Alma 22:1-14

We now return to Aaron’s ministry.

Chapter 22

Aaron teaches Lamoni's father about the creation, the fall of Adam, and the plan of redemption through Christ—The king and all his household are converted—How the land was divided between the Nephites and the Lamanites. About 90–77 B.C.

1  NOW, as Ammon was thus teaching the people of Lamoni continually, we will return to the account of Aaron and his brethren; for after he departed from the land of Middoni he was led by the Spirit to the land of Nephi, even to the house of the king which was over all the land save it were the land of Ishmael; and he was the father of Lamoni.

2  And it came to pass that he went in unto him into the king's palace, with his brethren, and bowed himself before the king, and said unto him: Behold, O king, we are the brethren of Ammon, whom thou hast delivered out of prison.

3  And now, O king, if thou wilt spare our lives, we will be thy servants.  And the king said unto them: Arise, for I will grant unto you your lives, and I will not suffer that ye shall be my servants; but I will insist that ye shall administer unto me; for I have been somewhat troubled in mind because of the generosity and the greatness of the words of thy brother Ammon; and I desire to know the cause why he has not come up out of Middoni with thee.

Alma 22:1-3 (Emphasis mine)

After Aaron and his group left Middoni, he went to the land of Nephi.  There he went before Lamoni’s father.  He made the same offer Ammon made – “We will be your servants.”

This time, the situation was different.  When Ammon went before Lamoni, he was unknown.  His offer was unexpected.  This was the best way for him to prove himself worthy of Lamoni’s trust.

Lamoni’s father – I want to pause for a moment.  We know Lamoni.  We will get to know Lamoni’s father.  Except for one thing.  We never learn his name.  I don’t know if Alma(2) didn’t record it or Mormon felt knowing his name was not that important.  Here we have a major character that is essential to the preaching and the gospel, and we just know him as Lamoni’s father.

Lamoni’s father was aware of what they were doing.  After trying to unsuccessful have Lamoni kill Ammon, and then his failed attempt to kill him, he became aware of the power of God.  He knew there was something different about Ammon, because his son was so loyal to him and Ammon was so loyal to his son.  He left with many questions.

This why it’s not surprising the king rejected Aaron’s offer to be his servant.  He knew Aaron had something he wanted to learn.  That’s what mattered to the King. 

He must have expected to Ammon because one of his first questions was where Ammon is.  Aaron explains.

4  And Aaron said unto the king: Behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way; he has gone to the land of Ishmael, to teach the people of Lamoni.

5  Now the king said unto them: What is this that ye have said concerning the Spirit of the Lord?  Behold, this is the thing which doth trouble me.

6  And also, what is this that Ammon said—If ye will repent ye shall be saved, and if ye will not repent, ye shall be cast off at the last day?

Alma 22:4-6 (Emphasis mine)

Ammon was teaching the people of Lamoni.  That’s why he wasn’t there.  This answer satisfied the king because he begins his questions.

These questions are very similar to the questions Lamoni had for Ammon.  “What is this Spirit of the Lord?  What is this repent or be cast off?”  Two very important questions.

Hugh Nibley explains:

“Then he asked Aaron questions about the Spirit of the Lord, is there a God, etc. Remember, they are trying to establish a bridge with the Lamanites, who for hundreds of years had been going their own way and had their own version of the gospel. They had kept the Great Spirit, and they still have. They still believe all these things. It's a complex picture we have here. “ ^[i] (Emphasis mine)

7  And Aaron answered him and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God?  And the king said: I know that the Amalekites say that there is a God, and I have granted unto them that they should build sanctuaries, that they may assemble themselves together to worship him.  And if now thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe.

8  And now when Aaron heard this, his heart began to rejoice, and he said: Behold, assuredly as thou livest, O king, there is a God.

9  And the king said: Is God that Great Spirit that brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem?

10  And Aaron said unto him: Yea, he is that Great Spirit, and he created all things both in heaven and in earth.  Believest thou this?

11  And he said: Yea, I believe that the Great Spirit created all things, and I desire that ye should tell me concerning all these things, and I will believe thy words.

                         Alma 22:7-11 (Emphasis mine)

First we have to establish what we mean.  I quoted Hugh Nibley in an earlier post about the terms being used.[ii]  If I were asked by a Native American if I believe in the Great Spirit, my answer would be yes.  Even though we are using different terms, we are talking about the same Person.  We believe in the same Person.  We just call Him by different names.

When the king mentions the Amalekites believe in God and he allowed them to build their places of worship.  Then we see another powerful and great example of faith.  The king tells Aaron that “if now thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe.” (verse 7).  Later, he tells Aaron that he wants him to teach him about “all these things, and I will believe thy words.” (verse 11).  He is ready to believe Aaron’s words.  He is satisfied he will hear the truth from Aaron and he know places his faith in Aaron’s words.  Here we see the beginnings of a testimony.

12  And it came to pass that when Aaron saw that the king would believe his words, he began from the creation of Adam, reading the scriptures unto the king—how God created man after his own image, and that God gave him commandments, and that because of transgression, man had fallen.

13  And Aaron did expound unto him the scriptures from the creation of Adam, laying the fall of man before him, and their carnal state and also the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would believe on his name.

14  And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory; and Aaron did expound all these things unto the king.

Alma 22:12-14 (Emphasis mine)

We see a Aaron following a similar approach to teaching the King as did Ammon.  He explained that through Adam, men fell.  We entered a carnal state. 

A plan was prepared that, through Christ, we would all obtain forgiveness of our sins through faith and repentance.  There is no way we can do this ourselves (see verse 14).  We can only obtain this through the atonement of Christ.

Noel Reynolds writes about the importance of these teachings.

“Teaching the Lamanites, Aaron began at the creation of Adam, using the scriptures to explain how man had fallen by disobeying the commandments of God and how God had prepared a plan of redemption through Christ: ‘And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth’ (Alma 22:14; cf. 22:12—13). As presented by the Nephite prophets, this ‘plan of salvation’ or ‘great plan of happiness’ provides the context for understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ and the reasons why men and women should believe and trust in him. Not only is he their creator, he is their redeemer, having provided a way by which they can be delivered from their sins.” [iii] (Emphasis mine)

 

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[i] Lecture 52: Alma 19-22, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 18, 2011.

[ii] See Lecture 52: Alma 19-22, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 18, 2011.

[iii] The True Points of My Doctrine, Noel B. Reynolds, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 18, 2011.

Alma 18:1-7

Chapter 18

King Lamoni supposes that Ammon is the Great Spirit—Ammon teaches the king of the creation, of God's dealings with men, and of the redemption that comes through Christ—Lamoni believes and falls to the earth as if dead. About 90 B.C.

1  AND it came to pass that king Lamoni caused that his servants should stand forth and testify to all the things which they had seen concerning the matter.

2  And when they had all testified to the things which they had seen, and he had learned of the faithfulness of Ammon in preserving his flocks, and also of his great power in contending against those who sought to slay him, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Surely, this is more than a man.  Behold, is not this the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments upon this people, because of their murders?

3  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 18:1-3 (Emphasis mine)

King Lamoni heard about what happened before Ammon and his other servants got back.  His first action was to call his servants to come and tell him what had happened.  He wanted to hear the story first-hand.

They told him the story and about the power of Ammon.  After hearing the story, Lamoni’s first thought was he had to be the Great Spirit.  His servants gave the only reply they could.  “We don’t know if he’s the Great Spirit or not.  What we do know is our enemies can’t kill him and he cannot be slain.”  (They did add a qualifier – “we do not believe that a man has such great power” [verse 3]  It may be that they didn’t want to take a stand because if they gave the King an answer with which he would later disagree, things may not have turned out well for them!)

The concept of the Great Spirit is an interesting one, one that gives us a special spiritual tie with the Native Americans.  Hugh Nibley wrote:

“There is one common ground, one common need, between us and them, and it is the Book of Mormon. Consider how much it tells us about the present situation. First of all, we accept the Great Spirit—we do not consider the Indians heathen. King Lamoni mistook the visiting superman Ammon for the Great Spirit, a mistake which his descendants have made more than once, to their loss.” [i] (Emphasis mine)

 “… [the words Great Spirit are going to be repeated many times, and that will turn out to be very significant for us] … The people were beginning to think that what they had done was murder. The people of Ammon later on always described their killing in battle as murder. Why did he [the king] go on murdering? It could have been ritual murders, etc.

“… See, he was about to slay them; he had every intention of putting them to death. It occurs to him for the first time with rather a shock that it must be wrong to kill the way he had been doing. In other words it was an established custom; it was the thing to do. Nobody thought of it as particularly wrong … It is perfectly clear that he was doing it as a custom, as a required gesture, and now it suddenly occurs to him that it might be wrong to slay his servants. You would think anybody was crazy who didn't know that was wrong. But he didn't. It was customary, and people do these things.” [ii] (Emphasis mine)

The concept of the Great Spirit gives us more information about the Lamanites.  John L.  Sorenson wrote:

“In any case we are not justified in supposing that the Lamanites had no religious system. No doubt what they followed involved elements of the Jerusalem cult with which Laman, Lemuel, and probably one or more of the sons of Ishmael had had experience as adults. Evidently a "Great Spirit" deity was integral to the later belief pattern…”  [iii]

4  And now, when the king heard these words, he said unto them: Now I know that it is the Great Spirit; and he has come down at this time to preserve your lives, that I might not slay you as I did your brethren.  Now this is the Great Spirit of whom our fathers have spoken.

5  Now this was the tradition of Lamoni, which he had received from his father, that there was a Great Spirit.  Notwithstanding they believed in a Great Spirit they supposed that whatsoever they did was right; nevertheless, Lamoni began to fear exceedingly, with fear lest he had done wrong in slaying his servants;

6  For he had slain many of them because their brethren had scattered their flocks at the place of water; and thus, because they had had their flocks scattered they were slain.

7  Now it was the practice of these Lamanites to stand by the waters of Sebus to scatter the flocks of the people, that thereby they might drive away many that were scattered unto their own land, it being a practice of plunder among them.

Alma 18:4-7 (Emphasis mine)

Lamoni is convinced that Ammon is the Great Spirit and he is in trouble because of his killing of his servants.  It was Lamanite tradition that they believed in the Great Spirit, but that whatever they did was right.   For the first time, Lamoni is questioning this.

In verse 7, Alma(2) reminds us that scattering flocks was a standard practice of the people.  The acceptance of this allows us to look carefully at Lamanite society, but at the basis for this acceptance.

Alan Goff wrote:

“The other Lamanite custom follows from the first: ‘Now it was the practice of these Lamanites to stand by the waters of Sebus to scatter the flock of the people, that thereby they might drive away many that were scattered unto their own land, it being a practice of plunder among them’ (Alma 18:7). This explains Lamoni's response when he hears of Ammon's exploits: he fears it is the Great Spirit punishing them ‘because of their murders’ (Alma 18:2); the king is as guilty as the thieves, for the thieves have no fear of appearing in the palace (Alma 19:21-22).” [iv] (Emphasis mine)

We again turn to Nibley.

“They took their tents and their people and continued to hunt and rob their brethren in the old accepted fashion of the East, and their descendants after them never gave up that exceedingly attractive way of life.” [v] (Emphasis mine)

 “For example, ‘it was the practice of these Lamanites to stand by the waters of Sebus to scatter the flocks of the people, that thereby they might drive away many that were scattered unto their own land, it being a practice of plunder among them (Alma 18:7; italics added). If ever there was an authentic piece of Bedouin mischief that is it. And of course it led to fights and reprisals in the best desert manner (Alma 18:6). Among others these rascals scattered the flocks of their own king and yet continued active in the social and political life of the community—how weak and poorly organized a government, and how typical of the East! (Alma 17:26—27; 19:21).” [vi]  (Emphasis mine)

Here’s a good place to stop for today.  Tomorrow we will discuss horses in the Book of Mormon.

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[i] Promised Lands, Hugh W. Nibley. Maxwell Institute, accessed September 4, 2011.

[ii] Lecture 51: Alma 17-19, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 4, 2011.

[iii] Religious Groups and Movements among the Nephites, 200–1 B.C., John L. Sorenson. Maxwell Institute, accessed September 4, 2011.

[iv] Reduction and Enlargement: Harold Bloom's Mormons, Alan Goff, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 4, 2011.

[v] The Nature of Book of Mormon Society, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 4, 2011.

[vi] Lehi and the Arabs, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 4, 2011.