Giddonah's Rejection

From Alma 10:1 we learn that Amulek was the son of Giddonah, and we have a couple other details about him in the text.  Amulek told the people how Alma had come and “dwelt at [his] house” before they then went out to preach to the people.  Amulek told of the great blessing it was to have Alma in his home: “He hath blessed mine house, he hath blessed me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk; yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed, and the blessing of the Lord hath rested upon us according to the words which he spake” (Alma 10:10-11).  Clearly Alma performed a great service to Amulek and his family when he stayed at his home, and in particular he blessed Giddonah.  We obviously don’t know precisely in what manner he was blessed, but surely Giddonah felt the Spirit of the Lord as a prophet was among his family serving them.  Unfortunately, though, after Amulek and Alma left Ammonihah Mormon told us that Amulek had “forsaken all his gold, and silver, and precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being rejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred” (Alma 15:16).  So ultimately Giddonah rejected Alma and the word of the Lord, even though Alma had stayed in his home and blessed him and his family.  It must have greatly saddened Amulek when Ammonihah was subsequently destroyed, for his father Giddonah was among those who died.  The Lord gave him the opportunity to accept the word of the Lord through Alma and his own son, but for reasons we don’t know he chose to reject it.  The story is a reminder to us that all men and women have their agency and even though the Lord might send a prophet personally to minister to someone, they might still choose to reject God’s word.