Alma and Mosiah

Yesterday my wife pointed out the unique relationship in the Book of Mormon between Mosiah (son of Benjamin) and Alma (the Elder).  These two seemed to have led the people in a combined sort of way, with Mosiah as the governmental leader and Alma as the spiritual leader, though Mosiah still had a leadership role spiritually for the people.  The way that they led the people together showed an incredible unity and devoted purpose to keeping the commandments of God and helping the people to do so as well.

               King Mosiah and Alma appear to have met for the first time when Alma led his people from the land of Helam to Zarahemla after miraculously escaping from the Lamanites.  Alma was presumably born among the people of Zeniff/Noah, and so he wouldn’t have known the people at Zarahemla.  This first meeting was around 120 B.C., when Alma was about 53 years old and Mosiah was about 34 years old.  Mosiah started to reign when he was 30 in about 124 BC, and his father Benjamin had likely just died when Alma showed up on the scene since “king Benjamin lived three years” during Mosiah’s reign before he died (Mosiah 6:5).  King Benjamin had been both the spiritual and political leader of his people (as far as we can tell) at the same time, leading them as a king but also teaching them of Jesus Christ in a powerful way.  Presumably Mosiah took up both of those responsibilities when he became king, but he decided to defer to Alma as the spiritual leader soon after meeting him: “And it came to pass that king Mosiah granted unto Alma that he might establish churches throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every church…. Now king Mosiah had given Alma the authority over the church” (Mosiah 25:19, 26:8).  This showed a humility on the part of Mosiah as he allowed Alma to lead the people as their spiritual leader even though Mosiah could have done it himself.

               Perhaps the most important event recorded about Alma and Mosiah was the difficulty told in Mosiah 26 when much wickedness was among the people.  We don’t know how long after Mosiah had granted Alma the authority over the church that this took place, but apparently they both were still deferent to each other as leaders and rulers of the people.  There were many who were wicked and “they were brought before the priests, and delivered up unto the priests by the teachers; and the priests brought them before Alma, who was the high priest” (Mosiah 26:7).  Alma didn’t quite know what to do about them, so he did the most logical thing—try to turn the affair over to the king: “Now there had not any such thing happened before in the church; therefore Alma was troubled in his spirit, and he caused that they should be brought before the king” (Mosiah 26:10).  After Alma deferred to Mosiah to determine how to judge these people, Mosiah similarly deferred back to him: “But king Mosiah said unto Alma: Behold, I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged” (Mosiah 26:12).  This mutual respect for the other’s authority and wisdom surely indicates the great bond they had and the remarkable lack of any pride on their part. There seems to have been ambiguity as to who had what role exactly, but it didn’t matter because they were unified in their purpose to serve God and the people.  And the solution to their problem actually took both of them: Alma received revelation from the Lord on how to deal with these sins within the Church, and Mosiah “consulted with his priests” and “sent a proclamation throughout the land” regarding the matter to stop the persecution that was taking place (Mosiah 27:1-2).

               Other experiences surely united them, especially concern for their wicked sons and joy at their miraculous repentance.  Towards the end of his life Mosiah conferred the sacred records not on his own sons but on Alma’s son, further proving the unity between these two great men.  They even died at basically the same time, and they stand as powerful examples of selfless service as leaders and unity as humble friends.  They showed that true leaders put others above self and are more concerned about doing God’s will then bringing honor to themselves.