6 Now
Moroni caused that Laman and a small number of his men should go forth unto the
guards who were over the Nephites.
7 Now
the Nephites were guarded in the city of Gid; therefore Moroni appointed Laman
and caused that a small number of men should go with him.
8 And
when it was evening Laman went to the guards who were over the Nephites, and
behold, they saw him coming and they hailed him; but he saith unto them: Fear
not; behold, I am a Lamanite. Behold, we have escaped from the Nephites, and
they sleep; and behold we have taken of their wine and brought with us.
9 Now
when the Lamanites heard these words they received him with joy… (Alma 55:6-9)
In Alma 55, Captain Moroni regains the prisoners in the city
of Gid by offering the Lamanite guards wine by one of their own. We prefer to consider everything
Captain Moroni does as good, but I can’t help but point out some things about
this strategy that echoes what Satan does. If it helps us made better choices, I think it’s worth
pointing out.
First, I notice the Lamanite guards saw these tricksters
coming, and yet Laman and his small group of men still managed to lull them
into a false sense of security.
How often do we actually see temptation coming, and yet when we
initially refuse, the temptation (or those who present it) push back and try to
convince us that we are wrong and it isn’t dangerous? We have to stick to our guns there and not give in. It can be particularly difficult if we’re
presented with something we like. In the Lamanites' case, it was wine. It's worth thinking about what things we individually like that might be used to lure us into temptation.
Next insight comes from a later part of this story. Once the
Lamanite guards found out there was wine immediately available, they say, “We
are weary, and by and by we shall receive wine for our rations, which will
strengthen us to go against the Nephites.”
They are tired now, and they anticipate being stronger
later. But there isn’t going to be
any opportunity to fight later if they can’t be strong now.
To me this shows that sometimes we give in to temptation now
when we’re tired, thinking that we’ll be stronger later. But that’s a lie. If we can’t be strong now to resist
temptation, how will we get the strength later? Our strength accumulates with good choices and dissipates
with bad ones. It dissipates
incredibly fast and actually give Satan the advantage over us that he wouldn’t
have had otherwise.
So, lessons from this story are:
--Keep refusing the temptation, even when it tries to push
back.
--Giving in now will make it even harder to be strong
later. (So be strong now to stay
strong later.)
0 comments:
Post a Comment