The words of Alma, and
also the words of Amulek, which were declared unto the people who were in the
land of Ammonihah. And also they are cast into prison, and delivered by the
miraculous power of God which was in them, according to the record of Alma.
Comprising chapters 9
through 14.
Chapter 9
Alma commands the
people of Ammonihah to repent—The Lord will be merciful to the Lamanites in the
last days—If the Nephites forsake the light, they will be destroyed by the
Lamanites—The Son of God will come soon—He will redeem those who repent, are
baptized, and have faith in His name. About 82 B.C.
1 And again, I, Alma,
having been commanded of God that I should take Amulek and go forth and preach
again unto this people, or the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it
came to pass as I began to preach unto them, they began to contend with me,
saying:
2 Who art thou?
Suppose ye that we shall believe the testimony of one man, although he should
preach unto us that the earth should pass away?
3 Now they understood
not the words which they spake; for they knew not that the earth should pass
away.
4 And they said also:
We will not believe thy words if thou shouldst prophesy that this great city
should be destroyed in one day.
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?
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.
12 Behold, now I say
unto you that he commandeth you to repent; and except ye repent, ye can in
nowise inherit the kingdom of God. But behold, this is not all—he has commanded
you to repent, or he will utterly destroy you from off the face of the earth;
yea, he will visit you in his anger, and in his fierce anger he will not turn
away.
Alma took Amulek and they began to preach to the people of
Ammonihah. No sooner had he began to teach them, they began to contend with
him.
They asked, “Who art thou? Suppose ye that we shall believe
the testimony of one man, although he should preach unto us that the earth
should pass away?” (Alma 9:2). They also said, “We will not believe thy words
if thou shouldst prophesy that this great city should be destroyed in one day”
(Alma 9:4).
We will see just how wrong they were in not believing their
“great” city could be destroyed in one day.
“And thus ended the eleventh year of the judges, the
Lamanites having been driven out of the land, and the people of Ammonihah were
destroyed; yea, every living soul of the Ammonihahites was destroyed, and also
their great city, which they said God could not destroy, because of its
greatness.
“But behold, in one day it was left desolate; and the
carcasses were mangled by dogs and wild beasts of the wilderness” (Alma
16:9-10).
They questioned God for only sending one person among these
people to declare these things. Questioning God is often done by the wicked.
“And Adam and Eve, his wife, ceased not to call upon God.
And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have
gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words. But behold,
Cain hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him” (Moses
5:16).
“And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his
voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exodus
5:2).
“Now when king Noah had heard of the words which Abinadi had
spoken unto the people, he was also wroth; and he said: Who is Abinadi, that I
and my people should be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring
upon my people such great affliction” (Mosiah 11:27).
They attempted to take Alma by force, by they failed. Alma
continued to testify to them.
Calling them a “wicked and perverse generation,” he asked
how they had forgotten the tradition of their fathers and forgot the
commandments of God. They forgot and the Lord led Lehi from Jerusalem and
guided them through the wilderness.
He reminds them the Lord had delivered their fathers from
the hands of the enemies. He also kept them from being destroyed “even by the
hands of their own brethren” (Alma 9:10).
“In another reminiscence, Alma recounted that ‘our father,
Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God . . . through the
wilderness.’ Immediately thereafter Alma asked: ‘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? How
might 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
cinches down the possibility that Lehi, too, had experienced troubles with ‘enemies.’
In fact, 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
(see 1 Nephi 16:37; 17:44) and three times to kill the younger son Nephi (see 1
Nephi 7:16; 16:37; 2 Nephi 5:3–4).”[1]
We avoid being cutoff from the Lord’s presence through his
power, mercy, and long-suffering. “The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter
3:9).
“I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the
goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and
his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which
has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation
might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent
in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his
life, I mean the life of the mortal body” (Mosiah 4:6).
Mormon wrote to Moroni, telling him to “be faithful in
Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee
down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death,
and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering,
and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moroni
9:25).
Without this, we would have been cutoff from the face of the
Earth. We would have been condemned to a state of endless misery. “If they be
good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil,
to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who
hath subjected them, which is damnation” (Mosiah 16:11).
They have been commanded to repent. Should they refuse to
repent, they cannot inherit the kingdom of God; if they refuse to repent, they
will be destroyed. “And now behold, I say unto you, that the foundation of the
destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of
your lawyers and your judges” (Alma 10:27).
If they refuse to repent, they will be visited by the Lord’s
anger. “If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will
repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them” (Jeremiah 18:10). He
will not turn away his fierce anger. “And the word came to Alma, saying: Go;
and also say unto my servant Amulek, go forth and prophesy unto this people,
saying—Repent ye, for thus saith the Lord, except ye repent I will visit this
people in mine anger; yea, and I will not turn my fierce anger away” (Alma 8:29).
[1] Refining
the Spotlight on Lehi and Sariah, S. Kent Brown, Journal of Book of Mormon
Studies, Volume 15, Number 2, 2006, 52.
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