A young man faces a formidable enemy. The people around him cower, and he responds with perplexity: where is their faith? He faces the enemy alone with a sling and miraculously prevails.
The stories of David and Ammon are similar, and their aftermath tells us a lot about the role of miracles in personal conversion.
David didn’t belong on the battlefield. His oldest three brothers were there, but the other five were apparently not old enough to fight, and David, the youngest of them all, looked after the sheep. His father, Jesse, sent him to the front, not to fight but to check on his brothers and deliver food (1 Samuel 17:12-19).
But when David saw the terror on the faces of all of the Israelite soldiers as Goliath, a champion among the opposing army, taunted them, he was befuddled. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine,” he asked, “that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). To the king, he declared, “The Lord … will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37). And to Goliath himself, David testified, “The Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47). With only a sling and a stone, David prevailed over the giant (1 Samuel 17:50).
When the missionary Ammon arrived in the land of Ishmael, he was bound and carried before King Lamoni, who wondered why a Nephite had come into the land of the Lamanites, their enemies. Ammon’s responses impressed him, and he sent Ammon with other servants of the king to watch his flocks (Alma 17:19-25).
But when a group of marauding bandits scattered the flocks, Ammon’s new colleagues were inconsolable. Their predecessors had been put to death for losing the king’s flocks, and they anticipated the same fate.
Like David, Ammon responded with faith:
My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the place of water;
Alma 17:31
When the marauders returned, Ammon instructed his colleagues to stay with the newly regathered flocks, while he faced the enemy alone. Like Goliath, the bandits found their new opponent to be laughably weak. “They did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure” (Alma 17:35). But they were no match for Ammon’s sling. He killed a number of them with stones, and when the others drew closer with clubs, he overpowered them with his sword. “They began to be astonished at his power” (Alma 17:36).
Before the children of Israel entered the promised land, Moses had counseled them not to be afraid of their enemies, even if they were outnumbered:
When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. …
Deuteronomy 20:1, 4
For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
David and Ammon may have both been aware of this promise. It was certainly part of their shared spiritual heritage, and they both gave God credit for their victories. David later wrote, “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight” (Psalm 144:1), and Ammon exclaimed, “In his strength I can do all things” (Alma 26:12).
But watching God win a battle is not the same as being changed by it.
The kings David and Ammon served reacted very differently to these miracles, and those reactions affected their relationship with God. Saul took David into his home but viewed him with suspicion and jealousy for the rest of his life (1 Samuel 18:2, 5-9, 12, 15, 28-29). Lamoni, on the other hand, humbled himself and invited Ammon to teach him (Alma 18:20). As a result, Lamoni experienced a miraculous conversion, while Saul remained bitter and vengeful. For Lamoni, the external miracle led to an internal change of heart, while for Saul, it generated fear but not growth.
Today I will trust God to help me overcome my challenges. When I see miracles, I will recognize them as opportunities to humble myself and draw closer to God.
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