This is my second insight paper for Book of Mormon. I had a lot of fun writing it and I had more to say, but I'm not supposed to exceed two pages (I did bleed a little on to a third...don't tell Brother Merrill). Maybe we can get a comment thread started to discuss the further implications of the passage. Enjoy!
Insight Paper the Second
Alma 5: 59-60:
59 For what shepherd is there among you having many sheep doth not watch over them, that the wolves enter not and devour his flock? And behold, if a wolf enter his flock doth he not drive him out? Yea, and at the last, if he can, he will destroy them.
60 And now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep; and he commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among you, that ye may not be destroyed.
I loved the two consecutive conference addresses on the changing and the softening of the heart. I have often thought about those talks over the past two days. I was not surprised to find myself reading through the fifth chapter of Alma in search of a passage for this paper. I was, however, quite surprised to notice these verses, which had never seemed as significant as those earlier in the chapter which deal more explicitly with the topic of a changed heart. Nevertheless, I read these verses, reread them, and put down my Book of Mormon, intrigued but puzzled by these verses that seemed so unrelated to the original theme of Alma’s discourse.
The cause of my confusion was the role of the “ravenous wolf” that Alma speaks of in these verses. My initial interpretation was that the wolves were wicked men in various degrees of disguise (who can read these verses without thinking of the fable of the wolf in sheep’s clothing?) who enter in among the children of God and attack them spiritually, drawing them away from the safety of the flock. The charge drive these wolves out of the flock, indeed destroy them if possible, disturbed me. After all, the majority of wolves under this definition are people outside the church who are usually very nice and often full of good intentions. They can certainly be dangerous, but they are dangerous only in their ignorance. They don’t know the truth, they are only acting on what they believe to be right.
Can you understand my confusion? Aren’t we supposed to treat these “wolves” with love? Haven’t we also been commanded of the Lord to reach out to them and invite them into the fold? Driving them out and destroying them hardly seemed to me a act of charity, and why would Alma, in his discourse on a mightily changed heart, include two verses about sheep and wolves? Furthermore, if we are the sheep according to the metaphor, how is that we are to drive out the wolves?
In my efforts to understand, I thought and I prayed and I thought some more and I was on the verge of calling my Seminary-Teacher-Mother when I had an epiphany. The wolves in these verses are not people at all, but temptations! These ravenous wolves are the sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant influences of Satan that stealthily creep into the hearts of the children of God. They are unclean thoughts, addictions, jealousies, grudges, and all other manner of temptations that, if acted upon, consume even the most valiant spirits. This new interpretation of one word brought order to the whole scripture. The well-intended but misinformed people whom I initially thought were the wolves of the story are only other sheep who have already been carried off by the wolves. God is no respecter of persons—he would not designate some of his children as sheep and others as wolves.
Furthermore, the question of why we as sheep are commanded in verse sixty to “suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among [us],” is clearly answered by this new interpretation. If the wolves are temptations, then it is a matter of agency to drive them out. In choosing to act upon the enticings of the spirit over the temptations of Satan, we drive out the wolves. The Lord cannot do this for us because he will not take away our agency. And how do we destroy the wolves? By undergoing a mighty change of heart so that we have no more disposition to do evil! Alma was not straying from his theme, he was explaining another facet of it and connecting it to other gospel principles by way of a common metaphor, reaffirming the unity of the gospel and strengthening our protection from the ravenous wolves that seek to destroy us.
Again, it will likely be a while before I can post again. I'm rather busy, but I will try to make more time for blogging.
Here are two videos. The first is a song from Myths and Hymns, a song cycle by Adam Guettel that I recently listened to (I mentioned this in my family letter). Brilliant to say the least. The second Billy Porter's rendition of Beauty School Dropout from the 1994 revival of Grease. Billy Porter has one of the most incredible instruments I have ever heard (and he was the original singer of the song in the first video, which is why I'm including him) so enjoy it :-)
--Christian
