5 Now they knew not that God could do such marvelous works, for they were a hard–hearted and a stiffnecked people.
6 And they said: Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man among this people, to declare unto them the truth of such great and marvelous things?
Alma 9:5-6 (Emphasis mine)
The people continued to challenge Alma(2) and Amulek. They went so far as to question God (Who is God) and how he did things. They appeared to be almost offended by the fact that only one man had been sent.
Hugh Nibley comments:
“For them, things just happened. If marvels do happen, are they without cause? When something remarkable happens, and everything is remarkable that happens, we should consult the causes and what is behind it. It does help us. Shouldn't we ask questions? Shouldn't we be curious about things? People aren't today…
“Verse 6: ‘And they said: Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man among this people, to declare unto them the truth of such great and marvelous things?’ The lone dissenter is the main theme in the Book of Mormon, whether it's Lehi, Nephi, Alma, Ammon, or Enos or whoever it is. What they want is big authority, as if truth couldn't stand alone.” [1](Emphasis mine)
7 And they stood forth to lay their hands on me; but behold, they did not. And I stood with boldness to declare unto them, yea, I did boldly testify unto them, saying:
8 Behold, O ye wicked and perverse generation, how have ye forgotten the tradition of your fathers; yea, how soon ye have forgotten the commandments of God.
9 Do ye not remember that our father, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God? Do ye not remember that they were all led by him through the wilderness?
10 And have ye forgotten so soon how many times he delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies, and preserved them from being destroyed, even by the hands of their own brethren?
11 Yea, and if it had not been for his matchless power, and his mercy, and his long-suffering towards us, we should unavoidably have been cut off from the face of the earth long before this period of time, and perhaps been consigned to a state of endless misery and woe.
Alma 9-11 (Emphasis mine)
Alma(2) stood before them and testified to them. Have you forgotten the tradition of your fathers? Have you forgotten the commandments of God? Have you forgotten that Lehi was lead by the hand of God? Have you forgotten how often they were delivered from enemies by the hand of God?
He reminded them that without His power and mercy, they would have been cut off from the face of Earth and consigned to a state of endless misery and woe.
Verses 10-11, raise questions. What were the events that required the Lord to deliver them from their enemies? Who were these enemies? Who were the brethren? What were the events? It also raises a possibility that we might have information that was in the lost 116 manuscript pages.
David LeFevre explains:
“Lehi's lost record surely had more to say about the hardships experienced during this part of the journey. We get that impression both from King Benjamin (Mosiah 1:17) and Alma (Alma 36:28—29). Additionally intriguing are Alma's words to the people of Ammonihah, which invite them to remember ‘the tradition of [their] fathers’ (Alma 9:8), meaning ‘our father, Lehi’ who was ‘brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God’ (9:9). In the next breath, Alma reiterates how the Lord ‘delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies, and preserved them’ (9:10). That ‘our fathers’ refers to Lehi and his family seems apparent from verses 9 and 13. From Brown's observations and these indications from the text, it appears that the family spent significant time (perhaps most or, in my reading of the text, even all of the eight years) and conceivably suffered bondage in the passage between the Nahom area and Bountiful.” [2] (Emphasis mine)
S. Kent Brown writes:
“In an earlier address to people in Ammonihah, Alma recounted that ‘our father, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God . . . through the wilderness. Immediately thereafter Alma asked the question: ‘have ye forgotten . . . how many times he delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies, and preserved them from being destroyed?’ (Alma 9:9–10). Enemies? Destroyed? Do these expressions fit into a picture of Lehi in the desert? To be sure, the phrase ‘our fathers’ may point to an intermediate generation, nearer Alma's time, who had suffered difficulties with ‘their enemies’ But the context also allows the possibility that Lehi, too, had experienced troubles with ‘enemies...' [14]
“14. The notation that immediately follows—‘even by the hands of their own brethren’ (Alma 9:10)—opens further the possibility that the reference is to Lehi and his children since the older sons sought at least once to kill Lehi (1 Nephi 16:37; 17:44) and three times to kill the younger son Nephi (1 Nephi 7:16; 16:37; 2 Nephi 5:3–4; cf. 2 Nephi 1:24), even though the word brethren’ can refer to unfriendly Lamanites (e.g., Mosiah 28:1; Alma 17:9; 48:21).” [3] (Emphasis mine)
[1] Lecture 47: Alma 5-10, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed October 14, 2011.
[2] "We Did Again Take Our Journey", David A. LeFevre, Maxwell Institute, accessed October 14, 2011.
[3] A Case for Lehi's Bondage in Arabia. S. Kent Brown, Maxwell Institute, accessed October 14, 2011.
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