Come Follow Me LDS- Alma 17-22 Part 1, Book of Mormon
Jun 23, 2020
'Slings, Clubs & Swords"
- Ammon was raised, taught and trained as a prince
- The dispersing of the flocks at the Waters of Sebus as a ritual game
- Was Ammon being made a sacrifice for the beginning of the festival?
- The Great Spirit as God. Do Jews, Muslims and Christians worship the same God?
- Abish seizes the opportunity to convert the Lamanites
- Ammon was raised, taught and trained as a prince
- The dispersing of the flocks at the Waters of Sebus as a ritual game
- Was Ammon being made a sacrifice for the beginning of the festival?
- The Great Spirit as God. Do Jews, Muslims and Christians worship the same God?
- Abish seizes the opportunity to convert the Lamanites
We often read the story of Ammon at the Waters of Sebus as a matter of fact event. However, when we look closer, we find a different event.
Ammon is first offered King Lamoni's daughter for marriage. He refuses (Ammon is a prince and the son of King Mosiah). 3 days later he is sent with others to water the king's flocks. King Lamoni already knows that this is an impossible task and that the servants that have previously been sent for this task have been killed. Why does Lamoni send Ammon on this task then? Why are there no troops that are sent with them to protect the servants and the flock? Why is Lamoni so stunned that Ammon returns against all odds?
When the servants return to tell Lamoni what has happened, we find Ammon out feeding the horses. Horses in the Book of Mormon are never ridden. They only for ceremony. They are used to pull a chariot for the feast that Lamoni will immediately be attending.
Also, after Lamoni falls to the ground full of the Spirit, the same Lamanites that survived Ammon's sling and sword are there at the palace with no fear of the King, Queen or soldiers. Odd!
However, the clue of the festival can bring all of this together. Once Ammon refused the hand of Lamoni's daughter, he was likely sent on an errand as a sacrifice. This may have been done every year at this time. Sacrifices are common anciently at some of these festivals. The altercation at the Waters of Sebus seems to be a ritual game of sacrifice just before the king is to go off to the annual festival.
Raw Transcript
all right
this episode we cover slings clubs
and swords here we go
all right then in this come follow me
episode we are covering alma
chapters 17 to 22.
here we're going to back up in time
remember we've been following the
chronology here the timeline
of alma and if you recall going back to
the time of
king messiah the grandson as he gives up
the throne to alma as the new
chief judge and we usher in the
reign of the judges then in that first
year
is when we see nehor
well about this time while that's all
going on here
the sons of mosiah who were with
alma when he saw the angel
decide that they are going to go to
preach to the lamanites remember they
had
abdicated the throne which is why we
have the reign of the judges
and after a short time they decide
they're going to go preach to the
lamanites
so what we have here is going back about
14 years as we go over this and we'll
we'll set the stage here a little more
as we start off here in chapter 17.
but just keep that in mind we've come up
here now to we're going to end up at the
14th year of the reign of judges
where alma meets the sons of mosiah
as they're traveling back to zarahemla
and then we begin with the stories
primarily of ammon and aaron
going back to the first year of the
reign of the judges
so here we start in verse one it says
and now it came to pass that his alma
was journeying
from the land of gideon southward away
to the land of manti
behold to his astonishment he met with
the sons of mosiah journeying toward the
land of zarahemla so again
14 years they've been apart now these
sons of mosiah were
with alma at the time the angel first
appeared
remember the angel appeared a second
time
to alma outside of ammoniah
telling him to go back and preach to the
people there
the same angel and he learns that they
had a sound
understanding of the gospel and that
they had searched the scriptures
diligently that they might know the word
of god again this is a major theme for
mormon here isn't it interesting that
that's
it's so plain right that that to stay
strong
to strengthen your testimony and to
understand the things of the world the
things of the cosmos to understand your
value your purpose
your place in the world you need to
understand truths
and those spiritual truths are found in
the scriptures
and so mormon brings this up several
times
making an emphasis in these stories on
searching the scriptures or the word of
god
that's one reason i love the come follow
me program it has
seemed to energize the members of the
church
many of them in terms of searching the
scriptures more diligently
and hopefully this podcast adds a little
bit to that
and he adds in here again this is
something that
mormon focuses on he says but that is
not all they had given themselves to
much prayer
and fasting so those are the three major
things right
that we need to remember who we are to
learn of the character of god to learn
of the truths
of the eternities and to build our
relationship with the lord
and they are searching the scriptures
praying and
fasting i wish we had more of a focus
especially on the third of all those i
would say that prayer
is is the initiator of that cycle of
doing all those things constantly
at least in my experience but what we
seem not to focus much on
unfortunately is that fasting side of
things there's so much
new science behind
fasting and understanding of what this
does for us
physically which in turn being that
our bodies our temples creates a better
environment for our spirit
fasting is like well it's not just
as we might commonly think that it's
some kind of a way to
sacrifice and to
therefore go through a a difficult
period of time
a little bit of suffering so to speak so
that we can invite the spirit and
that's maybe part of it but i think
there's much much more to it
i need to do a podcast on this because
all of the science behind
fasting now that we have and and that
area is just exploding right now
in new knowledge points to
our bodies changing during
an extended fast especially
to providing a better environment for
our spirits for clearer thinking
for being more pure and perhaps a little
less
temporal and a little more spiritual
so here we have down in verse 8 and thus
they departed into the wilderness going
back
to the first year now they've alma met
them
on their way to zarahemla in year 14 of
the reign of the judges
now mormon's taken us back to the first
year of the reign of the judges
and thus they departed into the
wilderness with their numbers which they
had selected so it's not just the sons
of mosiah
right they have an entourage so to speak
that's going out here with them
to go up to the land of nephi and to
preach the word
of god under the laments remember mormon
is
continually talking about this word
going out there i'm doing
a specific episode this week on the
podcast
about the word to help us understand
more what mormon is doing with the book
of alma
and again in verse 9 it came to pass
that they journeyed many days in the
wilderness
and they fasted much and prayed much
that the lord would grant unto them a
portion of his spirit
to go with them and then we learned
something here that that's important to
understand
they recognize the difference even
though their
own culture and their own people
are full of problems right there's
negativity that's there there are
conflicts there are
difficulties within the nephite nation
as they're leaving out here we've got
nehor happening and then
four years later we have amlacide amicai
and that whole uprising there are major
internal problems
and yet there is within their culture
at least a remainder of
the doctrine of christ of family
of hard work right and there's a
difference between that
and what the lamanites are used to right
they have a different
culture and not all cultures are the
same all cultures may have beauty
certainly
and there's so much that can be learned
from all of the different cultures in
the world there's a lot of beauty
in the different cultures of the world
but that does not mean
that there are not differences in those
cultures
that you could say or you could say one
is better than the other
and what would be better well what would
be better is a culture that
the closer you get to that doctrine of
christ
and to the principles of the gospel we
could determine
the greatness of a culture i believe
based on that
and of course based on what comes out of
it and if the sins of mosiah don't
recognize that
right then they don't have as much of an
urgency as much of a need to go to the
lamanites and pull them out of this
culture that they're in there is a
difference
in cultures he says that they wanted to
be an instrument in the hands of god to
bring
if it were possible their brother in the
lamanites to the knowledge of the truth
to the knowledge of the baseness of the
traditions of their fathers okay he's
he's hitting it square in the middle of
the eyes here the business of the
traditions of their fathers
so that's what they're going to go with
as they go out there they're going to
tell them
about the problems that they see in
their culture
because of what because of their
behavior because of their sinning
we're more and more in a time today
where
we don't want to talk like that right
we're afraid to talk that way
because of tolerant and of course the
idea
again of being inclusive is the right
thing
and in some ways we need to be much much
more inclusive
but that doesn't mean that you you put
your head in the sand
on issues of sin or things that pull you
away
from the doctrine of christ so bro
so to bring them to the knowledge of the
baseness of the traditions of their
fathers
which were not correct and then it's an
interesting thing here we skip this
sometimes i think
in understanding what the sons of mosiah
they're being prepped right they know
what they are going into here
here's what the lord says to them in
verse 11 go forth among the lamanites so
they
they feel this it's a calling to them
right it is a calling they know they've
got the lord on their side
to go among the lamanites thy brethren
and establish my
word yet ye shall be patient in
long-suffering and
afflictions this is what you're walking
into
that ye may show forth good examples
unto them in me
and i will make an instrument of thee in
my hands unto the salvation of many
souls again
understanding that these are eternal
truths and that the same stories happen
over and over again in different places
and in different times
this to me is the same type of thing we
would have heard
in the council in heaven right
be prepared i have a calling for you i
am calling you to go to earth
i am calling you to go through adversity
and ye shall be patient in
long-suffering and afflictions
that ye may show forth good examples
unto them and me and to those around us
here in mortality now of course we've
come through a veil
so we don't know exactly what was told
to us but we should understand
through the restored gospel
that each of us has a calling and a
purpose here on earth
not just to get a body not just to go
through
the sufferings and adversity and trials
but
to accomplish certain things to come out
at the end
with success success spiritually at
least
so the sons of messiah disperse
they go to different places they
they knew that the work was very
difficult that they're about to
undertake right
it's going to be very very hard and in
verse 14 and assuredly it was great for
they had undertaken to preach
the word of god to a wild
and hardened and ferocious people so
mormon wants us to understand that this
is the difference
right this is why it is that much more
difficult these are these are
lamanites that hated the nephites there
was
there was a great vitriol
among their culture for the nephites and
we get more and more this narrative of
well we're only hearing one side of the
story right the nephites
and that's true and it's good to
understand that i think
and understand that this is just their
perspective just like people talk about
nephi and then lehman and lemme
we're just getting nephi's perspective
but remember that these are narratives
from prophets
and they're trying to get specific
lessons across to us
so we don't want to water things down we
want to understand the nuances
we want to understand authorship and and
where the authors are coming from but we
don't want to lose the importance of the
message
by discounting what
the prophets are trying to teach us
through the scriptures
a lot of time
and prayer and fasting and
long-suffering and patience went into
writing
this abridgement by mormon and getting
it engraven upon the plates
he's very specific knowing the time
that this takes as to what is going to
be told to us
it says that the people here the
lamanites delighted in murder murdering
the nephites and robbing and plundering
them
and their hearts were set upon riches
and upon gold and silver
and precious stones yet they sought to
obtain these things by murdering
and plundering that they might not labor
for them
with their own hands it's a different
there's a different ethic here
between the two nations right
so they were an indolent people lazy
people
many of whom did worship idols it's very
one of the very few
references we have to worshiping idols
in the book of mormon
and the curse of god had fallen upon
them because of the traditions of their
fathers so this is
a theology a belief system and a culture
that we are talking about so
chief among the sons of mosiah is ammon
and he blesses them administers unto
them
and imparts the word of god unto them
mormon is specific about
going to each level of how that word
gets dispersed
and he goes to the land of ishmael which
is called after
ishmael who the sons of lehi went back
to get
in the old world and remember he's
likely an ephraimite
but you can imagine that just like the
nephites probably did
the lamanites split up the land
to different tribes and here's where the
ishmaelites dwelt
so ammon comes into the land of ishmael
the people there take him bind him and
take him before the king
lamoni and king lamoni asks him do you
desire to stay here
to dwell among us and ammon says yes i
want to dwell here perhaps for the rest
of my life
so this encourages king lamoni and in
fact he ends up
asking ammon if he should take would be
willing to take one of his daughters to
wife
how can that happen so quickly he meets
him and says hey
here's one of my daughters he seemed
like a good guy how would that happen
i mean this is a nephite that they hate
one thing we forget i think in this
story we think about
missionaries going out and we do use the
certain the term sons of messiah
but remember who they are remember what
their background is
and this is important throughout this
story here to understand who ammon is
ammon is a prince which means he is
highly educated highly trained
highly civilized and lamoni is likely
going to know this
he's going to find out who he is this is
the son
of the king mosiah okay now he just gave
up his throne but
this is the son of king mosiah king
lamoni is going to know very very well
who king mosiah is so offering his
daughter to a
prince someone of royal
blood and background is really not that
much of a stretch
but ammon decides this is not a good
idea so he says no
but instead i want to be your servant
so this might have really disappointed
king limhi
or lamoni we're not told exactly what
happens here
um but he might not be real happy and he
might have just said okay fine you want
to be a servant
great and he might have already been
thinking about what he's going to do
here
with ammon so ammon becomes his servant
he lowers himself below the king
and just after three days of being in
his service
he sent out with other servants to watch
the flocks
of king lamoni and then we get a very
interesting scenario here
that that at first glance doesn't make a
whole lot of sense
ammon and the servants come to the place
of water called cebus
and they're watering the flocks and here
a group of lamanites come upon them
and we get with the dialogue here and
understanding that this is something
that happens
many times over where the servants who
are watching the flock
get attacked by other lamanites
and when these flocks are scattered and
lost
then the servants come back and the king
puts them to death king lamoni puts them
to death
so we can look at a couple of different
scenarios here
king king lamoni thinks that ammon is
going to be more successful than others
but that's not his reaction when ammon
comes back
the other option which seems a little
more likely to me is that
ammon is being sacrificed here this is
perhaps to some degree as hewnibly would
say this is kind of a game
a traditional game of war
that might be played among different
factions within the people of lamoni
maybe there is a rivalry faction here
to lamoni and they have maybe claims on
this land
that might be lords so to speak if you
think of a feudal system
so the servants that are with ammon are
frightened
right there they know that the
scattering of these
these flocks which has now happened by
these other lamanites
is a death sentence for them and they
figure
i would guess that they already know
this right they already know that this
is what has happened over and over again
they're being put in his pawns in this
little game of chess
this is what we get in verse 28 now the
servants of the king began to murmur
saying now the king will slay us as he
has our brethren
because their flocks were scattered by
the wickedness of these men again
the king already knows this why aren't
there large armies going out or a large
number of troops that are covering for
those that are watching over the flocks
there's some kind of ritualistic game
happening here it appears
so when ammon sees that they're weeping
and that they're fearful for their lives
he takes courage he's happy about this
now why would that be think of the
scenario that he's in
he is greatly outnumbered by the number
of laymanites that are here spread
dispersing the flocks why is this an
opportunity for him
well let's go back and remember who he
is
this is a prince why does that matter
because
he would have been trained in every way
possible in the ways of war and and
combat
he would have from a very young age been
taught how to use a sling
how to use a sword and every other
weapon he would have been very
proficient at this remember these are
he likely would have been in war
in battle he'd already been battle
tested maybe many times
and he would have been traded the train
to the very highest level remember
his their grandfather ammon's
grandfather king benjamin
led the armies right he went out and he
led the armies
alma as someone who is of high birth
seems very very well trained as well
remember he goes out and he
battles against the amla sites the
amakites
and he ends up killing amicai who's a
very big man
and almost is able to kill the king of
the lamanites
so so these are people that are very
highly
trained in combat ammon would have been
like that
so he is very confident in what he's
going to do
so in 31 and it came to pass that he
flattered the other servants by his
words and tells him to be of good cheer
and he tells him to go off and gather
the flocks while he takes care of these
other guys
so this is kind of a it's kind of a
david and goliath type of scenario
right david's very confident even though
he has to go up against this great
warrior
this giant now ammon may not be going up
against a giant but he's going up
against a group he's
well well outnumbered and he's
outnumbered by
a group of men these lamanites that
delight in the destruction of their
brethren
and for this cause they stood to scatter
the flocks of the king right they wanted
to go out
get the get the flocks but they they
delighted in in having these
servants killed but then in 36
just like david ammon stood forth and
began to cast
stones at them with his sling
so a lot of times we think well how how
you know
most of us aren't familiar with slings
slings are a
deadly weapon they've been known to have
a range of up to about
1300 feet right that's over four
football fields
if you're close enough they're very
deadly the question is
is do you have accuracy with them you
have to have accuracy
and again ammon as a prince is likely
highly trained with a sling so he slays
many of them with his sling
and as they are casting stones at him
probably with slings as well they can't
hit him
so they come after him with their clubs
it is interesting they don't have swords
here
maybe that's part of the game i don't
know but they come after him with clubs
and the thing about a club is right is
you know it doesn't do you any good
to extend forward with them like you
would a sword
you have to the only way that these are
good is if you're going to reach back
to your side or above you right
to be able to hit with the club well as
they come
forth like this ammon
a skilled swordsman as they're swinging
at him
he allows them to swing at him but then
he
cuts off their arms with his sword while
they're open and vulnerable
reaching back with their club he absorbs
the blow that way
right because it's not a deadly blow if
he can cut their arm off in the act
so he's killed six of these individuals
with a sling
he doesn't kill any of the others with
his sword he just cuts off their arms
except for their leader so this is very
very disruptive
so everyone that raises the club to
attack ammon he cuts off their arm
finally they disperse and they go away
and ammon comes back and they collect
all of these arms
and bring them back with them by the way
this was done oftentimes anciently where
a warrior
would collect the hands maybe the right
hand
of each of the soldiers that they killed
and bring them back to show their valor
in
battle to the king in egypt
in the air of the hixos there was an
archaeological find
of 16 right hands buried in four boxes
in front of the palace so this is a
common thing
so in 39 it says and when he had driven
them afar off he returned and they
watered their flocks
and returned them to the pastor of the
king and then went in unto the king
bearing the arms which had been smitten
off by the sword of ammon
of those who sought to slay him and they
were carried in unto the king for a
testimony of the things which they had
done
okay so they don't have cell phones
they're not taking pictures to show
they need something to show what has
happened here
but here's the thing right they get back
the servants come back
they present the arms and and the story
of what has happened to king lamoni
and you'd think that king lamoni again
reading this superficially
would just be ecstatic he's not
he's not ecstatic about this in fact he
seems disturbed
says here in verse 2 and chapter 18 he
was astonished
exceedingly and said surely this is more
than a man
behold is not this the great spirit who
doth send great
punish such great punishments upon the
people because
of their murders so again he's
astonished at all of this he's not
excited it could very well be
again just just guessing here that ammon
was sent as a sacrifice
and what the king expected to happen
didn't happen
so he's astonished by this and certainly
nobody else has been able to do this
now we get the introduction here of the
idea of the great spirit
a couple things i want you to pay
attention to as we go through this
number one you should know
that as we go through alma 18 here
mormon mentions the great spirit eight
times
right so leading up to the great
theological
discourse here the the the theological
engagement the preaching of the gospel
by ammon to king lamoni
the great spirit is mentioned eight
times and then in that discussion
two more times so ten times told and
every time it's mentioned
we're given it in capital letters the g
and this
the s great spirit why is this
capitalized
and i think there's a very important
point to understand i i don't know
enough hebrew and egyptian but but i'm
fairly certain there are no capital
letters
in in either of these languages so as
this is being written in egyptian
or reformed egyptian from mormon which
would be a different egyptian than what
nephi was writing in
right about a thousand years apart so
why do we have these capitalized here
from joseph smith and his scribes
i think that's pretty interesting as
joseph smith is looking at
the urim and thummim or the stone
whatever he's looking at here and that
comes up
is he seeing this capitalized and if not
why do they decide to capitalize it i
have my own ideas on this by the way
we're going to get to that as we go down
this chapter a little bit further
so mormon is introducing the whole idea
of the great spirit here
several times he's wondering if ammon
is the great spirit and he says well
where is he
and the servants say well he's out
getting your horses ready right now
horses we rarely hear mention of horses
there's no writing of horses in the book
of mormon
we don't even hear them being used for
anything except for this which is what a
ceremony so they are ceremonial animals
for the lamanites and probably the
nephites
right they're going to carry him in a
chariot they're going to pull him
but they're not going to ride the horses
we don't see that in warfare
we don't see that in travel they're on
foot the horses for them
are ceremonial animals so when he finds
out that
he is out still serving him he says well
this must be the great spirit
and so if we read this carefully we can
see what mormon is doing for us here
right he's teaching us a lesson about
a relational covenant right he
how how we preach the gospel to those
that don't have our same beliefs
he's setting this whole sermon up this
whole discussion from ammon up
by mentioning over and over again this
great spirit
and and and the theology and culture
behind this for the lamanites and to
further set the stage here in verse 5 it
says
now this was the tradition of lamoni
which he had received from his father
that there was a great spirit who is
this great spirit
notwithstanding they believed in a great
spirit they supposed that whatsoever
they did was
right nevertheless not like no judgment
right
nevertheless lamoni began to fear
exceedingly
with fear lest he had done wrong in
slaying his servants so this was
a new ritual that he had started to go
through here right
in other words it again i think it was a
setup
i think it's it's some kind of a game
some kind of a ritual killing it's
ritual sacrifice
and we're told here in verse 6 that he
had slayed many of them again
this would have been the great
expectation of sending ammon out there
so lamoni asks where is he where is
ammon they say he's getting his horses
ready getting ready for the great
feast right we're back to feasts again
here
what feast would this be this is
probably a form some kind of a form
of a new year feast similar to the feast
of trumpets and the feast
of tabernacles something going on here
might the sacrifice at the waters of
cebus even been a part of this
a step of a some type of a sacrifice
before
this feast was carried out good question
i think
so king lamoni says now i know this must
surely be the great spirit
so this is something that has happened
against all odds
so one of his servants goes to get ammon
and bring him back into the
in to see the king and ammon says to
king lamoni
what will thou that i should do for thee
o king so he's still in this position of
being a servant to him and the king is
astonished and apparently can't speak
for about an hour according to their
time
so finally the king says who art thou
art thou the great spirit who knows all
things
and ammon says unto him i am not he says
well tell me by what
power you slew my brethren
and protected the flocks and he says
whatever you desire
i will give it unto you and i'll even
protect you with my armies
but ammon says will you listen to what i
have to say
that's all he asks of him wilt thou
hearken
unto my words if i
tell thee by what power i do these
things and then we get the start of this
theological discussion here it's kind of
a missionary lesson
right one of the discussions he starts
off by saying believeth thou that there
is a god.
and lamoni says well i don't know what
you mean by that
right think of the different names of
god in different religions
so he's using his term god
maybe l in hebrew or
jehovah or adonai
the lord but that's not the same name
that the lamanites use for the great
spirit
so ammon then follows that up to kind of
bring these ideas
together here he says believeth thou
that there is a great
spirit and that's easy for for lamoni to
answer he says yay yes
and ammon said this is god
so what has just happened here ammon is
using
lamoni's vocabulary and understanding
he's using relational covenant here
right
to preach the gospel to a different
people
so even though they're not going to
believe the same thing they're not going
to believe that
this is jesus christ they're not going
to understand likely that this has
anything to do with
someone who's going to come to earth and
take on the sins of the world
they're not going to have all the
understanding of of all the scriptures
and
and the brass plates and the tradition
of all the place that they've been
writing
since the time of lehi he doesn't come
back to kingdom
one and say well you don't know what who
god is this great spirit who is that
he does the exact opposite and i think
that's a really good lesson for us to
understand
do the jews and the muslims and the
christians
all believe in the same god according to
what mormon is doing here
with what ammon says i would say yes
now you may completely disagree with
that but the example at least here
is exactly that he says the great spirit
is god
i did an episode on this a while back
that you ought to take a look at if you
have further questions on this
but i think it's a really good lesson
for us to understand as we
reach out to others outside of our own
faith
even within christianity we're told
sometimes
as latter-day saints that we don't
believe in the same god that other
christians believe in which is kind of
frustrating right
and yet we do believe in dif different
characteristics
of of the father and of the son we don't
believe in the trinity
so do we not believe in the same god
would you say that you don't believe in
the same god that
most of credo christianity believes in
you would believe that there are
different characteristics
more than likely but you'd likely say
just i'm guessing here but you would
likely say that yes we believe in the
same god we believe in the jesus of the
bible
so so we get it on our end as well
so ammon follows up with king lamoni
about the creation here we go right back
to the creation again
ammon alma and mormon overall
love going back to the creation story
and you can imagine that there's
probably before the abridgement here by
mormon
a lot more about ammon
teaching king lamoni about the creation
in the garden of eden
for them this is the first discussion he
says believest thou that this great
spirit who is god
created all things which are in heaven
and in earth
then he explains what the heavens is
where god dwells very basic
fund foundational things with the gospel
and king lamoni says art thou sent from
god
and evan says i'm a man but then he
brings this up something we've heard
several times here in the book of mormon
and man in the beginning was created
after the image of god so of course that
also comes from genesis from the
from the garden of eden story and a
clear understanding of that
lets you know that we are sons and
daughters of god
right that he has a direct interest in
our lives we have a purpose
we have a destiny if we choose it we're
told here again in 36 and
now when ammon had said these words he
began at the creation of the world
why don't we focus more on that why
don't we go in and
understand clearly and maybe it's
because we we seem to have lost so much
of this
in the genesis story but why don't we go
in and really study these things and
understand more about the creation story
and understand more about the garden of
eden story because those are
foundational truths to the gospel
why are we given in certain places
sacred places
the story of the creation and the garden
of eden
over and over and over again do we
really understand these stories
we're certainly given the opportunity to
understand them
but do we draw on them enough ammon goes
right to it here
with king lamoni he says he also talked
to him about the creation of adam
and told him all the things concerning
the fall of man
and rehearsed and laid before him the
records and the holy scripture so he's
got copies of these things
which had been spoken by the prophets
even down to the time that their father
lehi
left jerusalem so this is copies of the
brass plates
and then he goes over the story of lehi
and nephi and all of the
records of the lehites the nephites from
that time that the
lamanites do not have and then he goes
back and he hits that culture
issue right the the theology and the
culture
and the traditions of their fathers
it's a hard thing to get across
right are you not going to be triggered
by hearing this
but it's crucial to understand it
because it's the culture
it's the traditions that are keeping
them down
and keeping them from the truth so he
rehearses unto them concerned concerning
the rebellions of layman and lemuel
and the sons of ishmael right so they're
direct fathers
all the rebellions did he relate unto
them and he expounded unto them all the
records and scriptures from the time
that lehi left jerusalem
down to the present time and then he
goes into the plan of redemption
into jesus christ and king lamoni
believes all of it
and down in verse 41 and he began to cry
unto the lord this is
lamoni saying o lord have mercy
according to thy abundant mercy which
thou hast had upon the people of nephi
have upon me and my people all right now
this is huge
think about this for a moment because
this is not just about the gospel
this is about different peoples coming
together
this is not easy again relational
covenant
amongst people requires two sides
it's not just for example the rich
helping out the poor it won't that never
works
by itself it just doesn't you have to
have both you have to have a reach out
from both sides
first the rich have to recognize that
the poor exist
and that there is something that can be
done to help them and then they have to
reach out
to them but you can't just for example
give money
to the poor and say okay this is all
solved
it doesn't work it's an issue of
charity that is love right and and
works and change
but on the other side the poor whether
they be poor in spirit whether they are
poor economically
whether poor in culture whatever it
might be
they have to reach out also and this is
kind of astonishing here right listen to
what he says he says
have mercy upon me like the mercy that
thou hast had upon the people of nephi
okay this is a group of people that hate
the nephites
so there is a massive turn in his heart
and he's acknowledging see think of how
hard this is right this is swallowing a
bitter pill
from their end that the nephites are
blessed
because they have the gospel at least
those that follow the gospel
so that relational covenant has got to
come from both sides
so when king lamoni says this he falls
to the earth as if he was dead
now this is what ammon was hoping for
right he says something interesting here
in chapter 19 verse 6
now this was what ammon desired for he
knew that the key that king lamoni was
under the power of god
he knew that the dark veil
right think of how the term dark here is
used
the dark veil of unbelief that's the
curse
was being cast away from his mind
so ammon goes in to see the king
where his wife and his children had been
mourning him for
the last couple of days and tells the
queen he's going to rise tomorrow
and he says do you believe this now
remember that ammon has already seen
something like this with his compadre
alma the younger right with the when the
angel came
he knows exactly what this is
so the next day lamoni does rise he
reaches out for his wife's hand
and says behold i have seen my redeemer
and he shall come forth and be born of a
woman he just goes right into what he
has seen
is this doctrine of Christ and he shall
redeem
all mankind who believe on his name now
when he had said these words his heart
was swollen within him and he sunk again
with joy
and the queen also sunk down being
overpowered by the spirit so then ammon
is overjoyed
he falls to the earth many of the
servants
that are with him in fact all of the
serpents except for one
that around them all fall to the earth
they're all overwhelmed
except for one laminitish woman named
abish and interestingly enough we
learned later that abish
knew about the gospel she already knew
about it so there are people within
the nation of the lamanites
that have the gospel that's an
interesting thing to know
and how did that happen we learned it
was because of a remarkable vision of
her
father and Abish does a remarkable thing
here
knowing that this is the power of god
that has overwhelmed everybody
she looked at this as an opportunity
right you can think of her not being
able to say much
even though she's converted to the
gospel
but now this is an opportunity to do
missionary work
and that this could be a great event to
let people know
about the gospel and so she goes about
from house to house throughout the land
trying to tell everybody about this and
so a great multitude gathers
and comes to king lamoni to the queen
to ammon and the servants that are all
laying on the ground
and we get an interesting point here
from
Mormon some that are in this multitude
are the men that were
at the waters of Sebus that were spared
by ammon
but may have lost their arms and others
who were there with them
they're there they're not afraid to be
around the king
says here in verse 21 and they were also
rebuked by those men who had stood at
the waters of cebus
and scattered the flocks which belonged
to the king so why are they not afraid
to be there again there's some kind of a
rivalry ritual here going on
it seems to me and one of them who lost
his brother
to in combat to ammon goes forth and
draws his sword
and is about to kill ammon who lays
defenseless there
and he's about to smite him and he falls
dead we get this in in
verse 23. now we see that ammon could
not be slain for the lord had said unto
mosiah
and the lord cannot lie his father
i will spare him and it shall be unto
him according to thy faith
therefore Mosiah trusted him unto the
lord
so Abish is getting very concerned here
because there starts to be a great
contention
some thinking that ammon is the great
spirit or that he was sent by the great
spirit some thinking that he is
evil and a nephite and so
abuse goes to the queen and grabs her
hand
and immediately the queen awakes and
rises
we're told here in verse 29 she arose
and stood upon her feet and cried with a
loud voice saying
o blessed Jesus o blessed
savior who have saved me from an awful
hell
oh blessed god have mercy on this people
so she has gone through a similar
experience
that her husband did so she goes forth
she
grabs the hand of her husband king
lamoni he immediately arises
and they began to what to teach them the
words which he had heard from the mouth
of
ammon and as many as heard his words
believed and were converted unto the
lord
but there were many among them who would
not hear his words
therefore they went their way and so
there were many in verse 35 that did
believe in their words
and as many as did believe were baptized
and they became a righteous people
and they did establish a church among
them
and thus the work of the lord did
commence among the Lamanites
thus the lord did begin to pour out his
spirit
upon them and we see that his arm is
extended
to all people who will repent and
believe on his name
so here we have another example of an
individual
in the scriptures that changes something
for
numerous people the faith of one man
brings about the conversion of many to
the gospel
and against all odds right going to
a people where he knows that he is hated
and that have a different tradition a
different culture
a different theology he doesn't go in
with a sword
and try to conquer and to force people
to learn about jesus christ he goes in
as a servant and condescends below the
king
and becomes an instrument a humble
instrument
in the hands of the lord i'll talk to
you next time
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