spiritual provisions.

Rant about Gangs
It says that secret combinations proved to be the almost entire destruction of the Nephites in the Book of Mormon: a group of people who had secret oaths, who lived off the hard work of others, who killed, stole, and would do anything to have power over other people.

I might have watched a few documentaries on gangs recently, including MS13 and the Aryan Brotherhood.

This post isn't really about how secret combinations are just as prevalent in our society today in gangs and drug cartels . . . but I hope we don't forget that the same dangers that threatened the ancient societies of the Nephites and Lamanites still threaten our society today.



Spiritual Provisions
Here's the real point of where I'm going with this: the Gadianton Robbers (secret combination) are getting so powerful and large that they're threatening to destroy both the Lamanites and the Nephites. In 3 Nephi 3&4 the Nephites and Lamanites under the direction of a guy named Gidgiddoni devise a way to try and conquer these robbers.

They spend about a year gathering all their crops, herds, supplies, and basically anything they can live off of, into one place. They build fortifications and the entire population bands together in one city. They have enough provisions to live for seven years. I hope you're seeing how crazy intense this is.

The robbers then come and surround the city, but since the Nephites took everything they could live off of, the robbers have to actually provide for themselves instead of taking from others. They realize they're not going to last long and they attack the city. The Nephite army lays down on the ground and raises their voices to God. They then are successful in decimating the robbers' armies.

A few years later the robbers come back with a plan to isolate the city and starve them out. This works in opposite manner and the robbers try and run away when they realize they're going to die. The Nephites come out and destroy and take captive the robber army.

3 Nephi 4:18 is interesting, "This was an advantage to the Nephites; for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites, because of their much provisions which they had laid up in store."

Hopefully this convinces you to have food storage . . . but more important to me is the thought, What spiritual provisions do I have laid up in store for trials and spiritual battles?

Hopefully we have a strong testimony of the principles of the gospel, of the Restoration, of the Atonement, and of the scriptures. Hopefully those things are our spiritual provisions in times of trials and spiritual battles.