15 And
now it came to pass that Alma, having seen the afflictions of the humble
followers of God, and the persecutions which were heaped upon them by the
remainder of his people, and seeing all their inequality, began to be very sorrowful;
nevertheless the Spirit of the Lord did not fail him.
16 And he
selected a wise man who was among the elders of the church, and gave him power
according to the voice of the people, that he might have power to enact laws
according to the laws which had been given, and to put them in force according
to the wickedness and the crimes of the people….
18 Now
Alma did not grant unto him the office of being high priest over the church,
but he retained the office of high priest unto himself; but he delivered the
judgment-seat unto Nephihah.
19 And
this he did that he himself might go forth among his people, or among the people
of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in
remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all
the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people,
seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure
testimony against them.
20 And
thus in the commencement of the ninth year of the reign of the judges over the
people of Nephi, Alma delivered up the judgment-seat to Nephihah, and confined
himself wholly to the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to the
testimony of the word, according to the spirit of revelation and prophecy.
(Alma 4:15-20)
These verses describe how Alma gave the office of chief
judge to someone else and retained the office of high priest so he could go out
and preach to the people to try to reclaim them.
It struck me that Alma here was a type of Christ’s
condescension among men.
Christ is both our judge and high priest. He put aside His
role as judge for a time to come down as high priest among men to preach and
testify in order to save us.
Probably a very small insight, but it is still neat to find
types of Christ in the Book of Mormon where I didn’t notice them before.
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