Alma 8: He Returned Speedily

Alma had a home. But of course he did! Alma 8 begins with him returning “to his own house at Zarahemla to rest himself.”

That little phrase stopped me. Alma had a life beyond the pages of scripture. Was there a wife waiting for him? Children who ran to greet him? We don’t know. But he had a home, and apparently he didn’t spend much time there. After resting, he headed out again to preach.

I wonder about the people he left behind. I pray that Clyde and I will always be able to serve the Lord together, but what if the Lord needed him somewhere without me? Could I happily send him off on an undetermined assignment because the Lord needed him more than I did?

Maybe that’s part of what consecration means.

Alma eventually traveled north of the land of Melek for three days before reaching Ammonihah. Depending on all kinds of variables, a healthy adult might walk 35–40 miles in three days. Whatever the actual distance, Alma had made a substantial journey for one purpose: to help his brothers and sisters come to Christ.

And they wanted nothing to do with him.

They rejected him, reviled him, spit upon him and cast him out of their city. Alma left “weighed down with sorrow,” headed toward the city of Aaron.

Then an angel appeared.

I love that it was the same angel who had appeared to Alma years before. Think of the difference in the man standing before that angel now! The first time, Alma was going about trying to destroy the Church of God. This time he was exhausted and sorrowing because he couldn’t convince people to come to Christ.

What a transformation.

The angel gave Alma some encouragement—and then told him to go back.

Wait! What? He had already tried! He had been rejected. He had been spit on. He was hungry. He had a home in Zarahemla and plenty of reasons to decide he had done enough.

But verse 18 says, “he returned speedily.”

I love those two words.

Alma didn’t know that Amulek was waiting for him when he turned around. He didn’t know that an angel had already visited Amulek and told him to receive a prophet of God. Alma simply knew the Lord had told him to go back.

When he entered Ammonihah by another way, there was Amulek. Food. Shelter. Friendship. A place to rest. Eventually, a missionary companion who would stand beside him and teach with power.

The Lord had already prepared what Alma needed on the other side of his obedience.

Maybe that is one of the great lessons of Alma 8. Consecration isn’t just being willing to serve when the assignment is rewarding. Sometimes it is turning around when we are tired. Going back after we have already tried. Walking a little farther when we have perfectly good reasons to go home.

We don’t always know what the Lord has prepared at the other end of our obedience.

Alma didn’t.

He just returned speedily.