Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam Alma 5-7

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam!

These chapters are the great preaching of Alma! We get to compare and contrast what he does with Zarahemla and Gideon.


A Little Background


Zarahemla is the capital city of the Nephite nation. Large cities naturally are places of trade, administration, and society, and as such it is easy to get distracted with everything happening there and less on the spiritual side of life. Alma 5 is the famous chapter filled with soul-searching questions. It looks like Alma is reminding them that amid the bustle of the city, to search their souls.

Gideon, and the valley of Gideon, was certainly named after the Gideon who resisted Noah, counseled Limhi, and was killed in cold blood by Nehor. He was obviously highly respected. The city of Gideon was again almost certainly composed of people who not only knew these events, but lived through them. Alma takes a different tack. It seems as though he is teaching them the greater things.


Zarahemla: the take-aways


- Remember. Alma starts out by asking the people to remember the captivity of their fathers. Lehi and Moroni emphasize this idea of remembrance as well. Remember is a word that goes with gratitude and mercy. One of the most important places to start in our lives is from a place of gratitude

- A mighty change of heart. This next part is so fascinating! Alma goes back to Abinadai, and his fathers experience. He asks the question - who can be saved? Remember that when Peter asked this question, Jesus said 'with God, all things are possible'.
Here is the uncomfortable truth - we need something greater than ourselves if we want to be saved.
So how does it happen? 'according to his faith there was a might change wrought in his heart... and put their trust in the true and living God.' 
To understand this you need to understand what happened in King Noah's court with abinadai. I wrote about this here.
Alma asks if you received His image in your countenance. Abinadai was literally shining. This is not purely metaphorical for Alma.

- Give up your pride. Most of the the chapter rounds its way back to this.

Gideon: the take-aways


 - an insight and warning to avoid the state of zarahemla. Alma comes over and literally tells them he hopes they are not as bad as Zarahemla. Here we get some great insights into what worried alma about the church there.
 - He was afraid first of all of their pride
-  He feared their riches lifted them up. Where are your hearts set? that is what he was afraid of.
-  worship the true and living God. I suspect that Alma did not mean actual idols, I suspect that this was a follow up on the heart comment. He saw an idol as anything your heart was set on that was not the true and living God.
Emphasis on living God again. Remember that this is where Abinadai and the priests clashed, first and last. and it was against the law as a God, vs God as God. This is my suspicion
- a hope of His coming. Alma begins to recite to them of things that would happen as a part of Jesus' mission, His life and death. Notice how Alma indicates that they have faith and hope in these events, so he shares what the spirit has told him concerning these things.
- Repent. About half the chapter comes back to this in some way. Even though Alma indicates quite openly that these people are on the right track, repentance is still a part of his message. This may seem strange to some, but to true disciples, this is simply logical. Repentance is not just how we get on the way. Repentance IS the way.

Meme time







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