Military history is more than battles. The extensive war campaigns
and drama surrounding those battles tend to promote a great deal of writing them.
But warfare is also how societies conceptualize warfare, and leaders justify
it. I was doing the Come Follow Me readings and found very interesting verses
at the end of Jacob. I have already discussed Jacob’s
futile victory before, but I think these two short verses in Jacob set a
template for how later Nephite leaders justified warfare.
Jacob 7:24-25-
And it came to pass that many means were devised to reclaim and restore the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth; but it all was vain, for they delighted in wars and bloodshed, and they had an eternal hatred against us, their brethren. And they sought by the power of their arms to destroy us continually.
Wherefore, the people of Nephi did fortify against them with their arms, and with all their might, trusting in the God and rock of their salvation; wherefore they became as yet, conquerors of their enemies.
Verse 24 starts with a discussion of Nephite “means” to
“reclaim and restore” the Lamanites. These are interesting verb choices that
most likely reflect the difference between Aaron and Ammon’s missionary
service. Compare Alma 17 where Ammon becomes a servant of the king, sets a good
example, and then preaches; with Aaron’s attempt to preach in the synagogues of
Jerusalem in chapter 21. It might also refer to activities like the prayer of
Enos for the sake of his brethren.
But those are futile because of the “eternal” hatred of the
Lamanites. They rejected the preaching of the Nephites in favor of exercising
their hatred through warfare. The “power of arms” at the end of the verse
contrasts with the “knowledge of the truth” that the Nephites missionaries
believed would reclaim and restore the Lamanites. (The apostle Paul also
compared the spirit and word of God to a sword. Ephesians 6:17.) The Lamanites then rejected the gospel,
turned to hatred, and took literal swords instead of the figurative sword of
truth.
The Nephites, after failing to convert the Lamanites, and
being the subjects of eternal hatred then fortified against them. This sounds purely defensive, but the
fortifications refer to arms and not walls, and it led them to be conquerors so
I wouldn’t read that quite so literally.
What is interesting, is that even though they resorted to arms, the
proper place of warfare was to remind them to trust in God.
Finally, the couple ends with, “wherefore, they became as
yet, conquerors.” The tentative
declaration of that sentence is very poignant to me. Its not a final victory.
After all, fighting only occurs because the preaching of the truth failed. The
Nephites only succeeded in defending themselves by trusting in God. The
victories thus hardly seem like it because a true victory would mean they never
had to fight in the first place.
These verses seem to have influenced later Nephite writers. Alma
gave up political power to devote his full time and energy to preaching. His
reasoning corresponds to the first part of Jacob’s couplet and the primacy of
spiritual power over political power.
Alma 4:19-
These verses from Jacob seem to have influenced later Nephite writers. Alma gave up political power to devote his full time and energy to preaching. His reasoning corresponds to the first part of Jacob’s couplet and the primacy of spiritual power over political power.
This he did that he himself might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them.
Its interesting to note that those who rejected his
spiritual teachings at Ammonihah nominally recognized Alma’s former political
power, but it was the rejection of his spiritual teachings and the great
wickedness of the city that got them killed (Alma 8:12; 16:2). Pahoran clearly echoes this thinking in response to Moroni.
Alma 61:14:
Let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yeah, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in the great privilege of our church, and in the cause of our Redeemer and our God.Again, spiritual teachings come first, and the resort to weapons comes second. In this case it’s interesting to note that he is referring to subduing internal rebellions while Jacob was referring to external invasion. Still though, the use of those weapons only occurs after the failure of preaching and must be connected back to God.
In Jacob’s time it
simply refers to God and his salvation. But here the use of weapons here points
towards their freedom to worship God and protect their church. Not every
Nephite belonged to the church of God, so this could have been a more divisive
point than modern readers understand. Those that didn’t belong to the church of
God were subject to Nephite rulers, again, think of the people of Ammonihah. In the case of the chief judge Nephihah, he was
chosen from only among the elders of the church (Alma 4:19), but they still had
to fight for that church’s right to worship at the threat of Moroni’s sword
(Alma 51:17).
Helaman 6:3, 37-
The final case is the most revealing as it shows how the
Lamanites either incorporated Nephite thought, or Mormon crafted his narrative
in such a way that the Lamanites conformed to it. After the Lamanites were
converted in Helaman chapter 5 in chapter 6 they are recorded as being more
righteous than the Nephites (Helaman 6:2-3). These righteous Lamanites used
“every means” to destroy the Gadianton Robbers. These sounds like an aberration
because preaching is supposed to come first according to Jacob. But verse 37
says that the Lamanites “did hunt the band of robbers; and they did preach the
word of God among the more wicked part of them.” The printer’s manuscript may have
meant the “less wicked” parts of the robbers, or more wicked parts of the
Lamanites who, as Ammon and Aaron found out, would still be more receptive to
the gospel than apostate Nephites. But the important part is that the Lamanites
preached to those that would listen, and fought those that didn’t.
Conclusion-
Jacob’s short verses were an incredibly powerful statement
about the importance of spiritual teachings, it’s relation to warfare, and
warfare’s ideal purpose leading to trust in God. Adhering to spiritual teaching
was supposed to lead to peace, but the rejection of it often led to war.
Warfare required warfare to combat it. Not pacifism as many modern readers
mistakenly believe. But that warfare was supposed to be done with a trust in
God, and it was supposed to lead to greater reliance on God as the ultimate
guarantee of victory, and not the strength of arms as a temporary victory.
It was so important I believe it influenced Nephite leaders
and was possibly transmitted to Lamanite coverts or through the entirety of
Nephite history down to its great (second to) last record keeper, Mormon.