Amulek Rebukes Zeezrom

Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, August 20, 2023, Alma 11

The wicked lawyers in the wicked city of Ammonihah were very much like the scribes and pharisees in the time of Jesus Christ. Many of the scribes and pharisees in the time of Jesus Christ were subtle, crafty, cunning, and deceptive:

Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.

And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.

Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:

That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge (see also here): ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:

Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. (Luke 11:45-54)

Just as these scribes and pharisees provoked evil and lay in wait in the attempt to ensnare and accuse Jesus, Zeezrom and his cronies did the same to Alma and Amulek. These wicked lawyers did not sustain and promote the laws of King Mosiah, they corrupted and twisted the laws and used cunning devices in order to stir up contention so that they could make more money. Isn’t this basically what lawyers are taught in modern American law schools? I know that there are many good attorneys who seek to defend truth and justice, but even some of them have recounted stories to me about the kinds of things that take place in the American justice system. Whatever the case, the wicked lawyers in the wicked city of Ammonihah loved money more than God or justice:

Now the object of these lawyers was to get gain; and they got gain ^aaccording to their employ. (Alma 10:32)

They were very cunning, crafty, and perhaps clever, but they had taken away the key of knowledge, or in other words, they denied revelation and prophecy, the testimony of Jesus Christ. They were paid for their time, their billable hours. The just system that King Mosiah set up was meant to protect the innocent and punish the guilty:

Now if a man owed another, and he would not ^apay that which he did owe, he was complained of to the judge; and the judge executed authority, and sent forth officers that the man should be brought before him; and he judged the man according to the law and the evidences which were brought against him, and thus the man was compelled to pay that which he owed, or be stripped, or be cast out from among the people as a thief and a robber. (Alma 11:2)

I am currently testing this very principle in a modern American court of law against a person who owes me money. This person refuses to pay that which he owes, and I have brought my complaint before a judge. We are in the mediation process that precedes a court hearing, and the person in question still refuses to cooperate. Hopefully he will be compelled to pay that which he owes, otherwise he may be considered a thief and a robber.

Certainly Mormon foresaw the Founding of the United States and the establishment of just government that resembled or was a reflection of Mosiah’s just system of government. Mormon understood the government and the laws that would be in operation in the Promised Land of the last days in which we now live. What might Mormon be trying to teach us by recounting this story of Alma and Amulek, like lambs in the midst of prowling wolves, two prophets among wicked lawyers who corrupted and perverted King Mosiah’s righteous system of government?

A just system of government and jurisprudence in the United States of America was established by our wise Founding Fathers, and in spite of corruption in our time, there are still those who seek to understand and defend the Constitution. But anyone who is paying attention can clearly see that our Nation is not what it once was. The Founding Fathers are probably rolling over in their graves when they see what is going on in the White House, in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and in the Supreme Court. They are probably rolling over in the graves even more because many American citizens are no longer the kind of people for whom Constitutional government is adequate:

We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. - John Adams

Like many of us today, Alma and Amulek faced opposition because of corrupted laws, corrupt lawyers, and the cunning and snares of wicked men. And like many of us today, the opposition that Alma and Amulek faced was magnified because they loved God more than money whereas their enemies loved money more than God.

Whenever I read this chapter, besides being fascinated by the Nephite monetary system, I like to ask myself how a farm boy in his early twenties from upstate New York could have possibly invented even one of the terms for Nephite coinage, let alone an entire monetary system. To come up with the word “senine” alone would have been an accomplishment, and even more of an accomplishment to make the usage of that term consistent throughout the Book of Mormon (see Alma 30:33 and 3 Ne. 12:26). But Mormon introduces his audience to the way in which the Nephites used money, a unique system with unique names that would be practically impossible to invent. And all this in just one small section of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was a true prophet who translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. I know that this is true.

I recalled that John W. Welch had written on the details and intricacies of Nephite money (see also here), and it is worth further exploration. But why does Mormon include this detailed description of Nephite money? We were right in the middle of a very fascinating story about Alma and Amulek and their mission to Ammonihah. We also know that the process of engraving upon metal plates was not easy, and that Mormon had to account for time and space on the plates while making his abridgment. There must have been something important for his latter-day audience that impelled Mormon to include this detailed account of Nephite money.

I don’t know all of the answers, but Mormon’s description of Nephite money, perhaps drawn directly from Alma’s plates, helps us to better understand just how tempting Zeezrom’s bribe might have been to anyone other than Alma or Amulek. Six onties of silver was a significant amount of money, the value of at least seven measures of grain. Zeezrom was a very wicked man who was ^aexpert in the ^bdevices of the devil, that he might destroy that which was good. When Zeezrom attempted to bribe Amulek to deny the existence of a Supreme Being for six onties of silver, Amulek rebuked him forcefully, just like Jesus rebuked the scribes and the pharisees in the Meridian of Time:

Now Amulek said: O thou ^achild of hell, why ^btempt ye me? Knowest thou that the righteous yieldeth to no such temptations?

Believest thou that there is no God? I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that ^alucre more than him.

And now thou hast lied before God unto me. Thou saidst unto me—Behold these six onties, which are of great worth, I will give unto thee—when thou hadst it in thy heart to retain them from me; and it was only thy desire that I should deny the true and living God, that thou mightest have cause to destroy me. And now behold, for this great evil thou shalt have thy reward. (Alma 11:23-25)

After leaving a former place of employment for ethical reasons, leaders in the company attempted to bribe me with a significant amount of money so that I would remain silent about my experience. They didn’t tempt me to deny the existence of a Supreme Being, but they didn’t want me to recount my experience with what I considered to be very unethical business practices. I refused the money so that I could remain free to tell my story. The people in question were not quite as far gone as Zeezrom, but in retrospect I could have shared Alma 11:23-25 with them. Hopefully they will repent like Zeezrom eventually did.

Amulek’s firm rebuke and ensuing testimony still failed to stop Zeezrom in his course of cunning interrogation. Zeezrom attempted once again to entrap Amulek with deceptive and cunning language. If you have every dealt with a pathological liar, you might notice how he or she attempts to twist language. After all, this is what the devil, the father of lies attempted to do while tempting our Savior: he attempted to use scripture against the very Person who had given the scripture in the first place.

Amulek testified that the Lord cannot save His people in their sins, only from their sins. Zeezrom’s cunning question reminds me of so many of the terrible questions that too many people ask when they are attempting to discredit ancient or modern prophets. These are not the kinds of questions that lead to revelation or knowledge. But like the ancient scribes and pharisees or lawyers who asked cunning questions to which the Lord responded with marvelous revelations and parables, Zeezrom’s final question brought forth a marvelous testimony from Amulek. Zeezrom asked a question that might remind us of the questions that King Noah’s wicked priest posed to Abinadi: “Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?” Why would Zeezrom ask this question, and what was so cunning about it? Zeezrom was still trying to ensnare Amulek, but Amulek boldly replied with a powerful testimony that teaches us much about Jesus Christ, the Resurrection, and the great plan of salvation:

And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very ^aEternal Father of heaven and of earth, and ^ball things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last;

And he shall come into the ^aworld to ^bredeem his people; and he shall ^ctake upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else.

Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been ^ano redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death; for behold, the day cometh that ^ball shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be ^cjudged according to their works.

Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the ^abands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

The spirit and the body shall be ^areunited again in its ^bperfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, ^cknowing even as we know now, and have a bright ^drecollection of all our ^eguilt.

Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be ^arestored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the ^bFather, and the Holy Spirit, which is ^cone Eternal God, to be ^djudged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.

Now, behold, I have spoken unto you concerning the ^adeath of the mortal body, and also concerning the ^bresurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is ^craised to an ^dimmortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can ^edie no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming ^fspiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption. (Alma 11:39:45)

The people were shocked when they heard Amulek’s powerful testimony, and Zeezrom even began to tremble. There was much more in Alma’s record, but Mormon could only write a small portion of his words. Why did Mormon include this episode from the mission of Alma and Amulek to Ammonihah? What do we learn from Amulek’s conversation with and testimony to Zeezrom? These are some things to ponder today.