Alma Chapter 47

We had the missionaries over last night for dinner nad they shared a really good lesson with us about "Strategy"!

C is a big history/war buff so naturally the war chapters in the Book of Mormon appeal more to him.
This particular story was about Amalakiah (I know I spelt that wrong) and his progression to be the Lamanite King. It starts here... at Mount Antipas...

Amalakiah had been sent by the King to kill Lehonti. Lehonti was just a Lamanite with an army doing his thing. He wasn't an overly bad person, but he knew why Amalakiah had been sent, his reputation of being unscrupulous had preceeded him.
Looking at this though, strategically Lehonti is in the best position. He has a full view of everything around him and if a battle is to ensue, Amalakiah's men would be wearied from the tougher struggle up the hill. Amalakiah knew this and he sent a messenger up 3 times to Lehonti asking him to come down and talk with him. Lehonti refused each time. On the fourth time Amalakiah himself went ot the gate of Lehonti's Army and asked to talk with him again, and even said he could bring his men. Lehonti obliged this time.

Amalakiah told Lehonti of his plan. He told Lehonti that he would spare his life if Lehonti would come down in the night, surround Amalakiah's men, take them over nad then appoint Amalakiah as 2nd in Command. To Lehonti, this sounded like a pretty sweet deal. Keep his life, gain a bigger army and everyone is happy. So he agreed and everything went to plan. Except after a time Lehonti started to get quite ill and he died. WHat had happened was that Amalakiah ha done of his men slowly poison Lehonti to death. It was custom for the 2nd in command to take over the army when the leader died. Hence, Amalakiah gained control of both his army nad of Lehonti's. The story then goes on with Amalakiah killing the Lamanite King and devastaing the Nephites.

The moral of the story was that it is easier to stay on the high ground, keep control and your standards than it is to fall and try to climb back up. In Lehonti's case, if he had not gone down to the gate and met Amalakiah, he would not have heard teh plan and Amalakiah would have had to find another way to become King. Just like if we do not give Satan that little bit of lieniency in our lives, he will have to find someone else to bother.
Just as Lehonti went down the mountain, he opened the door to his death. If we open the door to Satan, we are letting him lead us to a Spiritual death. Unlike Lehonti though, we have repentance and the Atonement that can let us be forgiven and start the climb back up the hill for our strategic advantage.

I found the lesson quite good and fun. I'm glad they shared it with us and I hope you learnt something too :)