2.234 Because of Their Oath

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

It is great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Without the oath, the 2,000 Stripling Warriors never are.

Let's shift gears in our reading today as we go from our readings in Doctrine and Covenants sections 89 through 92 over to the Book of Mormon inside of the Book of Alma chapters 52 through 53. I love these chapters even though we're in the middle of a war. We get some of our most epic chapters when it comes to the battles, certainly in terms of the 2,000 Stripling Warriors, as many of us are very, very familiar with.

I saw an interesting perspective this time through reading this one and I wanted to point it out and bring it to our verse for today. Never actually comes to fruition if this piece of the story doesn't happen. And that's what I wanted to look at today.

It's in Alma chapter 53, verse 11. It says: And because of their oath, they had been kept from taking up arms against their brethren. For they had taken an oath that they never would shed blood more.

And according to their oath, they would have perished. They would have suffered themselves to have fallen into the hands of their brethren had it not been for the pity and the exceeding love which Ammon and his brethren had had for them. Now, who is this, and what oath is this?

If you remember these are the former Lamanites that upon their conversion took an oath to bury their weapons of war and their weapons of rebellion as it says earlier in the scriptures. And that they would never again lift those weapons to shed the blood of others. It's at this moment in the middle of the war that these people began to question their oaths.

They started to look to the challenges the Nephites were facing and they started to say, I think it's time we should help them. And then we get this amazing piece from Helaman. He stands and reminds them of their oath to the Lord to keep their oaths that they made and that the Lord will bless them for doing so.

So much so that these people would have fallen into the hands of their brethren. They would have suffered themselves. They would have died for their oaths.

That then leads us into the story of the 2,000 Stripling Warriors, the sons of these people who instead took their parents' place in serving in the war and going forward. My friends, do you see the level of commitment that these people hold to the oaths they make with the Lord? Is it different at all for any of us in the covenants that we have made today?

Whether that be a baptismal covenant, as we've stood in the waters of baptism and covenanted to take the Lord's name upon us, or whether there's those of us that have gone through the temple and made further covenants and oaths with the Lord. Do we take these oaths and covenants to the level that these former Lamanites do, the people of Ammon here? Do we see ourselves willing to die for the oaths that we have made?

It's interesting, I have some conference talks that I came across for this one and I actually felt like this time I shouldn't share them on the podcast. I felt like they were more personal to me. So I encourage you to look into covenant keeping and look into oath making and see what you can find inside of formal General Conference talks or other references inside the Book of Mormon and scripture.

I don't pretend by any means to be a Helaman in your life, but I hope that I can stand as Helaman stands to those people here for just a tiny moment and encourage you that whatever oaths you have made with the Lord to this point in your life. I'm grateful for that opportunity to share that with you. And I hope that you and I can better see our covenants and our oaths before the Lord as sacred and that we can stand as witnesses of the oaths that we have made.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.