteen centuries on the islands, from about 55 B.C. to 1854 before the gospel began to reach them. They had lost all the plain and precious things which the Savior brought to the earth, for they were likely on the islands when Christ was born in Jerusalem." I hadn't before considered the fact that by leaving the Nephites, the people were leaving the living prophets and the coming of Christ. I wonder how that plays in to whether or not they should have stayed, I wonder if they were counseled not to go. One more group of Nephites "went forth into the land northward," and most of the movement stopped. I would imagine that this was a pretty significant population decrease for the Nephites to have all these people leave. But with all the people leaving, we now have the conundrum of who to give the plates to because Shiblon was getting old "and Corianton had gone forth to the land northward in a ship," so he wasn't there, finally Shiblon gave the plates to Helaman, "who was called Helaman, being called after the name of his father." I wonder if Corianton, since we know that he was a righteous man, we learned that before and also in this chapter, I wonder if he went to provide some sort of ecclesiastical support, to help teach the people and keep them in the ways of God.
63:14-17 - In the 38th year of the reign of the judges, so we've had about 7 years of peace at this point, the Lamanites "were stirred up again to anger against the Nephites." Really? This soon already? Who would stir up the Lamanites to anger? Oh wait, who is it always? That's right Nephite dissenters. "And it came to pass also in this year that there were some dissenters who had gone forth unto the Lamanites; and they were stirred up again to anger against the Nephites." But we also know from the last chapter, that for the most part the Nephites were being righteous, they were staying humble even in the face of prosperity, and some were being softened by their afflictions. Because they were being righteous, this skirmish is over quite quickly, and Moronihah, who is the son of CM, took his righteous army and defended themselves against the Lamanites, "in the which (the Lamanites) were beaten and driven back again to their own lands, suffering great loss." It's interesting to consider that the Nephites just had this major exodus of people, and my guess is a significant population reduction because of it, and even in the face of the wars that just ended, they were able to go to battle against "a numerous army" of the Lamanites and still won, causing "great loss" among their "numerous" enemy. This is again another incredible, yet not well known, example of the Lord defending his righteous, and how in the strength of the Lord anything is possible. We can face daunting odds, we can suffer tremendous loss, we can stare death and devastation in the face and still say, "we're ready." I like the saying "He who kneels before God can stand before anyone," and I really feel like this is an excellent example of this principle.
63:4-13 - We are now about 6 years into recovery and "there was a large company of men, even to the among of five thousand and four hundred men, with their wives and their children, departed out of the land of Zarahemla into the land which was northward." I can totally understand this, the desire to leave, especially after that crazy long wartime, just wanting to run away from all the people who are crazy. I'm kind of a "not all who wander are lost," type of person anyway, but this first group took off into the land northward, maybe Canada, I don't know. Then we have Hagoth, who was "an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship... and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward." It's doesn't say if Hagoth went on this first voyage, I would imagine that he did, because he was curious and he was the one who made the ship, I don't think he would make it, then allow other people to take it, but who knows. So that ship takes off, but the next year it comes back, and Hagoth built more ships and then they left again and "they were never heard of more. And we suppose that they were drowned in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that one other ship also did sail forth; and wither she did go we know now." Very interesting. The IM quote President Joseph F. Smith as teaching "You brothers and sisters from New Zealand, I want you to know that you are from the people of Hagoth.' For the New Zealand saints, that was that. A prophet of the Lord had spoken... It was reasonable to conclude that Hagoth and his associates were about nineteen centuries on the islands, from about 55 B.C. to 1854 before the gospel began to reach them. They had lost all the plain and precious things which the Savior brought to the earth, for they were likely on the islands when Christ was born in Jerusalem." I hadn't before considered the fact that by leaving the Nephites, the people were leaving the living prophets and the coming of Christ. I wonder how that plays in to whether or not they should have stayed, I wonder if they were counseled not to go. One more group of Nephites "went forth into the land northward," and most of the movement stopped. I would imagine that this was a pretty significant population decrease for the Nephites to have all these people leave. But with all the people leaving, we now have the conundrum of who to give the plates to because Shiblon was getting old "and Corianton had gone forth to the land northward in a ship," so he wasn't there, finally Shiblon gave the plates to Helaman, "who was called Helaman, being called after the name of his father." I wonder if Corianton, since we know that he was a righteous man, we learned that before and also in this chapter, I wonder if he went to provide some sort of ecclesiastical support, to help teach the people and keep them in the ways of God.
63:14-17 - In the 38th year of the reign of the judges, so we've had about 7 years of peace at this point, the Lamanites "were stirred up again to anger against the Nephites." Really? This soon already? Who would stir up the Lamanites to anger? Oh wait, who is it always? That's right Nephite dissenters. "And it came to pass also in this year that there were some dissenters who had gone forth unto the Lamanites; and they were stirred up again to anger against the Nephites." But we also know from the last chapter, that for the most part the Nephites were being righteous, they were staying humble even in the face of prosperity, and some were being softened by their afflictions. Because they were being righteous, this skirmish is over quite quickly, and Moronihah, who is the son of CM, took his righteous army and defended themselves against the Lamanites, "in the which (the Lamanites) were beaten and driven back again to their own lands, suffering great loss." It's interesting to consider that the Nephites just had this major exodus of people, and my guess is a significant population reduction because of it, and even in the face of the wars that just ended, they were able to go to battle against "a numerous army" of the Lamanites and still won, causing "great loss" among their "numerous" enemy. This is again another incredible, yet not well known, example of the Lord defending his righteous, and how in the strength of the Lord anything is possible. We can face daunting odds, we can suffer tremendous loss, we can stare death and devastation in the face and still say, "we're ready." I like the saying "He who kneels before God can stand before anyone," and I really feel like this is an excellent example of this principle.
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