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Alma 18:4-11, LeGrand Baker, the power of personal integrity
Author : lbaker
Alma 18:4-11, LeGrand Baker, the power of personal integrity
Alma 18:10-11
10 Now when king Lamoni heard that Ammon was preparing his horses and his chariots he was more astonished, because of the faithfulness of Ammon, saying: Surely there has not been any servant among all my servants that has been so faithful as this man; for even he doth remember all my commandments to execute them.
11 Now I surely know that this is the Great Spirit, and I would desire him that he come in unto me, but I durst not.
Mormon is a superb and very candid historian. He has an agenda and he not only doesn’t try to hide it, he insists we know what it is. He frequently concludes his stories with the words “and thus we see” then he explains the principles we should have learned. But he does not always do that. Sometimes he just tells the story and leaves it to us to discover the principles. That is an easy task because the principles can usually be reduced to four basic ideas: To be happy (1) one must exercise faith in God, (2) one must be true to the eternal law on one’s own being, (3), one must obey instructions and teachings of the prophets, and (4) one must comport his life in the same way the prophets conduct theirs. This story focus on the second and fourth of those principles: have the integrity to be true to one’s eternal self, and achieve that by doing what Ammon did.
Integrity is one of the most fundamental principles that leads to salvation. In my work at BYU, I once interviewed Arnold Friberg, who did the artwork for Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. Friberg had great admiration for DeMille whom he described as having unbending integrity. Then Friberg defined the word: “Integrity is having no gap between what one says and what one does.” In gospel terms that simply translates to this: Integrity is having no gap between the covenants one makes and the life one lives.
Elder Maxwell spoke of integrity in eternal terms, He used the word “unvaryingness ” to describe the integrity of God. He said,
“We can serve others also by developing real integrity, which is more than being honest and true only until it becomes too expensive. In the crowds of chameleons in the world today, daring to be the same good self is being different. When our goodness is constant we are on the road, albeit only a short distance along, to the unvaryingness of Godlike love.” (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979], 62.)
It is not surprising that President Monson equated faith in God with personal integrity. He said,
“Today, in a quiet grove at Valley Forge, there is a heroicsized monument to Washington. He is depicted not astride a charging horse nor overlooking a battlefield of glory, but kneeling in humble prayer, calling upon the God of Heaven for divine help. To gaze upon the statue prompts the mind to remember the oft-heard expression, “A man stands tallest when upon his knees.
“Men and women of integrity, character, and purpose have ever recognized a power higher than themselves and have sought through prayer to be guided by such power. Such has it ever been. So shall it ever be.” (Thomas S. Monson, Be Your Best Self [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979], 24-25.)
The book of Job, which is not only some of the most beautiful but also probably the oldest poetry in our Old Testament, is all about integrity. It begins in the Council in Heaven where Satan wishes to lay claim to the earth, but he can’t because Job is there.
3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. (Job 2:3)
From that time, Job’s life begins to fall apart, until his wife can’t take it any more.
9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. (Job 2:9-10)
Job’s steadfastness was an evidence of his sure knowledge. He laments,
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. (Job 19:23-26)
As seems often to be so, Job’s most intense trial comes from those who should have been his friends but were his accusers instead. They attack him with all the philosophical and academic weapons they can muster. To which Job responds,
2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. (Job 27:2-9)
Later, he challenges his tormenters,
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. (Job 31:6)
In the end, God gives Job all that he requests, including the fulfillment of the ultimate promise. Job spoke in wonderment and said,
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. (Job 42:5)
When the Prophet Joseph organized the Relief Society, he taught the sisters that each of our lives would be something like Job’s.
“He spoke of delivering the keys of the Priesthood to the Church, and said that the faithful members of the Relief Society should receive them with their husbands, that the Saints whose integrity has been tried and proved faithful, might know how to ask the Lord and receive an answer; for according to his prayers, God had appointed him elsewhere.” ( Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected and arranged by Joseph Fielding Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 226.)
The Psalms repeatedly say that we will be judged according to our personal integrity (Psalms 7, 25, 26, 41, 78). Brigham Young confirmed that. He said,
“We have the principle within us, and so has every being on this earth, to increase and to continue to increase, to enlarge and receive and treasure up truth, until we become perfect. It is wisdom for us to be the friends of God; and unless we are filled with integrity and preserve ourselves in our integrity before our God, we actually lay the foundation for our destruction.” (Journal of Discourses, 5:54)
The ultimate importance of personal integrity is found in the Saviour’s praise of Hyrum Smith. In a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph, the Saviour said,
15 And again, verily I say unto you, blessed is my servant Hyrum Smith; for I, the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right before me, saith the Lord. (D&C 124:15)
As we approach judgement day, we will discover that one’s integrity is the final definition of one’s eternal Self. If that Self is the guileless personification of one’s love for God and for “that which is right,” then one is on the sure path that leads to eternal life.
Alma 18:1-3, LeGrand Baker, the blessings of premortal covenants.
Author : lbaker
Alma 18:1-3, LeGrand Baker, the blessings of premortal covenants.
The story begins with this comment about the ruffians who scattered Lamoni’s flocks.
Therefore they did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands; neither did they know anything concerning the Lord; therefore they delighted in the destruction of their brethren; and for this cause they stood to scatter the flocks of the king. (Alma 17:35)
After Ammon’s success, this is what happened.
1 And it came to pass that king Lamoni caused that his servants should stand forth and testify to all the things which they had seen concerning the matter.
2 And when they had all testified to the things which they had seen, and he had learned of the faithfulness of Ammon in preserving his flocks, and also of his great power in contending against those who sought to slay him, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Surely, this is more than a man. Behold, is not this the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments upon this people, because of their murders? Probably a reference to the arms
3 And they answered the king, and said: Whether he be the Great Spirit or a man, we know not; but this much we do know, that he cannot be slain by the enemies of the king; neither can they scatter the king’s flocks when he is with us, because of his expertness and great strength; therefore, we know that he is a friend to the king. And now, O king, we do not believe that a man has such great power, for we know he cannot be slain. (Alma 18:1-3)
Even though it is shown more dramatically here than in many other places in the scriptures and in church history, the essence of this story is probably repeated many times in each of our lives. The principle is simply this: before we came into this world we made covenants with our Heavenly Father that we would accomplish specific things while here. Some of those things had to do with our personal progression, but the great majority had to do with helping other people.
These assignments were made and accepted by covenant— and that is very different from the military concept of receiving an assignment then going out at our own peril to try to do it. A covenant is a two-way promise. We covenanted that we would fulfill our assignment and God covenanted that he would make it possible for us to do so. In the following I would like to review some of the scriptures that deal with the conditions of that premortal covenant.
During the ancient Israelite performance of the Feast of Tabernacles temple drama, Psalm 82 was enacted as a depiction of our making covenants with our Heavenly Father. Watching the play not only gave the ancient Israelites the opportunity to review the covenants they had made in the premortal world; but as they participated in the drama that became a new covenant-making reality. As they spoke the words in unison, each individual covenanted to fulfill his own assignment in order that the Father’s purposes might be accomplished. If those assumptions are correct, then, as in the story of King Benjamin, even though the words were spoken in unison, making of the covenant was the personal act of each individual in the congregation.
Because the congregation’s participation in the drama was, for each of them, a present and personal act, the words of the psalm and the enactment of the story were, as Mowinckel and Nibley suggested, {1} not just a remembering of the myth and a re-enactment of the ritual, but a new actualization of the event and a new covenant. For each member of the congregation who participated in the drama, their making the covenant anew was a reaffirmation of an everlasting covenant, but it was also a new covenant, affirming one’s present relationship with God— a new and everlasting covenant.
The original scene depicted by Psalm 82 can more readily be understood by inserting it into the account recorded in Abraham 3, where it fits so perfectly that it does not even break the cadence of the story. Please note, by putting the two scriptures together in this way, I am not trying to imply that they were ever written as a single unit. Rather, they are combined here to illustrate an interesting—perhaps insightful—picture of how things might have been in the Council in Heaven, and how they might have been portrayed on the stage. In the King James Version, the last verse of Psalm 82 reads, “Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.” The word translated “God” is elohim which is plural for “gods in the ordinary sense” and also the name of the Father of the gods. Elohim is translated both ways in the first verse of the psalm. In the last verse, “gods” makes more sense, showing that line to be the concluding words of the Father and the covenant made by his children. The members of the Israelite audience probably understand themselves to represent the members of the Council in Heaven. If that were so, then it was they who stood and spoke the words of the covenant.
Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. [He asked,] How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O gods, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations. [After the covenant, God said,] These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born (Abraham 3:22-23 & Psalm 82).