Alma 52

The Nephites held a war council to see how they could coax the Lamanites out of their stongholds to battle them on equal grounds. Here is the first idea that came out of that war council (I find it rather comical):

20 And it came to pass they sent embassies to the army of the Lamanites, which protected the city of Mulek, to their leader, whose name was Jacob, desiring him that he would come out with his armies to meet them upon the plains between the two cities. But behold, Jacob, who was a Zoramite, would not come out with his army to meet them upon the plains.

Haha! They marched up to the enemy base and tried asking them politely to come out and battle against them! Hey, you never know, right? Ask and ye shall receive? Ya, not so much here. Nice try though.

I think a powerful principle suggested by the events in this chapter is that although we as the little band of Christians, the Church, will never have majority in numbers against the vast hosts of the enemy, if we will diligently prepare, faithfully execute every command of God, and council together concerning how we will conduct ourselves in this war for the souls of men, then God will be with us and He can make us smarter than our enemy, and He can win us the victory through stratagem.

Moroni and his men diligently prepared for the war by arming themselves and defending their bodies with armor and shields and helmets and fortifying their strongholds and cities. They, overall, with many stumblings and failures, were faithful to God. They counseled together as depicted in this chapter and executed their plans accordingly and that is ultimately how they won this war.

May I do the same. May we do so as a family. May we prepare diligently, live faithfully, and counsel together often so that we can properly conduct the war here in our sphere of influence.

Moroni offered to spare the lives of his enemies if they would surrender. Many did. I wonder if among these were some who had previously attacked the Nephites and who had on that occasion also surrendered, and even made an oath that they would not come to battle against the Nephites again. The covenantmaker-covenantbreaker class of Lamanites. I would characterize this class of Lamanites, if indeed they did exist, and I think they did, as go-with-the-flow-ers, those who did not have the courage to defy the consensus when it went against moral convictions they had, even covenants they had made. This class of people fears being singled out, belittled, punished, or even killed for their morals and standards. This class of people fears man more than they fear God.

I am afraid that perhaps I all too often fall within this class of people. Even recently I have noticed this character flaw in myself. May God strengthen me in this weakness, and help me to become a man who stands for principles and who will not be moved.

Alma 52.