Alma at Ammonihah: Alma’s Address Part 2 - Alma 9

Just a few more comments about Alma chapter 9 before I move on to Alma 10…

Interesting thing 1:  Alma challenges the Ammonihahites apparent poor memory of God six times during the first 14 verses of the chapter, saying “have ye forgotten”, “do ye not remember”, and “how soon ye have forgotten”.  In verse 14 he challenges the Ammonihahites “I would that ye should remember…”.  How important it is to remember our relationship to the Lord.  How important it is to remember His commandments.   How important it is for us to remember the way we feel when we have the Spirit of God in our lives.  Too often we allow the busy-ness of daily living to blur our memory of spiritual living.  Let us keep the Lord ever fresh in our memories, and the spirit of His gospel and His commandments fresh in our minds.

Interesting thing 2:  In the same 14 verses, Alma refers to the commandments of God four times.  Obedience is a measure of faithfulness; indeed, it is a measure of love and commitment to the Lord.  Lack of obedience is a long step towards rebellion and rejection of the Lord in a person’s life.  Willing obedience shows respect and love.  Why is a child willing to be obedient to his parents?  Love; trust; desire to please his beloved mother and father.  I think that Heavenly Father is a pleased parent when we willingly obey His commandments.

Interesting thing 3:  Alma pulls no punches in accusing the Ammonihahites of wickedness.  “Oh ye wicked and perverse generation…”;  “it shall be more tolerable for [the Lamanites] in the day of judgment than for you…”; “if ye persist in your wickedness… your days shall not be prolonged…”; “...he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities…”.  How bad would you have to be to have a prophet of the Lord speak to you with these phrases?  Oh, may we never fall to that depth!

Interesting thing 4:  Alma reminds the people of the many times the Lord had intervened for their benefit and gives twelve different specifics, such as:  “Having been visited by the Spirit of God…”; “having had so much light and...knowledge given unto them”; “having been brought out of bondage…”; “...having been delivered of God…”.  These people had been blessed greatly with a multitude of spiritual blessings.  Have we been given physical and spiritual blessings?  Do we acknowledge them to our Father in Heaven?  I hope that we all may use these blessings to strengthen our faith and to praise and thank God for them.

Interesting thing 5:  As he did in Melek, Alma uses this address to teach the people of Ammonihah of the Savior and His mission.  Unlike the people of Melek, the people reject this testimony and instruction, to their detriment.  How do we respond to being taught of the Savior?  I hope that learning about the Savior helps us to feel closer to Him and makes us appreciate His life, His mission, and His sacrifice.

Interesting thing 6:  Alma tells the people that the Lord sent His angel to warn them so that they would not be destroyed.  This is an instance where a mortal being is referred to as the Lord’s angel.  I believe that when we are on the Lord’s errand, we are His angels, performing His work and ministering to His children.  Let us ever live to be the Lord’s angels.

Alma’s address to the Ammonihahites is one of the most powerful messages of warning I can think of in the scriptures.  May we live so that we will not be on the receiving end of such a message.  May we ever live that the Lord will say to us:  “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:21).

Don

Alma at Ammonihah: Alma's Address, Part 1 - Alma 9

I would be remiss if I didn't comment about my long hiatus from posting on this blog.  My sincere apologies!  I hope my future posts will not be so few and far between.  All I can offer as a flimsy excuse is writer's block, or intimidation, or time constraints, take your pick.  I certainly did not lose my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  For some reason (as I said, pick one above) I delayed my posts...

That said, I will proceed with my comments, continuing with Alma chapter 9.

This chapter contains Alma's address to the people of Ammonihah, a city whose people " ...Satan had gotten great hold upon the hearts of... " (Alma 8:9).  You'll recall that Alma had already been to Ammonihah and had been forcibly removed from the city.  In this chapter Alma delivers a fiery message to the people, and the people responded angrily: "...they began to contend with me, saying:  'Who art thou? Suppose ye that we shall believe the testimony of one man, although he should preach unto us that the earth should pass away?  We will not believe thy words if thou shouldst prophesy that this great city should be destroyed in one day.  Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man among this people, to declare unto them the truth of such great and marvelous things?'" (Alma 9:1,2,4,6).  I would speculate that they had not forgotten Alma’s previous visit.  I can imagine their reaction to be something like “didn’t we throw you out once already?”  I think that Alma’s previous visit must have hit some tender spots with the people of Ammonihah for them to react so strongly.  Have you ever had a rocky relationship with someone and then had a heated discussion with them?  It seems that things past always come out in such a situation, doesn’t it?   Do we hold any grudges?  I would think that a grudge is not something that the Lord would have us nurture.  “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.” (D&C 64:9)

The Ammonihahites, stirred by their anger and undoubtedly by Satan's promptings, tried to take Alma physically.  Alma comments simply that they did not.  I wonder how he avoided being accosted...  Perhaps his next words stopped them short, for Alma asks them:  “... have ye forgotten the tradition of your fathers; yea, how soon ye have forgotten the commandments of God…  Do ye not remember that our father, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God? Do ye not remember that they were all led by him through the wilderness?  And have ye forgotten so soon how many times he delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies…  do ye not remember the words which he spake unto Lehi, saying that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land?” (Alma 9:8, 12-14,18-19,24)

Verse 14 of chapter 9 gives us Alma’s main theme of this part of his address:  “Now I would that ye should remember…”  This is good advice for each of us.  When we are tempted, we should remember the goodness of the Lord in our lives.  I know that each of us has been touched in some way by the Lord’s goodness.  He has blessed me many times, almost too many times to remember, yet if I do remember these times, and remember them vividly, my testimony is bolstered. 

Alma then delivers the message that the Lord sent him back to give.  To the Ammonihahites, it should be taken as a dire warning.  He asks the people if they have forgotten the commandments of God, then proclaims:

“Behold [the Lord] commandeth you to repent; and except ye repent, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God... he has commanded you to repent, or he will utterly destroy you from off the face of the earth; yea, he will visit you in his anger, and in his fierce anger he will not turn away” (Alma 9:12).  Alma reiterates this grave warning and makes it clearly understood:  “if ye persist in your wickedness ... your days shall not be prolonged in the land, for the Lamanites shall be sent upon you… and ye shall be visited with utter destruction; and it shall be according to the fierce anger of the Lord” (Alma 9:18).

Alma reminds the people of the Lord’s promise to father Lehi:  “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land [and] Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord” (Alma 9:13).  Alma then verifies the Lord’s promise “[The] Lamanites have not kept the commandments of God, they have been cut off from the presence of the Lord” (Alma 9:14).

Finally, Alma reiterates the Lord’s warning:  “…he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people … after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto [you] of the Lord … The Lord has expressly… decreed that if ye will rebel against him that ye shall utterly be destroyed from off the face of the earth” (Alma 9:18,24).

This should have been an alarming and sobering warning, coming from the servant of the Lord, the high priest of the Church.  Yet the people of Ammonihah, instead of being alarmed and chagrined, were angered.  In their anger, the people tried to cast him into their prison.  The Lord did not permit them to do this, though. 

There are several things to think about from this chapter.  I firmly believe that the Ammonihahites did not devolve into their wickedness suddenly… it involved a slow slipping away from righteousness, bit by bit, first inattentive to spiritual things, then neglectful, then indifferent and so on until they were fully ripe for destruction.  I hope I never fall away from the church, and especially so far that I would warrant such a serious warning.  But it makes me pause and wonder… what things do we allow in our lives that would draw us away from faithfulness?  We must evaluate our spiritual well-being while we are in the best position to remedy potential problems.  One way to assess our faithfulness is by taking a spiritual inventory of ourselves, coupled with sincere personal prayer on a regular basis. 

May we each strive to be obedient to the commandments our Father has given to us.  May we each partake of his love and approval in our faithfulness.

Don