Book of Mormon Lesson
# 32 Alma 53–63
They Did Obey-Every Word of Command with
Exactness
Introduction
As we come to the end
of Alma, the manual focuses on chapters 53–59—the story of the army of Helaman,
the Stripling Warriors as they are called. Obviously this narrative stirs the
hearts of our youth, especially the young men, with its seeming focus on glory
in battle, but there are other lessons to be learned, and I hope we will pull
these out during our class time.
Not part of the
lesson per se, but nevertheless one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon
are the letters written in chapters 61–62 between a very frustrated and, I have
to say, aggressive Moroni and a faithful, beleaguered, but very patient and
understanding Pahoran. Then finally in chapter 63, the successful quelling of
the rebellion of the kingmen and the sad fate of Teancum round out this
incredible book of Alma. I remember many years ago portraying one of the
mothers of the Ammonite young men. It’s one of the few mentions women get in the
Book of Mormon and features pretty much every Mother’s Day! To a large extent
women are in the background in the Book of Mormon—unsung heroines as an article
in the August 2016 Ensign points out.[1] But all
the male heroes had mothers, wives, and daughters, and one can only imagine
what their feelings were as they sent their loved ones on missions, to battle,
to death even. Not much different than today. However, the 2,060 Stripling
Warriors all came back to their mothers and sisters, not unscathed, but protected
from death. My take on this is that we should all aim to return to our Heavenly
Parents, quite probably scarred and wounded by the vicissitudes of life, but
alive in Christ. Faithful and enduring to the end.
1. Two thousand valiant young Ammonites covenant
to fight for the liberty of the Nephites. Alma
53:10–19; 56:1–8
Last week’s reading focused on what was happening on the eastern side of
Nephite territory. Now we cover two years of the same period but from the
western front where Helaman and the two thousand stripling warriors were
engaged with others in combat with the Lamanites.
The Institute
Manual puts these conflicts into perspective with a quote by Hugh Nibley:
So it was a blessing to the Nephites after all to have the
Lamanites on their doorstep to ‘stir them up to remembrance’—‘Happy is the man
whom God correcteth’ (Job 5:17). No
matter how wicked and ferocious and depraved the Lamanites might be (and they
were that!), no matter by how much they outnumbered the Nephites, darkly
closing in on all sides, no matter how insidiously they spied and intrigued and
infiltrated and hatched their diabolical plots and breathed their bloody
threats and pushed their formidable preparations for all-out war, they were not
the Nephite problem. They were merely kept there to remind the Nephites of
their real problem, which was to walk uprightly before the Lord” (Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd ed. [1988], 339–40).
You will remember that the people of Ammon made a covenant of peace, but
then they had to watch the Nephites die, first in their defense and then in
defense against the Lamanites as a result of Moroni’s call to arms (Alma
24:15–18; 53:10–11)
53:16–17 gives us details of the covenant that these sons entered into. We have
seen how valiant their fathers and mothers were in adhering to the covenant
they made when they buried their weapons of war, now we see the valour of their
sons as they make a covenant to defend the Nephites. Last week’s Howard W.
Hunter lesson was on the covenants we make when we partake of the sacrament. So
my question for this week is what do
covenants mean to us today and how are we trying to keep them? Here is
Richard J. Maynes, “As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, we have also taken upon ourselves sacred obligations. We have done this
in the waters of baptism and in the temples of the Lord. We call these obligations
covenants. Covenants are promises we make to the Lord. They are
extremely sacred in nature. The most important thing we can do in this life is
to keep the promises or covenants we have made with the Lord. When we keep our
promises to the Lord, He allows us to progress spiritually.”[2] And Elder Ballard: “Sometimes
we are tempted to let our lives be governed more by convenience than by
covenant. It is not always convenient to live gospel standards and stand up for
truth and testify of the Restoration. … But there is no spiritual power in
living by convenience. The power comes as we keep our covenants” (Ensign, May 1999, 86).
Alma 57:21 emphasizes the way the young men kept their covenants as
Elder Bednar explains,
Praying, studying,
gathering, worshipping, serving, and obeying are not isolated and independent
items on a lengthy gospel checklist of things to do. Rather, each of these
righteous practices is an important element in an overarching spiritual quest
to fulfill the mandate to receive the Holy Ghost. The commandments from God we
obey and the inspired counsel from Church leaders we follow principally focus
upon obtaining the companionship of the Spirit. Fundamentally, all gospel
teachings and activities are centered on coming unto Christ by receiving the
Holy Ghost in our lives. You and I should strive to become like the stripling
warriors described in the Book of Mormon, who did “perform every word of
command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto
them.… And they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day;
yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his
commandments continually.”[3]
2. The young soldiers exercise
faith in God and fight courageously. Alma 56:9–58:41.
For our class, besides examining ourselves and our
commitment to our covenants with the Lord, we should be either contemplating or
looking forward to our roles as parents or examples to children and youth.
Elder Hales has some wise counsel:
For all of us,
doing our duty to God as parents and leaders begins with leading by
example—consistently and diligently living gospel principles at home. This
takes daily determination and diligence. For youth, there is no substitute for
seeing the gospel lived in our daily lives. The stripling warriors did not have
to wonder what their parents believed. They said, “We do not doubt our mothers
knew it” (see Alma 56:47–48
Do our children know what we know? . . . Besides showing youth the way by
example, we lead them by understanding their hearts and walking alongside them
on the gospel path. To truly understand their hearts, we must do more than just
be in the same room or attend the same family and Church activities. We must
plan and take advantage of teaching moments that make a deep and lasting
impression upon their minds and hearts.[4]
President Russell M. Nelson has specific advice for both
mothers and fathers:
Attacks against
the Church, its doctrine, and our way of life are going to increase. Because of
this, we need women who have a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ
and who will use that understanding to teach and help raise a sin-resistant
generation. We need women who can detect deception in all of its
forms. We need women who know how to access the power that God makes available
to covenant keepers and who express their beliefs with confidence and charity.
We need women who have the courage and vision of our Mother Eve.[5]
. . . . I urgently plead with each one of us to live up to our privileges as
bearers of the priesthood. In a coming day, only those men who have
taken their priesthood seriously, by diligently seeking to be taught by
the Lord Himself, will be able to bless, guide, protect, strengthen, and heal
others. Only a man who has paid the price for priesthood power will be able to
bring miracles to those he loves and keep his marriage and family safe, now and
throughout eternity.[6]
Although not set as reading in the lesson manual, the
exchange between Moroni and Pahoran is a classic example of jumping to
conclusions and not taking offense. Elder Bednar gave a wonderful discourse on
the latter. Here are a few excerpts.
When we believe or
say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated,
snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and
mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would
allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another
person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person
offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make;
it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or
something else. . . .
Endowed with
agency, you and I are agents, and we primarily are to act and not just be acted
upon. To believe that someone or something can make us feel offended,
angry, hurt, or bitter diminishes our moral agency and transforms us into
objects to be acted upon. As agents, however, you and I have the power to act
and to choose how we will respond to an offensive or hurtful situation. . . .
As described by
Elder Neal A. Maxwell, the Church is not “a well-provisioned rest home for the
already perfected” (“A Brother Offended,” Ensign, May 1982, 38). Rather,
the Church is a learning laboratory and a workshop in which we gain experience
as we practice on each other in the ongoing process of “perfecting the Saints.”
. . .
Understanding that
the Church is a learning laboratory helps us to prepare for an inevitable
reality. In some way and at some time, someone in this Church will do or say
something that could be considered offensive. Such an event will surely happen
to each and every one of us—and it certainly will occur more than once. Though
people may not intend to injure or offend us, they nonetheless can be
inconsiderate and tactless. . . .
One of the
greatest indicators of our own spiritual maturity is revealed in how we respond
to the weaknesses, the inexperience, and the potentially offensive actions of
others. A thing, an event, or an expression may be offensive, but you and I can
choose not to be offended—and to say with Pahoran, “it mattereth not.”
Do our efforts to live up to the covenants we have made put
them in the forefront when we are faced with trials and tribulations—physical,
emotional, mental, or spiritual? Do we link our obedience to those covenants to
our ability to call upon Priesthood Power and the Atonement to help us
withstand these fiery darts? It’s a good question and one that I shall be introspectively
pondering before we meet together on the 21st August.
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