Lesson 29 - Give Ear to My Words
Purpose
To teach class members Alma’s counsel for remaining faithful in the gospel and to help parents understand how to teach and counsel both righteous and unrighteous children.
Preparation
Read, ponder, and pray about the following scriptures:
Alma 36–37. Alma recounts his conversion and bears his testimony to his son Helaman. He instructs Helaman to preserve the sacred records.
Alma 38. Alma praises his son Shiblon for his faithfulness and encourages him to continue in righteousness, enduring to the end.
Alma 39. Alma admonishes his son Corianton for immoral actions and counsels Corianton about the consequences of such sin.
Comments and Observations
Alma2’s words to his three sons (chapters 36-42) contain some of the greatest teachings found in the Book of Mormon. Here are some suggestions as you prepare the lesson.
Chapters 36-37 - Alma2’s instructions to his son Helaman2.
o Chapter 36 contains a more complete account of Alma2’s experience with the angel. I have identified the additional information found in Chapter 36. This helps us better understand Alma2. I would strongly recommend reading from the scriptures and discussing his experience in more detail. We also see a marvelous example of Chiasmus in this chapter (See Charts 1 & 2).
o Chapter 37 tells us Helaman2 is getting the records, gives us information about the Jaredite record, and gives us more information about the Liahona and how we can liken the working of the Liahona to the gospel and Christ. Depending on your time, I would recommend discussing verses 38-47 (the Liahona) if you do not have time to cover the entire chapter.
Chapter 38 - Alma2’s instructions to his son Shiblon.
o Shiblon doesn’t receive much instruction from Alma2. He has been faithful, but appears to have been a little prideful. Depending on time available, I would recommend skipping this chapter.
Chapter 39 - Alma2 begins his instructions to his son Corianton.
o Ah, Corianton! He is quite the problem child for Alma2. We learn about his sin and how serious sexual sin is in the eyes of the Lord. Corianton questions prophesy and how his father could know about Christ when he hasn’t yet come. This is a great chapter for discussion. We live in a society where sexual sin is becoming very common. Not only is it common, but many in society see nothing wrong with it. Sadly, we see many of our youth not understanding the seriousness of sexual sin. We need to be reminded of the importance of chastity and remaining pure in the eyes of the Lord.
My recommendation would be:
Cover Chapter 36, especially the more detailed account given by Alma2 & the great example of chiasmus.
Cover the Liahona portion of Chapter 37 (verse 38-47).
Cover Chapter 39.
Cover Chapter 37 as time allows.
I have included the following:
Two Charts.
o Chart 1 – Chiasmus by key word.
o Chart 2 – Chiasmus by complete verse.
Quotes to support the lesson.
The commandments of Alma to his son Helaman.
Chapter 36
Alma2’s words to his son Helaman2.
Introductory Words of Alma2 to Helaman2 (1-5)
· Reiterated promise that if he keeps the commandments of God, he will prosper.
· Reminded him of the “captivity of our fathers” and how “none could deliver them except it was … God” (v. 2).
· Admonished Helaman2 to hear his words, “I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day” (v. 3).
· He knows these things because he was born of God and heard these words from an angel.
· See Quote #1
Alma2 Recounts His Conversion Experience to Helaman2 (6-30)
· This account is more detailed than the account in Mosiah 27:8-37.
· We learn new details about the experience.
o Even if you want to be destroyed, cease to destroy the church (v. 9).
o The sons of Mosiah2 heard things he did not hear (v. 11).
o He was “tormented with the pains of hell” (v. 13).
o He had “murdered many of [the Lord’s] children” by leading “them away to destruction” (v. 14).
o Coming into the presence of God “did rack my soul with inexpressible horror” (v. 14).
o He “could be banished and become extinct both soul and body” (v. 15).
o He was “racked, even with the pains of a damned soul” for three days and three nights (v. 15).
§ Here we see an example of Christology with the three days. It could represent Christ in His tomb before His resurrection.
§ Alma2 awoke and was a changed man after the three days.
o He was “racked with torment” (v. 17).
o He was “harrowed up with the memory of [his] many sins” (v. 17).
o He recalled hearing his “father prophesy concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world” (v. 17).
o Cried within his heart, “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death” (v. 18).
o After his cry, he could remember his pains and sins no more.
o He beheld joy and a “marvelous light” (v. 20).
o His soul was filled with “joy as exceeding as was my pain” (v. 20).
o He saw, as did Lehi1, “God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there” (v. 22).
o Since then he has “labored without ceasing” to call the people to repentance, to “bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost” (v. 24).
o “[T]he Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors” (v. 25).
· God has supported him through trials, troubles, and afflictions.
· He has been delivered from prison and bondage.
· He knows he will be raised in the last day.
· He knows he will dwell with the Lord in glory.
· The Lord “brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he has also, by his everlasting power, delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time even down to the present day” (v. 29).
· See Quote #2
· See Quote #3
· See Quote #4
Chapter 37
Records Passed to Helaman2 (1-20)
· Helaman2 is given the records and sacred things (plates of brass, sword of Laban, Liahona, etc.) in Alma2’s possession.
· He is commanded to “keep a record of this people according as I have done, upon the plates of Nephi, and keep all these things sacred which I have kept, even as I have kept them; for it is for a wise purpose that they are kept” (v. 2).
· It was prophesied that the plates would kept and handed to each generation.
o They will be preserved by the hand of the Lord.
o The day will come they will go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
· The plates must retain their brightness because they contain things that are holy.
· Alma2 tells him he may think this is foolish.
o “[B]y small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise” (v. 6)
· These plates have brought many to the knowledge of God.
· Ammon3 would not have been able to convince the Lamanites of truth without the records.
· In the future, they will be the means of bringing many to the knowledge of Christ.
· The records are preserved for a wise purpose.
· Enos prayed and asked God:
o And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation—
Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.
And I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time.
(Enos 1:13, 15-16)
· God has entrusted Helaman2 with sacred things.
o He is to keep and preserve these things.
· If he is not righteous, the Lord will take the records and sacred things.
· If he is righteous, “no power of earth or hell can take [these sacred things] from you” (v. 16).
· He commands his son to “be diligent in fulfilling all of my words, and … in keeping the commandments of God” (v. 20).
Alma2 instructs Helaman2 Concerning the Jaredite (21-32)
· Alma2 instructs him about the twenty-four plates (the record of the Jaredites).
o The plates contain “the mysteries and the works of darkness, and their secret works, or the secret works of those people who have been destroyed, may be made manifest unto this people; yea, all their murders, and robbings, and their plunderings, and all their wickedness and abominations, may be made manifest unto this people” (v. 21).
· The Lord told them if they did not cease their works of darkness, they would be destroyed.
· Interpreters were prepared to help read the record.
o Ammon2 referred to the interpreters:
§ Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.
(Mosiah 8:13)
o They were among the sacred things passed on by King Mosiah2.
§ And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of brass, and all the things which he had kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the interpreters, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem.
(Mosiah 28:20)
· “[T]he Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abomination” (v. 23)
o Who is the “servant Gazelem” who receives a stone?
o John Tvedtnes writes:
§ Moroni sealed up the breastplate and the Urim and Thummim with the gold plates (see Ether 4:4–5) and delivered them to Joseph Smith (see Joseph Smith—History 1:35, 42, 52, 59, 62; D&C 10:1). According to Doctrine and Covenants 17:1, Joseph received the same Urim and Thummim given to the brother of Jared on the mount. Joseph Smith is apparently the "servant Gazelem"to which Alma 37:23–25 refers…[1]
· The Jaredites were destroyed because they ignored the Lord’s warnings and refused to repent.
· Helaman2 is to keep these records from the people “that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed” (v. 27).
· There is a curse on the land.
· Destruction will come to those who work darkness.
Alma2‘s Instructions to Helaman2 (33-37)
· Alma2 instructs Helaman2 to preach “unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart; teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil, with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 33).
· They should “never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart” (v. 34).
· See Quote #5
· Pray to God for all your support.
· Let all your thoughts be turned to the Lord.
· Counsel with the Lord in all things.
Alma2‘s Discusses the Liahona (38-47)
· A golly, gee-whiz note before we begin.
o The term “Liahona” is only found in Alma 37.
§ The first appearance of the name is Alma 37:38.
§ Nephi1 described it:
· And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.
(1 Nephi 16:10)
o The name must have been contained in the lost 116 manuscript pages.