Summary of Events:
Amalekiah is a cunning, lying, treacherous snake—and he is
good at it! Remember how he escaped from Moroni? Well, he runs to the Lamanites,
as expected, and succeeds in “stirring up the Lamanites to anger against the
people of Nephi” and the king declares war against the Nephites again. However,
most of the Lamanites
remember how the Nephites beat them in the last war (plus they made a covenant not to go to war against the Nephites again) and they are scared to death, so they band together and refuse to go to war
against the Nephites. Of course this angers the king, and he puts Amalekiah in
charge of the part of the army that IS willing to go to war and sends them off
to force the rebels to fight.
Amalekiah leads the army back to the capitol city to see
the king, who thinks Amalekiah has fulfilled his orders. After the triumphal
entry of the army, Amalekiah’s guards bow before the king, and as the king
puts forward his hand to raise them up, they stab him to the heart. Dead.
The king’s guards are freaked out, and flee, and Amalekiah and his guards raise
a cry that the servants of the king have killed him. They convince
everyone—including the queen—because the servants appear guilty because they
fled. And before you know it, Amalekiah is king of all the Lamanites and
even marries the queen.
Spiritual Application:
Biggest lesson of this chapter: beware of slow and subtle
influences that convince you to do things or become someone you never intended. It may seem like Amalekiah accomplished his destructive designs with
whirlwind speed, but that’s because this is a summary! Really he was slow, and
subtle, and intentional. When he first asked Lehonti to come down from his
mountain (spiritual translation: down from the high moral ground where they were
“fixed in their minds with a determined resolution that they would not [do
something they knew was bad] (v. 6))", Lehonti refused. Amalekiah sent a
messenger 3 times, and Lehonti refused. So finally Amalekiah went up just below
Lehonti’s camp and asked him to “just come down a little” (see the spiritual
application there?) and he could even bring his guards with him. And when
Lehonti agreed to “just come down a little” that was the beginning of his
demise. And notice how Amalekiah later killed Lehonti: he had “one of his
servants administer poison by degrees
to Lehonti (v. 18).” Little by little, so subtly that Lehonti didn’t even
recognize he was being poisoned until it was too late. We need to constantly be
on our guard for any influences in our lives that are trying to convince us to
slowly come down from our principles or values. In our current society, these
influences are everywhere. Can you
recognize any in your life?
Summary of Events:
In the previous chapter we heard all about Amalekiah’s
cunning climb to power over the Lamanites, and now he is
not satisfied with being king over just the Lamanites, and he wants to rule
over all the Nephites, too, so he has been stirring up the Lamanites to go to
war against the Nephites.
But in the meantime, over with the Nephites, Captain Moroni has also been at work. "Now it came to pass that while Amalickiah had thus been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God (v 7)." Moroni has been busy preparing his armies. They are building forts and walls around the cities, “and in their weakest fortifications [Moroni] did place the greater number of men.” (v. 9) Moroni is a deeply-good guy—motivated by freedom, and love, and faith.
Spiritual Application:
Chapters 47 and 48 give a stark contrast between good
and evil. Consider all the deception and murder Amalekiah committed to gain his
own selfish designs. And now compare that to Moroni:
11 And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;12 Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.13 Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.
Can you think of any higher praise a person could receive?
Moroni is an incredible hero—physically, intellectually, and spiritually. But
at the same time, the important take-away from these accolades given to Moroni
is that he is not a one-of-a-kind hero whose goodness can never be replicated. Right after these verses above, we
read that, “he was a man like unto Ammon, the son of Mosiah, yea, and even the
other sons of Mosiah, yea, and also Alma and his sons, for they were all men of
God (v.8).” Any of us can choose to be men or women of God that shake the powers of hell.
So I think the greatest value from Alma 47 and 48 comes when we ponder—do I have any tendencies or desires similar to Amalekiah? How about Moroni? How can I become more like Moroni and be on the team that helps to shake the powers of hell?
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