Amalickah

For my Book of Mormon class this week, I realized how much can happen in one year. The 19th year of the reign of judges spans from chapter 45 through chapter 49. If you think about it, earlier in the Book of Mormon, one chapter was comprised of several years. For example, 1 Nephi chapter 4 spans about 8 years. The fact the the 19th year of the reign of judges spans about 5 chapters. This tells me that the things that were happening are very important. These chapters are action packed. There are wars, surrendering, an attempted coups, a king killed, and more. I am going to mostly concentrate of the happenings between Caption Moroni and Amalickah.
Amalickah was bad news. He was a very charismatic guy who wanted control over the government. He did gain some followers (back then this meant that some of the people literally followed him around to hear what they have to say). Alma 46: 7-8 says, "And there were many in the church who believed in the flattering works of Amalickah...Thus we see how quick the children of men do forget th Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity,and to be led away by the even one."
Captain Moroni was not fooled and wanted to make sure people remembered what they had fraught for. He tore off his clothes, wrote on them, "In memory of our God, our religion, our freedom. and our peace, our wives, and our children", and posted them on a pole with his helmet the top of the poll. He called this the Title of Liberty. I pictured this being similar to the picture of a soldier's rifle with the helmet on it.
As the chapters go though, Amalickah manages to win over a lot of people, but they get kicked out. He become the king over the Lamanites by using subtle deceptions to trick king Lehonti down from the mount and killed him. Then, the deceptions continued. Alma 47:30 says, "Amalickiah, by his fraud, gained the hearts of the people." Next, he had to win over the heart of the queen, which he does.
At this point, he is still not happy and wants more power, so he stirs things up between the Lamanites and the Nephites and sends his people out to war against the Nephites. The Nephites are prepared for such battles, however. Their cities are fortified so well that the Lamanites are unable to throw stones or shoot arrows. The Nephites "were prepared for them, in a manner which had never been known...to battle after the manner of instructions of Moroni." (Alma 49:8)
Hopefully, we can be as Captian Moroni who was "a strong and mighty man...of perfect understanding; yea, a man who did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in liberty and the freedom of his country...whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God;...a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people. Yea, he was a man firm in the faith of Christ." (Alma 48:11-13) As the hymn says, we should "dare to do right, dare to be true." (Children's Song Book of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, number 158)