35 And as the Lamanites had passed the hill Riplah, and came into the valley, and began to cross the river Sidon, the army which was concealed on the south of the hill, which was led by a man whose name was Lehi, and he led his army forth and encircled the Lamanites about on the east in their rear.36 And it came to pass that the Lamanites, when they saw the Nephites coming upon them in their rear, turned them about and began to contend with the army of Lehi.37 And the work of death commenced on both sides, but it was more dreadful on the part of the Lamanites, for their nakedness was exposed to the heavy blows of the Nephites with their swords and their cimeters, which brought death almost at every stroke.38 While on the other hand, there was now and then a man fell among the Nephites, by their swords and the loss of blood, they being shielded from the more vital parts of the body, or the more vital parts of the body being shielded from the strokes of the Lamanites, by their breastplates, and their armshields, and their head-plates; and thus the Nephites did carry on the work of death among the Lamanites. (Ama 43:35-38)
In these verses is
described how the army leader Lehi encircled the invading Lamanites in the
rear, which forced them to turn and fight, and how the unarmored Lamanites were
killed at almost every stroke while the armored Nephites only occasionally fell
from the loss of blood.
It hit me that there
are several strategies used here that are often missed.
First, Lehi’s men
attacked the rear of the Lamanite army. It is possible the Lamanites
front-loaded their greatest and most confident warriors and put the weakest at
the back. If so, then attacking their rear gave Lehi’s men an advantage and not
just that of surprise.
Second, it says the
Lamanites were exposed and nearly every Nephite blow brought death, but the
Nephites only fell every once in a while because the more vital parts of their
bodies were shielded by armor.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this gives me a peculiar-but-impressive
idea of what a clash between Nephite and Lamanite looked like. They approach,
they swing at each other, the Nephite sword connects once, and the Lamanite
falls. This is different from our perhaps cinema-informed ideas of combat in
which swords clash against each other, one attacking, another parrying, causing
it to take time and effort to push through the opponents guard.
If the Nephite can
kill a Lamanite almost with every stroke, then the Lamanite swords aren’t
stopping the Nephite swords. And
if the Lamanite swords aren’t stopping the attack, then the Lamanites are
either incompetent at defense, or they are trying to do something different. Perhaps making their own attack.
This suggests a different
way of doing battle than we might be used to. Perhaps the Nephites did not
parry or block their opponents’ weapons. Perhaps when they raised their swords,
they avoided the Lamanite swords and went straight for the kill-strike at the
same time that the Lamanites were trying to hit them back. It may even be that they allowed the Lamanites to hit them and
trusted the armor to protect them. While the Lamanites struck, they struck the
Lamanites. Since the Lamanites had no armor, every blow was guaranteed to do
damage. (Swords in Mesoamerica
consisted of many obsidian blades struck along both edges of a club. One swipe
across the neck with one of those babies shreds open your enemy’s jugular vein
and death comes quickly.)
This teaches us about
the importance of putting on the armor of God. Otherwise, every temptation that
hits us, we will give in, and that brings spiritual death. The odd way the Nephites fought also
says something about how to hit back at the temptations. If temptations entice with a twisted
combination of truth and lie, strike directly at the lie. Hit it hard with the
truth you know. (And if you don’t know what the lie is, pray hard for
revelation and power to resist and for discernment. The Spirit will eventually
show you where the lie is.)
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