Moroni wants to gain favorably in a prisoner exchange with Ammoron (Amalickiah's brother who now leads the Lamanites) and strategically uses strong words and an intensely threatening tone...
ALMA 54:6, 11-13
6 Behold, I would tell you somewhat concerning the justice of God, and the sword of his almighty wrath, which doth hang over you except ye repent and withdraw your armies into your own lands, or the land of your possessions, which is the land of Nephi.
11 But behold, it supposeth me that I talk to you concerning these things in vain; or it supposeth me that thou art a child of hell; therefore I will close my epistle by telling you that I will not exchange prisoners, save it be on conditions that ye will deliver up a man and his wife and his children, for one prisoner; if this be the case that ye will do it, I will exchange.
12 And behold, if ye do not this, I will come against you with my armies; yea, even I will arm my women and my children, and I will come against you, and I will follow you even into your own land, which is the land of our first inheritance; yea, and it shall be blood for blood, yea, life for life; and I will give you battle even until you are destroyed from off the face of the earth.
13 Behold, I am in my anger, and also my people; ye have sought to murder us, and we have only sought to defend ourselves. But behold, if ye seek to destroy us more we will seek to destroy you; yea, and we will seek our land, the land of our first inheritance.
To this point there have been no attempts by the Nephites to take the war to the Lamanites. All actions have been in response to attacks or threats and have never extended past the boundaries of their own land. Moroni threatens to "...seek the land of our first inheritance," by arming all of his citizens and taking the fight to them. He vows to ultimately destroy the Lamanites as the literal sword of God's almighty wrath! Awesome!
I found an intersting reference to this in a talk by Vaughn J. Featherstone (October General Conference 1975; But Watchman, What of the Night)...
"...Not too long ago I saw a movie entitled Tora! Tora! Tora! This film is about the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. In one place in the movie the scene is a Japanese admiral standing on the captain's deck of an aircraft carrier. The planes have already taken off for their sneak attack. The radio message is transmitted back to the bridge of the carrier that the bombing had commenced and that the United States was caught sleeping and flat-footed. The admiral turns and looks out to the ocean and then with a faraway look in his eyes, he says, "I fear lest we have awakened a sleeping giant with a terrible resolve." I think it is time we should all awaken. Our concern isn't about the flames of freedom which burn so brightly in our generation; the concern is that in the upcoming generation the fire has never been kindled. Our youth have never known anything but criticism of the United States of America. We need some faithful, free-loving patriots who will issue forth a clear, loud trumpet call. Remember Paul's counsel: "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare ... to the battle?" (1 Cor. 14:8.) Freedom ought to ring in the heart of every Latter-day Saint regardless of his country..."
The Japanese definitely woke a sleeping giant in the United States and Moroni does an excellent job of threatening with his "sleeping giant." Elder Featherstone, and I'm sure all the general and local authorities of the church today would agree, that we all need to "wake up" and fight for our freedoms and champion the cause of our Lord.
Oddly enough, Ammoron agreed to the prisoner exchange as dictated by Moroni but assures it is not because of Moroni's threat but for provisional purposes only...whatever Dude!
~Kipling
No comments:
Post a Comment