Latest / Scripture Central / Alma 17-22 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

Transcript

Alma 17-22 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

0:00
I'm Taylor. And I'm Tyler.
0:02
Today, almost 17 to 22. So let's begin with a story
0:06
today. Now we're getting into a bunch
0:08
of missionary chapters, and we're going to be spending time
0:11
with some missionaries who early in their lives, you would have
0:15
never imagined that the stories we're about to read would have
0:17
ever happened. And so there's a principle here
0:20
that your past does not predict or determine your future.
0:26
So I grew up in the frozen wastelands of Minnesota.
0:30
Actually, it's a very beautiful place.
0:32
It's known as a Land of 10,000 lakes, and probably there's more
0:36
lakes than that. It's interesting, as a kid, I
0:38
remember we took a trip to a State Park and we went to this
0:44
lake and we actually, we visited lots of places like this growing
0:47
up as a family. The lake was not of any
0:50
particular significance. It was surrounded by trees, and
0:54
there was a small outlet that created a little stream.
0:59
And the stream was probably, I don't know, not very wide, maybe
1:03
about as wide as I can stretch my hands and enough that you
1:06
could actually walk across the stream on there was a pile of
1:10
rocks. And what was interesting about
1:13
this is that this nondescript lake and this nondescript stream
1:18
actually is the headwaters of the third largest river basin in
1:23
the entire world. It's the headwaters of the river
1:27
that drains 41% of the land in the lower 48.
1:31
You probably guessed by now it's the Mississippi River.
1:34
It was Lake Itasca. Now, if somebody had told me and
1:37
I didn't know anything about geography, this little lake is
1:40
the source of this mighty river that powers the economy through
1:44
this through the Midwest, and is the way that people have
1:48
traveled and communicated for years by using this river, I
1:51
just would have never believed it.
1:53
That little lake and that little stream, I could have never
1:56
foreseen that it become this mighty, powerful, Grand River
2:01
that have shaped years of people's lives in the Midwest.
2:05
Similarly, when we look at the lives of Ammon, Aaron, Omni,
2:09
Hymner, and others who were told earlier scriptures, they were
2:13
the very vilest of sinners. We could not imagine that their
2:18
early life could have ever led to who they became.
2:21
Now, what's interesting here is that the gospel creates these
2:24
inflection points in our lives. The power of the love of Jesus
2:27
Christ through the atonement can change us drastically where we
2:31
can become something completely unexpected.
2:35
And that's part of what we're going to be looking at today.
2:37
Among other things, that our past does not predict the
2:40
future. And if anything, if we stay on
2:44
the Gospel path, that will predict our future, that we will
2:48
be welcomed in to God's Kingdom. So chapter 17 opens with a
2:53
glorious reunion between Alma and these four sons of Mosiah,
2:58
Ammon, Aaron, Omnar and Hymni. It's been 14 years since they
3:03
last saw each other and considering their rough past,
3:07
those beginnings that they had, you can picture that moment of
3:12
uncertainty when Alma meets them thinking you still good in the
3:16
gospel and them thinking the same thing, you still good in
3:18
the gospel. And they find out that Alma's
3:20
been on this mission among the Nephites and he finds out that
3:25
they've been on this 14 year mission among the Lamanites and
3:28
they're doing great and seven whole cities of Lamanites have
3:31
been converted. And it's just this beautifully
3:33
glorious reunion. Now if you look at verse 2, the
3:37
first half of that verse describes this exceeding joy.
3:41
The second-half of verse two begins to explain what Ammon,
3:46
Aron, Omner and him and I went through to do this part.
3:49
I want to, to use a little analogy on the board.
3:53
OK, so this is going to represent the, we'll call it the
4:04
readiness, the readiness O meter.
4:12
OK, Now it's totally made-up. It's not scriptural.
4:17
It's just an overlay to try to understand what's going on.
4:20
The readiness O meter is going to be this arbitrary measuring
4:25
device that will tell us how ready somebody is either to to
4:31
serve or to teach or to lead or ready to receive and act on the
4:37
gospel and make covenants. So in this case, we watch the
4:43
four sons of Mosiah when they were in those early years, 14
4:48
years previous to this, when they were out with Alma.
4:50
They are not ready to teach the gospel.
4:52
They have that converting opportunity that they and Alma
4:56
went, went through together. And now they began at that
5:00
point, their preparations to become ready to be instruments
5:06
in the hands of the Lord. So let's let's watch their
5:10
readiness change. OK, so they they come from a
5:14
very low state of readiness. And then let's watch as they
5:19
increase. Look at verse two.
5:21
We're going through the second-half halfway down where
5:24
it starts. Yay.
5:26
And they had wax strong in the knowledge of the truth, for they
5:30
were men of sound understanding. And they had searched the
5:33
scriptures diligently that they might know the word of God.
5:39
You'll notice they didn't just have this converting experience
5:42
and say, OK, let's go on a mission.
5:44
If you look carefully at the wording here, words like sound,
5:48
understanding, search the scriptures diligently that they
5:51
might know the word of God implies that they're putting
5:55
huge effort into preparing their mind, their intellect.
5:59
They're putting proverbial water in the well, so to speak, so
6:04
that the Holy Ghost can draw that water out as it's needed.
6:07
They're not just going blindly saying, well, it feels right.
6:10
I, I believe it. Let's go, let's go teach.
6:14
So they prepare their mind. And I know that we've got to be
6:18
careful not to pigeonhole and limit verse two to only the
6:22
mind, but just so we can talk through it in a, in a overlay
6:28
sense, we're going to pigeonhole it and stick it all in the mind
6:31
for a minute. Look at verse three.
6:34
But this is not all. They had given themselves too
6:37
much prayer and fasting. Therefore they had the spirit of
6:40
prophecy in the spirit of revelation.
6:43
What is this getting at? What part of their soul are they
6:46
preparing on this readiness to teach element in verse three?
6:52
Notice when they taught, they taught with power and authority
6:56
of God. So once again, you can't take
7:00
the mind out of verse 2. But the dominant feature here is
7:05
they're preparing the things of the heart, fasting and prayer,
7:08
spirit of prophecy and revelation.
7:11
Notice what would happen if they stopped their preparation in
7:15
only verse two and they didn't do the fasting and the prayer
7:18
and seeking prophecy and revelation.
7:21
They would go down and probably want to engage in in deep
7:24
discussions and try to convince people only with the power of
7:27
the, the intellect and what they know that the gospel is true.
7:31
And you'll notice if you wipe out two and you only go with
7:34
verse 3 preparation and say, no, I, it's just going to be fasting
7:38
and praying and going to the temple when I prepare for my
7:40
service. But I'm not going to study the
7:42
scriptures. I'm not going to stretch my
7:44
mind. I'm not going to contemplate the
7:45
eternities. You can imagine that their
7:48
teaching would lack a lot. I love the fact that these four
7:53
sons of Mosiah, in their preparations to be instruments
7:56
in the hands of the Lord, they're giving their whole soul
7:59
to him. They're stretching their mind,
8:01
they're stretching their heart, and you can continue this down.
8:05
Look at verse four and five as you read through these.
8:08
They're doing preparations that will make it so that they have
8:11
grit, they have perseverance. They're about to embark on a 14
8:15
year mission in a very, very difficult area for Nephites to
8:20
serve, especially Nephite Princess to serve among the
8:24
Lamanites. Look at verse six.
8:27
They refused the Kingdom which their father was desirous to
8:31
confer upon them. This was also the mind of the
8:33
people. So there's a sacrifice element.
8:37
So basically what you're watching happen in the first
8:41
part of chapter 17 is they just keep coming, coming, coming
8:47
until these boys are ready to go and you can send them anywhere.
8:52
Their minds are firm, their hearts are soft, they're able to
8:56
take care of their physical needs in verse 7.
8:59
So they've done all this preparation, and now they come
9:02
down into the mission field and they spread out among the
9:05
Lamanites, commending each other and themselves to God to say, we
9:10
trust we've done everything we can, now let's go.
9:14
Now let's shift the focus from AM and Aaron Amner and Himnay to
9:20
us today. When you get a call in the
9:24
gospel, or when you get a call in your work, or when you get a
9:27
call from God having to do with your family, it's not just a
9:32
willingness to go and do something.
9:35
It's the fact that there are preparatory things we can do,
9:40
and if we, like the brothers here, figure out the right
9:44
balance and the right priorities to prepare our minds and our
9:48
hearts and our whole souls, then God can use us as an instrument
9:52
in all kinds of settings, not just church settings or family
9:55
settings, but in everything associated with with earth life.
10:00
We can be ready for whatever comes our way.
10:03
Now let's look at the Lamanites, among whom they have endeavoured
10:09
to now teach and serve. Where would you put King Lamoni
10:13
on the readiness Ometer? When Ammon shows up, most people
10:17
would put him somewhere about right here.
10:19
He just got through killing a whole group of shepherds because
10:23
they lost the flocks. Interesting that in some of our
10:28
mission cultures today, there's a false notion that the best
10:34
missionaries are the boldest, and they come right in and
10:36
they're always inviting people to get baptized at the first
10:39
earliest instance. Brothers and sisters, one of our
10:42
finest missionaries in the Book of Mormon, Ammon, when he comes
10:46
in with King Lamoni, you'll notice that the first time he
10:49
comes in with Lamoni, it's almost as if he's sitting there
10:53
getting a spiritual pulse on Lamoni.
10:57
Is he ready? Where is he?
10:59
He's monitoring his mind and his heart's receptiveness to hearing
11:03
the gospel. And apparently Lamoni is not
11:06
ready because Ammon didn't say, I'm here to teach you the
11:09
gospel. Will you be baptized?
11:11
He didn't do that. Notice what happens verse 20 as
11:15
you work through this story. As he comes in, he is taken and
11:19
bound, brought before King Lamoni.
11:22
Lots and lots of comparisons, by the way, through these, through
11:26
these verses here between Ammon and Jesus Christ.
11:31
There's a nice lens you can put on seeing Ammon as a type of
11:34
Christ being bound, brought before a king, judged, being a
11:39
Good Shepherd, willing to give his life for the flock and
11:44
defending the flock. You get all of these beautiful
11:47
analogies coming through. So here he is standing in front
11:51
of King Lamoni, and he senses Lamoni is not ready to hear the
11:53
gospel yet. It's kind of like Lake Itasca
11:57
idea. There's a little bit there, but
11:59
we got to wait. Limona is not ready to hear
12:02
this. So what does he do?
12:04
He just builds a relationship of trust with this king to the
12:08
point where the king asks Ammon a couple of questions.
12:11
Number one, do you want to live among my people?
12:15
At which point Ammon's response is yes.
12:18
And maybe even until the day I die, depending on how you
12:22
respond to what's going to happen here.
12:23
But he doesn't go there yet. And then the king, being much
12:27
pleased with Ammon, says, do you want to marry one of my
12:30
daughter's brothers and sisters? We don't know whether King
12:34
Lamoni knew Ammon's pedigree, his his ancestry.
12:40
We don't know because the book doesn't tell us.
12:42
If King Lamoni knew that he had the son of King Mosiah, the king
12:48
of the Nephites, standing in front of him, then it's a very
12:51
logical thing to have a political alliance, marriage.
12:55
It would give him more connection to power.
12:59
And that's an important thing for people, especially in
13:01
antiquity. But we don't know that.
13:04
What if Limoni didn't know that he had Mosiah's son standing in
13:09
front of him, that he's just a Nephite?
13:12
And we've killed Nephites before.
13:14
We've thrown him in prison, we've cast him out of our land.
13:15
We've done all kinds of things to Nephites that we've found
13:17
before, but something's different about this particular
13:21
Nephite. Ammons preparation probably
13:25
gives him a power and an authority that even King Lemoni,
13:30
in a very low ready to learn state, is able to to perceive.
13:36
I love what President Boyd K Packer used to teach.
13:40
I love it and I don't like it because of it's it's reality, he
13:44
said, speaking to seminary and institute teachers.
13:47
You teach who you are much more than what you say or do.
13:53
It's it's who you are that is that is the number one tool that
13:58
you have as a teacher. I think you're seeing that here
14:02
with Ammon. Even if King Limoni knew that it
14:04
was Mosiah's boy, there's still something powerful about the way
14:10
Ammon is able to stand there with a quiet confidence and a
14:14
quiet dignity that is just palpable.
14:17
It's moving. And so then Ammon's response to
14:20
this question, do you want to marry one of my daughters is
14:21
very simple. No, I I didn't come to find a
14:25
bride. I want to be your servant.
14:28
I want to serve you. Notice Lamona is not ready to be
14:33
invited to get baptized or to hear the gospel yet.
14:36
So what does Ammon do? He says, I want to serve you.
14:39
Well, the king says, all right, I'm actually in need of some
14:41
more servants. I just killed a batch of
14:43
shepherds. So yeah, we've got some
14:45
openings. So he he assigns him to go and
14:49
feed the flocks. Look at verse 26.
14:53
After he had been in the service of the king three days, pause
14:58
time out. After he had been in the service
15:00
of the king, 3 days notice. Sometimes scripture study can be
15:09
enhanced if you just slow down every once in a while and look
15:13
at what it doesn't tell you, not just what it does tell you, but
15:16
what it doesn't tell you. If he's been in the service of
15:19
the king three days as a servant, what do you think it
15:23
might have been like for Ammon at the end, at the close of day
15:27
two? What might the potential voices
15:30
of discouragement been inside of his head?
15:33
Because Satan doesn't give anybody a free pass.
15:36
So what might he tried, have tried to convince Ammon of after
15:42
2 long hard days of working? Can you, can you picture this?
15:47
Maybe phrases like you did all of that preparation for this, or
15:53
you could have had the Nephite throne, you could have been the
15:56
king. And now you've got this.
15:58
Seriously, all of these negative, self loathing, self
16:03
deprecating thoughts that could have dragged him down into
16:07
misery, But there's no sign of that.
16:10
Part of Ammon's preparation is also this, this.
16:14
I know who I am. I'm comfortable in in my own
16:18
skin, and I trust God. I trust that he is going to open
16:23
opportunities for Limoni's heart to be softened and prepared.
16:29
I don't know how that's going to happen.
16:30
I don't know when it's going to happen, but I trust.
16:33
I love Ammon's example here of moving forward through the
16:37
menial tasks, through the aspects of life that don't get
16:42
celebrated. How many people are standing
16:45
over a young mother's shoulder watching all of the things that
16:49
she does in a given day and congratulating her?
16:53
It doesn't usually happen. How many people congratulate you
16:57
at work for all of the little things that you do that go
17:00
unnoticed? The fact is that if we're
17:04
willing to do the hard work all along the way God does open up
17:10
doors of of incredible opportunity.
17:14
He opens up hearts. Now watch picking back up in
17:16
verse 26. He was in the service of the
17:19
king three days as he was with the Lamanite ish servants.
17:23
By the way, that's the first time that you get the word
17:25
Lamanite ish. These aren't Lamanites.
17:28
They're part Lamanite, part something else.
17:31
It's almost like they're on the fringe of even the Lamanite
17:34
society here. They're the the lowest of the
17:37
low as far as the servants and Ammons with them, these Lamanite
17:40
ish servants going forth. And when they went forth, then
17:44
the Lamanites come forth and scatter their flocks, scare them
17:49
away. And notice verse 28 the
17:51
response. Now the servants of the king
17:53
began to murmur saying now the king will slay us as he has our
17:57
brethren because their flocks were scattered.
17:59
So they sit down and they start lamenting, saying, see, I told
18:03
you we're we're dead. He's going to kill us like he
18:06
did the other group. And here stands Ammon looking at
18:08
them saying, really, why are you going to sit down and and roll
18:12
over and die instead of going and getting the flocks like it
18:16
won't do any good because if we gather them up, then the
18:18
Lamanites are just going to scatter them again.
18:20
We're dead. Notice back in chapter 17, verse
18:24
15, Ammon tells us here. Thus they were a very indolent
18:28
people, many of whom did worship idols.
18:32
Stop and think about it. If you worship an idol, what do
18:38
you have to do to become more like that thing or that that
18:41
element that you're trying to worship?
18:44
You just have to become more idle.
18:48
And that's exactly what's happening here is they just,
18:50
they stop acting, they give up their agency and they say we're
18:55
a victim of the circumstance. That's where the devil wants us
18:59
to be idle, not working through life, including the especially
19:05
the hard mundane elements of life.
19:08
Be idle, stop doing stuff. So Ammon says, no, go gather
19:13
them, be of good cheer. So they do, they go gather them.
19:16
And then he says I'll defend them.
19:18
There's something very Christ like about Ammon placing himself
19:22
betwixt the Lamanites and the flock, which is exactly where
19:27
Jesus places himself between US and justice.
19:30
So then he gets out his sling and he starts throwing rocks.
19:34
And you can picture this moment. He kills the first guy, then the
19:38
second guy, third guy, fourth guy, fifth guy.
19:40
By the time he killed 6 guys with the sling and they've been
19:43
slinging their rocks, they can't hit him.
19:46
They finally figure out, you know what, we're going to have
19:48
to try to do this a different way.
19:50
They began to be astonished after six guys have fallen to
19:55
the ground. So they rush him with their
19:59
their weapons. And he cuts off arms of all
20:04
those who came to him, disarmed all of those guys, and kills
20:08
their leader with the sword. By the way, can you picture
20:12
being the Lamanitish servants watching this happen?
20:15
Can you picture what's happening to their readiness?
20:17
Ometer? Wow, this miracle that's
20:21
unfolding in front of them, They're like, OK, this is
20:27
amazing. This guy cannot be killed.
20:30
He's superhuman. So these these robbers run off.
20:35
And then where does Ammon go? He doesn't go back to the group
20:39
and gloat in his success. He doesn't draw any attention to
20:42
it. He doesn't go back to King
20:44
Lemona and say, hey, look what I did for you.
20:47
He keeps serving. He sought not his own.
20:51
He's waiting for God to do the work by him doing his best
20:56
effort. Then he lets the effort do the
20:58
talking. He doesn't do the talking.
21:01
So he goes and he starts feeding the the horses because that was
21:03
the next thing that was required of the servants, right?
21:07
Chapter 18 is filled with all of these incredible interchanges
21:14
early on between Ammon and King Limoni, where Limoni has no idea
21:19
how to even address him. He can't figure out what's
21:21
happened and who he has standing in front of him.
21:25
He's he's convinced at one point that he has the great Spirit
21:28
himself standing there. And then Ammon reading those
21:32
thoughts, tells him, no. Here in chapter 18, verse 17, I
21:35
say unto you, what is it that thy marvellings are so great?
21:39
Behold, I am a man and am thy servant.
21:44
So here's this guy who is so powerful, who places himself
21:48
underneath Kingdom. I'm your servant.
21:51
There's something beautiful about that for leaders in the
21:55
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to say I am not
21:59
bigger or better than you. I am your servant.
22:03
How can I serve you? How can I help you?
22:05
That opens hearts quicker than anything that Christ like
22:10
humility and love and service attribute.
22:13
Now watch what happens with this process.
22:17
The more Ammon talks, the more King Limoni's readiness raises.
22:24
So if somebody in this arbitrary measurement, if somebody's over
22:28
in here, they're not really ready to hear the gospel.
22:31
If someone's in this range, depending on how it's presented,
22:35
they'll accept it. And somebody over here, where
22:38
have you been? Sisters or elders, come on in.
22:41
I had a dream about you. I'm ready to join your church.
22:43
How do I get baptized? That kind of an approach would
22:45
be over here. Pretty rare in in today's world
22:48
especially, but watch what what happens with King Limoni.
22:52
He gets to the point where now Ammon is recognizing he's
22:57
getting more and more ready. His mind and his heart are being
23:01
prepared more and more by the Lord to receive and respond
23:04
appropriately to the gospel. So notice how he begins the
23:08
actual teaching portion of this interchange.
23:12
Look, verse 23. And the king answered him and
23:14
said, yeah, I will believe all thy words 100%.
23:19
He's got him in a place where he's saying, I don't care what
23:22
you say, I'm going to believe you.
23:23
At this point. Look at verse 24.
23:26
Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness and said unto him,
23:31
Believest thou that there is a God?
23:32
And his response, I do not know what that meaneth.
23:35
I don't, I don't know that word. And then so Ammon steps back,
23:39
Believest thou that there is a great spirit?
23:41
And he said, yeah. And Ammon said, this is God.
23:46
Do you notice the pattern of what Ammon's doing here?
23:49
He doesn't say, wait, you, you actually believe in the great
23:52
Spirit instead of God, that that is the most ridiculous thing
23:55
ever. It's not a very effective
23:58
technique for missionaries to go out and tear down what people
24:02
believe in order to then teach them the truth.
24:06
Ammon's demonstrating a beautiful pattern here of you
24:09
find people wherever they are, whatever level they're on, you
24:15
find them and then you start there and take them to the next
24:21
levels up in their spiritual understanding, in their
24:24
spiritual knowledge. You believe in the great Spirit.
24:28
Yes, OK, that's God. So you're not backing him into a
24:32
corner making him feel dumb because he believes in the the
24:35
great Spirit. But you're saying let's take
24:37
what you believe. This is the President Gordon B
24:40
Hinckley principle of bring all the good that you have and see
24:44
if we can add to it. We're confident that we can the
24:48
way that President Hinckley always spoke about our
24:51
missionary efforts. And that's exactly what's
24:53
happening here. So once we get his great Spirit
24:59
combined with knowledge of that's God in place.
25:03
Now watch the progression of the elements of the gospel that
25:08
Ammon's going to teach to him. So you'll notice in verse 36,
25:11
when Ammon had said these words, he began at the creation of the
25:16
world. He begins at the beginning.
25:17
There's God. Now we go to the creation, the
25:20
creation of Adam, all things concerning the fall of man.
25:24
Then he opens up the Holy Scriptures and shows everything
25:28
that had happened down to the time that Father Lehigh left
25:31
Jerusalem. That doesn't end there.
25:33
Verse 37, we open up the scriptures that Nephi brought
25:37
and talk about the journeys through the wilderness and
25:39
coming to the promised land. And then verse 39 we finish with
25:43
the plan of redemption. So we have the creation, the
25:47
fall, the atonement laid out on a foundation of a belief in God,
25:54
using the scriptures as the main source here to to teach these
26:00
doctrines. And Limoni passes out in the
26:03
Spirit. He is overcome in the Spirit and
26:06
we open up chapter 19, which is a chapter with three really,
26:10
really important women being mentioned in the Book of Mormon.
26:14
So first, after two days, King Limoni's wife calls in Ammon to
26:19
say, should should I bury him? Ammon says to her, don't bury
26:24
him because he is going to rise tomorrow.
26:28
Notice verse 9. Ammon said unto her, Beliefeth
26:32
all this, and she said unto him, I have had no witness save thy
26:35
word and the word of our servants.
26:37
Nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast
26:40
said. At which point Ammon has this
26:42
reflective moment, where he says, Blessed art thou because
26:46
of thy exceeding faith? I say unto thee, woman, There
26:50
has not been such great faith among all the people of the
26:52
Nephites. Isn't that interesting?
26:54
These missionaries have come down among the the Lamanites to
26:58
teach them the gospel and to increase faith.
27:01
And now he meets this woman, and he says, I, I haven't found that
27:04
much faith even among all the people of the Nephites.
27:07
So she sat there by his bed that whole day and that night.
27:11
And he rose according to the words of Ammon in verse 12.
27:15
And he stretched forth his hand unto the woman, his wife, And he
27:18
said, blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou.
27:22
There are two people in Scriptures that you're commanded
27:25
to love with all your heart, the Lord thy God and your spouse.
27:31
I love the fact that in verse 12, you get both of those
27:34
mentioned right as Lamona is waking up from this incredible
27:39
experience that he's had in the Spirit for three days and the
27:43
two people that he blesses, first and foremost, God and his
27:48
wife. I think there's something
27:50
powerful there. So after King Lamona has woken
27:53
up from this amazing conversion experience, he preaches to his
27:57
wife. She falls down in joy, Lamoni
28:00
falls down in joy and falls down in joy, and everybody in the
28:02
household basically has been overcome with the spirit, except
28:05
for one woman, Abish. And it says verse 16 came to
28:08
pass that they did call on the name of the Lord in their might,
28:11
even until they had all fallen to the earth, save it were one
28:15
of the Lamanitis women whose name was Abish, she having been
28:19
converted unto the Lord for many years on account of a remarkable
28:24
vision of her father. So we get this one of the few
28:27
named women in the Book of Mormon here in Alma chapter 19.
28:32
I find this to be one of the most fascinating episodes in the
28:36
Book of Mormon. And the reason is I think Abish
28:40
is far more powerful and and valuable for us as a witness
28:44
about God than we perhaps may have realized.
28:47
And let me just share just a couple of potential possible
28:50
insights here. So let's take her name.
28:54
It can be broken down into two different Hebrew words.
28:59
The word OB means father, and you find the word OB in names
29:04
like Abraham or Abraham. And Abraham means father of
29:09
multitudes. And it's interesting because
29:11
Abraham's name actually is a signal around the covenants that
29:15
God has made with him, that the Abrahamic covenant is about God
29:20
multiplying Abraham's posterity. So that's what Abraham or
29:24
Abraham means. And the word ish means man in
29:29
Hebrew. If you put those two words
29:30
together, AB ish, her name would simply mean father is a man.
29:38
Now this is a proposal. I mean, we don't know with 100%
29:41
certainty that this is all totally correct, but I'm just
29:44
offering a proposal here that we are told the Book of Mormon that
29:48
the people who wrote New Hebrew and Egyptian and these two words
29:52
are Hebrew names. And if you put them together,
29:55
you actually get the sentence father is a man.
29:58
I actually think what's going on here is that her name signals a
30:01
truth that is actually packed in to the narrative.
30:05
And what's interesting here, if we could translate this back
30:08
into Hebrew, the word father seems to show up twice.
30:12
You have it in her name, AB, like Abish or Abish.
30:16
And at the end of the verse it talks about this remarkable
30:19
vision of her father. She had a very righteous father
30:23
who'd had a vision of God, and her father taught her that truth
30:28
and she was converted, and therefore she has silently been
30:31
a believer all along. And so when this whole
30:34
experience happened, she was already converted and didn't
30:36
fall down. You'll notice now we've talked
30:38
about Abish and we've talked about Limoni's wife.
30:42
There's that third woman mentioned in Elma Chapter 19,
30:47
and she comes, we have to go back in time, back to verse 13,
30:51
right after he woke up, he says to his wife, for as sure as thou
30:54
livest, behold, I have seen my Redeemer, and he shall come
30:59
forth and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind
31:03
who believe on his name. So Lamoni recognizes that God
31:08
who's going to come down to earth to save us, this this
31:12
Redeemer is going to be born of a woman.
31:15
So here we get mention of Mary and her role in this process.
31:19
Now, Taylor mentioned already the fact that the, the whole
31:22
group, Ammon Limoni and his wife have fallen to the ground.
31:28
And so Abish is the one who runs door to door gathering people to
31:32
come and see what's happened. And then you get the, the one
31:35
guy who comes and he sees Ammon passed out on the floor, draws
31:39
his sword because he's related to somebody that Ammon, you
31:42
know, dealt with back in chapter 17.
31:44
He comes forward to kill Ammon and he falls dead.
31:48
Now the people are really confused about what's going on.
31:50
And some aren't at all confused. They recognize it.
31:53
And you'll notice that by the time we're done, everybody who's
31:57
left their readiness, Ometer looks like that they're, they're
32:01
all ready to go as far as the gospel's concerned.
32:04
And so Lamoni wakes up after Abish wakes up the queen, then
32:09
Lamoni and Ammon, and he starts to teach.
32:12
And it's just this beautiful, beautiful experience.
32:15
So what happens as a consequence of all these people who have now
32:19
been prepared through these these experiences, Many of them
32:23
we look in verse 35 and it came to pass that there were many
32:27
that did believe in their words and as many as did believe were
32:30
baptized and they became a righteous people and they did
32:33
establish a church among them. I just want to point out that in
32:37
addition to the common understanding we all have about
32:39
the word righteous, there's actually a covenantal meaning
32:42
for the word righteous. In fact, in Scriptures,
32:44
particularly in the Old Testament, the word righteous
32:47
often is a code word. It's often means to be in
32:52
covenant relationship with God. So if you've made covenants of
32:56
God, you are righteous. And if you keep your covenants,
32:58
you are righteous. And if you look at what's going
33:00
on here, what do these people do?
33:02
They get baptized. They've made this covenant with
33:04
Jesus Christ and so that is being in the paths of
33:09
righteousness. And notice that.
33:10
What do they do to help them stay in the paths of
33:13
righteousness or to stay on a covenant keeping life path?
33:18
They did establish a church among them.
33:20
And if you think about our church organization today, the
33:23
whole point of the church organization is not potluck
33:25
dinners or Rd. shows or all these things that we do.
33:29
That is not the point, although those things might help.
33:32
The main point of church is for us to gather together to
33:35
reinforce the covenants that we have made.
33:38
If you think about every week at church, it's about partaking the
33:41
sacrament. It's renewal of the baptismal
33:43
covenant. So I want you to think that if
33:46
you wonder like am IA righteous person, well, are you in
33:50
covenant with God, then yes, you're righteous.
33:52
No, we all make mistakes. I didn't say whether any of us
33:55
were like without sin. That actually is not necessarily
33:59
what's being mentioned here by the word righteous.
34:02
It's about being in covenant with God.
34:04
So if you are being purposeful and meaningful in your covenant
34:09
making with God, that puts you in the camp of righteousness.
34:14
And that is what's going on here in Alma 35, that the people that
34:18
Ammon has gone to teach have become righteous.
34:21
That is, they become covenant making, covenant keeping people,
34:25
and they've established the church to help them stay in the
34:28
paths of covenants or in the paths of righteousness.
34:31
OK, now let's shift gears away from what's going on with Ammon
34:38
and Limoni over towards Aaron and his brethren that went with
34:42
him in chapter 20. As you read through that, when
34:46
you're going to find that Ammon gets this, this revelation from
34:50
the spirit to say your brother is over in Madonna and he needs
34:54
to be released from prison. So he tells Lamoni about this.
34:59
And when I says, well, that King's my friend, let's go, I'll
35:01
go with you. So they they head that direction
35:04
on their way. En route, they run into King
35:07
Lamoni's father, who happens to be the king over all the
35:10
Lamonite lands. And here's Lamoni, this new
35:15
convert, who is so excited to share with dad his conversion
35:19
story and the the glorious change that has taken place in
35:22
his mind and his heart and his whole soul and, and among his
35:25
people. And he's shocked when his dad
35:29
isn't just neutral but really negative about that experience.
35:34
Notice the response in chapter 20, verse 13.
35:37
Now when Lamoni had rehearsed unto him all these things,
35:39
behold, to his astonishment his father was angry with him and
35:44
said, Lamoni, thou art going to deliver these Nephites, who are
35:47
the sons of a liar. Behold, he robbed our fathers,
35:51
and now his children are also come amongst us, that they made
35:54
by their cunning, and their lying deceive us, that they
35:57
again may rob us of our property.
36:00
Do you remember the tradition of the Lamanites back in Mosiah 10,
36:04
this idea that the Nephites are so bad, they've done all these
36:07
things and now here's King Lamoni's father saying They've
36:10
come among us to rob us of our property.
36:14
By the way, we're standing in the land of Nephi right here.
36:18
This is property, so to speak. This is this is land that was
36:22
settled by the Nephites originally that now the
36:24
Lamanites have taken. And he tells Lumoni, you need to
36:28
kill Ammon. At which point Lumoni is
36:31
obviously saying, no, I'm not going to do that.
36:33
And then he says, well, then you're no son of mine and you're
36:36
worthy of death. I'm going to kill you.
36:38
At which point Ammon inserts himself between Lumoni and
36:43
Lamoni's father, and Lamoni's father says, OK, well then I'm
36:47
going to kill you. And he advances.
36:50
Now can you picture Lamoni in the background?
36:52
I can picture him back there saying, dad, stay right where
36:55
you are. If you do you like your arms, do
36:57
you want to keep your arms? Just stay right where you are.
37:00
But this old king comes forward with this sword and starts
37:03
smiting on Ammon, who withstood his blows, and then uses his own
37:07
sword to disable this Lamonite king.
37:11
And now he has him. He has him right where he he
37:14
wants him, at the edge of the sword.
37:16
Where would you put King Lamoni's father on the readiness
37:19
Ometer at this point ready to hear the gospel?
37:23
For some of you would say, well, the readiness Ometer is broken.
37:25
It's just kind of like he's, he's not even registering.
37:29
He is not ready to hear the gospel.
37:31
So now Ammon does something very interesting when King Lamoni's
37:36
father makes an offering to him. Look at verse 23.
37:40
Now the king fearing he should lose his life, said, If thou
37:43
wilt spare me, I will grand unto thee whatsoever thou will ask,
37:46
even to half of the Kingdom. Are you noticing what happened
37:50
here? Let's do a math equation.
37:53
He put two things equal to one another.
37:57
He said, if you will spare my life, I will give you anything
38:01
you ask up to 1/2 of my Kingdom. Now, he didn't put it into
38:08
words, but what he basically said is my life is worth half of
38:12
my Kingdom. That that's basically what just
38:15
happened in verse 23 right here. And by the way, is that a valid
38:19
offer? I mean, stop and think about it
38:22
for a minute. Which half of your kingdom's
38:24
going to want to follow the Nephite?
38:25
And how hard is it to poison him or to kill him when he's asleep
38:29
or something? Meaning this is just an attempt
38:33
to entice somebody who I've been taught as the king of the
38:36
Lamanites all my life, that these Nephites are just, they're
38:38
just power hungry and they don't care about anything but robbing
38:42
and stealing from the Lamanites. So let's offer him this, he'll
38:44
take and then we can kill him off, right?
38:46
Oh, how it must have moved the readiness, Ometer, for this old
38:50
king to see the look on Ammon's dignified yet powerful face.
38:55
Say, I am not interested in any portion of your Kingdom or your
39:02
throne. I didn't come down here to take
39:05
kingdoms. In fact, I gave up the Nephite
39:07
Kingdom to come down here to be a servant among your people.
39:12
I don't want your Kingdom. All I want is for my brothers to
39:15
get out of prison and for your son Lemoni, to have a little bit
39:18
of religious freedom in the land of Ishmael in his own city.
39:21
At which point the king says that's all you want.
39:24
Yeah. That's it.
39:25
OK. Done.
39:26
King Lemoni's father goes home, and the Holy Ghost now gets to
39:30
teach him over and over and over again.
39:33
What happened out there on that day?
39:36
Once again, the quote from Elder Maxwell, the concept from Elder
39:39
Maxwell. Some of history's greatest
39:41
sermons are preached from the pulpit of memory to an audience
39:45
of one. I think that's happening with
39:47
King Lamoni's father. So after getting Aaron out of
39:50
prison, Ammon goes back home with Lamoni to Ishmael and Aaron
39:54
is directed by the Spirit of the Lord to go and visit this king.
39:59
O we we skip over. You're going to be reading on
40:02
your own Charter 21 With Aaron's initial struggles.
40:06
Let's ick U his story with the King in Charter 22 notice.
40:10
After he got out of prison from Ammon, you can imagine the
40:12
little district meeting or his own conference that would have
40:14
happened right there of wow, how did you get all this success?
40:18
And Ammon giving him the formula.
40:19
Now watch how perfectly he applies the training.
40:22
So he goes into the king. Verse two of chapter 22, he
40:25
bowed himself before the king. We're the brother and of Ammon.
40:29
And look at verse three. Now, O king, if thou wilt spare
40:31
our lives, we will be thy servants.
40:34
They learned their lesson really well, didn't they?
40:36
But the king said unto them, Arise, for I will grant unto you
40:40
your lives, and I will not suffer.
40:41
You shall be my servants, but I will insist that you shall
40:43
administer unto me. King Lemoni's father is not over
40:47
here in his readiness, Ometer. Over these days or weeks,
40:52
however long it's been, the Spirit has been working with
40:54
him. Where he says, I don't want any
40:56
more servants. I've got so many servants, I
40:57
don't know what to do with them. But I don't have anyone who can
41:00
teach me the gospel. I've been troubled in my mind.
41:02
I I need to learn, teach me. So his heart is already open.
41:07
God opened it through the these experiences that he's had.
41:11
And so you'll notice that Aaron is able to jump right in and
41:15
teach. He teaches about God in verse 7.
41:19
Then he teaches the combination of God and the great Spirit,
41:22
same thing. And then in verse 10, the
41:23
creation, the fall, the atonement, you get the
41:27
scriptures being opened up by him.
41:28
It's the same pattern, the redemption.
41:31
Now the conclusion look at verse 14.
41:34
Since man had fallen, he could not merit anything of himself.
41:38
We don't deserve anything for ourselves, but the sufferings
41:41
and death of Christ atone for their sins through faith and
41:44
repentance and so forth, and that he breaketh the bands of
41:47
death. OK and then Aaron expanded all
41:49
things unto the king. Now go to verse 15.
41:51
It came to pass that after Aaron had expanded these things unto
41:54
the king, the king said, now watch, you're going to get
41:58
another math equation, a math equality that's going to be set
42:02
up by King Limoni's father. He says, what shall I do that I
42:07
may have this eternal life of which thou has spoken before
42:15
this, this Lake Itasca principle, this, I mean, we used
42:19
it referring to the the four sons of Mosiah, but it applies
42:23
to Lamona and his father as well.
42:24
What started is this little thing.
42:26
I'm only concerned about this. It's now grown.
42:30
Now I'm focused on this. I want eternal life.
42:33
Notice what he equates what he's willing to give up in order to
42:37
attain eternal life. What shall I do?
42:39
That I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted
42:44
out of my breast, and receive his spirit, that I may be filled
42:48
with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day.
42:51
Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess.
42:56
Yeah, I will forsake my Kingdom that I may receive this great
43:00
joy. I love the fact that this king
43:05
has now gotten to the point where he says I I don't even
43:08
care about my Kingdom at this point.
43:11
I'm willing to give it all up in exchange for eternal life that
43:15
Aaron has taught me about and that the Spirit has has borne
43:17
witness to my soul. Now Aaron recognizing the
43:22
complete soft heart and the readiness of the king, he
43:26
doesn't say, oh good, we've arrived because there's one step
43:30
more. And Aaron invites that step.
43:33
And then you get the final step in verse 18, when the king now
43:37
instead of turning to Aaron saying, what do I need to do?
43:41
Aaron gets him to turn to God. This is one of the sweetest
43:45
prayers in all of Scripture, coming from a guy who didn't get
43:50
raised by parents who taught him how to pray and how to address
43:53
God. Look at the raw, authentic power
43:58
that just comes from Limoni's father as he addresses this,
44:02
this being that he so desperately wants to come to
44:05
know. Verse 18.
44:06
Oh God, Aaron has told me that there is a God, and if there is
44:11
a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me,
44:16
and I will give away all my sins to know thee, that I may be
44:20
raised from the dead and be saved at the last day.
44:23
And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if
44:26
he were dead. So we get one more equation to
44:30
finish it off in verse 18, which some of you would say, well this
44:37
is the same because of John in the New Testament saying in the
44:43
intercessory prayer, Jesus says, and this is life eternal, that
44:46
they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom
44:49
thou has sent. King Lamonai's father is looking
44:51
for this personal connection with God.
44:54
And notice what he was willing to give up something way more
44:58
difficult than a Kingdom, something way more painful to
45:04
extract than possessions. He's willing to give up all of
45:09
his sins. Brothers and sisters, as you as
45:12
you contemplate these chapters and watching God work with
45:17
people on their own level of readiness and their willingness
45:20
to use agency to increasingly connect with God.
45:24
You can use this as a pattern, as an overlay and how we serve
45:27
each other, how we approach the throne of grace and how we
45:33
prepare ourselves to not just receive of God's goodness, but
45:37
then become instruments in his hands to spread God's goodness.
45:41
That's what covenant relationships are all about.
45:43
It's not a selfish thing. It's a share the wealth, spread
45:48
the goodness. And we do that by loving, by
45:52
serving and by trusting in God and building these relationships
45:57
with people that that are meaningful to point them to,
46:00
then building relationships with God.
46:03
So in closing, I hope that we can all come to the point where
46:06
we, like the father of King Limoni, can actually with
46:10
sincerity say to God, I will give up all of my sins to know
46:15
thee. That's the target.
46:17
That's our goal, and we leave that with you.
46:19
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.