You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/15?lang=eng.
Life in the world involves some measure of pain and suffering. There’s just no getting around it. We always hope that we can avoid or delay it, but it comes in some form. We have health problems because our bodies break down and will not last forever. Same for our loved ones. Death creates separation between family and dear friends. Unwelcome surprises come in the form of accidents or others’ unfeeling deeds.
The Lord wants us to be part of the solution, which is to never give up amid the trials of life, and to inspire others to keep going as well. Somehow He gives us the strength not only to survive and endure, but to feel joy and peace as we do so. It’s our choice, plain and simple.
So when this huge trauma gets dealt to Alma, Amulek, and the people in Ammonihah who believe their words, they need a place where they can come together and regroup. That place turns out to be the land of Sidom.
Not only have the people been run out of Ammonihah by the unbelieving majority, but Alma and Amulek—whom the Lord commands to go to Sidom after miraculously delivering them from prison—have the hard task of informing them that their wives and children have been burned alive (verses 1-2). They have truly sacrificed for the truth they have embraced. It seems difficult to consider what Alma and Amulek could possibly do to comfort these people aside from telling them the truth, showing they care, and letting time do the rest.
Zeezrom, the lawyer who had first done all he could to entrap Alma and Amulek, before having a complete change of heart and honestly embracing the truth they teach, seems to be literally burning to death from a guilty conscience (verse 3). Nowhere else in scripture do we see such a direct link that someone’s sin may have with their physical health. Jesus makes reference to some kind of link when he asks his detractors (in Luke 5) whether it is easier to forgive sins or tell someone to rise up and walk. But here we see it uniquely on display, and it is a perfect opportunity to show how the Lord’s mercy can heal all the effects of sin—be they spiritual, emotional, or physical.
Apparently Zeezrom thinks Alma and Amulek had perished because of his initial efforts to rouse the rabble against them. This is at the core of his anxiety and the fever that is scorching him. When he hears that Alma and Amulek have survived and made it to Sidom, his “heart begins to take courage,” and he urgently sends for them to come to his side, which they do (verses 4-5).
He asks them to heal him. Alma explains that it can be done if Zeezrom has faith in the power of Christ unto salvation (verses 5-9). So just as the affliction melded the physical and spiritual, we witness the same is true for the cure. In order to be relieved of the fever, Zeezrom needs to understand that Christ’s merciful power, as mighty as it is in banishing disease and affliction from our bodies, extends well beyond that to provide the momentum we need to overcome sin and other weaknesses and find our way to eternal salvation.
Zeezrom is healed instantly and dramatically, literally leaping to his feet (verses 10-11). The account spreads quickly among the people in Sidom. Once Zeezrom is baptized, he becomes a teacher of the gospel. Presumably he draws upon his own story to help him convince others that God’s power is real and sufficient in their lives. Alma finds many others willing to engage in the work of gathering disciples of Christ and establishes a church among the refugees from Ammonihah in Sidom (verses 12-13).
Our narrator Mormon then describes the developing spiritual situation among the people in this area. It is basically divided among two groups. The people in Sidom, as well as others who “flock in from all the region round about,” accept that they need the gospel of Jesus Christ (verse 14). If they humbly repent, and watch and pray continually, they can be “delivered from Satan, and from death, and from destruction.” Mormon says that Alma can see that these people are “checked as to the pride of the hearts” (verse 17). What an important thing, to check ourselves in this way!
The second group, though, the people in Ammonihah are not willing to check the pride of their hearts in the same way. In their stubbornness, they continue to reject the need for repentance that Alma and Amulek had preached to them (verse 15). For inspiration, they look to the false prophet Nehor (whom Alma had executed for murder in Alma 1), even though Nehor himself admitted that what he taught was against the word of God. Pride both blinds and paralyzes.
The chapter ends on an emotionally wrenching and touching note. Amulek has now been cast out of his hometown (Ammonihah). Mormon tells us that his relatives and friends, including his own father, have rejected him for his embrace of God’s truth. We know he has left his worldly possessions behind (verse 16). It is possible (though we don’t know for sure) that his wife and children were victims of a fiery death. He, very much like Job, has been left bereft of everything he once had other than his integrity and his faith.
Alma then gets the chance to return the favor that Amulek once offered him by taking him in when he had no one else to turn to in Ammonihah. It had been Amulek and his family whose kindness and care nursed Alma back to full strength so that they could boldly proclaim God’s message together (Alma 8). Now Amulek is the one in need. Alma takes him back to his home in Zarahemla, “and did administer unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord” (verse 18) This episode reminds us that sometimes we need helping, and sometimes we are in a position to give help. Hopefully we can be ready to both give and receive at the right time.
Also see this clip for an account of Zeezrom’s healing and baptism.
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