Desolation for Some, Rescue for Others - Book of Alma, Chapter Sixteen (Alma 16)

You can read the entire chapter at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/16?lang=eng.

Desolation can come upon us when we least expect it. The people of Ammonihah discover this. After scornfully attacking Alma and Amulek, running the believers in Christ out of the city, and brutally killing their wives and children, they reap the pain and misery they have sowed. An army of Lamanites suddenly appears and destroys the city and its people within a single day (verses 1-3). Ironically, these were the same people that mocked Alma and Amulek mercilessly for warning them of the danger brought on by their own wickedness (Alma 9:4). Ammonihah becomes known as a place, like Sodom and Gomorrah or Babylon, that becomes totally desolate, largely because of the terrible sights and smells of the bodies left in moldering heaps from the sudden destruction (verses 9-11).

There’s a back story explaining why the Lamanites showed up where and when they did. Several chapters later in the account of Alma (abridged by Mormon), we learn that some Lamanites accepted the truth of the gospel and were attacked by their fellow Lamanites who were enraged at what they saw as a betrayal (Alma 25). They were even more enraged because the believing Lamanites would not fight, and they felt very guilty after killing more than a thousand of them. So they went searching for Nephites on whom to take out their anger.

The rest of the chapter has a theme of search and rescue. First, in a physical sense, and then in a more spiritual way that has more eternal benefits.

When the Lamanites tear through Ammonihah and the surrounding lands, they take an unspecified number of Nephites captive. The Nephite commander Zoram is determined to get them back to safety. Having heard that Alma is a prophet, Zoram and his two sons approach Alma in an appeal to know where they might find their brethren (verses 3-5).

There’s an enormous amount of faith involved in the search and rescue effort—first with Zoram and his sons trusting the Lord’s servant, and then with that servant (Alma) approaching the Lord on their behalf. Alma is able to share a pretty exact location with Zoram and his sons. And they follow through in their exercise of faith by acting on the information they receive (verses 6-7).

I wonder if we can even begin to appreciate what this passage can mean in our lives. It seems as though the Lord, by sharing this story with us through his prophet-historians, is telling us that we can seek His guidance to anticipate challenges and overcome them in our lives. The application is limitless. Maybe we won’t get immediate answers that allow us to head off difficulties in the way that we’d always like, but we can always gain greater perspective about how to bear up with those trials until we’re able to find a way (with God’s help) to address or move past them.

You won’t be surprised to learn that because Zoram and the Nephites know where the Lamanites are taking their captive brethren, they successfully confront the Lamanites and put them to flight (verse 8). Perhaps the Lamanites retreated because they were so astonished to have the Nephites anticipate their moves—we don’t know for sure.

What Mormon (our narrator) does tell us is that the Nephites have three years of peace until the next war (verse 12). That may not seem like a lot, but it gives Alma and Amulek time to strengthen the people spiritually. This second search and rescue mission is to help the Nephites repent. Mormon says that Alma, Amulek and the priests they called to work with them went anywhere they could get an audience because their message is so important. They preach against sin in any form and talk of the coming mortal life, sufferings, death and Resurrection of the Son of God, who can save the people from sin and will bring to pass the resurrection of everyone (verses 13-15).

As a result, the Lord pours out His Spirit on the people of the land to prepare their minds and hearts to receive the word taught at Christ’s coming with joy, that they “might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction,” but “that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God.” The people learn from their priests that Christ will appear to the Nephites at some point after His Resurrection (verses 16-20).

We might not have hordes of armed invaders storm our neighborhoods tomorrow and take our neighbors prisoner, but this chapter reminds us that other unwelcome surprises—cruel treatment or deception in life, or some other misfortune or tragedy—may come upon us unawares. How do we respond? How do we claw for and reclaim what is ours or the well-being of others? Zoram’s response of going to a source of unimpeachable truth (the prophet Alma) and exercising faith in its guidance is a shining example and welcome contrast to the unwillingness of the people of Ammonihah to hearken unto that very same source. Their complete desolation provides us with a strong cautionary tale.