Mosiah 7
The first paragraph of the Come, Follow Me lesson for Mosiah 7 says:
While King Mosiah’s people were enjoying “continual peace” in Zarahemla (Mosiah 7:1), their thoughts turned to another group of Nephites, who many years before had left to dwell in the land of Lehi-Nephi. Generations had passed, and Mosiah’s people had heard nothing from them. So Mosiah asked Ammon to lead a search party to find the Nephites who had left. The search party found that the Nephites, “because of iniquity” (Mosiah 7:24), were in captivity to the Lamanites. But with the arrival of Ammon and his brethren, suddenly there was hope for deliverance. (link)
During a peaceful time, when the people had made covenants for themselves, their thoughts turned to those who had left and might not be feeling the same peace. I love that concept. Similarly, we can turn our thoughts to our ancestors, friends, loved ones, and even our future posterity during the peaceful times of our lives.
The Nephites at Zarahelma did something about it. A group of sixteen strong men headed south ("up") to the lands of Lehi-Nephi. Ammon is a leader of this group, and he and a few of his men are initially taken captive by the Nephite king, but eventually they come to a mutual understanding and agree to work together to become liberated.
King Limhi encourages his people with the words below:
O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies, notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made.
19 Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, and fed them with manna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he do for them.
20 And again, that same God has brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem, and has kept and preserved his people even until now; and behold, it is because of our iniquities and abominations that he has brought us into bondage. (Mosiah 7)
It's easy for me to frame this story in a covenant context. Ammon and his brethren take advantage of a peaceful time to engage in the work of rescue and bring their brethren out of captivity.
This is not the only time in the Book of Mormon that a man named Ammon rescues his brothers.
Alma 20
I recently mentioned a similar example in a different context in a recent post.
Ammon (son of Mosiah-2) has just experienced tremendous missionary success. Lamoni is eager to introduce Ammon to his father, who is king over all the Lamanites, but Ammon has a different plan. Following a prompting, Ammon and Lamoni travel to Middoni to free their brothers who have been taken captive by the king of that land.
They are successful in persuading the king of Middoni to release the men. It is interesting to see how Mormon seems to go out of his way to describe the condition of his brothers using the same symbolic language that is used to describe those who have come under Satan's power.
29 And when Ammon did meet them he was exceedingly sorrowful, for behold they were naked (see Mormon 9:5), and their skins were worn exceedingly because of being bound with strong cords (see 2 Nephi 26:22). And they also had suffered hunger, thirst (see 3 Nephi 20:8), and all kinds of afflictions (see 2 Nephi 2:1-2); nevertheless they were patient in all their sufferings.
30 And, as it happened, it was their lot to have fallen into the hands of a more hardened and a more stiffnecked people; therefore they would not hearken unto their words, and they had cast them out, and had smitten them, and had driven them from house to house, and from place to place, even until they had arrived in the land of Middoni; and there they were taken and cast into prison, and bound with strong cords, and kept in prison for many days, and were delivered by Lamoni and Ammon. (Alma 20)
