The purpose of this project is to bring you closer to Christ through the Book of Mormon. Our Stake Presidency has challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in its entirety before the end of the year while paying special attention to Christ and His mission in the Plan of Salvation. We will be reading the Book of Mormon from August 1-December 31, and our ward will be focusing on the references to Christ throughout the Book of Mormon. As you read we invite you to mark in Red each reference to the Savior. You will be amazed how often He is mentioned.
It is our hope that you accept this challenge with an open heart and know that as you complete the Book of Mormon, you will have a stronger testimony of the importance of this book and its account and witness of Jesus Christ. Remember that through prayer and study you will be able to obtain a stronger testimony as well as a desire to learn more. We hope you will join us as we feast upon the words of Christ together and grow spiritually through this experience.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sept. 5-11: Jacob 2-Omni
Thanks to all those who have been participating and leaving wonderful comments and thoughts. Keep it up! Please add comments relating to this weeks readings here. Thanks and enjoy!!
By reading between the lines I concluded that Amaleki had a unique life that may not have gone as he planned. This is not so different from many of us. Although he was likely a member of the church with a strong gospel lineage (direct grandson of Lehi and Nephi and thus he inherited the plates) his immediate family life may have been atypical, possibly more difficult than most, and was not the typical story you might expect from a person honored to be a writer of scripture. This is what I read between the lines:
1. First, I think he came from a family without a spiritually strong father. I could be mistaken, reading too much into it, but here is a possibility—His dad, Abinadom, only wrote 2 verses in the Book of Mormon (Omni 1:10-11). In these verses he didn’t speak of Christ. He spent those 2 verses acknowledging that he had killed a lot of Lamanites and that he didn’t know of any continuing revelation or prophecy except that which is already written. I could interpret this to mean that his focus in life is on his work, and warfare, and that he doesn’t listen or have a lively spiritual connection to the living prophet. His son Amaleki refers to their living prophets 2 verses later stating that “they were admonished continually by the word of God”. Where there is a living prophet, there is always prophecy and revelation—Amaleki was aware of it, but Abinadom seemed to be blind to it—he was not aware of the continuing revelation from the prophet in his day. I could be jumping to conclusions about a potentially good man, but for the sake of my epiphany, I am going to assume that Amaleki did not have a father who was strong and spiritually active in the truth. However, this did not prevent Amaleki from having a great testimony and performing the great work of including his testimony in the Book of Mormon.
(Just to advocate for poor Abinadom—it is very possible that a better case scenario would interpret him as a humble man who felt unworthy to try to add to scripture, that he is a man of few words, and one who undertook the noble endeavor in war times to protect his family and country. But for my epiphany, reading between the lines negatively works for me today)
2. Second, Amaleki didn’t have a family, or at least he had no children. When the opportunity to have children is withheld from those who want a family badly, this can be a very difficult trial. In Amaleki’s day, this was a huge cultural and economic difficulty in addition to the natural desires to have family. It is interesting that at the same time as he mentions he has “no seed” he also states that he is getting old. As he is preparing to die he might be especially wishing to be surrounded by family. There are many read-between-the-lines possibilities here: perhaps this “no seed” means he and his wife experienced barrenness, or maybe he was never blessed with a wife, or maybe he was widowed young, or maybe all of his children died in battles. Whatever the case, it sounds to me that his life didn’t go as planned in the avenue of personal family and children and it bothered him enough that he mentioned it when he was engraving plates. However, it didn’t stop him from serving and growing and he bears testimony of Christ just a couple verses later. For those who experience loss or a temporary withholding of desired blessings, the Savior is the key to peace and those who use that key like Amaleki can have an enormous increase in their testimony of that fact.
3. Last, Amaleki had a brother who went off with Zeniff’s group and as far as we know, Amaleki never saw him again. You can almost feel the pain and worry in his words in verse 30. Also, again, I think “why would he bother to bring it up if it isn’t something that is important to him and that has concerned him for countless hours?”. I cannot be sure, but I wonder if Amaleki could have been very alone at times in his life—alone in his faith, alone in his family life. Everyone has alone times, but perhaps he got an extra portion share. However, despite his trials, it appears to me that God remembered him, and gave him the great honor of writing in the Book of Mormon because he remembered his duty to take care of the plates. At the time that may have seemed as small and insignificant task as ‘writing in your journal’ seems to most of us today. But he was faithful in keeping his stewardship of this family record he was given to watch over and as a result, he was honored to write in a book that millions have read.
So in sum, it sounds to me like this fellow Amaleki has had a unique life—maybe he didn’t grow up with a strong gospel family, maybe he didn’t get to have a family of his own, at least no children, and maybe he spent time worrying about family members who left for whatever reason and he wishes he knew how they were. But despite all of this difficulty through his life he developed a bright testimony. So bright that the Lord included his testimony in the Book of Mormon. Amaleki stated in Omni 1:26:
“And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved..”
To me that is the testimony of a man who knew where to turn for salvation and peace. That is a man whose trials and life have given him a beautiful testimony of what Christ’s atonement does for us here and in the next life. He has found in his extremities a source for comfort and hope, a motivation for faith and work. To me he is saying “I know by my own life of hard experience that if you fast and pray, then you are going to be ok in Christ. I know that if you endure, for years, sometimes alone, the Lord is going to be with you and by enduring he will sanctify you so you can be saved.” Although I can’t entirely fill in the blank pages of his life’s experience with detail, the part of his life that mattered the most to me is captured in his testimony—that as he endured to in the end, he trusted in Christ that everything would be alright. By fulfilling his duty and sharing his testimony, despite his trials, he was blessed with the honor of sharing the great truths he had learned in a book that millions would one day read in the Book of Mormon.
If someone asked me “who wrote the Book of Mormon” I would usually answer with names of great prophets like Nephi, Moroni, and Mormon. Well, my biggest epiphany from this week’s section came when I read about a writer in the Book of Mormon named Amaleki. Amale-who? He is surely not the first (or even the 4th or 5th) name that comes to my mind when I think of those who were honored and who sacrificed to write the Book of Mormon. But, there was something that impressed me with the story of Amaleki.
To summarize up front, Amaleki reinformced my testimony in three areas: 1) Difficult family circumstances do not prevent individuals from growing spiritually or serving valiantly; 2) Withheld blessings can be painful, but can strengthen our faith in the Savior; 3) God remembers even the most humble of his children and can use us for great things, if we are willing to share our testimony and work. I know that sounds like a lot of conclusion based on reading just the 20 verses Amaleki wrote (See Omni 1:10-30) and I admit it required a lot of “reading between the lines”. But here is my reasoning:
Good comments. Another general concept that I've been enjoying in the BOM is the fact that some of the authors/prophets are so certain of their prophecies/testimonies that they speak of future events in the past tense. Maybe they write that way since it would make most sense to the readers, us, who would be reading after the events took place, I don't know, but for them it was 600+ years until some of these things were to happen. Still, Nephi says, for instance, "after he [the Savior] was baptized with water the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove." (2 Ne. 31:8). And it's kind of interesting that Nephi here doesn't say beforehand "I saw that..." or whatnot, to preface the statement, he just states it as a futuristic backwards-looking statement as if it already occurred. That speaks to me of incredible certainty in the event to take place. But I realize this type of uncertainty is not unheard of in the Gospel, and in fact the entire plan of Salvation is based, basically, upon an absolute certainty that the Savior could and would perform his mission fully and perfectly - if it wasn't basically absolutely certain that his future mortal life would fulfil all it needed to fulfil, including a sinless life and infinite Atonement, then the plan of Salvation would have been an incredibly risky gamble, hinging the salvation of billions (at least) of Heavenly Father's children on the hopeful good performance of one. But, with the foreknowledge of God the Father, instead of being a gamble it was just a perfect plan that would inevitably be carried out exactly as he foresaw it.
Also for instance in reference to the Savior's baptism Nephi says "know ye not that he was holy?" (2 Ne. 31:7), using "was" instead of "will be" or "is". That verse is also interesting because in it Nephi seems to speak in past tense, present tense, and future tense all in the same verse: "he was holy . . . he humbleth himself before the Father . . . he would be obedient unto him [the Father]," giving the feel of the panoramic end-from-the-beginning and all-things-are-present-before-me view that God himself has. But that's just a randome sidenote. Mostly I just like the concept of the Savior being so predictable and credible and trusted that, and the Father being so all-knowing, that it was as if the Savior's mission was already completed and Nephi could speak of it as if a done deal, not to mention the fact that people were actually forgiven of their sins before the Savior had performed the Atonement and centuries before he was even born. That's analogous to an infinite credit rating.
6 comments:
By reading between the lines I concluded that Amaleki had a unique life that may not have gone as he planned. This is not so different from many of us. Although he was likely a member of the church with a strong gospel lineage (direct grandson of Lehi and Nephi and thus he inherited the plates) his immediate family life may have been atypical, possibly more difficult than most, and was not the typical story you might expect from a person honored to be a writer of scripture. This is what I read between the lines:
1. First, I think he came from a family without a spiritually strong father. I could be mistaken, reading too much into it, but here is a possibility—His dad, Abinadom, only wrote 2 verses in the Book of Mormon (Omni 1:10-11). In these verses he didn’t speak of Christ. He spent those 2 verses acknowledging that he had killed a lot of Lamanites and that he didn’t know of any continuing revelation or prophecy except that which is already written. I could interpret this to mean that his focus in life is on his work, and warfare, and that he doesn’t listen or have a lively spiritual connection to the living prophet. His son Amaleki refers to their living prophets 2 verses later stating that “they were admonished continually by the word of God”. Where there is a living prophet, there is always prophecy and revelation—Amaleki was aware of it, but Abinadom seemed to be blind to it—he was not aware of the continuing revelation from the prophet in his day. I could be jumping to conclusions about a potentially good man, but for the sake of my epiphany, I am going to assume that Amaleki did not have a father who was strong and spiritually active in the truth. However, this did not prevent Amaleki from having a great testimony and performing the great work of including his testimony in the Book of Mormon.
(Just to advocate for poor Abinadom—it is very possible that a better case scenario would interpret him as a humble man who felt unworthy to try to add to scripture, that he is a man of few words, and one who undertook the noble endeavor in war times to protect his family and country. But for my epiphany, reading between the lines negatively works for me today)
2. Second, Amaleki didn’t have a family, or at least he had no children. When the opportunity to have children is withheld from those who want a family badly, this can be a very difficult trial. In Amaleki’s day, this was a huge cultural and economic difficulty in addition to the natural desires to have family. It is interesting that at the same time as he mentions he has “no seed” he also states that he is getting old. As he is preparing to die he might be especially wishing to be surrounded by family. There are many read-between-the-lines possibilities here: perhaps this “no seed” means he and his wife experienced barrenness, or maybe he was never blessed with a wife, or maybe he was widowed young, or maybe all of his children died in battles. Whatever the case, it sounds to me that his life didn’t go as planned in the avenue of personal family and children and it bothered him enough that he mentioned it when he was engraving plates. However, it didn’t stop him from serving and growing and he bears testimony of Christ just a couple verses later. For those who experience loss or a temporary withholding of desired blessings, the Savior is the key to peace and those who use that key like Amaleki can have an enormous increase in their testimony of that fact.
3. Last, Amaleki had a brother who went off with Zeniff’s group and as far as we know, Amaleki never saw him again. You can almost feel the pain and worry in his words in verse 30. Also, again, I think “why would he bother to bring it up if it isn’t something that is important to him and that has concerned him for countless hours?”. I cannot be sure, but I wonder if Amaleki could have been very alone at times in his life—alone in his faith, alone in his family life. Everyone has alone times, but perhaps he got an extra portion share. However, despite his trials, it appears to me that God remembered him, and gave him the great honor of writing in the Book of Mormon because he remembered his duty to take care of the plates. At the time that may have seemed as small and insignificant task as ‘writing in your journal’ seems to most of us today. But he was faithful in keeping his stewardship of this family record he was given to watch over and as a result, he was honored to write in a book that millions have read.
So in sum, it sounds to me like this fellow Amaleki has had a unique life—maybe he didn’t grow up with a strong gospel family, maybe he didn’t get to have a family of his own, at least no children, and maybe he spent time worrying about family members who left for whatever reason and he wishes he knew how they were. But despite all of this difficulty through his life he developed a bright testimony. So bright that the Lord included his testimony in the Book of Mormon. Amaleki stated in Omni 1:26:
“And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved..”
To me that is the testimony of a man who knew where to turn for salvation and peace. That is a man whose trials and life have given him a beautiful testimony of what Christ’s atonement does for us here and in the next life. He has found in his extremities a source for comfort and hope, a motivation for faith and work. To me he is saying “I know by my own life of hard experience that if you fast and pray, then you are going to be ok in Christ. I know that if you endure, for years, sometimes alone, the Lord is going to be with you and by enduring he will sanctify you so you can be saved.” Although I can’t entirely fill in the blank pages of his life’s experience with detail, the part of his life that mattered the most to me is captured in his testimony—that as he endured to in the end, he trusted in Christ that everything would be alright. By fulfilling his duty and sharing his testimony, despite his trials, he was blessed with the honor of sharing the great truths he had learned in a book that millions would one day read in the Book of Mormon.
If someone asked me “who wrote the Book of Mormon” I would usually answer with names of great prophets like Nephi, Moroni, and Mormon. Well, my biggest epiphany from this week’s section came when I read about a writer in the Book of Mormon named Amaleki. Amale-who? He is surely not the first (or even the 4th or 5th) name that comes to my mind when I think of those who were honored and who sacrificed to write the Book of Mormon. But, there was something that impressed me with the story of Amaleki.
To summarize up front, Amaleki reinformced my testimony in three areas: 1) Difficult family circumstances do not prevent individuals from growing spiritually or serving valiantly; 2) Withheld blessings can be painful, but can strengthen our faith in the Savior; 3) God remembers even the most humble of his children and can use us for great things, if we are willing to share our testimony and work. I know that sounds like a lot of conclusion based on reading just the 20 verses Amaleki wrote (See Omni 1:10-30) and I admit it required a lot of “reading between the lines”. But here is my reasoning:
Cheya
Good comments. Another general concept that I've been enjoying in the BOM is the fact that some of the authors/prophets are so certain of their prophecies/testimonies that they speak of future events in the past tense. Maybe they write that way since it would make most sense to the readers, us, who would be reading after the events took place, I don't know, but for them it was 600+ years until some of these things were to happen. Still, Nephi says, for instance, "after he [the Savior] was baptized with water the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove." (2 Ne. 31:8). And it's kind of interesting that Nephi here doesn't say beforehand "I saw that..." or whatnot, to preface the statement, he just states it as a futuristic backwards-looking statement as if it already occurred. That speaks to me of incredible certainty in the event to take place. But I realize this type of uncertainty is not unheard of in the Gospel, and in fact the entire plan of Salvation is based, basically, upon an absolute certainty that the Savior could and would perform his mission fully and perfectly - if it wasn't basically absolutely certain that his future mortal life would fulfil all it needed to fulfil, including a sinless life and infinite Atonement, then the plan of Salvation would have been an incredibly risky gamble, hinging the salvation of billions (at least) of Heavenly Father's children on the hopeful good performance of one. But, with the foreknowledge of God the Father, instead of being a gamble it was just a perfect plan that would inevitably be carried out exactly as he foresaw it.
Also for instance in reference to the Savior's baptism Nephi says "know ye not that he was holy?" (2 Ne. 31:7), using "was" instead of "will be" or "is". That verse is also interesting because in it Nephi seems to speak in past tense, present tense, and future tense all in the same verse: "he was holy . . . he humbleth himself before the Father . . . he would be obedient unto him [the Father]," giving the feel of the panoramic end-from-the-beginning and all-things-are-present-before-me view that God himself has. But that's just a randome sidenote. Mostly I just like the concept of the Savior being so predictable and credible and trusted that, and the Father being so all-knowing, that it was as if the Savior's mission was already completed and Nephi could speak of it as if a done deal, not to mention the fact that people were actually forgiven of their sins before the Savior had performed the Atonement and centuries before he was even born. That's analogous to an infinite credit rating.
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