Saturday, August 8, 2020

An Unconquerable Spirit

Alma 52:33 And it came to pass that Jacob, being their leader, being also a Zoramite, and having an unconquerable spirit, he led the Lamanites forth to battle with exceeding fury against Moroni.

I know that Jacob the Zoramite was one of the bad guys, and he certainly wasn't a role model in many respects, but I want to acknowledge his courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. He was tricked by Teancum into leaving his stronghold in Melek, and was soon surrounded by the armies of Lehi and Moroni, but he never gave up. He had "an unconquerable spirit," and even though his cause was basically hopeless, he fought for it to his dying breath.

Granted, we should choose better goals than killing a righteous military commander like Captain Moroni, and we should try to be wise enough and cautious enough to not leave our strongholds, but if we ever find ourselves surrounded by enemies, we should take a page out of Jacob the Zoramite's book and fight our way toward home with all the strength we can muster. We may or may not make it, but we should give it everything we've got, like Jacob the Zoramite did.

One thing I love about the war chapters of the Book of Mormon is that we can learn from both sides of the war. We can learn from both the good guys and the bad guys. We can learn from their good examples and from their bad examples. Both sides show us how Satan attacks us, and both sides show us ways to defend ourselves against him. We shouldn't follow Jacob the Zoramite's example in getting tricked out of our strongholds, but we should follow his example of fighting with an unconquerable spirit.

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