The Deadly Compromise

Lehonti

There is a story in the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 47 about a man named Lehonti that I found really interesting... There are two main groups of people in the Book of Mormon. The first group is called the Nephites - the people of God, and the the second group is called the Lamanites - the people who do not follow God. They have several battles througout the Book of Mormon. In one instance after a series of failed attempts to beat the Nephites, the King of the Lamanites orders his army to prepare to fight them again. Well, Lehonti and several others in the army don't want to fight because they know they will lose. Lehonti leads those men who will not fight away and they set up camp on a hill away from the rest of the Lamanites.

When the King finds out that they left he is very angry and sends a man named Amalickiah with the rest of the army to go and force them to fight. Amalickiah didn't really care what the King wanted, he himself wanted to be king. He told the King he would do as ordered, but for him to be able to be King he needs the support of the entire army of the Lamanites.

Amalickiah goes with his men to the bottom of the hill where Lehonti had camped. He sent a messenger asking Lehonti to come down to speak with him. Lehonti, being smart firmly refused. Amalickiah sent another messenger telling him that he wished no harm and would simply like to talk. After being told no a second time, Amalickiah went halfway up the hill and sent a messenger a third time and told him that he would only have to come halfway down and that he could bring guards with him for safety.

Lehonti, thought about it and decided that he could meet him halfway. That would be OK and he had his guards so he would be safe. This was his first mistake. He lowered his standard; he had originally decided that he would not meet with him, but he let himself be fooled into believing he would be safe.

This is something that Satan tries with all of us, if we would just be willing to step down only a little ways... but no, it's a trick!! It's never safe to compromise our standards or our safety. When I first read this story I though that Amalickiah would try to kill Lehonti and take over the army by force, but he didn't. He was more cunning than that. He made an offer to Lehonti that they could join their two armies together and refuse to fight the Nephites. He said that Lehonti could be leader and he would be second in command. Well that sounded good to Lehonti- to be leader over the whole army! He quickly agreed.

Amalickiah

This was his second mistake; once Lehonti agreed he was in Amalickiah's grip - fooled into believing he was in control.  He liked the idea of having all that power and the plan was presented so nicely - what could go wrong? - in Verse 18 it says, "And it came to pass that Amalickiah caused that one of his servants should administer poison by degrees to Lehonti, that he died."

Lehonti fell for his tricks and cunning. After Lehonti died, Amalickiah took over the whole army, killed the King, and became a ruler over all the Lamanite people just as he had planned.

There is a scripture, also in the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 28:21 that states referring to Satan, "And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security. . .  and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell."


I can testify of the importance of having our standards high and firm. Satan will try to fool us into compromising, but if we make the decision now to say no and stick with it we will be safe and far out of the reach of his poisonous grip.

A Slippery Course Change

When I was about eleven years old I got a brilliant idea. It was February and there was snow all around. I wanted to go sledding. Well there is nothing wrong with that, but my idea was more than just sledding.  I had just seen a movie about dog sledding and I thought it looked really cool. I had a couple of dogs and a sled surely it wasn't a big deal, right?

So I hooked one of my dogs, Diamond, up to the sled with a leash.  I had thought it all out perfectly. We lived on a hill and there was a downward slope in our backyard between some trees. I went to the top of the slope and I yelled for my dog to start running. It worked great! He pulled me smoothly to the bottom. However, that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to go even faster. So I decided to hook up two of my dogs and go again. Diamond was on the left and I hooked Goldie up on the right.

Just as I had wanted, I was going really fast and it was so much fun for about forty seconds, then something went wrong. Goldie started to go right-toward the woods, and Diamond was pulling the opposite direction. I tried to make them stop but I couldn't. Goldie was stronger so she was leading the sled more. The next thing I knew I was headed for the woods! Then a big tree was directly in front of us. Luckily my dogs saw that we were going to run into the tree...well lucky for them anyway. They split. Diamond went left and Goldie went right which pulled me smack into the tree!

 

I wasn't hurt too badly; just bumps and bruises. I did learn a lesson that day when I went inside and told my mom about how my dogs had gotten me hurt. I explained how it should have worked and that it was all their fault for not listening. She smiled and politely explained that it wasn't their responsibility... it was mine.

Looking back it reminds of a scripture in Matthew 6 verse 24. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

Both of my dogs had paths they wanted to follow and I should have picked only one of them to take me not both. Although Diamond usually stayed in the yard, Goldie always went to the woods and I knew it, but I thought that if I had both of them together then it would go my way, but I was wrong. I needed only one of them to lead me, Diamond was strong enough to pull me by himself; but because I wanted Goldie to pull too even though I didn't need her, I got hurt.

I've discovered that this can happen in life - not just literally, but spiritually. Sometimes we can be going on the path and following the right leader. Everything can be going great, then we see something that looks like it could be even more fun. We don't want to leave the path we are on so we try to attach those other things to our sleds and keep going. This can make for a slippery course change because it is impossible to have it both ways; it will always cause us to be pulled in two different directions. It simply doesn't work. We can't have all of the good and some of the...not so good.

There is a scripture in Joshua 24 verse 15 that says "Choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

I believe this verse states it perfectly... I can testify that it is important to make the choice now to stay on the right path following the Savior. I know He will never lead us astray, or lead us to harm in any way. He is the only one that will guide us safely to where we want to go.