Sunday School

I had a thought today in Sunday School, kind of a series of them. For those who don't know, we are studying the Book of Mormon this year (last year was the New Testament). This week was the book of Alma, chapters 8-12. Alma is called to preach repentance to the people of Ammonihah. They kick him out of the city and an angel tells him to go back because God has a bunch of people to save there.

What is interesting is that the angel who told him to go back was the same angel who had called him to repentance when he was persecuting the church as a young man. Which set him on the journey of being an incredible witness for Christ and responsible for the conversion of thousands.

He goes back to the city immediately but is hungry, so he asks this guy for food. His name is Amulek and he says that he was there because an angel told him to go to the gate of the city and the man who would ask him for food was a prophet and to give him everything he needed. It doesn't say, but it is a fair assumption that it was the same angel Alma had seen.

Amulek had a heritage of righteous leaders and teachers. However, he had been rebelling against God and the church up until the visit from the angel and the teaching of Alma (who had stayed with him a few days while he recuperated and prepared his message. Having this prophet of God in his home brought about a great change in his heart.

The two of them together became unstoppable missionaries and converted many people in the city. I was struck by the thought that their individual experience with the same angel created a shared bond and conviction that made that effectiveness possible.

They go into town to preach and come accross a bunch of lawyers, one of whom is Zeezrom, who offers Amulek a ridiculous amount of money to deny that there is a God. He cross-examines him with a bunch of trick quesstions about the nature of God. Amulek answers clearly and unmistakably and Alma tag teams by calling Zeezrom out; saying that he knows very well what's right, but he has tried to get the people to believe otherwise for his own gain. Zeezrom starts freaking out because he knows they are right. He repents and becomes a mighty preacher of the word himself.

Again, I am struck by God's wisdom in sending those specific people to that specific situation. Alma who had persecuted the church knew best how to defeat the cunning words of one persecuting the church, following the collaborating witness (this is important for a lawer) of Amulek who had also seen an angel.

As often as I have discussed, read, or heard that story, this time I was impressed by the individual journey of each of the players and how interdependent they were on a layer I had not recognized.

Links for the entirety of the story are imbedded. It is in the gospel library on LDS.org