A Glorious Reunion

The reunion of Alma and the sons of Mosiah was surely one of the most dramatic moments depicted in the Book of Mormon.  They had been separated for fourteen years while Alma labored among the Nephites and the sons of Mosiah were among the Lamanites.  The sons of Mosiah were journeying towards Zarahemla in order to see if the Nephites would accept their Lamanite converts among them, and Alma was traveling towards another city when they crossed paths and “Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord” (Alma 17:2).   Mormon used this point in his narrative about Alma to then go back and spend Alma 17-27 to tell the miraculous stories about the conversion of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies.  After recounting those missionary labors among the Lamanites, Mormon wrote that Ammon “and his brethren met Alma, over in the place of which has been spoken; and behold, this was a joyful meeting.”  Ammon was so overcome that “he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth.”  Mormon added that “the joy of Alma in meeting his brethren was truly great, and also the joy of Aaron, of Omner, and Himni” (Alma 27:16-19).  It was a glorious reunion and surely a great orchestrating of events on the part of the Lord. 

                It seems to me that Alma played a critical role in helping bring in the people of Ammon in among the Lamanites.  It was no small thing that Ammon and his brethren were asking of the Nephites at Zarahemla to not only accept their former enemies but to give them land and protect them too.  This took place in about 77 BC, and surely the teaching that Alma had been doing there to get the hearts of the Nephites right before God was a crucial piece of what happened.  Alma had given his great sermon to the people of Zarahemla about six years earlier as recorded in Alma 5, and at the time the people were spiritually in an “awful dilemma” (Alma 7:3).  Alma had asked the piercing questions about the condition of their heart and did “cry unto them that they must repent and be born again” (Alma 5:49).  He helped to “establish the order of the church in the city of Zarahemla” and was indeed successful for he told the people of Gideon, “[God] hath given me to know, yea, hath given unto me the exceedingly great joy of knowing that [the people of Zarahemla] are established again in the way of his righteousness (Alma 6:4, 7:4).  If Ammon and his brethren had shown up with the Lamanites to Zarahemla before Alma had inspired them to repent, surely they would have rejected the proposal.  But they were at a spiritual high point it seems, and that was at least in part due to Alma.  It’s interesting to note that after their incredible reunion, “Alma conducted his brethren back to the land of Zarahemla….  And they went and told the chief judge all the things that had happened” (Alma 27:19).  Surely Alma played a critical role in helping the Nephites accept the people of Ammon among them.  It was thanks to the intense missionary labors of the sons of Mosiah AND Alma that the Anti-Nephi-Lehies were preserved and the stripling warriors would come on the scene a few years later.