You can read the entire chapter here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/24?lang=eng
Have you ever been in or witnessed a situation where someone makes a big life change that helps them become a whole lot happier, but the people around the changed person aren’t willing to make changes in their own lives? Instead, they choose to feel even more miserable because they envy the new light in the changed person’s life, yet are unwilling to take the same steps to invite that light into their own lives.
Something like that is happening among the Lamanites. Many of them accept the doctrine of Christ that Ammon and his companions teach, and thus leave behind the Lamanite moniker, and now go by the name “Anti-Nephi-Lehi” (as discussed earlier). But the Amalekites and Amulonites don’t. In fact, they push back harder. Descended from priests of Noah, these people are the most hard-bitten opponents of truth, partly because they come from families that once embraced the gospel and later rejected it. Instead of evaluating the message of Ammon on its merits, they are opting for full rebellion. Rather than taking the priceless gift of eternal peace and joy being freely offered to them, they are fixated on the opportunity to seize the fleeting, temporal authority their king holds (verses 1-2).
It is at this time when Lamoni’s father—king over all the land—hands power to another son, who also goes by the name Anti-Nephi-Lehi (probably a title to signify that the king and his people are inseparable). Shortly after that, the father dies. Lamoni remains king of his people, while Anti-Nephi-Lehi rules the rest. With the Amalekite/Amulonite rebels intent on war, Anti-Nephi-Lehi, Lamoni, Ammon, and the other missionaries come together for a council to determine what to do (verses 3-5).
What unfolds is a rarity in the annals of human history. Instead of preparing for self-defense, as basic morality would entitle them to do, these noble disciples of Christ are so focused on staying right before God that they would rather die than risk compromising their eternal standing amid the passions and severe hardships of battle. So they make a decision at the outset NOT to fight those who had been their close brothers and sisters for generations (verse 6).
Anti-Nephi-Lehi, in addressing his people, eloquently declares, “for perhaps, if we should stain our swords again they can no more be washed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins…. 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” (verses 7-16).
Many people even today would call this madness. But in the context of what is happening here, it seems clear that the people are not mad at all, but rather have attained a clarity of mind and heart that few others ever have. They recognize what is eternal and what is not, and are choosing their priorities accordingly. Mormon, in his narration, refers to their decision as a covenant—they vow to give up their lives rather than take someone else’s. Very appropriately, Mormon appears to make an unintentional reference to the weapons being buried as “weapons of peace,” before correcting himself to say that the people are burying their weapons of war for peace. I think that his initial “weapons of peace” formulation may get closer to the truth of the situation (verses 17-19).
The idea that seems particularly easy for us to consider applying in our lives is that of the people burying their weapons “deep in the earth.” We all have something in our life—maybe it’s a habit, an association, a physical object, or some combination of these—that we know deep down is probably best for us to avoid because it prods our vulnerabilities in an unhealthy way. If we make a determination to bury that thing deep in the earth (distance ourselves from it completely), we basically acknowledge that nothing on this earth is worth keeping near us if it is an obstacle between us and the Lord or the truth He shares about how to stay close to Him and learn of His ways.
Now what follows is tough even for us—far removed in time and distance from the scene—to contemplate. By making their choice to swear off violence, the former Lamanites now known as the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi open themselves up to real flesh-and-blood consequences from the savage actions of the hard-hearted. The images presented to us are poignant and heart-rending: these are true martyrs literally prostrated in prayer right when the other Lamanites fall upon them with their swords (verses 20-21).
What happens is at once a tragedy and a miracle. While we might think that the tragedy comes from the loss of more than a thousand innocent people—yes, it is horrifying—consider that once their physical suffering ends, Mormon informs us that “we have no reason to doubt but what they were saved.” In a spiritual sense, the bigger tragedy is the guilt that the killers bring upon themselves for attacking these faithful, defenseless people (verse 22).
The miracle is what happens to more than a thousand of the Lamanites after they have massacred their own people. The whole spectacle, where they strike down innocents who at the moment of death call upon their God, both swells the Lamanites’ hearts with emotion, and stings them with the pain of realizing their great sin. But the true center of this story is that even with such a terrible thing occurring, all is not lost. As Mormon tells us that these Lamanite fighters throw down their weapons of war and repent of what they have done, we begin to make out God’s purpose amid the carnage. The Atonement of Jesus Christ can wash away the blackest of human deeds (verses 13, 23-27).
What the martyrs accomplish here is not just for show. It is truly their way of doing missionary work. The only preaching that can convert the hard-hearted Lamanites is for these people to fall meekly and righteously like lambs, thus showing the killers God’s truth and its eternal power and consequences. That, not angry defiance or contention, is the utterly bold and brave gesture that comes to save more than are slain on this day. And because of the great change that takes place in so many hearts, many other unarmed Anti-Nephi-Lehies manage to survive.
But even with the miracle, there is free will. Not all of the Lamanites are miraculously transformed by these events. Many, particularly those whose families formerly had embraced the gospel of Christ, remain unmoved. They will continue to beleaguer and torment those who choose goodness from here on out (verses 28-30).
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