Moroni marches with a portion of his army to help Pahoran
take back the city of Zarahemla from the rebellion group. And they win, of
course... It’s Moroni against a little rebellion group! They didn’t stand a
chance.
Once Pahoran has regained control of the capital city and
his judgment seat, food and men are finally sent to strengthen the armies of
Helaman, Teancum and Lehi.
Moroni and Pahoran then take their strengthened army and
begin to hit the surrounding cities the Lamanites have captured and take
them all back, one by one. In the city of Nephihah they repel over the walls of
the city in the night, and are all inside the city when the army wakes in the
morning. The Lamanites try to run away but most of them are taken prisoner by
the Nephites. All the prisoners join the people of Ammon and live in peace.
This greatly reduces the army of the Lamanites, and relieves the Nephites of
having to guard or feed prisoners.
They continue to conquer armies of the Lamanites until they
meet up with Lehi and Teancum, and all the Lamanite armies are gathered
together in one place, in the land of Moroni.
During the night, everyone sleeps except Teancum. “He was
exceedingly angry with Ammoron, insomuch that he considered that Ammoron, and
Amalickiah his brother, had been the cause of this great and lasting
war between them and the Lamanites, which had been the cause of so much war and
bloodshed, yea, and so much famine (vs. 35).” So Teancum sneaks over the walls
of the city Moroni, where all the Lamanites have gathered, and silently
searches until he finds Ammoron sleeping. He casts a Javelin in his heart, but
Ammoron wakes his servants before he dies, and they pursue Teancum and kill
him.
37 Now it came to pass that when Lehi and Moroni knew that Teancum was dead they were exceedingly sorrowful; for behold, he had been a man who had fought valiantly for his country, yea, a true friend to liberty; and he had suffered very many exceedingly sore afflictions38 Now it came to pass that Moroni marched forth on the morrow, and came upon the Lamanites, insomuch that they did slay them with a great slaughter; and they did drive them out of the land; and they did flee, even that they did not return at that time against the Nephites.39 And thus ended the thirty and first year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi; and thus they had had wars, and bloodsheds, and famine, and affliction, for the space of many years.
The war is over - after all this time! Moroni retires and his son Moronihah becomes the leader of
the Nephite armies. Pahoran returns to his judgment seat. Helaman returns to
preaching the word of God. The Nephites are humbled and grateful and remember
the blessings of the Lord, and they begin to prosper. Helaman dies of old age.
We learn in this chapter that many of the Nephites build
ships and sail northward to settle a new land. Multiple waves of people leave,
but after the last group leaves, the Nephites never hear from those people
again. They assume they all drowned in the ocean. Mormons believe those people did not actually
drown, but became the first settlers of Polynesia. A significant percentage of Polynesians
are Mormon (in the neighborhood of 30% but don’t quote me on that).
Helaman died in the last chapter, and so his brother has been keeping these records, but now he is about to die so he passes them on to Helaman’s son, whose name is also Helaman. So now as we end the book of Alma, guess what the next book is called… Helaman! We made it! It took me over a year just to get through the Book of Alma. But Alma is the biggest book in the Book of Mormon, and I just know we are going to pick up momentum now and finish the rest of the Book of Mormon in 2015!
