Very Small Means
Book of Mormon Notes - Thursday, October 5, 2023, Alma 37
Even more specifically, the Lord worked through the faith and diligence of Nephi and through the writing the appeared on the Liahona:
And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things. (1 Nephi 16:29)
And there is Nephi’s “thus we see” phrase, a phrase that Mormon adopted and used frequently throughout his own abridgment of the large plates of Nephi. The lesson that Nephi understood is the lesson that Alma understood and taught to his son Helaman in connection to the responsibility for the plates. And all of this was directly connected to the “new writing” “which was plain to be read” “which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord” and which “was written and changed from time to time”. Thus the small and simple thing wasn’t just the faith and the diligence that Nephi and his family gave to the Liahona, or the faith and the diligence that Alma and his son Helaman gave to the records, or that you and I demonstrate to the Lord in our lives - although that is a small and simple thing. The small and simple thing that I see is that the Lord moved the spindles and transmitted new writing through the Liahona.
Volumes could be written, and volumes have been written about this Liahona. And Alma was just getting started. He had been teaching his son Helaman about the Brass Plates and the other Nephite plates, records that were solidly and permanently etched in metal. But Alma was about to teach his son about something even more miraculous than the plates themselves or the words inscribed thereon. Alma was about to teach his son about revelation.
The Lord’s ways are higher than our ways. The Lord’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8–9) The Lord works by means, and even by very bsmall means, cconfounding the wise and bringing about the salvation of many souls. In fact, it seems to me that the Lord takes a special and peculiar delight in working by His own means and by very bsmall means to cconfound the wise, to save souls, and to reveal truth:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (1 Corinthians 1:27)
To prepare the weak for those things which are coming on the earth, and for the Lord’s errand in the day when the weak shall confound the wise, and the little one become a strong nation, and two shall put their tens of thousands to flight.
And by the weak things of the earth the Lord shall thresh the nations by the power of his Spirit. (D&C 133:58-59)
This is AWESOME! This is especially awesome for each one of us who feels foolish, weak, and small.
Alma acknowledges that it was the plates that were the small means for accomplishing great things such as enlarging the memory of the people, convincing many of the error of their ways, and bringing them to the cknowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls. The Lord worked through the weakness of his record-keeping servants to accomplish something that most of the Nephites thought was impossible, that is, the conversion of the Lamanites:
Yea, I say unto you, awere it not for these things that these records do contain, which are on these plates, Ammon and his brethren could not have bconvinced so many thousands of the Lamanites of the incorrect tradition of their fathers; yea, these records and their cwords brought them unto repentance; that is, they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer. (Alma 37:9)
I mentioned previously that I love this definition of repentance: coming to the knowledge of the Lord our God, and rejoicing in Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Alma also had great hopes for the immediate future benefit of the plates:
And who knoweth but what they will be the ameans of bringing many thousands of them, yea, and also many thousands of our bstiffnecked brethren, the Nephites, who are now hardening their hearts in sin and iniquities, to the knowledge of their Redeemer? (Alma 37:10)
And Mormon, with the advantage of hindsight as well as the advantage of his prophetic foresight, could certainly see that Alma’s testimony, and these same plates, as well as others that were soon added to them, would be the ameans of bringing many thousands of latter-day souls - including us bstiffnecked moderns - to the knowledge of our Redeemer and to salvation.
Alma was hoping and speculating here, in the presence of his son, but he made sure to mention that he was content to let the Lord do His own work according to His own eternally wise purposes:
And it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a awise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he doth bcounsel in wisdom over all his works, and his paths are straight, and his course is cone eternal round. (Alma 37:12)
One of those wise purposes was for the Lord to show forth His power to future generations, including our own generation now, and the rising generation.
Alma charged his son to keep the commandments, to appeal to the Lord for direction concerning the records, and to be diligent. Then he moved to another set of plates to teach him even more…