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.
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