16 But Aaron said unto
him: If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if
thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his
name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope
which thou desirest.
17 And it came to pass
that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord,
upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried
mightily, saying:
18 O God, Aaron hath
told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt
thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee,
and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words,
he was struck as if he were dead.
19 And it came to pass
that his servants ran and told the queen all that had happened unto the
king. And she came in unto the king; and
when she saw him lay as if he were dead, and also Aaron and his brethren standing
as though they had been the cause of his fall, she was angry with them, and
commanded that her servants, or the servants of the king, should take them and
slay them.
20 Now the servants
had seen the cause of the king's fall, therefore they durst not lay their hands
on Aaron and his brethren; and they pled with the queen saying: Why commandest
thou that we should slay these men, when behold one of them is mightier than us
all? Therefore we shall fall before
them.
21 Now when the queen
saw the fear of the servants she also began to fear exceedingly, lest there
should some evil come upon her. And she
commanded her servants that they should go and call the people, that they might
slay Aaron and his brethren.
22 Now when Aaron saw
the determination of the queen, he, also knowing the hardness of the hearts of
the people, feared lest that a multitude should assemble themselves together,
and there should be a great contention and a disturbance among them; therefore
he put forth his hand and raised the king from the earth, and said unto him:
Stand. And he stood upon his feet,
receiving his strength.
23 Now this was done
in the presence of the queen and many of the servants. And when they saw it they greatly marveled,
and began to fear. And the king stood
forth, and began to minister unto them.
And he did minister unto them, insomuch that his whole household were
converted unto the Lord.
24 Now there was a
multitude gathered together because of the commandment of the queen, and there
began to be great murmurings among them because of Aaron and his brethren.
25 But the king stood
forth among them and administered unto them.
And they were pacified towards Aaron and those who were with him.
26 And it came to pass
that when the king saw that the people were pacified, he caused that Aaron and
his brethren should stand forth in the midst of the multitude, and that they
should preach the word unto them.
27 And it came to pass
that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his
people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which
was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was
divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran
from the sea east even to the sea west, and round about on the borders of the
seashore, and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north by the land
of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon,
running from the east towards the west—and thus were the Lamanites and the
Nephites divided.
28 Now, the more idle
part of the Lamanites lived in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents; and they
were spread through the wilderness on the west, in the land of Nephi; yea, and
also on the west of the land of Zarahemla, in the borders by the seashore, and
on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers' first
inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore.
29 And also there were
many Lamanites on the east by the seashore, whither the Nephites had driven
them. And thus the Nephites were nearly
surrounded by the Lamanites; nevertheless the Nephites had taken possession of
all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness, at the head of
the river Sidon, from the east to the west, round about on the wilderness side;
on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful.
30 And it bordered
upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it
came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we
have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the
place of their first landing.
31 And they came from
there up into the south wilderness. Thus
the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward
was called Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled with all manner
of wild animals of every kind, a part of which had come from the land northward
for food.
32 And now, it was
only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line
Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; and thus the
land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there
being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.
33 And it came to pass
that the Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the east unto the
west sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their
armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have
no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land
northward.
34 Therefore the
Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi, and the
wilderness round about. Now this was
wisdom in the Nephites—as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not
suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country
whither they might flee, according to their desires.
35 And now I, after
having said this, return again to the account of Ammon and Aaron, Omner and
Himni, and their brethren.
Alma 22:16-35
The king has asked Aaron what he must do to be saved. Aaron responds he must bow down before God
and repent of his sins. David wrote, “Then will I teach transgressors thy
ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (Psalms 51:13). Peter taught
the Jews, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”
(Acts 3:19).
After bowing down, call upon God, believing He will hear and
grant the desires of his heart, and he will receive the hope he desires. The prophet Ether told the Jaredites,
“Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world,
yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh
an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always
abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4).
The king humbled himself and laid flat on the ground. Humility when going to the Lord is
essential. The Lord told Joseph Smith,
“Behold, I say unto [Martin Harris], he exalts himself and does not humble
himself sufficiently before me; but if he will bow down before me, and humble
himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I
grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see” (D&C 5:24). He began to cry to the Lord.[1]
He began by expressing his faith in Aaron’s words. “Aaron had told me that there is a God” (Alma
22:18). He admits his doubt when he
said, “if there is a God, and if thou art God.”
We see a great act of faith. He
still had doubt, yet he accepted Aaron’s words.
He asked the Lord make Himself known to him and he will repent of all
sins to know Him. He also desired to be
raised from the dead and saved. Like his
son[2],
no sooner did he finish these words, “he was truck as if he were dead” (Alma
22:18).
“This example is particularly remarkable because one who had
been an earthly [monarch] desired to become a vassal to God, the highest
[monarch], hoping that his repentance would be an acceptable offering for that
privilege.”[3]
Seeing this, the servants ran to the queen and told her what
happened to the king. Entering the place
where the king lay, she saw Aaron and his brethren standing there. Jumping to a conclusion, she ordered her
servants they should take the Nephites and kill them.
Their response to the queen was similar to the servants’
response to Lamoni.[4] They refused to obey her command. They pleaded with her, saying one of these
men are mightier than all of them.
Should we attempt to kill them, we will probably end up dead.
The queen began to experience the same fear the servants
did. She dealt with her fear by
commanding the servants to call the people and have them kill Aaron and his
brethren. Aaron realized a mob would
lead to a riot. To put an end to this,
he took the hand of the king and told him to “Stand” and he stood, having
received back his strength. This amazed the queen and servants. They began to be overcome with fear. This was eased by the king when he began to
teach them. The results were the
conversion his entire household.[5]
A group of people arrived and began to grumble about Aaron
and his brethren. The king, seeing his
people talked to them. His words calmed the
crowd. Seeing the people were satisfied
by his words, he had Aaron and his brethren teach the word of God to them. The
king sent a proclamation throughout the land telling his people to listen to
the words of Aaron and his brethren.
Mormon discussed the geography of the land through the end
of chapter 22.
Mormon gives us a description of the geography of the
land. “[T]he narrow strip of wilderness
(mentioned in Alma 22:27 as running from east to west between the lands of
Nephi and Zarahemla) fits the geology of northern Guatemala impressively, where
a major east-west earthquake fault has resulted in an abrupt and formidable
region of mountains between highland Guatemala and the Chiapas depression.”[6]
Here are a few other descriptions of the geography:
If the Nephites continued their
nomadic ways, so no less did the Lamanites. From the first we find them
"dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness" (Enos
1:20). At least four hundred years after those words were written, Alma tells
us that "the more idle part of the Lamanites [most of the nation] lived in
the wilderness, and dwelt in tents" (Alma 22:28).[7]
An isthmus, “the place where the
sea divides the land” (Ether 10:20), connected the two major blocks of land.
Alma 22:32 pictures “the land northward and the land southward” joined by “a
small neck of land between.” In Alma 63:5 and elsewhere it is labeled the
“narrow neck.” This isthmus had sea to the west and to the east (see Alma
50:34; 63:5; Helaman 4:7). These seas had to be the Pacific and Atlantic
oceans, respectively, because Lehi1 arrived from the Old World
across the west sea (see Alma 22:28), and the party that bro’ht Mulek from
the land of Judah came “across the great waters” (Omni 1:16) to the “borders by
the east sea.”[8]
The Nephites, including Mormon,
conceived of the lands of concern to them as centered in the isthmian zone that
connected two larger territories, the land northward and the land southward.
The land southward was “nearly surrounded” (Alma 22:32) by ocean waters, and
the land northward was also bounded by oceans; the original immigrant parties
arrived from the Old World across these waters. The Nephite writers did not see
their land of promise as merely a segment within and surrounded by a
continental land mass, and we shall establish later that the dimensions of
their geographical picture were far smaller than those of any continent. While
all details of the configuration of lands cannot be settled definitively from
the statements we have available, what is said fits together consistently if we
consider the basic shape of the lands to be rather like an hourglass.[9]
The land of Zarahemla was well
above sea level; Mormon’s basic sketch of the geography says that from the
first landing place of the people of Zarahemla, which would have been at sea
level, “they came from there up into the south wilderness” (Alma 22:30–31),
where Mosiah1 found them (see Omni 1:13–14). That is a fairly
obvious but little noted point; the river Sidon at the city of Zarahemla was
not far distant from its headwaters, so it still had a long way to
flow—downhill—before it reached the sea (see Alma 22:27; 50:11; 56:25).
“When we compare what the record says about the two major
segments of the land southward, a major topographic contrast comes to light.
The Nephite possessions in the land of Zarahemla are distinctly and
consistently said to be lower in elevation than Lamanite-occupied highland
Nephi. The book of Omni first shows this when it reports the Nephites’
discovery of the people of Zarahemla: ‘Mosiah, . . . being warned of the Lord
that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, and as many as would hearken unto
the voice of the Lord . . . , came down into the land which is called the land
of Zarahemla’ (1:12–13). Shortly after, ‘a certain number . . . went up into
the wilderness to return to the land of Nephi’ (Omni 1:27). This relationship
is reaffirmed dozens of times. (The pattern of referring to topography in terms
of ‘up’ and ‘down’ had, of course, been manifested from the beginning of Nephi1’s
record; his family went ‘down’ from the Jerusalem area to near the shores of
the Red Sea [1 Nephi 2:5], and he and his brothers later returned ‘up’ to
Jerusalem [1 Nephi 3:9].)”[10]
[1] “[Y]our
Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8). “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that
will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any
thing in my name, I will do it” (John
14:13-14).
[2] “And
now, when he had said this, he fell unto the earth, as if he were dead” (Alma 18:42).
[3] Treaties
and Covenants: Ancient Near Eastern Legal Terminology in the Book of Mormon,
RoseAnn Benson and Stephen D. Ricks, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 12, 2015.
[4] “And
they answered the king, and said: Whether he be the Great Spirit or a man, we
know not; but this much we do know, that he cannot be slain by the enemies of
the king; neither can they scatter the king's flocks when he is with us,
because of his expertness and great strength; therefore, we know that he is a
friend to the king. And now, O king, we
do not believe that a man has such great power, for we know he cannot be slain”
(Alma 18:3).
[5] “Even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister” (Matthew
20:28).
[6] Insights:
An Ancient Window – Touring Mesoamerica Is an Unforgettable Experience – January
1992, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 13, 2015.
[7] The
Flight into the Wilderness, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 13, 2015.
[8] The
Overall Configuration, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 13, 2015.
[9] The
Overall Configuration, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 13, 2015.
[10] The
Surface of the Land, Maxwell Institute, accessed June 13, 2015.
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