Post by Himni
Consider the experience of our mother Sariah, the matriarch of the entire Nephite and Lamanite civilizations, who when our father Lehi commanded his four sons to return to Jerusalem to seek the Plates of Brass from Laban, expressed great concern. It is recorded that she challenged Lehi’s command, fearing for the very lives of her four sons. The records that we have say her trust in the Lord was fragile. We read that she complained against her husband Lehi telling him he was a visionary man and that her sons were no more because Laban was a wicked man.
We can imagine how difficult it is to trust in the Lord when all the evidence, all the facts, all the indications lead us to believe the worst. Now, think of why it was natural for her to worry. Let me list a few reasons.
- Lehi said God wanted his family to have the Brass Plates to travel with the group to a promised land.
- Sariah did not experience the vision we read that Nephi had, she was trusting with faith.
- Her husband was a visionary man and he asked the family to give up everything.
- Their life in Jerusalem was a very fine life, with wealth and prestige.
- Zedekiah was a new king and political strife was rising.
- Other prophets like her husband had been murdered by wicked men, including Urijah of prophet
- There was considerable family strife.
- She knew Laban was a powerful man, jealous of his own power.
Sariah knew her sons very well. She knew her beloved Nephi was a good boy and she knew as the youngest he did little to soften the rage and anger in his older brothers toward him. So think how she must worry that her own sons might be more of a threat to each other than even Laban who had command of more than enough army to destroy her sons.
Now with that in mind, consider the challenge facing my own mother right now. She has four sons. We have been living a comfortable and respected life. She has already spent years on her knees begging God for help with her boys when we were going about destroying the church. We humiliated her, our father, and all those who at one time respected the prophet Alma and my father King Mosiah. When an angel, in response to the prayers of the followers of Christ brought us literally to our knees in humility and fear, she only experienced a sliver of hope and relief. She has been driven to her knees again.
Our father, King Mosiah took our request to God, to go up to the land of our inheritance and teach the Lamanites. Imagine her concern. Four sons, recently repentant, willing to turn down the right to serve as future king and leave the safety and security of family and home to try to convert a bloodthirsty and murderous people to Christ. How many times have those efforts resulted in the deaths, bondage, and destruction of those attempting such an impossible endeavor? How could there be a more righteous desire? Yet, why has it always failed? How can the hearts of the Lamanites be so hard? Is this, our journey another fool’s attempt to reach stone-hard hearts and soften them?
If and when we return from this journey where we are going to live and serve among the Lamanites, I will ask my mother what manner of language did my father speak to comfort my mother as she bids us farewell. When she sends us off to a very likely death. She may never see us again. If we survive, her worry and concern may bring her to an early grave, just as the treatment of Nephi at the hands of very angry and unrighteous Laman and Lemuel, nearly brought Sariah to her death.
Alma 17
