Alma 36:19-30

Alma had cried to the Lord begging Him to have mercy upon him. No sooner did he think this, he could no longer remember his pains.  He was no longer desolate by the memory of his sins.  “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent” (D&C 19:16).

He was filled with joy and beheld a light.  “Light symbolism masterfully presents the gospel as essential in the process of leading toward eternal life … While he expressed his conversion symbolically, Alma literally came out of a near-death darkness into light … [O]ne can see that to be filled with light is to be filled with life, joy, intelligence, truth, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and power.”^[1]

He told Helaman nothing was as exquisite and bitter as his pain.  On the other hand, nothing was as exquisite and sweet as his joy. “Alma was healed, not just physically, but spiritually as well. His exquisite and bitter pain was replaced by exquisite and sweet joy (Alma 36:21). He clearly linked his physical healing with his spiritual healing…”^[2]

Alma found his soul healed through the knowledge that Jesus would come and take away all his sins. As his soul became healed, he found peace within himself. Alma was so captured by the effects of this conversion experience that he repeated the sensations to Helaman: “Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy” (Alma 36:21; emphasis added). He was teaching a pattern to his son of lasting peace and joy, just as Enos’s father had done. There is a pattern here of fathers teaching children about the Atonement and eternal life. It is a pattern for all fathers in our day.[3]

He also thought he saw what father Lehi saw[4]; God was sitting on his throne.  Angels were singing the praises of God.[5]  He longed to be there.

“…Alma 36:22 ‘parallels almost verbatim the account of Lehi’s vision’ in I Nephi 1:8. Based on this and on the priority of Mosiah, [Metcalfe] believes that I Nephi 1:8 is quoting Alma 36:22 rather than vice versa. But there is a third possibility: Alma may have been quoting from the large plates of Nephi. To me, it is inconceivable that Lehi's vision would not have been recorded on the large plates, which were prepared by Nephi long before the small plates. It was, after all, the primal vision for Lehi. And since Nephi wrote both accounts, we should not wonder that the account reads the same-or nearly so--on both sets of plates.”[6]

Alma faced an awful and anguished moment when he felt that he might actually “become extinct both soul and body.” (Alma 36:15.) Then he remembered his father’s prophecies “concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.” (Alma 36:17.) In a moment of deep intellectual humility, his “mind caught hold upon this thought.” Out came Alma’s great soul cry: “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me”! (Alma 36:18.) Purpose replaced pain. Joy swallowed up despair as Alma apparently viewed God upon His throne, and he longed to join God! (See Alma 36:22.)[7]

He received strength to his limbs and stood.  He testified he had been born of God. “Now, my son, I would not that ye should think that I know these things of myself, but it is the Spirit of God which is in me which maketh these things known unto me; for if I had not been born of God I should not have known these things” (Alma 38:6).

From that time on, Alma strove to bring people to repent and they might taste of the same joy he had tasted.  The metaphor of tasting is used in other scriptures.  David wrote, “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (Psalms 34:8).  Nephi wrote, “For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:5).

In his great sermon, King Benjamin taught, “And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel” (Mosiah 4:11).

After the quakes at the death of Christ, the Voice they heard told them, “And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (3 Nephi 9:20).

He emphasized the great joy he receives from the fruits of his labors.  Many have been born again through the words he received from God.  “And it supposeth me that [your wives and children] have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul” (Jacob 2:8).

“And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God” (Alma 31:5).

“Therefore, strengthen your brethren in all your conversation, in all your prayers, in all your exhortations, and in all your doings” (D&C 108:7).

They have tasted the word of God.  “WHEREFORE laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere [GR pure, genuine] milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted [GR experienced] that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:1-3). They know the words he teaches he knows through the word of God. 

Alma had been supported through his challenges and all manner of afflictions.  He had been released from prison, from bonds, and from death.[8]  He has placed his trust in the Lord the He will deliver him. “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles” (Psalms 34:17).

Alma knows he will be resurrected at the last day and dwell with God in glory.  He will praise God forever.[9] “Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness; and I will praise the holy name of my God” (2 Nephi 9:49).

The Lord brought his fathers out of Egypt and swallowed the Egyptians in the Red Sea.[10]  He delivered them from bondage and captivity on occasions and eventually led them to the Promised Land.

Who was led out of bondage from time-to-time?  There is no record of the Israelites being in bondage.  Could Alma be referring to Lehi and his party?

Alma recalled the kindnesses of God to Lehi and his family in the desert: “[God] has also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he has also . . . delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time even down to the present day” (Alma 36:29). The last phrase, of course, tells us that Alma had in mind all of the generations from Lehi to his own. In my reading, Alma is saying that Lehi’s generation had also experienced “bondage and captivity.” A compelling point has to do with the parallelism set up by the prior verse, wherein Alma notes in almost identical language that the Lord had “delivered [our fathers] out of bondage and captivity from time to time,” pointing to “our fathers [in] Egypt” (Alma 36:28). Thus the phrase “from time to time” that appears in both verses 28 and 29 strengthens the observation that, as the Hebrew slaves, so the generation of Lehi had suffered “bondage and captivity.”[11]

Alma emphasized the importance to remember their bondage and captivity. Remembrance of their captivity was an important message for Alma.

“Now I say unto thee: Go, and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of Helam, and in the land of Nephi; and remember how great things he has done for them; for they were in bondage, and he has delivered them.  And now I say unto thee, Alma, go thy way, and seek to destroy the church no more, that their prayers may be answered, and this even if thou wilt of thyself be cast off” (Mosiah 27:16).

“And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?  Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them?  And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell” (Alma 5:6).

“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? 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? 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 9:9-11).

“Yea, and I also remember the captivity of my fathers; for I surely do know that the Lord did deliver them out of bondage, and by this did establish his church; yea, the Lord God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did deliver them out of bondage. Yea, I have always remembered the captivity of my fathers; and that same God who delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians did deliver them out of bondage” (Alma 29:11-12).

“I would that ye should do as I have done, in remembering the captivity of our fathers; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions” (Alma 36:2).

He reminded Helaman that “… Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence” (2 Nephi 1:20). He also reminded him “inasmuch as [you] will not keep my commandments [you] shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord” (Alma 50:20).

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[1] Light: A Masterful Symbol, Richard Dilworth Rust, Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 20/1 (2011):59, 62-63.

[2] “According to Their Language, unto Their Understanding”: The Cultural Context of Hierophanies and Theophanies in Latter-day Saint Canon, Mark Alan Wright, Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 3 (2011): 61.

[3] Bringing Peace and Healing to Your Soul, Elder Dale E. Miller, October 2004 General Conference.

[4] “And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God” (1 Nephi 1:8).

[5] “IN the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train [IE the hem of his garment, or the skirts thereof] filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved [HEB foundations of the thresholds trembled] at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:1-4).

[6] Review of New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology (1993), edited by Brent Lee Metcalfe, John A. Tvedtnes, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6/1 (1994): 43.

[7] The Great Plan of the Eternal God, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, April 1984 General Conference.

[8] “And Alma cried, saying: How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord?  O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance.  And they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them. And it came to pass that so great was their fear that they fell to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the prison; and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so that they fell to the earth; and the chief judge, and the lawyers, and priests, and teachers, who smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof. And Alma and Amulek came forth out of the prison, and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them power, according to their faith which was in Christ.  And they straightway came forth out of the prison; and they were loosed from their bands; and the prison had fallen to the earth, and every soul within the walls thereof, save it were Alma and Amulek, was slain; and they straightway came forth into the city. Now the people having heard a great noise came running together by multitudes to know the cause of it; and when they saw Alma and Amulek coming forth out of the prison, and the walls thereof had fallen to the earth, they were struck with great fear, and fled from the presence of Alma and Amulek even as a goat fleeth with her young from two lions; and thus they did flee from the presence of Alma and Amulek” (Alma 14:26-29).

[9] “And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.  And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient [OR old] men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off” (Ezra 3:11-13).

[10] “And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to ^ahis strength [IE its normal condition] when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it [HEB meeting it]; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:26-27).

[11] Refining the Spotlight on Lehi and Sariah, S. Kent Brown, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15/2 (2006): 51-52.