Val's Email Sunday School: Murder, Mayhem, and Miracles

Before we begin email Sunday school this week, I’d like to tell you a story about childhood Val, and a lesson she gave for Family Home Evening. She selected her favorite scripture story to teach her family.  She painstakingly drew pictures to illustrate the lesson. When the time came to present her lesson she proudly displayed her picture of King Lamoni, whose crown was studded with Velcro jewels from her Little Miss Magic Jewels doll and a separate, hand-drawn picture of bloody, severed arms on a silver platter. Fast forward to today and you, my lucky audience, get to be privy to my favorite scripture story, the tale of Ammon defending the flocks of the King against the Lamanites. So brace yourself for a delightful lesson. Although on the surface this may seem to be just a violent story, I'm going to filter this story through the lens of my perspective and show you why, to me, it's full of humor, amazing power, and unshakable faith, with a splash of blood and gore for good measure. 

Little Miss Magic Jewels

We'll begin in Alma 17, when Ammon is going to the land of Ishmael to teach the people there about God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Ammon enters the land he's immediately captured and tied up, because that's what the Lamanites did to all the Nephites that they found in their lands. They would take the Nephites to their king, and the king would decide if he wanted to kill them, lock them up, or let them stay in the land. Ammon is carried before King Lamoni, and the king asks him if he wants to live in the land among his people.

Ammon says that he does want to live there for a time, in fact, he said he might want to live there "perhaps until the day I die." The scriptures don't expound on what Ammon said or how he said it, but whatever he said, his delivery was on point. He was so charismatic and so likable that not only did the king untie him, he wanted Ammon to marry one of his daughters. Ammon had some crazy good people skills. Ammon manages to turn down the King's offer to marry his daughter without offending him, and offers to work for him instead. He says, "Nay, but I will be thy servant."

And thus Ammon begins to work for the King, the most powerful guy in this part of the land. One of his very first assignments was to go out with the other servants to watch the flocks of Lamoni. He'd only been working for the king for three days at this point. He's out with the other servants, watching the sheep at the watering hole and another group of Lamanites "scattered the flocks of Ammon and the servants of the king. . . " The flocks of the King "fled many ways." The servants of the king start to freak out and say, "Now the king will slay us, as he has our brethren because their flocks were scattered by the wickedness of these men." The servants freak out even more because losing the king's sheep will be a death sentence for them.  "And they began to weep exceedingly, saying: Behold, our flocks are scattered already."

Ammon, looked at the situation with a broad lens and saw how he could use a horrible situation to his advantage. He was so crafty that, when he saw their terror, "his heart was swollen within him with joy; for, said he, I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is in me, in restoring these flocks unto the king, that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words." He recognizes an opportunity in their desperation. He plans to not only restore the flocks of the king single-handedly, but to do it with the clear intent to show them the power of God, manifest through him, so that when he tells them about God, and the power of God, and Christ, they'll have reason to believe him. "And now, these were the thoughts of Ammon, when he saw the afflictions of those whom he termed to be his brethren."

The servants are freaking out because the flocks are already scattered and they're going to die because of it and they know it. Meanwhile, Ammon says, "My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the place of water; and thus we will preserve the flocks unto the king and he will not slay us." He persuaded them to work towards a goal. Ammon was so good at human psychology that he was able to calm and convince a group of nearly hysterical people who were destined to die to work towards a productive goal instead of giving up. 

"And it came to pass that they went in search of the flocks, and they did follow Ammon, and they rushed forth with much swiftness and did head the flocks of the king, and did gather them together again to the place of water." The bad guys came back and were waiting to scatter the flocks again, "but Ammon said unto his brethren: Encircle the flocks round about that they flee not; and I go and contend with these men who do scatter our flocks." Ammon had so much faith that he believed that he could not only confront this group of robbers alone, but that he would be successful doing it. "Therefore, they did as Ammon commanded them, and he went forth and stood to contend with those who stood by the waters of Sebus; and they were in number not a few." Even this part makes me laugh. Ammon goes to defend the flocks and servants against these bad guys alone. He is outnumbered. They don't even try to say how many guys there were. There were not a few. So in my head, there were a lot. 

The servants had to be terrified still. They weren't warriors. They couldn't fight their way out of this, and here's this crazy Nephite who's like, "Hey guys, just watch the sheep. I got this." And he goes marching off to confront the guys who just scattered the king's sheep, guys who were were intending to steal the king's animals knowing full well that the servants would be killed for losing them. These bad guys didn't care. They'd done it before and they'd do it again. "Therefore they did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands; neither did they know anything concerning the Lord; therefore they delighted in the destruction of their brethren; and for this cause they stood to scatter the flocks of the king." 

This verse tells us about how the Lord had promised King Mosiah that his sons would be safe. Ammon believed that the Lord would protect him when he was doing the Lord's will, and he believed it to the extent that he was willing to confront this gang of murderers who were more than happy to try to kill him in order to not only protect the lives of the servants of the Lamanite king, but to provide them with evidence to believe the words he said after he triumphed. Ammon expected to succeed. He fully expected the Lord to support him in his righteous efforts and his actions reflected that. 

"But Ammon stood forth and began to cast stones at them with his sling; yea, with mighty power he did sling stones amongst them; and thus he slew a certain number of them insomuch that they began to be astonished at his power; nevertheless they were angry because of the slain of their brethren, and they were determined that he should fall; therefore, seeing that they could not hit him with their stones, they came forth with clubs to slay him." Ammon starts attacking this gang of robbers with stones and a sling to try to get them to leave. He's a warrior, taking on the enemy despite being outnumbered and having no one to back him up. He starts killing the bad guys because they won't back off, and they're really getting mad because he's killing members of their group and they can't get him. They get so mad they decide to charge him with clubs, intending to kill him. Guess what Ammon does? You'll never guess!

Ammon literally chops off the arms of every guy who lifts his club to kill him. He didn't even try to fight them. He unequivocally removed their ability to fight or kill him. Admittedly, this is a bit gory. But it's so cool. Ammon is such a beast warrior that no one can even attack him. How strong would you have to be to fight off a band of bad guys, literally chopping off their arms while they're all simultaneously attacking you and trying to kill you? He's defeating the bad guys right and left "for he did withstand their blows by smiting their arms with the edge of his sword, insomuch that they began to be astonished, and began to flee before him; yea, and they were not few in number; and he caused them to flee by the strength of his arm." So here we see again that the number of bad guys was not few. They keep telling us how many bad guys are and how Ammon contends with all of them at once like he's got superhuman strength. The story says that six of them fell by the sling, but he only killed the leader with his sword, and he only chopped off the arms of those who tried to kill him. The story stresses at least three times that "they were not a few."

Ammon drives the bad guys off, and he returns like everything is normal "and they watered their flocks and returned them to the pasture of the king . . " But the story doesn't end there. It gets better! The servants watched what Ammon did and they know that no one is going to believe what happened. So they go to the king "bearing the arms which had been smitten off by the sword of Ammon, of those who sought to slay him; and they were carried in unto the king for a testimony of the things which they had done." The servants gather up the arms and take them in to prove what happened. It's funny! Can you imagine how gross that would be? But they did it because otherwise no one would believe what had happened. King Lamoni wants to know why the heck all his servants are bringing severed arms in. 

    "And when they had all testified to the things which they had seen, and he had learned of the faithfulness of Ammon in preserving his flocks, and also of his great power in contending against those who sought to slay him, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Surely, this is more than a man. Behold, is not this the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments upon this people, because of their murders? And they answered the king, and said: Whether he be the Great Spirit or a man, we know not; but this much we do know, that he cannot be slain by the enemies of the king; neither can they scatter the king’s flocks when he is with us, because of his expertness and great strength; therefore, we know that he is a friend to the king. And now, O king, we do not believe that a man has such great power, for we know he cannot be slain.

    And now, when the king heard these words, he said unto them: Now I know that it is the Great Spirit; and he has come down at this time to preserve your lives, that I might not slay you as I did your brethren. Now this is the Great Spirit of whom our fathers have spoken . . . Lamoni began to fear exceedingly, with fear lest he had done wrong in slaying his servants; For he had slain many of them because their brethren had scattered their flocks at the place of water; and thus, because they had had their flocks scattered they were slain. . . And it came to pass that king Lamoni inquired of his servants, saying: Where is this man that has such great power?"

The servants tell the king that Ammon is feeding his horses. The king had told the servants that they were supposed to prepare his chariots and horses and also water the flocks. He's shocked to hear that Alma is still just working on carrying out his assignments and he says, "Surely there has not been any servant among all my servants that has been so faithful as this man; for even he doth remember all my commandments to execute them. Now I surely know that this is the Great Spirit, and I would desire him that he come in unto me, but I durst not." This is so funny too! The king is freaking out because he thinks Ammon must be a God, not only because of the power he had to defend his servants and the flocks, but because he's following the king's instructions and orders perfectly, despite what happened earlier in the day. The King of the whole land wants to talk to Ammon, his servant, but he doesn't dare ask him to come!

So Ammon does all of his chores, and gets the horses ready, and finally he goes "in unto the king, and he saw that the countenance of the king was changed; therefore he was about to return out of his presence." When he goes in he sees that something is up, so he discreetly intends to slip away for now. But, "one of the king’s servants said unto him . . . the king desireth thee to stay." So, Ammon goes up to the king and asks, "What wilt thou that I should do for thee, O king?" And it says that the king "answered him not for the space of an hour . . . for he knew not what he should say unto him." This is funny too! The king is so flabbergasted by everything, that he can't figure out what to say to Ammon for an entire hour! I don't know if it was really an hour, but I really like to think that it was.

So Ammon tries again, "What desirest thou of me? But the king answered him not." This is where the story gets really funny. Ammon is either really dense, or he's been up to some crazy stuff. Cuz it's only after this hour of silence that the Spirit of God helps it dawn on Ammon what this might be about. And Ammon "perceived the thoughts of the king. And he said unto him: Is it because thou hast heard that I defended thy servants and thy flocks, and slew seven of their brethren with the sling and with the sword, and smote off the arms of others, in order to defend thy flocks and thy servants; behold, is it this that causeth thy marvelings?" Ammon's like, oh, maybe this is about the fact that I single-handedly defended the servants and the flocks, killed seven people with rocks and a sword, and chopped off a bunch of arms. That's probably what this is about. It took Ammon an hour to figure that out! What else had he been up to that day? What else could it have been about?!! So Ammon continues:

"I say unto you, what is it, that thy marvelings are so great? Behold, I am a man, and am thy servant; therefore, whatsoever thou desirest which is right, that will I do. Now when the king had heard these words, he marveled again, for he beheld that Ammon could discern his thoughts but notwithstanding this, king Lamoni did open his mouth, and said unto him: Who art thou? Art thou that Great Spirit, who knows all things? Ammon answered and said unto him: I am not. And the king said: How knowest thou the thoughts of my heart? Thou mayest speak boldly, and tell me concerning these things; and also tell me by what power ye slew and smote off the arms of my brethren that scattered my flocks— And now, if thou wilt tell me concerning these things, whatsoever thou desirest I will give unto thee; and if it were needed, I would guard thee with my armies; but I know that thou art more powerful than all they; nevertheless, whatsoever thou desirest of me I will grant it unto thee."

Ammon was hoping something like this would happen. So he says, "Wilt thou hearken unto my words, if I tell thee by what power I do these things? And this is the thing that I desire of thee." And the king says he'll believe him, so Ammon gets the missionary opportunity he was hoping for all along. I envision this story happening in a great hall, with the king sitting on a throne, and down the steps from the throne is Ammon, looking up at the king. There's probably a few officials around, plus servants trying to listen in. Because come on, what person who heard about what had happened wouldn't be trying to listen in on this conversation? Ammon then proceeds to give a magnificent sermon about the Gospel of Jesus Christ: 

"24 And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God?

25 And he answered, and said unto him: I do not know what that meaneth.

26 And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit?

27 And he said, Yea.

28 And Ammon said: This is God. And Ammon said unto him again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God, created all things which are in heaven and in the earth?

29 And he said: Yea, I believe that he created all things which are in the earth; but I do not know the heavens.

30 And Ammon said unto him: The heavens is a place where God dwells and all his holy angels.

31 And king Lamoni said: Is it above the earth?

32 And Ammon said: Yea, and he looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart; for by his hand were they all created from the beginning.

33 And king Lamoni said: I believe all these things which thou hast spoken. Art thou sent from God?

34 Ammon said unto him: I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God, and I am called by his Holy Spirit to teach these things unto this people, that they may be brought to a knowledge of that which is just and true;

35 And a portion of that Spirit dwelleth in me, which giveth me knowledge, and also power according to my faith and desires which are in God.

36 Now when Ammon had said these words, he began at the creation of the world, and also the creation of Adam, and told him all the things concerning the fall of man, and rehearsed and laid before him the records and the holy scriptures of the people, which had been spoken by the prophets, even down to the time that their father, Lehi, left Jerusalem.

37 And he also rehearsed unto them (for it was unto the king and to his servants) all the journeyings of their fathers in the wilderness, and all their sufferings with hunger and thirst, and their travail, and so forth.

38 And he also rehearsed unto them concerning the rebellions of Laman and Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael, yea, all their rebellions did he relate unto them; and he expounded unto them all the records and scriptures from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem down to the present time.

39 But this is not all; for he expounded unto them the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world; and he also made known unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and all the works of the Lord did he make known unto them.

40 And it came to pass that after he had said all these things, and expounded them to the king, that the king believed all his words."

There's so much I love about this story. I can't even write it all here. The story doesn't end here, but this is my very favorite part about it. I hope that I helped you look at this story from the scriptures in a new light and see how a story that appears to be quite violent is also an inspiring tale of unshakeable faith, miracles, and humor. 

Come Follow Me June 22-28

#Comefollowme