From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
Note: this page allows you to see all the commentary pages for Alma chapter 29 together. Click on the heading to go to a specific page.
Alma 29:1-5
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The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 29
Questions
- Verse 3: Usually we think a desire, or wish, in itself is not a sin. In this line of thinking it is only when we entertain them or act them in ways that are counter to God that they become sin. In verse 3 Alma tells us he sins in his wish. Does this suggest that his desire, in itself, was a sin, or is Alma talking about something more than simply his desire?
- Verse 3 & 6: Alma says he sins in his wish to be an angel and cry repentance unto the earth (v. 3), and essentially that he should be content to do that which he has been called (v. 6). But D&C 58:26-29 discusses how we should not have to be commanded in all things, but that we should be "anxiously engaged in a good cause" and "do many things of [our] own free will." How can the notions of sin as described here by Alma and that in D&C 58 be reconciled?
- Verse 4 Are there important nuances in this verse? For example, what is the difference between our "desire" and our "will"? And is there a difference between 'granting', 'allotting' and 'decreeing'?
Lexical notes
- harrow Webster's 1828 gives the definition "to tear; to lacerate; to torment." Interestingly the example includes the phrase "harrow up thy soul." Today "torment" would be a good substitute.
Exegesis
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Related links
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Alma 29:6-10
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The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 29
Questions
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Lexical notes
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Exegesis
Verse 8
The Lord doth counsel in wisdom. Alma realizes that for him to cry repentance unto every people with the trump of God to shake the earth (verse 1) is unnecessary. The Lord has already prepared people in very nation to teach his word as he sees fit.
Verse 9
I know that which the Lord hath commanded. Alma tells us that he knows the will of the Lord. This is an important note in understanding why Alma's desire to cry repentance with the trump of God was a sin (see verse 3). As Alma makes clear here, he knew what the Lord had called him to do (what was "alloted" to him as verse 3 tells us). His sin then was in desiring to do something different from what he knew he was called to do.
Related links
Verse 8
- Citing this verse, Elder Niel A Maxwell says that "if we press too much, too often, and too hard for enlarged personal roles, we could actually shrink the field of action needed by other" (Ensign, May 2000).
Verse 9
- Don R. Clarke, "Becoming Instruments in the Hands of God," Ensign, Nov 2006, pp. 97–99. Elder Clarke states: "[We] need to be receptive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, for when we desire to be an instrument in the hands of God, we can receive revelation. The prophet Alma the Younger tells us of revelations that he received: 'I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it...' Alma had received revelation of what to do."
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Alma 29:11-17
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The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 29
Questions
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Lexical notes
- Click the edit link above and to the right to add lexical notes
Exegesis
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Related links
- Click the edit link above and to the right to add related links
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