Alma 26-28

Alma 26

This is my favorite verse from this chapter, spoken by Ammon who is praising the Lord for the miracle among the Lamanites he and his brethren have been a part of:

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things;

This is true for all of us. By ourselves, we are incredibly limited and weak. But with the Lord’s help we can do anything He desires for us to accomplish. The key is being humble and forfeiting our personal desires for what the Lord wants.

Alma 27

Remember the angry Lamanites who first attacked the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, and then felt bad and went to war against the Nephites instead? Well, they have lost the battle with the Nephites and have started attacking the defenseless Anti-Nephi-Lehies again. At this point Ammon begs the king of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to go to the Nephities to seek protection. The king isn’t keen on this idea because he remembers all the plunder and murder his own people committed against the Nephites before they converted, and he doesn’t think the Nephites will accept them. But Ammon inquires of the Lord what they should do, and they are commanded to go to the Nephites to ask for help.

The Nephites are touched by the conversion and sacrifice of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies who have buried their weapons of war, and they give them a whole city—Jershon—and agree to protect them with the Nephite armies if they will contribute with finances and supplies. From here on out, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies are called the People of Ammon (another name change). I just love the people of Ammon, and I’m inspired by their faith, conviction, and goodness. I believe the Lord watches over and rewards people like this, and we will see examples of his blessings in later chapters.

27 And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end.

 28 And they did look upon shedding the blood of their brethren with the greatest abhorrence; and they never could be prevailed upon to take up arms against their brethren; and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it.

 30 And thus they were a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord.

Alma 28

The Lamanites come to attack the people of Ammon, and the Nephites protect them for the first time in a big, ugly battle. The Nephites win, but many Nephites are killed and tons of Lamanites are killed. The book of Alma has a big chunk of chapters later on that are known as the “war chapters” but we will take a break from war for awhile now and read about some more preaching and missionary efforts of Alma and Amulek.

Alma 24-25

Alma 24

This is one of the most powerful stories of sacrifice and humility I know. I have always felt very tender, and even reverent, about this chapter.

The Lamanites, Amulonites, and Amalekites who were not converted to the Lord get all riled up against the Lamanite converts. They feel betrayed by them because they converted to the same faith as the Nephites. So the angry Lamanites prepare to go to war against their converted brethren.

But the Lamanite converts—now called the Anti-Nephi-Lehies—refuse to fight their brethren. They won’t even prepare for war. Their king gives a speech to all the Anti-Nephi-Lehies expressing gratitude for their new life and new faith, and he helps us understand why his people refuse to fight in battle now:

10 And I also thank my God…that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son.

 12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.

15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.

 16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.

This isn’t just talk. After the king’s speech, the people literally do what he had suggested—they dig a giant pit and bury all their former weapons of war to demonstrate to God that they refuse to go back to their old, murderous ways now that they have repented, even if it costs them their lives.

 18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands.

 19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin;

The Anti-Nephi-Lehies are true to their commitment, because the Lamanites do come to war against them, and they really refuse to fight, even if death is the consequence. I am deeply touched by the faith and perspective of these new converts, and by the effect their faith has on others who were initially angry enough to kill them. These words deserve to be taken straight from the book:

21 Now when the [Anti-Nephi-Lehies] saw that [the Lamanites] were coming against them they went out to meet them, and prostrated themselves before them to the earth, and began to call on the name of the Lord; and thus they were in this attitude when the Lamanites began to fall upon them, and began to slay them with the sword.

 22 And thus without meeting any resistance, they did slay a thousand and five of them; and we know that they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God.

 23 Now when the Lamanites saw that their brethren would not flee from the sword, neither would they turn aside to the right hand or to the left, but that they would lie down and perish, and praised God even in the very act of perishing under the sword—

 24 Now when the Lamanites saw this they did forbear from slaying them; and there were many whose hearts had swollen in them for those of their brethren who had fallen under the sword, for they repented of the things which they had done.

 25 And it came to pass that they threw down their weapons of war, and they would not take them again, for they were stung for the murders which they had committed; and they came down even as their brethren, relying upon the mercies of those whose arms were lifted to slay them.

 26 And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were righteous people, therefore we have no reason to doubt but what they were saved.

Alma 25

The angry Lamanites decide to stop attacking the converted Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s, and take out their anger on the Nephites instead. They first attack the city of Ammonihah, and wipe out the entire city before the Nephite army can gather to fight back (This was the wicked city that burned all the believing women and children with their scriptures, if you remember— it was wiped out in Alma 16:9. We back-tracked through time to learn about Ammon and Aaron’s missionary efforts with the Lamanites, and now we are catching up to the time period we read about with Alma and Amulek).

After the Nephites win the war, the Lamanites begin to turn against their Amulonite leaders who have been influencing them to hate the Nephites and they start hunting them down to kill them, which was actually prophesied by the prophet Abinadi who was burned at the stake by King Noah and his High Priest, Amulon (see Mosiah 17:18). What goes around comes around (especially when a prophet warns you and you do bad stuff anyway)!

After the war ends, most of the Lamanites end up joining the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, and they enter into the same covenant of peace and bury their war weapons, too. Absolutely incredible! The Lord works in mysterious ways.