To believe in Him, is an eternal principle in the worship of the True and Living God. It matters not what one’s estate may be, be he high as was this great king of the Lamanites, or low as were his servants, there comes a time when faith in His Holy Name lifts a burden of care from backs that already may be bent under the weight of years. Faith in Him spreads over us a canopy of peace, and fills our hearts with a joyous hope of Life Everlasting.
A belief in God renews in the strong a steadfast spirit. In the weakest it instills courage and hope. It implants an upright heart in all them that love the Lord. Aaron remembered the teachings of his forebears, “Trust ye in the Lord, for in His strength is Everlasting Life
Thoughts such as these prompted Aaron to ask the old monarch, “Believeth thou that there is a God?” The aged ruler, somewhat bewildered, replied to Aaron’s almost abrupt interrogation, “I know that the Amalekites say there is a God.”
The Amalekites were a sect of Nephite apostates who lived in the Lamanitish Kingdom. Of their origin we know but little. They had prevailed upon the king for permission to erect synagogues and other sanctuaries wherein they might worship God. Their worship, we may imagine, was a mere form. They paid divine honor to a Deity whom they knew not. They had twisted and turned, and otherwise wrested the Holy Scriptures to suit their own depraved hearts. The king, not knowing the requirements of the Law of Moses, gave little heed to the Amalekites’ beliefs or their teachings. He endured their presence in his kingdom because of the taxes they paid and the revenue he otherwise exacted from them.
But, however, things seemed to be changing. To the king, what beforetime had been only a vagrant conclusion of the Amalekites—that there is a God—now became to him a world of wonderment. What would Ammon say if he were here? the king marvelled. What does Aaron now say? The king asked no proof, he demanded no further authority. “If now,” he said to Aaron, “thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe.”
Aaron‘s heart rejoiced that the king was not bound by the old and wicked traditions of unbelief that had enslaved so many of the king’s brethren. The king, just emerging from the darkness that had covered the children of Laman like a cloud, began to see the wonderful light that encircled the Nephite missionaries. “Behold, assuredly as thou liveth, O King, there is a God!” Aaron not only said, but in the strength of the Lord, he proclaimed.
Evidenced by the narrative, Aaron had outlined to the king the events in the history of his people, beginning at the first. The king remembered Aaron’s resume and recalled that Lehi had been led by the Great Spirit to the land wherein his people now lived. He recalled, too, that the first fathers of his race dwelt in the Land of Jerusalem. He remembered that shortly after their arrival in the new land whereunto they were led, that because of internal strife, Lehi’s little band of colonists separated into two groups, the one followed Nephi and the other remained with Laman and Lemuel. The latter group became the direct ancestors of his people. The king remembered hearing from Aaron how that the Nephites had prospered, and how his own people had become indolent and crafty. The king listened to Aaron’s terrible indictment of his people and saw their oppression. The king offered no excuses, but we imagine he saw their deliverance in the light and might of the Lord which was beginning to dawn in their midst. The king, still bewildered by Aaron’s question, now turned the questioner, himself. He wanted to know if the Great Spirit which brought our fathers out of Jerusalem was the God of whom Aaron spoke
Inspired by the Lord’s Spirit, and further inspirited by the king’s anxious desire to know the truth, Aaron affirmed the conclusion of the king which the old monarch had put as a question. They were the One and the same God! Aaron did not stop with the mere declaration of this wonderful truth; solemnly he told the king of God’s greatness and His power in that He created all things in Heaven and upon the Earth. The Sun, the Moon, and stars were made by Him, and everything that graces the land in which the king lived. “Believeth thou this?” Aaron asked.
The king could not resist Aaron’s testimony had he wanted to. There was something in the old monarch‘s breast that responded to Aaron’s direct and enthusiastic approach to the question he asked. The Spirit of the Lord was with them both, Aaron to present the truth, and the king to receive it with joy. “Yea, I believe that the Great Spirit created all things, and I desire that ye should tell me concerning all these things,” the king said, “and I will believe thy words.”