Alma 36

June 29, 2007 - Original Post

Chiasmus

Below is an excerpt from John W. Welch, "A Masterpiece: Alma 36," in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, ed. J.L. Sorenson and M.J. Thorne, Deseret Book Comp., Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991.

(a) My son, give ear to my WORDS (1)
(b) KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS of God and ye shall PROSPER IN THE LAND (2)
(c) DO AS I HAVE DONE (2)
(d) in REMEMBERING THE CAPTIVITY of our fathers (2);
(e) for they were in BONDAGE (2)
(f) he surely did DELIVER them (2)
(g) TRUST in God (3)
(h) supported in their TRIALS, and TROUBLES, and AFFLICTIONS (3)
(i) shall be lifted up at the LAST DAY (3)
(j) I KNOW this not of myself but of GOD (4)
(k) BORN OF GOD (5)
(l) I sought to destroy the church of God (6-9)
(m) MY LIMBS were paralyzed (10)
(n) Fear of being in the PRESENCE OF GOD (14-15)
(o) PAINS of a damned soul (16)
(p) HARROWED UP BY THE MEMORY OF SINS (17)
(q) I remembered JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD (17)
(q') I cried, JESUS, SON OF GOD (18)
(p') HARROWED UP BY THE MEMORY OF SINS no more (19)
(o') Joy as exceeding as was the PAIN (20)
(n') Long to be in the PRESENCE OF GOD (22)
(m') My LIMBS received their strength again (23)
(l') I labored to bring souls to repentance (24)
(k') BORN OF GOD (26)
(j') Therefore MY KNOWLEDGE IS OF GOD (26)
(h') Supported under TRIALS, TROUBLES, and AFFLICTIONS (27)
(g') TRUST in him (27)
(f') He will deliver me (27)
(i') and RAISE ME UP AT THE LAST DAY (28)
(e') As God brought our fathers out of BONDAGE and captivity (28-29)
(d') Retain in REMEMBRANCE THEIR CAPTIVITY (28-29)
(c') KNOW AS I DO KNOW (30)
(b') KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS and ye shall PROSPER IN THE LAND (30)
(a') This is according to his WORD (30).

Keep the Commandments and Prosper in the Land

Since the chapter is a chiasmus, the beginning and end of the chapter contains this counsel: keep the commandments and you will prosper in the land. This is a repeating theme throughout the Book of Mormon. Alma and the rest of the people who keep the commandments are proof that this promise is true. As the Nephites kept the commandments, they prospered. As they disobeyed, their riches and quality of lift greatly diminished.

Delivered from Bondage

The rest of the chapter provides examples of people who were in physical or spiritual bondage, who put their trust in God and were consequently delivered. This is another repeating theme in the Book of Mormon. Alma reminds Helaman of the Israelites bondage and how they were delivered. He also reminds Helaman of his own spiritual bondage and his conversion. Lastly Alma reminds Helaman of how Lehi and his family were delivered as well as the bondage of the people of Alma the Senior.

"Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." (Alma 36:3)

He later testifies, "I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me." (Alma 36:27)

What types of bondage and troubles and afflictions and trials do we face today? Are we burdened with sin? Do our families suffer from troubles and afflictions and trials? Does it seem that we are fighting an uphill battle? We may struggle on our own to overcome, but whether we succeed or fail, God will always be there to support us and help us if we but put our trust in him and ask for his succor. More than likely, if we try to overcome our own troubles without God's help, we will fail or unnecessarily toil. We should seek God's help and put our trust in him.

One of my favorite scriptures is Proverbs 3:5-6. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I have experienced the hand of the Lord in my life. I know that when I put my trust in him, he delivers me.

June 4, 2012 - Addition

Alma 36:22 really stood out to me today ... especially the last seven words of that verse.  Alma talks about the torment he experienced until he called on Jesus Christ to save him.  Immediately, Christ relieved the pain Alma was in.  Then Alma was filled with joy as equally powerful as the pain he felt.  Then he saw God sitting on his throne, surrounded by angels who were "in the attitude of singing and praising their God."

And then Alma says this, "my soul did long to be there."

There are 18 years between my older brother and me.  He and his wife came to visit us one summer ... I must have been about 9 or 10 years old.  It was a wonderful time.  I'm sure we had bbqs, played basketball and talked a lot.  I honestly don't remember much of that.  Rather, what I remember is a very intense pain when they were leaving.  I still vividly remember sitting on the porch step in the garage and watching my brother and his wife pull out of the drive way and drive off back to their home.  I was extremely sad to see them leave.  I bawled as I watched them leave ... I longed to be with them.

Now I'm sure Alma's longing was a bit more intense than mine, but I'm grateful for the bit of perspective that I do have on that feeling of longing.

2 Nephi 20

For a historical background to this chapter, read 2 Kings 18 & 19. Basically, the king of Assyria was given a command by the Lord to "take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets" (2 Nephi 20:6), meaning to be the nation that attacks Israel. But the king of Assyria (Sennacherib) thinks he can defeat all the neighboring countries … he exceeds his mandate from the Lord because of his pride. So the Lord prevents him from taking Jerusalem and his armies are destroyed like the "slaughter of Midian" and when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea (2 Nephi 20:26). The destruction of the armies of Assyria is a type of the destruction of the armies that fight Israel at the 2nd Coming of Christ.

The Needy, the Poor, the Widows and the Fatherless

The Lord warns those who do not help the needy, poor and the widows and fatherless. In our day, we must be mindful of those who are vulnerable to economically challenging times. One of the main reasons for the home-teaching program in the Church is to help the needy. As we perform our home-teaching duties, we must care for the spiritual and temporal welfare of those over whom we have a responsibility.

The Tool that Rebels Against the Maker

The king of Assyria was given a commandment to attack Israel, but he did not obey. He thought to conquer other countries too. In verse 13 he boasts of his efforts and entirely forgets the Lord. As we learn in the D&C, "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments" (D&C 59:21). Sennacherib's sin was his ingratitude.

Chiasmus

Chapter 20 is a chiasmus as explained below.
“After his fourfold warning to Israel, Isaiah continues his discourse in the form of a poetic prophecy. He gives warning to both Assyria and Israel in a poem structured in introverted parallelism (chiasmus). The poem encompasses the entire chapter and can be outlined as follows:

A. The wicked will bow down (vs. 1-4)
B. Assyria raised by the Lord (5)
C. The Assyrian king speaks against Jerusalem (6-11)
D. The Lord will punish proud Assyria (12-14)
E. An ax is used as a tool (15)
F. The Lord is a burning fire in the land (16-17)
G. Out of all the shrubs—only a remnant remains (18-19)
H. A remnant of Israel shall return to the Lord (20-21)
G.’ Out of the “sands of the sea”—only a remnant returns (22)
F.’ A divine consumption is in the land (23)
E.’ A rod is used as an instrument (24-26)
D.’ Assyria’s yoke will be lifted (27)
C.’ Assyrian army approaches Jerusalem (28-32)
B.’ Assyria humbled by the Lord (33)
A.’ The haughty will be cut down (34)”
(Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet, by Victor L. Ludlow, p. 161)

“If chiasmus can be convincingly identified in the Book of Mormon, it will testify of the book’s ancient origin. No one in America, let alone in western New York, fully understood chiasmus in 1830. Joseph Smith had been dead ten full years before John Forbes’s book was published in Scotland…If the Book of Mormon is found to contain true chiastic forms in an ancient style, then is not the book’s own repeated claim to be the product or an ancient culture veritably substantiated?” (John W. Welch, Book of Mormon Authorship, 41-42 as taken from Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. by K. Douglas Bassett, [American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 154)