Pushing forward like Lamanites + MY NEW BOOK!

The Lamanites are busy little beavers in these verses:

33 And now it came to pass that it was expedient for Moroni to make preparations to attack the city Morianton; for behold, the Lamanites had, by their labors, fortified the city Morianton until it had become an exceeding stronghold.

34 And they were continually bringing new forces into that city, and also new supplies of provisions. (Alma 55:33-34)

At this point in the text we get an interruption of Helaman’s letter with the story about the stripling warriors, which causes us to lose the thread. But it is picked back up in Alma 59:

5 And it came to pass that while Moroni was thus making preparations to go against the Lamanites to battle, behold, the people of Nephihah, who were gathered together from the city of Moroni and the city of Lehi and the city of Morianton, were attacked by the Lamanites.

6 Yea, even those who had been compelled to flee from the land of Manti, and from the land round about, had come over and joined the Lamanites in this part of the land.

7 And thus being exceedingly numerous, yea, and receiving strength from day to day, by the command of Ammoron they came forth against the people of Nephihah, and they did begin to slay them with an exceedingly great slaughter.

8 And their armies were so numerous that the remainder of the people of Nephihah were obliged to flee before them; and they came even and joined the army of Moroni. (Alma 59:5-6)

Here we are told that while Moroni was making preparations, the city of Nephihah was attacked and overwhelmed, and the inhabitants (including refugees from cities Moroni, Lehi, and Morianton) were forced to flee.

What this tells us strategically is that there was a reason the Lamanites kept bringing more men and provisions into the city Morianton and fortifying it; they meant the city Morianton to become the next jumping off point for their next invasion into Nephite territory. There are reinforcements for maintenance and there are reinforcements for imminent invasion, and the Lamanites intended invasion. The Lamanites made Morianton a great stronghold so they could store more supplies there and strengthen their supply chain.

How does this help us today? Can we learn something positive from the Lamanites here, even though we’re used to thinking about them as the bad guys?  I think it helps us to think about where we are putting most of our energy and focus. The Lamanites put emphasis on amassing supplies and men at Morianton in anticipation for starting their invasion.  So, we could ask ourselves where we are putting our energy and preparation, and to what end? What do we expect to be able to do because of it? Are we simply maintaining things as they are, or are we preparing for progress? Are we preparing for new things, new goals, new growth?

The Lamanites knew how to grow their territory—they received strength from day to day, and then they PUSHED into new territories. What would happen if we followed that example spiritually in good ways? Can we receive strength from God from day to day? Yes. Can we prepare for new things? Yes. Can we push into new spiritual territories? I think so, if we are sufficiently prepared.

Today, let's press forward with faith in Christ.

Postscript NEWSFLASH 

I got my rear in gear recently, and pushed forward to finally publish my book To Defend Them By Strategem: Fortify Yourself with Book of Mormon War Tactics. (The audience goes wild, slings roses in all directions, and moshes enthusiastically with the orchestra while the world rejoices!)  This book contains many ideas about how the stories of war in the Book of Mormon teach us how we can defend ourselves against Satan. 

I’m very excited to have this book finally out, after all the work I’ve done on it. It contains some of my best thoughts and insights from this blog, which have been polished and reworked to focus specifically on spiritual strategies that can protect us. I think that you’ll really enjoy it and learn a lot.

This book will not be in Deseret Book…unless you decide to ask for it specifically by ISBN # (978-0-9968730-0-0, if you’re interested).  So, if you want to see it there, request it. ;-) 

Alternatively, you can get it Amazon, as it is available in both paperback and as a Kindle book.

See here:

Amazon paperback ($12.99)

Kindle ($2.99)

Barnes & Noble Nook ($2.99)

Kobo ($2.99)

iBooks ($2.99)

King Laman as an analog of Satan

I ran across these verses as part of Zeniff’s record in the Book of Mosiah where Zeniff summarizes the trouble with living by the Lamanites:

17 And thus they [the Lamanites] have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi.

18 For this very cause has king Laman, by his cunning, and lying craftiness, and his fair promises, deceived me, that I have brought this my people up into this land, that they may destroy them; yea, and we have suffered these many years in the land. (Mosiah 10:17-18)

If you substitute “Satan” in place of “King Laman,” you can see how appropriate this is as a lesson about what Satan tries to do.  He will use cunning, lying craftiness, and fair promises to deceive us, to bring us into a dangerous place so he can destroy us, or else cause as much suffering as possible.  He will also teach his children to hate, murder, plunder, and do all kinds of destruction to the children of light.

The trouble is, Zeniff, who is in this predicament, was the other part of the equation.  He contributed to his own beguilement because he wanted to live in the land near the Lamanites. He saw something he thought was good among them, and he thought that would preclude the Lamanites from trying to destroy him and his people.  But it didn’t.

So, this tells us that we, like Zeniff, also contribute to our own beguiling. We see something we think is good in Babylon, and we think that will preclude Satan from hating us and trying to destroy us. But it doesn’t. In Satan’s case, the good is a deception, a counterfeit. Any good he offers is only a fair promise given with lying craftiness to draw us in.

Today let’s pray for discernment to see Satan’s fair promises as the lies they are, and pray for the power to resist.

The Narrow Skillset of the Lamanites, Enos 1:20

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And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us. (Enos 1:20)

When I was looking at this verse it stood out to me how narrow the Lamanite skillset really was, spiritually, socially, and economically. 

Their hatred was fixed – They didn’t know how to forgive, and they were prejudiced, so they couldn’t listen to those who could teach them the principles that would help them learn how.

They were led by their evil nature – This would make them pretty impulsive and unable to resist temptation.  They would not have the discipline to do much more than what it would take to survive.

Wild, ferocious, and bloodthirsty – They didn’t know how to solve problems peacefully.  They probably overreacted a lot and were at the mercy of their passions and emotions.

Full of idolatry – God (or the Great Spirit) was not at the top of their priority list, and they were also superstitious.  Superstition is exacerbated by a limited understanding or misunderstanding of cause and effect.

Full of… filthiness – They didn’t know how to keep themselves or their environment clean.  (If they moved around a lot to follow game, they probably thought there was no point.)

Feeding upon beasts of prey – It is possible they thought strength would come from eating predators.  (There are people today who still believe this; hence the underground trade of processed portions of large mammalian anatomy for their supposed health effects.) It is also possible that the Lamanites didn’t have the skill or patience for raising flocks and herds, so they had to hunt all the time.

Dwelling in tents – If game was always on the move, they had to move after it, meaning they wouldn’t be able to learn to build more permanent buildings.  There is also no point in developing more than the most essential and mobile tools or collecting supplies if you have to carry it along.

Wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven – It seems they didn’t have much knowledge about how to clothe themselves, other than with skins, so maybe they’d figured out the leather tanning process.  But to clothe themselves with something besides skins, they would have to learn to find and raise fiber-producing plants and/or fiber-producing animals.  This would require patience and application, not to mention learning fiber-processing techniques and weaving skills.

their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax – They were good at making weapons and using them—bows and cimeters.  (The ax is a little more ambiguous; they could use it as a building tool or as a killing tool.)  These were the tools the Lamanites understood, tools of destruction and death.  Shooting, cutting, and chopping.

many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat – Cooking wasn’t a strong point.  It is hard to pin down the exact reasons for this because there are a number of factors that could be at work.  It could be they were generally so hungry when they found game that they didn’t want to take the time to cook it before eating.  It could be that it was just a continuation of the ancestral methods of concealing one’s presence by not using fire (see 1 Nephi 17:12). It may be that they didn’t want to bother finding and raising good-to-eat plants because it would take too much time and tie them down to a place where game would become scarce.  It is also possible that they didn’t know how to preserve their meat to store it for later.  

I have to wonder if the Lamanite skill deficiencies were part of what prevented them from converting.  If they joined the Nephite religion, they would have to leave behind these destroying skills and learn radically new ones.  The law of Moses prohibited eating beasts of prey and certain other animals, so their diet would be limited to a certain class of animals instead of anything they could find.  And in the time between giving up old skills and learning new ones, how would they live?  The transition stage would be very difficult.  We see in the case of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis that it can be done, but conversions of this sort are made more difficult than ones in which one doesn’t have to give up one’s livelihood to convert.

How can this help us today?  For parents, it may help to think about what skills one’s children needs to become independent and question the building of skills that are less important.  Skill in video games may be special in a son’s peer group, but ultimately it won’t help him provide for a future family.  Programming skills, however, will help him. 

When kids leave home we don’t want them stuck with a “Lamanite” skill set.  We want them to have a “Nephite” skill set, which we can extrapolate as the opposite of Enos’s words about the Lamanites:

·      unprejudiced and loving

·      led by the Holy Ghost

·      gentle, compassionate, peace-loving

·      Acquainted with God and obedient to the commandments

·      Skilled at cleaning themselves and their environment

·      Able to cook and feed themselves with healthy food

·      Settled in one place

·      Well-clothed (skilled at sewing and/or clothes shopping)

·      Skilled in the use of productive tools

Of course there are additional skills that are helpful in the modern world:

·      Budgeting and saving

·      Auto-mechanics

·      Typing

·      Computer literacy

·      Household repairs

And the cool thing is that unlike 10 years ago, there now exists a plethora of ways to educate oneself in how to do these things using instructions and videos one finds on the internet.  In the past, one had to find a teacher or a class to learn these things or simply muddle along on one’s own by experimenting.  For instance, even though I didn’t know anything about how to fix my refrigerator’s icemaker, I found videos about it online that taught me different things I could try to diagnose the problem and how to know when to replace it.  I also found videos showing how to replace it.  Parents can use this to help their kids learn marketable skills.  If a teen can show on his resume a list of things he’s fixed or built, that will make him or her a more attractive job candidate.

The Lamanite broken promise

36 And it came to pass that the Lamanites promised unto Alma and his brethren, that if they would show them the way which led to the land of Nephi that they would grant unto them their lives and their liberty.

37 But after Alma had shown them the way that led to the land of Nephi the Lamanites would not keep their promise; but they set guards round about the land of Helam, over Alma and his brethren.

38 And the remainder of them went to the land of Nephi; and a part of them returned to the land of Helam, and also brought with them the wives and the children of the guards who had been left in the land.

39 And the king of the Lamanites had granted unto Amulon that he should be a king and a ruler over his people, who were in the land of Helam; nevertheless he should have no power to do anything contrary to the will of the king of the Lamanites. (Mosiah 23:36-39)

In these verses the Lamanites promise Alma and his people their lives and liberty in return for guidance on the way back to the land of Nephi, but then they break their promise. They set guards over the Nephites, bring the families of the guards, and set Amulon as king and ruler over the Nephites. (I’m sure that at the news of Amulon’s promotion over them, there was a collective gasp of dismay from Alma and his people.)

The broken promise of the Lamanites sounds like perfidious treachery, but I realized today that quite likely the feeling of betrayal may have arisen from different expectations about how that promise was to be kept.

To be specific, the promise was “life” and “liberty.” The Lamanites didn’t kill the Nephites, so they kept the “life” part of the promise. The promise of “liberty” is more problematic.

I don’t know if we can make the snap judgment that the Lamanites made that promise with the intent of breaking it deliberately. Judging from Lamanites’ previous care to keep the promise of “life” with Limhi’s people (when they drove them like dumb beasts when they were angry with them instead of killing them), it seems that the Lamanites took their promises more seriously than we often think. So the problem may have arisen from different definitions of “liberty.”

I’m sure that Alma and his people interpreted “liberty” to mean “no Lamanites staying in our land and no interference from Lamanites.” The Lamanites seem to have interpreted “liberty” to mean “making your own decisions and having your own people [Nephites] in charge, as long as it is in the scope of Lamanite empire.” The Lamanites seem to have thought that guarding the Nephites need not interfere with Nephite liberty and “liberty” didn’t include the option of escaping to live somewhere else.

What can we learn from this (assuming that my speculations are not off in left field)? I think this can teach us about the importance of understanding what the Lord means when we make covenants with Him. We need to understand the terms used and the spirit of the promises because it would be tragic if our view was different from His about how those promises should be kept. It would be sad if we were to find out after death that when we thought we were keeping our promises His view was that we were breaking them. I think this is why in Sunday School we often discuss definitions of words, so that we can make sure that we understand the meaning and the scope of the promises we make.